- What political events form the background for Burdekin's book? What had been happening in central Europe at the time, and what events were occuring in Asia? (Japan had expanded into China and threatened the Russian border in Manchuria; Hitler had assumed power in Germany)
- Is Burdekin's narrator omniscient? From whose perspective(s) do we learn about events in the story?
Chapter 1:
- According to Burdekin's account, what are basic features of the Nazi ideology, according to Burdekin's account? (violence, misogyny, nationalism, hierarchy, stasis) What are important elements of their liturgy and rituals?
- How is the Nazi religion as portrayed similar to/ different from the Anglicanism or other forms of Christian belief which would have been familiar to her British readers? (Hitler as god-man, conceived other than by the usual means)
- How are children raised in the Nazi regime? Why are they taken from their mothers at eighteen months of age? What forms of submission are demanded of women? What motivates the legalization of rape?
- What arrangements take the place of family life and marriage?
- What public services are they forced to attend, and how do they behave at these ceremonies? (forced to attend a mass ceremony every three weeks, weep, express longing for their lost children) What are they enjoined to do? (to bear strong sons)
- Why do you think Burdekin chose to set her dystopian society in the year of Hitler 720 rather than closer to her present century? (emphasize fixity of Nazism; also it has taken some time for its most horrible features to evolve fully)
- What has happened to the physical attributes of women under the new regime? (have lost their beauty and attractiveness)
- How does Marta rebel, and what does she urge her fellow women to do? (resents lot of women, urges them to bear strong daughters)
- What racial ideology dominates Nazi views of those of other cultures? (Germans superior to all others) Where are Christians placed in this hierarchy, and what consequences may this later have? (will be freer to live according to their own customs)
Chapter 2:
- What intimations are given of Hermann's erotic preferences? (admires young chorister)
- What do we learn about the friendship between Hermann and Alfred? (Alfred is English, Hermann had met him some years before in England, doesn't feel superior to him despite Nazi views of the superiority of Germans, 21)
- What has brought Alfred to Germany?
- What view does the narrator and text seem to take of Alfred's Englishness? (favorable; he is more skeptical and thinks for himself; believes that the rebellion of ideas will succeed, 26)
- What criticisms are made of German imperialism? Could these have been applied equally to the British Empire? What seems to be the narrator's/author's/text's view of British imperialism? (seems generally proud of it, but also admits that it has been an unjust and arbitrary rule)
- What definition does Alfred give of "a man"? (must be independent mentally, not rely on "blood:( 28
- What memory does he have of the original Alfred? (a legendary leader) How will he resemble him? (plans to deliver the entire world from the Germans) Will his hopes materialize? (not directly in his lifetime, as we shall see)
- What do you make of the references to the Japanese, and the German-Japanese alliance? On what basis will these two nations form a detente? (both believe in racial superiority) Will this be historically prescient?
Chapter 3:
- What is Hermann's response when he sees the young chorister had had admired atempting rape? (assualts and attempts to disfigure him, 33) What are his apparent motives? (jealousy)
- Why does Alfred interfere? (wishes to prevent a murder, realizes Hermann's motives)
- To whom do they give testimony about what has occurred? (the knight von Hess) What does Hermann wish to report? (not his own crime, but that the chorister was attempting to rape a Christian woman( What is von Hess's attitude toward the event? (doesn't want to hear the testimony, since he wishes to protect the chorister)
- How does von Hess respond to Arthur? (feels a kinship, 43) On what basis does Alfred reject von Hess's protestations of honor? (where there is no liberty of judgment, no honor is possible, 46; after an inner struggle, von Hess admits that Alfred has spoken aloud what he perceives to be his own inner truth)
- What has been Alfred's occupation, and what happens when the three attempt a flight? In what ways may this flight be symbolic?
- What does von Hess ask of them after landing? (that they come to visit him the next day)
Chapter 4:
- What are some of the pieces of information von Hess imparts to Alfred? Why have there been many recent suicides among German men? (cause not known, 65, but possibly from a recognition that their ideology is false)
- What information does he reveal about his own family? (have lived with the curse of knowledge; he is the last von Hess) He also imparts the information that the real Hitler died, something denied in the Nazi myth (66).
