5. Translate the following sentences into Russian:

1. He was, I think, defending himself against an imputation of slackness and unreliability I had made in relation to a great public movement, in which he had disappointed me.

2. He was, he said, rather a precocious little boy – he learned to talk at an abnormally early age, and he was so sane and “old-fashioned,” as people say, that he was permitted an amount of initiative that most children scarcely attain by seven or eight.

3. There he recalls a number of mean dirty shops, and particularly that of a plumber and decorator with a dusty disorder of earthenware pipes, sheet lead, ball taps, pattern books of wall paper, and tins of enamel.

4. It was a world with a different quality, a warmer, more penetrating and mellower light, with a faint clear gladness in its air, and wisps of sun-touched cloud in the blueness of its sky.

5. Of course, I can convey nothing of that indescribable quality of translucent unreality, that difference from the common things of experience that hung about it all; but that – that is what happened.

6. But at the same time there was a really painful undertow of shame at telling what I felt was indeed a sacred secret.

7. I was leaning over the apron of my hansom smoking a cigarette, and no doubt thinking myself no end of a man of the world, and suddenly there was the door, the wall, the dear sense of unforgettable and still attainable things.

8. If ever that door offers itself to me again, I swore, I will go in, out of this dust and heat, out of this dry glitter of vanity, out of these toilsome futilities.

Discussion points

1. The story is told from the point of view of the narrator. What advantages and disadvantages are there in telling the story in the first person? How does this particular presentation affect the reader’s perception of the story?

2. What can you say about the personality of the narrator on the basis of the story?

3. The story opens with Redmond’s reflections about Lionel Wallace and the story the latter told him. Why does the author introduce this passage? What words and phrases lead the reader to the idea that there is something mysterious in Wallace’s story?

4. What kind of relationship existed between Wallace and Redmond?

5. Are there any indications that Redmond was prejudiced in telling Lionel’s story or was he quite impartial in presenting the events? Is it possible to trace Redmond’s attitude towards Lionel?

6. What kind of person was Lionel Wallace as a child? Speak about the atmosphere in his family.

7. Discuss the way the author shows the clash of two worlds: the grown-up world and the child’s world. What were the things about Wallace that his family didn’t understand? What was the child deprived of? Observe the words, phrases and passages that reveal the child’s inner world. Comment on the image they create.

8. What words and phrases does the author use to convey the dominant atmosphere of the enchanted garden. How do they contrast with the description of the things Wallace came across in real life?

9. Does the description of the garden suggest anything mysterious, symbolic? Does the description of a sombre woman give rise to any associations? Who or what do you think she symbolizes?

10. Do you think the reaction of Wallace’s family to his story was right? How would you behave if you were in their place?

11. Does Wallace’s story seem true to you or do you think it was just the boy’s imagination that played a trick on him? What role did the “Door in the Wall” play in Wallace’s life?

12. Comment on the several episodes when Wallace had a chance of entering the green door. What mattered to him more at those moments? Did he miss the chances because he himself had changed and was disciplined and responsible or because the world he lived in “was so bright and interesting”?

13. What is your attitude towards Wallace? Does the character appeal to you? What do you think of his death?

14. Comment on Redmond’s estimation of the events.

15. Make a character-sketch of Wallace.

16. What is the theme of the story?

17. What’s the main conflict of the story: Wallace and society; Wallace and his family; inner conflict?

18. What is the message of the story?