Outlander Book Club: A Breath of Snow and Ashes Chapter 42 breakdown

Claire manages to test ether with Malva’s help in Outlander Book 6, Chapter 42

Bobby Higgins returns in Outlander Book 6, Chapter 42. It’s the perfect time for Claire to test out her ether.

Claire hasn’t had any willing participants up to this point. To be honest, she hasn’t asked many more people other than Tom Christie when she operated on her hand. She wants to test it though, bringing something a little closer to 20th-century medicine to the 18th-century world.

Fortunately, she has that during this relatively short chapter. We get to see Malva continue to step in as her assistant, with certainly some foreshadowing of things to come. It’s hard to see the foreshadowing at first, but there is a line in Claire’s thoughts that immediately stands out when you know the story.

I would love to see this chapter used in the TV series. I think we’ll get something similar to it if not the same. I’m not entirely sure Bobby Higgins is going to be used just yet, and that’s where some of the chapter may need to change. I’ll get to my thoughts on that in the adaptation section.

Let’s dive into A Breath of Snow and Ashes Chapter 42.