Why does he steal every year?
Horace dandy has carefully planned and stoles every year so that he could get the rare and expensive books which he loved or desperate to collect. Each year he stole enough to last single year and secretly bought the books, through an agent.
Horace Danby was a meticulous planner but still he faltered. Where did he go wrong and why?
What does Horace Danby like to collect?
Did you begin to suspect, before the end of the story, that the lady was not the person Horace Danby took her to be? If so, at what point did you realise this, and how?
“Horace Danby was good and respectable — but not completely honest”. Why do you think this description is apt for Horace? Why can’t he be categorised as a typical thief?
What are the subtle ways in which the lady manages to deceive Horace Danby into thinking she is the lady of the house? Why doesn’t Horace suspect that something is wrong?
Who is speaking to Horace Danby?
Who is the real culprit in the story?
Why is Mrs Pumphrey worried about Tricki?
How is Ausable different from other secret agents?
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 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?
“Griffin was rather a lawless person.” Comment.
Does the narrator serve the summons that day?
What does he say about Lutkins?
Why does the marriage not take 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?
Noodle avoids offending Think-Tank but at the same time he corrects his mistakes. How does he manage to do that?
Why do you think Lutkins’ neighbours were anxious to meet the lawyer?
What was the cause of Matilda’s ruin? How could she have avoided it?
Why does Mrs Hall find the scientist eccentric?
Is the narrator as rich as Tricki’s mistress?