After drinking and getting to know one another, Aunt Peg shows Vivienne to her rooms. She is particularly taken with Celia, whom she describes as the most beautiful woman she has ever seen. Everyone retires to Aunt Peg's apartment above the theater to drink martinis and talk, and Vivienne is overwhelmed by the culture that surrounds her. She takes Vivienne to the Lily Theater in midtown Manhattan where her aunt lives and works.Īt the Lily, Vivienne reunites with her Aunt Peg and meets the cast of the theater's many productions, including two showgirls named Celia and Gladys. This woman introduces herself as Olive, Aunt Peg's secretary. Vivienne arrives at Grand Central Station expecting to see her Aunt Peg, but is instead greeted by an older, curt woman whom Vivienne describes as being dressed very plainly. After failing out of her first year of college, Vivienne's parents decide to send her to live with her Aunt Peg in New York City.

Vivienne takes the reader back to the late 1930's, when she was a student at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. Vivienne launches into her story by announcing that she cannot tell Angela what she meant to Angela's father, but that she can tell Angela what Angela's father meant to her. In it, Vivienne explains that she is sorry to hear about the death of Angela's mother but is intrigued by her question of what Vivienne meant to Angela's father. The novel begins with a letter written from Vivienne, the protagonist, to a woman named Angela. The following version of this book was used to create this guide: Gilbert, Elizabeth.

City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert