READERS GUIDE

Reader’s Guide
The Gentleman’s Gambit by Evie Dunmore
Discussion Questions:


1. Who owns history?

2. Why did Elias feel so drawn to someone like Catriona, whom he considered well- rooted both within herself and in her homeland? Did you see his perception change toward the end?

3. Can you relate to Catriona’s idea that her love- at- first- sight moments were an indication of the attributes she was missing in herself? Why or why not?

4. What challenges do you see for Elias and Catriona as a couple down the road?

5. Do you feel that Elias’s anger over Catriona’s maneuver to send him the artifacts was justified? Why or why not? Would you have approached either of their positions differently?

6. As an introvert, Catriona rightly worries about losing herself in a relationship, which was particularly demanding on women during the Victorian era. What has and hasn’t changed in regard to the expectation that a “good” woman’s time and purpose should be subsumed by her relationships?

7. The concepts of motherhood, childhood, and housewife as we know them were constructed in the Victorian era—can you see how they have carried over to contemporary society? Why or why not?

8. After women in Britain won the right to own property and retain legal personhood in a marriage, it still took another fifty years before they could vote on equal terms with men. Can you imagine why legislators kept denying women the right to vote, and why did their position change only after a world war?

9. The long power struggle between the five empires dominated nineteenth-century politics—can you think of examples of how the repercussions are still showing up in today’s politics?

10. Catriona frequently turns to past patterns to help her navigate her present. At what point does the past turn from a useful source of information for making better choices into a prison instead? Do you have any events in your life where you chose based on the past rather than the now?