Hello fellow readers!

Here are my questions to help you read Part 4. I included some questions found at Litlovers:

Please if you don’t mind, put your answers as comments on this post. You can of course also put them all together as a post on your own blog, but it’s easier for the conversation if we can centralize all our answers, so that we can comment on each other’s answers. Thanks!

COMMENTS WILL BE DISABLED UNTIL November 26

Part 4: pp.451-593 [from ‘Hannah’s Story’ to the end]

Please share your favorite lines

The beginning of the end:

1. Duty is very important to the youthful Grace. Did Grace’s sense of duty contribute to the novel’s conclusion? If so, how? Would things have turned out better for the characters if Grace had made different decisions?

Riverton Revisited:

2. Why again the mention of guilt on Grace’s part? Do you think she could be over reacting?

Questions on the whole novel:

3. Do you think of The House at Riverton as a tragic novel?

4. How important to the novel’s outcome is Grace’s longing for a sister? When Grace finds out about her true parentage, why does she choose not to tell Hannah? Is it the right decision? Would things have ended differently had she done otherwise?

5. The First World War was a catalyst for enormous social and cultural change. Not a character in The House at Riverton is left untouched by this. Whose life is most altered? Why?

6. Is there a heroine in The House at Riverton? If so, who is it and why?

Feel free to add your own questions

*** *** ***

Recap page

FEEL FREE TO COMMENT
EVEN IF YOU DID NOT REGISTER MONTHS AGO
FOR THIS EVENT

Hello fellow readers!

Here are my questions to help you read Part 3.

Please if you don’t mind, put your answers as comments on this post. You can of course also put them all together as a post on your own blog, but it’s easier for the conversation if we can centralize all our answers, so that we can comment on each other’s answers. Thanks!

Part 3: pp.339-448 [from ‘Catching Butterflies’ to ‘The Choice’ included]

Please share your favorite lines

Catching butterflies:

1. What are your impressions on Deborah?

Down the rabbit hole:

2. What do you like most in this chapter?

Resurrection

3. So by now, we know why Mr Frederick is watching in the cemetery, right? This seems to confirm what I found in the Fall of Icarus, part 2. Do you see what I mean?

 The choice:

4. What do you think about the scene between Grace and Alfred??

5. “There was no choice.” p. 448.  Do you agree with these last words of part 3? Was there really no choice for Grace. Would you have made the same decision?

Feel free to add your own questions

*** *** ***

November 26:
Part 4: pp.451-593 [from ‘Hannah’s Story’ to the end]

Recap page

FEEL FREE TO COMMENT
EVEN IF YOU DID NOT REGISTER MONTHS AGO
FOR THIS EVENT

Hello fellow readers!

Here are my questions to help you read Part 2.

Please if you don’t mind, put your answers as comments on this post. You can of course also put them all together as a post on your own blog, but it’s easier for the conversation if we can centralize all our answers, so that we can comment on each other’s answers. Thanks!

Part 2: pp.171-335 [from ‘The Twelfth of July’ to ‘The Ball And After’ included]

Please share your favorite lines

The Twelfth of July:

1. “The day Jemima’s baby arrived, and the day the question on all our lips was answered.” p. 181. I found this line confusing, as it did not seem clear to me for many pages what question we were talking about. How did you react to this line?

The fall Of Icarus:

2. I think I finally know her mother’s secret. Do you?

3. I seem to have problems with titles in this book. Why the fall of Icarus? I thought she was going to fall in the fountain or something. How do you explain this title?

4. “Happiness grows at our own firesides. It is not to be picked in strangers’ gardens.” How do you understand this comment in the context of the novel? Is it relevant today in our modern lives? How or how not?

 The photograph:

5. As a grandchild or grandparent yourself, what do you think of the way Grace describes grandparents-grandchildren relationships?

Bankers:

6. Why all this thing about eavesdropping?

 The dinner:

7. What are your impressions on the way American social manners are presented?

8. How does the author grab your attention in this whole 2nd part?

Feel free to add your own questions

*** *** ***

November 19:
Part 3: pp.339-448 [from ‘Catching Butterflies’ to ‘The Choice’ included]

November 26:
Part 4: pp.451-593 [from ‘Hannah’s Story’ to the end]

Recap page

FEEL FREE TO COMMENT
EVEN IF YOU DID NOT REGISTER MONTHS AGO
FOR THIS EVENT