Lesson 4. Home reading. S. Maugham. The Treasure.

The lesson is focused on the skills of analysing the tone of the story and the implications of the “strong position”, that is, the beginning and the end.

1. Answer the following questions, choosing among the given alternatives.

(a) Who is the narrator of the story: an objective observer, who only tells us what he sees and hears, a commentator who expresses his point of view, a god-like creator who can get inside every character’s mind?

(b) Is the story rich in events? Are they given to describe the characters or to keep the readers guessing what will happen next?

(c) What does each character feel for the other: respect, contempt, compassion, pity, deference. Do they show irritation, devotion, disappointment, appreciation in different situations? Name the episode(s) where this attitude is exhibited.

(d) What are the words and phrases tha0t are used most often: happy, unhappy, polite, amused, perfect, complacent, generous, deferential?

(e) Does the story describe: an ordinary human situation, a striking incident in a human being’s life, a pattern of a social situation?

(f) The mood of the story is that if: acid sarcasm, bitter irony, good-humoured irony, compassion, indignation, amusement?

2. Find the right periphrasis for each phrase.

They drifted gradually apart.	He indulged himself in the pleasure of helping others.
He was always ready to oblige a friend.	She was worth her weight in gold.
She was becomingly dressed.	She never volunteered a remark of her own.
He got on the right side of Pritchard.	By and by, they became strangers.
She was a paragon.	Her clothes brought out her good looks.
She had no conversation.	He became one of her favourites.

3. Translate the following statements.

¨ Some of the candidates looked fast. (191)

¨ The applicant should have reached years of discretion. (190)

¨ You certainly have a knack for it. (199)

¨ Pritchard became an institution. (200)

¨ He spoke…on the spur of the moment. (203)

¨ He was relived to see that she looked neither shabby nor showy (204).

¨ “In for a penny, in for a pound”. (205)

¨ “The proof of the pudding is (in) the eating” (196).

4. Go to a dictionary or encyclopedia to explain the following:

Ecclesiastes, the Civil service, Whitehall, Home Office, Queen Anne, George I, Louis XIV, a Cabinet Minister

5. This short story relates an amusing encounter between Pritchard, a parlourmaid who was worth her weight in gold, and her master, Richard Haringer, a very happy man indeed. Give a summary of the story using the given Russian phrases as guidelines.

¨ М-р Хэрринджер искал горничную не первой молодости, безукоризненного поведения и приятной наружности.

¨ Он получил именно то, что искал. Причард содержала его квартиру в безукоризненной чистоте. Она точно знала, что он наденет по тому или иному случаю.

¨ Он ценил её и доверял ей. Но ему было скучно с ней, и он считал ее полностью лишенной обаяния.

¨ Однажды вечером он пригласил её в кино и ресторан. Вечер прошел успешно.

¨ Собственная доброта согрела Хэрринджера, и на мгновение он ощутил любовь ко всему человечеству. Он поцеловал её, и она ответила на его поцелуй.

¨ Утром он понял, что потеряет лучшую горничную на свете из-за минутной прихоти.

¨ Но Причард ничем не выдавала, что она помнит о случившемся прошлой ночью.

¨ Хэринджер с облегчением вздохнул – ему не придется её увольнять. Все же он был счастливым человеком!

6. The story abounds in repetitions. What features does Maugham repeatedly emphasize to show that Pritchard was a competent parlourmaid; or that Richard Harenger was a perfect gentleman? Or that he had no reason to be ashamed of Pritchard when he took her out? (choose any of the three points).

7. Although Maugham gives an illusion of objectivity and detachment toward his characters, most of his fiction is based in some way on personal experience. For example, he married in 1915 and was divorced in 1927. After that he remained single.

What in Maugham’s tone suggests that his sympathies were on Haringer’s side?

8. Somerset Maugham once wrote: “ In my twenties the critics said that I was brutal. In my thirties they said I was flippant. In my forties they said I was cynical. In my fifties they said I was competent. And now they say I am superficial”. Which opinion of the critics do you share? Explain, giving examples from the story.

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