The Eggy Stone, by Tessa Hadley

 

SUMMARY, by Begoña Devis

This is a story about two girls who are spending a week in a camp school. The first afternoon, boys and girls go to the beach looking for treasures, like old shells or curious stones. At a certain moment, one of them pick up an eggy stone, just at the same moment that another girl, Madeleine, does too. This fortuitous fact creates a special relationship with them. During the week, they invented different games and challengers to possess the stone, and they took turns to hold it at night in their sleeping bags (they slept in different tends), because whoever possessed the stone felt privileged and safe.

The narrator feels happy, because she thinks that she doesn’t deserve a friend like Madeleine, a girl who, the very first day, has been directed to sit on the table where the charming girls sat. In addition, Madeleine’s usual friends included her tolerantly in her circle.

When the week is over, the narrator wonders what they will do with the stone from that moment: keep the stone for a week each other, and dividing up the holidays, perhaps?  But before she could speak, Madeleine turned and threw the Eggy Stone hard and far. The sound of the stone falling among the pebbles made our protagonist feel that she will never be able to find a stone like that again.

PERSONAL OPINION

I think the author uses the stone as a symbol of the feelings that the protagonist has when, through it, she makes friends with Madeleine.
She is surely a girl who goes unnoticed, she is not in the popular group of girls, and that is why she admires Madeleine. «I’m smart but she’s blonde», she says at one point, feeling adoration for her.
She admires too how Madeleine dances, sings, and even how she cheats her, stealing the Eggy Stone from her pocket. Surely he also admires her courage when she goes out at night to the boys’ tents to kiss them, when she is incapable of doing such a thing. Being friends with Madeleine makes her feel special, deserving of being in the group of the lovely girls.
That is why, when he sees Madeleine throwing the Eggy Stone, his plans to keep their friendship go up in smoke. When she says she’ll never be able to find a stone like that, what she really means is that she’ll never feel again like the special girl that she has been for that one week.

TESSA HADLEY

She was born in 1956 in Bristol, on the East Coast of England.

Her father was a teacher and an amateur jazz trumpeter, and her mother, an amateur artist.

She studied to be a teacher and worked as a teacher until she decided to form a family. Then she had three children.

When she was 37 she decided to study for a Master of Arts at the Bath Spa University, where she dedicated her time specially to the works of Katherine Mansfield, Elisabeth Bowen and Jean Rhys. Then, at 41, she started to teach creative writing at the same university.

Her first novel, Accidents in the Home, written while she was bringing up a family, was published when she was 46.

As a part of her studies, he wrote a book about Henry James. So, James, together with the authoress mentioned above, are her principal influences.

From the issue of her first novel, she has gone on publishing novels and short stories collections. Her last novel is Free Love.

Her stories are usually realistic, situated away from London, and her characters belong to the middle classes. She tends to focus the plots on the family relationships and on women. It’s remarkable her psychological insight.

She has won several awards and she is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

QUESTIONS

What do you remember of your camps / holiday homes?

The boys began throwing pebbles in the sea; the girls looked for treasures. Is there something biological in our constitutions that make boys to do different things from girls? Or is it sociological?

They touched fingers: Is physical contact always a prelude of something?

Situations can change friendships: do you have a literary or personal example?

When you were at school, where did you use to sit down? Were the ranks in alphabetical order or the teacher gave you your places, or you could choose your desk?

When can an object be a special thing (souvenir, memory, idol, talisman…)?

Do you remember any curious / invented rhyme from your childhood?

What do you know about Gargantua and Pantagruel?

Why do you thing Madeline wouldn’t go on with the narrator’s friendship?

