Why do you think Lutkins’ neighbours were anxious to meet the lawyer?
When the lawyer saw him Lutkin was with his mother on the station. He insisted the lawyer to come with him and have a cup of tea at his neighbour’s house. He said that his neighbours were eager to meet a person who could be easily duped. They wanted to enjoy the lawyer’s predicament.
Lutkins openly takes the lawyer all over the village. How is it that no one lets out the secret? (Hint: Notice that the hack driver asks the lawyer to keep out of sight behind him when they go into Fritz’s.) Can you find other such subtle ways in which Lutkins manipulates the tour?
What does he say about Lutkins?
When the lawyer reached New Mullion, did ‘Bill’ know that he was looking for Lutkins? When do you think Bill came up with his plan for fooling the lawyer?
Who is Lutkins?
Does the narrator serve the summons that day?
Who befriends him? Where does he take him?
What more does Bill say about Lutkins and his family?
Why is the lawyer sent to New Mullion? What does he first think about the place?
After his first day’s experience with the hack driver the lawyer thinks of returning to New Mullion to practise law. Do you think he would have reconsidered this idea after his second visit?
Do you think the lawyer was gullible? How could he have avoided being taken for a ride?
Why is Mrs Pumphrey worried about Tricki?
How is Ausable different from other secret agents?
What does Horace Danby like to collect?
How did the invisible man first become visible?
How did a book become a turning point in Richard Ebright’s life?
What kind of a person is Mme Loisel — why is she always unhappy?
Why is Bholi’s father worried about her?
Why was the twentieth century called the ‘Era of the Book’?
Who does ‘I’ refer to in this story?
What does she do to help him? Is she wise in this?
Why does Mrs Hall find the scientist eccentric?
What would have happened to Matilda if she had confessed to her friend that she had lost her necklace?
How has Max got in?
Noodle avoids offending Think-Tank but at the same time he corrects his mistakes. How does he manage to do that?
Does Anil realise that he has been robbed?
Does Bholi enjoy her first day at school?
What does she do to help him? Is she wise in this?
What are Hari Singh’s reactions to the prospect of receiving an education? Do they change over time? (Hint: Compare, for example, the thought: “I knew that once I could write like an educated man there would be no limit to what I could achieve” with these later thoughts: “Whole sentences, I knew, could one day bring me more than a few hundred rupees. It was a simple matter to steal — and sometimes just as simple to be caught. But to be a really big man, a clever and respected man, was something else.”) What makes him return to Anil?
How would you assess Griffin as a scientist?
“Griffin was rather a lawless person.” Comment.