In her Dedication, Thanks, and Notes, Walton says she wrote Tooth and Claw to satisfy an intellectual exercise. As Avan seeks to redress this wrong, Selendra and Haner separate for the first time in their lives and seek husbands.

Daverak cheats the Agornins out of their proper inheritance–the rights to eat the remains of their father in order to grow larger and gain more status and success. The Dignified Bon Agornin dies, leaving behind five children–a parson, Penn, an up and coming city gentleman, Avan, two unmarried daughters, Selendra and Haner, and his lone married daughter, Berend, who is wed to the Illustrious Daverak. Speaking thus, Jo Walton’s Tooth and Claw is wildly original, populating a nicely slim Victorian novel a la Anthony Trollope with fire-breathing, flying, ritualistic cannibal dragons. Originality in fiction comes from the new combinations we can create from the unchanging fundamentals. What you can't pay back you pay forward.There’s nothing new under the sun, a fact I feel the universe has confirmed ever since I watched a girl pester a handful of authors at a Q & A about a book she was pondering writing until she finally asked, “What if you’re scared someone else will write it first?” If you accept that fact, I think, any creative input is going to be better thinking about the end product, especially in terms of capital gain and rewards, will only trip you up, in my opinion.(The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.) 7: La majestueuse égalité des lois, qui interdit au riche comme au pauvre de coucher sous les ponts, de mendier dans les rues et de voler du pain. There is one law for rich and poor alike, which prevents them equally from stealing bread and sleeping under bridges.“Why, that’s the very definition of a radical,” he retorted.

“I don’t need to be a radical to think that who a dragon is counts more than birth or wealth,” Selendra said, with what dignity she could.

Marrying her to prove I do not subscribe to an outdated convention of class would be just as foolish as refusing to marry her because I did.

All farms are much alike everywhere, and all wild places have their own beauty.

It was only now that they realized that there is nothing that can really be a preparation for death.

Avan was as religious as the next young dragon with his way to make in the world-which is to say that he held many traditional beliefs which he had never paused to examine, attended church because it would have seemed strange not to, rarely paid much attention when he was there, and found piety out of the pulpit thoroughly misplaced.

Quotes Tooth and Claw (2003) All page numbers from the mass market paperback edition published by Tor

Jo walton's tooth and claw