These questions were composed for students in a junior/senior level course in the nineteenth-century novel, but they could be useful starting points for anyone's thinking about the book. They are certainly not the only questions that could be asked.

1. What do we learn about Marcella's character from the long discussion of her childhood and schooling in the opening chapters? In subsequent chapters? How has her adult character been shaped by these childhood experiences?



2. In what ways is it significant that Marcella went to art school? We never see her producing art or doing any "art criticism" beyond looking and appreciating (perhaps you can prove me wrong here), so what is this trait doing in the novel?



3. What is Ward saying about women's education in the description of Marcella's schooling and in her portrayal of Marcella's adult encounters with books and learning?



4. Does this novel qualify as a Bildungsroman? What, if anything, does Marcella learn? In what ways does she discover her identity, find her profession, etc.?



5. Much is made of the Boyce heritage, especially Marcella's uncle the Speaker and the family's connections to the English Civil Wars of the seventeenth century and. What is the significance of this family background?



6. What are the functions of the "Book" divisions? How does each mark a significant transition in both plot and character development? In its themes?



7. The poaching incidents that shape the plot in Book 2 are based on actual events that gave Ward her initial idea for the book, and in her 1911 introduction to Marcella in her "Complete Works," she describes the Hurd affair "in all its bearings--economic, social, political--" as the "main incident" of the novel. Is that description justified? What is the significance of poaching for the characters, events, and themes of the novel?



8. What seems to be Ward's opinion about Fabian socialism ("Venturism")? Which of its aspects/ideas does she support? Condemn? Refuse to judge?



9. By the same token, how does the novel assess private charity and philanthropy, and programs that we would call "welfare"?



10. Why are there so many, many scenes with poor and working-class characters who speak in dialect? Are there differences between the urban and rural poor?



11. What does the novel suggest about the nature of politics and the political process--elections, party formation and affiliation, lawmaking, etc.?



12. What are the relationships (aside from the plot) between the political issues--elections, socialism, the attempt to form a Labour Party--and Marcella's personal development and love stories?



13. Many of Marcella's reviewers linked it to the "new woman" genre (basically, feminist novels), but today's writers about the new woman rarely put it in that category. Ward was a prime mover in opening the first women's "colleges" at Oxford University, and she supported women's right to vote in local elections, but she was England's most famous opponent of women's getting the right to vote in Parliamentary elections. How would you characterize the novel's "stand" on "women's issues?



14. What is the significance of Marcella's nursing life? Why is it significant that she works (something uncommon, still, for women of her class)? Why nursing rather than some other profession?



15. Be attentive to descriptions of houses and other living spaces, both as means of characterizing the people who dwell there and as social commentary.



16. Ward was frequently praised for her descriptions of the natural world, though these are the sorts of passages that today's readers tend to skip or skim. Do they have a function in the novel beyond basic scene setting?



17. Ward's international best seller Robert Elsmere was a story of religious faith and doubt; arguably, religion plays only a subordinate role in Marcella. Or does it? What is its role in the story and its ideas?



18. What is the novel's attitude toward journalism and journalists?



19. The novel is full of references to plays and performances. Consider their significance.



20. Various characters at various times refer to "rights" and "duties." What does the novel suggest about these issues?



21. Some critics have said that Ward's minor characters tend to "stand for" particular political, social, religious, (etc.) opinions or positions. First, does that seem accurate? Second, to the extent that you find it true, what is the "idea" function of each minor character?



22. This book was very, very popular in its own time, yet it, like its author, is now only known to a few specialists in Victorian literature. How might you explain both its popularity and its eclipse?