- What is important about the photograph of Hitler which he shows Alfred and Hermann? (looks like the real man, doesn't resemble the mythologized official portraits, which make him into a blond Germanic strongman) With whom is the real Hitler standing? (an attractive young woman, not like the degraded women of the present, von Hess feels sadness at the degradation of the women of the present, 69)
- Why doesn't Alfred recognize the word "marriage"? (69)
- What are the consequences of men's degradation of women, according to Hess? (they are only a reflection of men; have been made the lowest common denominator of humanity, an animal, and as a result "the race is coming to extinction." (70, men are committing suicide and women are refusing to be born)
- What according to Nazi lore is the history of Christians? (a pre-Hitlerian religion which had spread over Europe) What fact about Hitler's youth startles Hermann? (he was a Christian, 72)
- Whom have the Germans killed? (Jews as well as those who wouldn't accept the Hitlerian religion)
- What explanation is given for the relative happiness of Christian women? (live in a mixed, bi-gendered society, don't have to relinquish their children, 72-73
- How has the narrative interest of the dystopia shifted? (from the relationship between Hermann and Alfred to that between Alfred and von Hess)
Chapter 5:
- To what extent are von Hess's views intended to be those of the author? Are there parallels between the dialogue between von Hess and Alfred and those in other utopias/dystopias you have read? (conversation between Guest and Old Hammond in News from Nowhere)
- What is significant about the allusions to Japan at this point? To what current events do they respond? (Japan began war in China in 1937, proclaiming a "New Order," and managed to capture Canton and Manchuria, clashing with Russia along the Manchurian border). Are Von Hess's remarks prophetic? (Yes, like Germany Japan was an expanding empire; Germany and Japan both fought the US in World War 2.)
- What do we learn from von Hess's account of the memories of his early ancestor von Hess? (79, Germans of that time afraid of memory--all history was to be destroyed)
- Who created the holy book initiating the Hitler myth? (von Wiel, a disabled hysteric who was violently hostile to women) May his name or views suggest those of Otto Weiniger, a notorious Jewish anti-semite and misogynist, whose Sex and Character (1903) influenced Nazi ideology?
- When did the German empire arise? (100 years after Hitler; over time the descendants of the original Nazis became hostile to women)
- Why has the original von Hess tried to write down all the history he knows? (all books have been destroyed, 83, and no other knowledge has been preserved of the past) What obstacles limit this effort? (blindness and age)
- What has happened to the young girl who had refused to deface herself in order to become intentionally ugly? (had been murdered, 84; von Hess sees her corpse) What seems the relationship between misogyny and military expansionism?
- What does he decide to do to save his life? (externally submits and feigns conversion, but plans to leave country)
- Why does he emigrate to Great Britain? (able to engage in his endeavor in greater safety; devotes himself to the making of parchment)
- Where does he choose to write his book, and is this symbolically important? (Skye, far from Germany and close to nature and a prehistoric culture) To whom does he entrust his book? (his son Arnold; he then commits suicide) What is the book's fate thereafter? (is handed down from generation to generation of sons, and all who receive the book sign it)
- After exercise and sleep, what are Alfred's thoughts on waking? (feels he will come to understand more through his "secret mind" as he reads von Hess's book, 97)
- What do the Nazis claim about the historicity of Wagner, and why? (admire his music and claim he was post-Hitler) What kind of power does Alfred decide is corrupting? (physical power, 100) What will be effective? (of the soul, 100)
Chapter 6:
- How does von Hess respond to the news that the chorister has died? (callously, 104)
- What explanation is given for the shortage of females under Nazism? (104-105, females are complicated and tired parents produce more males) Would this explanation be accepted by modern biologists? (no)
- What psychological factors have affected reproduction? (females are so discouraged that they can't reproduce, 105) What conclusion does Alfred infer from this? (women are in fact something more than animals)
- Why according to Alfred have women become abject? (107, have internalized view of their inferiority) What should they do? (should view themselves as ideal, since everything strives to be itself) What has led to their subjugation? (had been enthusiastic about Hitler, 110)
- To what does Alfred ascribe his good relationship with Germans? (he isn't abject, is really himself, 110)
- How do the Japanese and Germans resemble one another in their attitude toward women? (113, both find women inferior) What consequences arise from conquest in general? (make nations stupider; cause and effect blend)
- What account does the present von Hess give of the British empire? (113-14) Does this seem a sentimental account? What facts does it ignore? (cruel aspects of conquests, unwillingness of many in the colonies to serve British ends, horrific sacrifices by British colonials in World War 1).
