1. Richard Shelton first appears as a rather naive young man who accepts appearances without understanding the more complex reality of the world in which he lives. How does he become more enlightened and mature?

2. Dick begins as a male chauvinist with no use for women. How does he come to respect, and then to love, Joanna Sedley?

3. To what extent does Joanna qualify as a liberated heroine, and to what extent is she the stereotypical heroine of romantic fiction whom the hero must rescue?

4. In books 1 and 2, Joanna Sedley plays a major role; in the remaining three books she appears only briefly, and Stevenson introduces another woman, Alicia Risingham, as a possible rival for Dick's love. Is it a mistake for him to remove Joanna after book 2?

5. In Shakespeare's plays, in popular mythology, and in such films as the two versions of The Tower...