Caroline Hood

Caroline is the 29-year-old protagonist of The Illness Lesson. When the novel begins, she is living on a farm in Ashwell, Massachusetts with her father, the famous essayist Samuel Hood. Caroline's mother Anna died when Caroline was 4 years old, and since then she and her father have lived alone together (aside from their housekeeper), relying on one another as their sole means of support and companionship. Though Caroline had friends in Ashwell growing up, these friends have since married and disappeared from her life. She is lonely and longs for a connection with another person. When Samuel's protege David arrives on the farm, she feels an immediate attraction to him, but later learns he is married.

Though Samuel provided Caroline with an extensive education unusual for women in 1871, he does not view her as an intellectual equal or value her opinion particularly highly. When Samuel decides to...