What kind of a person is Mme Loisel — why is she always unhappy?
Mme. Loisel is pretty young lady who was born an error of destiny into a family of clerks. She is a dreamy woman, simple but unhappy. By not accepting the realities of life she thinks that she born for all the delicacies and luxuries but in reality her dreams can’t be true.
What was the cause of Matilda’s ruin? How could she have avoided it?
The course of the Loisels’ life changed due to the necklace. Comment.
If you were caught in a situation like this, how would you have dealt with it?
How do they replace the necklace?
What would have happened to Matilda if she had confessed to her friend that she had lost her necklace?
What do M. and Mme Loisel do next?
What kind of a person is her husband?
What fresh problem now disturbs Mme Loisel?
How is the problem solved?
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?
Why is the lawyer sent to New Mullion? What does he first think about the place?
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?
“Ausable did not fit any description of a secret agent Fowler had ever read.” What do secret agents in books and films look like, in your opinion? Discuss in groups or in class some stories or movies featuring spies, detectives and secret agents, and compare their appearance with that of Ausable in this story. (You may mention characters from fiction in languages other than English. In English fiction you may have come across Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, or Miss Marple. Have you watched any movies featuring James Bond?)
Do you think the lawyer was gullible? How could he have avoided being taken for a ride?
Does Anil realise that he has been robbed?
Bholi’s story must have moved you. Do you think girl children are not treated at par with boys? You are aware that the government has introduced a scheme to save the girl child as the sex ratio is declining. The scheme is called Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, Save the Girl Child. Read about the scheme and design a poster in groups of four and display on the school notice board.
Why is he tempted to keep Tricki on as a permanent guest?
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?
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?
Why is the lawyer sent to New Mullion? What does he first think about the place?
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?
What other extraordinary things happen at the inn?