 

VOCABULARY

rim, seaweed, sealed, daintily, felts, plantains, by rote, skipping rhymes, yearned, filching, bond, trailing, tepid, foam, publicity, constipation, netball

The Monkey's Paw, by W. W. Jacobs

W.W. Jacobs at the Wikipedia

The Monkey's Paw at the Wikipedia

Audiobook

Movie

Study guide

W.W. JACOBS
By Aurora Ledesma

BIOGRAPHY
 
William Wymark Jacobs was born on September 8^th, 1863 in Wapping (London). The eldest son of William Gage Jacobs, and his first wife, Sophia Wymark, who died when Jacob was very young. Jacob’s father was the manager of a South Devon wharf, and young Jacobs spent much time with his brothers and sisters among the wharves, observing the comings and goings of the ships and their crews.
The Jacobs were a large poor family and; young W.W. as he was called by his friends, was shy and had a fair complexion. Jacobs attended a private school in London and later went to Birkbeck College (now part of the University of London). In 1879, Jacobs began work as a clerk in the civil service, in the Post Office Savings Bank, and by 1885 he had his first short story published, but success come slowly. Most of his work was humorous, and his favourite subject was marine life. His first collection of stories “Many Cargoes” shows the lives of men who go down to the sea in ships.
Jacobs is remembered for a macabre tale, “The Monkey’s Paw”, which was published in 1902 in a short-story collection, The Lady of the Barge, with several other ghost stories.
Another collection of short stories, Sea Urchins, made him very popular. From October 1898, Jacob’s stories appeared in the Strand Magazine, which provided him with financial security almost up to his death.
By 1899, Jacobs was able to quit his job at the post office and finally begin making a living as a full-time writer. He married Agnes Eleanor Williams. The couple had five children, though their marriage was considered an unhappy one.
In his late years, Jacobs wrote dramatizations and adaptations of his existing stories. Jacobs’s legacy remains solid: he continued Dickens’s tradition for sharing working class stories in authentic vernacular.
Jacobs died in a North London nursing home on September 1st, 1943 a week prior to his 80^th birthday.

SUMMARY

On a dark and stormy night, the family Mr. & Mrs. White and their son Herbert, are enjoying a cosy evening around the fire. A family friend, Sergeant - Major Morris arrives for a visit and tells them stories about his adventures during his military service in India. He shows them a monkey’s paw and tells them that it has the power to grant anyone three wishes. Mr. White is interested in buying it; however, Morris says that people have bad luck after their wishes are granted. When he was about to throw the paw in the fire, Mr. White grabs it from him.

After Morris left, the family discusses the wishes. Mr. White, following Herbert’s suggestion, asks for 200 pounds which he can use to pay off his mortgage.  The family waits, but nothing happens. Next day, Herbert goes to work and does not return. In the evening, a person from his company comes to their house and tells them that their son has had an accident with the machinery and died. He says that the company is not responsible for the accident. However, as compensation the company gives the family a check of 200 Pounds.

Mr. White goes to identify his son’s body and bury it. After a short discussion, Mrs. White orders his husband to make a wish to see her son alive. After a while, somebody knocks at the door, and she goes to open it. Mr. White remembers his son’s mutilated body during the burial and makes the third wish. The knocking at the door suddenly stops, they open the door and find no one there.

The Monkey’s Paw is a very popular story. A lot of films, T.V. series and plays have been made about it. Narciso Ibáñez Serrador made a chapter for the TVE series “Historias para no dormir”.

QUESTIONS

Talk about the characters
>Mr White

>Mrs White

>Herbert White

>Sergeant Morris

>The man from Maw & Meggins

Mrs White tries to calm down her husband when he's lost the game. What do you usually do to calm down another person?

Let's talk about superstitions, magic, talismans... Do you have any anecdote about the topic?

What do you think about fate? Do you believe in fate? Do you think there is a relation between cosmos and people?

Can you imagine which were the sergeant wishes?

And the first man's wishes?

What did Mrs White wish for the house?

If you had three wishes, what would you wish and why?

Do you remember other ways of saying wishes? Can you explain them?

Do you think Mrs White would accept her son as he was after the accident?

Would you do the same as the father with the third wish? Why?

Can you imagine another ending for the story?

VOCABULARY
knitting, grimly, mate, slushy, condoling, beady of eye, doughy, offhandedly, spell, jarred, sensible, henpecked, marred, squatting, wholesomeness, disown, bibulous, silk hat, dozed, fitfully, bracket, mantelpiece, china, screwing up