Short Fiction · Character
Mr. and Mrs. Anstruther
A country couple who set out to plant a rose garden on a dank, forgotten clearing and find the ground has other plans for them.
supporting
Also known as Mrs. Anstruther, Mr. Anstruther
First appearance: The Rose Garden
As a supporting figure in Short Fiction, Mr. and Mrs. Anstruther is not background color—the story leans on what they do once the chapter opens.
The couple experiences a shared nightmare and a haunting vision in the rose garden.
Mrs. Anstruther is a stately, self-described great gardener with firm opinions about where roses ought to go; Mr. Anstruther is her obliging husband, more inclined to defer to Collins than to argue. Their chosen site, a dark clearing bounded by box and laurel with a rotten oak post at its center, is exactly the sort of place a gardener should avoid, and Collins knows it. Their insistence on clearing it anyway sets the story's quiet machinery in motion, and their marriage's small frictions give the haunting a domestic texture.
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Character Web
1 connectionA slice of how Mr. and Mrs. Anstruther sits in the book — open the reader for the full interactive map.
Relationship types
- Other
Character groups
- Diverse Supernatural Encounters
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Open in readerNarrative arc
Story tension across the book — this chapter sits in Exposition.
- Setup
- Escalation
- Breaking point
- Aftermath
- Closing
This letter marks the story’s dramatic climax because it delivers the emotional and psychological peak of unre…
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Mr. and Mrs. Anstruther appears across 1 companion beat. Open any chapter in the free preview to see the notes beside the text.
Chapter companion notes
Spoil-light check-ins for Mr. and Mrs. Anstruther unlock in the free preview.
See Mr. and Mrs. Anstruther in The Rose Garden