- According to von Hess, how were the "darker races" treated? (with "a certain amount of authority." 114) Would England have possessed African colonies in 1937? (yes; instituted concentration camps)
- How are the English in general characterized? (sturdy heretics, 114) Does this description fit Alfred? What religious group does the narrator/von Hess especially commend? (Society of Friends, 114) Is it true that they were generally commended for their pacifist stance during World War 1? (conscientious objectors imprisoned)
- What is the significance of the purging of the historical record through the destruction of books? What other remains must be purged in order to obliterate history? (ancient buildings such as Salisbury Cathedral, 117)
- What has happened to music under the post-Hitler regimen? (no new music created, operas not performed) Why is culture in general stagnant? (no sense of purpose and thus need to invent, 121)
- What are von Hess's opinions on Japanese music? (123, also bad)
- What secret song has been preserved? (124) When "God Save the King" is played, what makes it seem inappropriate? (celebrates military leader) What song does Alfred prefer instead? (Ben Johnson's "Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes," written 1612, 125-26)
Chapter 7:
- What are some inherent qualities of empires? (need war to survive, 130) What message does von Hess believe Alfred should convey to the future? (131, must warn against violence) Who will be the hope of the future? (Alfred's sons and those he will train, 131)
- What view of the relationship of England and Scotland is provided? Are there sentimental aspects to this account?
- What does von Hess believe is the flaw of democracy? (146, people will refuse to follow a leader and society will collapse into authoritarianism) What will happen to authoritarian societies? (147, they will stagnate) How does Alfred respond? (one cannot give up on democracy simply because it is difficult, 147)
- What quality does war have under any government? (147, inherently anti-democratic)
- What according to his account has happened to Jews? (have been eliminated, 149)
- What characterizes the parting of von Hess and Alfred? (Alfred looks back, von Hess does not look up, 153)
Chapter 8:
- What unexpected events occur when Alfred visits Ethel and his new daughter Edith? What does he enjoin on her and why does this surprise her? What does he now desire for the future of women?
- To whom does Alfred confess his secret, and is he sympathetic? Where does he intend to go to read and study von Hess's book? What symbolism inheres in this choice?
- What warming does Fred offer in return? (Stonehenge is dangerous, since it is not entirely isolated)
Chapter 9:
- What series of events leads to the deaths of Hermann and Alfred? (Hermann fights intruders, Alfred strikes man who kills Hermann) What symbolism surrounds their deaths?
- Is it important that Alfred dies attempting to revenge his friend rather than for a larger cause?
- How do German officials respond to the death of Alfred? (feel regret)
- What hopes remain at the end of the book? (book survives, hope for better lives for women)
- Is the final scene of Alfred's death a fitting conclusion for the book? What final message does it convey? (one can't necessarily destroy one's enemies, but one can find truth even within an alien society)
- Does the fact that Hermann and Alfred resort to violence undercut the book's ostensible advocacy of non-violence? What parting advice does Alfred give to his son? (to be less foolish and less violent)
- What message might readers of 1937 have taken from this book?
- How have themes of friendship and male bonding been central to this book? Is it ironic that a work dedicated to opposing misogyny should center on male relationships and contain few strong female characters? (Marta seems important at the beginning, but we don't meet her again)
- What have been some of the main themes of this dystopia? (truth vs. hierarchy, England vs. German, debasement of women, need for non-violence, male bonding)