The Man with Two Shadows and Other Ghost Stories

Penguin Readers Factsheets

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T e a c h e r’s n o t e s

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The Man with Two Shadows and Other Ghost Stories

Mark Lemon (1809-70) was the co-founder of the satirical British magazine Punch, in 1841. The success of Punch has given him more lasting fame than his stories. He was a prolific writer, however, and covered a wide range, including songs, Christmas stories, plays and, not surprisingly in view of Punch, jokes. Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-73) was one of the greatest of all ghost-story writers. After the death of his wife after fourteen happy years of marriage, he devoted most of his time to writing and was probably able to produce such dark and powerful work because of the great grief her death had caused him. Tom Hood (1835-74), after gaining experience writing for and editing journals and newspapers, wrote poetry and did illustrations for a magazine called Fun, a rival to Punch. Catherine Crowe (1800-76) was interested in spiritualism and psychology, which helped her to write strange and somewhat morbid stories. She wrote very little after suffering an attack of insanity in 1859.

BACKGROUND AND THEMES Ghosts, spectres, phantoms - whatever the word used, the effect is the same: we are scared of them. But, despite our fear, we can’t resist them, whether it’s reading about them, watching films, TV programmes and plays about

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them, or listening to the experiences of others and relating our own experiences. Ghost stories have always been a source of great fascination to people, probably because so many ghost stories seem believable and also, because so many of us have heard stories of the ghostly experiences of people we trust and believe. Indeed, a recent survey in a British newspaper stated that as many as 44% of people believe in the existence of ghosts. Of those people, one in seven claimed that they had seen, heard or been haunted by a ghost. Despite the popularity of ghost stories today, it is certainly the nineteenth century which saw the greatest increase in the publication of ghost stories. This was probably the result of the increasing availability of the novel as a cheap form of entertainment as much as with any increased interest in ghost stories themselves. They were, after all, not a new idea. One of the earliest published collections of ghost stories had come over a century before, with John Aubrey’s Miscellanies (1696). This was full of tales he collected first hand from all over the UK. As the nineteenth century approached there seemed to be a desire for people to escape from the realities of the world of science and reason which characterized the eighteenth century. People wanted to escape into a world of mystery and imagination, inhabited by ghosts and strange creatures. In the middle of the nineteenth century, Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol, which features Scrooge. Scrooge is an old man who lives only for his money but who is so mean that he doesn’t spend any of it, even on himself. In the story he is visited by three ghosts - the ghost of Christmas past, the ghost of Christmas present and the ghost of Christmas future - which combine to frighten him to such an extent that he changes his ways completely. The success of the story at the time encouraged Dickens to produce a ghost story of his own every Christmas, and to publish new ghost stories by other great writers. This further increased the popularity of ghost stories, and the second half of the nineteenth

THE MAN WITH TWO SHADOWS

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

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PREINTERMEDIATE

S U M M A R Y his collection of chilling short stories contains a range of classic ghost stories. There is a simple story where a man dies as a result of seeing a ghost. There are two eerie stories about paintings: in one, ‘The Ghost Detective’, a painting plays a part in setting free a man wrongly accused of a crime; the other, ‘The Man with Two Shadows’, mirrors a sad tale of jealousy and death. In ‘The Dream’, a dream becomes a nightmare for the main character. There is a story about a ghost cashier who cashes a cheque, and another about a ghost who leads a man to money that was lost from his family hundreds of years previously.

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by Thomas Hood and others

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Penguin Readers Factsheets T e a c h e r’s n o t e s century saw an even greater number of ghost-story publications than the first.


The publication of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens was also interesting for another reason. It represented the general shift away from the traditional setting of the ghost story: the castle at the end of the dark winding road or the large derelict house on the windswept moor. Ghost stories were now set in the everyday surroundings of the town and the ordinary home. Though the settings themselves were not frightening, the thought that ghosts could belong in the lives of ordinary people made people even more frightened when they read about them - which is what they wanted, of course. Christmas continues to be the time in Britain when ghost stories are most often told, when people are sitting around an open log fire on a cold winter’s night. This is also probably the best place to read them. The fact that the word chilling is often used to describe a really good ghost story is no accident.

Communicative activities The following teacher-led activities cover the same sections of text as the exercises at the back of the reader, and supplement those exercises. For supplementary exercises covering shorter sections of the book, see the photocopiable Student’s Activities pages of this Factsheet. These are primarily for use with class readers but, with the exception of discussion and pair/groupwork activities, can also be used by students working alone in a self-access centre.

ACTIVITIES BEFORE READING THE BOOK 1 Ask students to say what the word ghost means. (They can use their dictionaries if necessary.) Then ask them if they like ghost stories - either reading them or watching films. 2 In small groups, students talk about ghost stories. If any of the students know a good ghost story, they tell it to the group. Ask the groups if any of them have a good ghost story to tell the class. If so, they can tell the class. If anyone has seen a ghost, they can also tell the class about it.

ACTIVITIES AFTER READING A SECTION ‘The Dead Man of Varley Grange’ & ‘The Ghost Detective’ 1 Put students into groups of four. They role-play a conversation between Jack Darent, Henderson, Wells and Harford. It is the morning. The other guests have left and Henderson and his friends are laughing and joking about the ghost. Henderson tells the story of Dennis Varley, who murdered his sister. What do the other men say? 2 Put students into pairs. They discuss the main differences between the ghosts in the two stories.


Then compare answers across the class.

‘The Dream’ & ‘The Man with Two Shadows’ Ask students to look up warning in their dictionaries. Then discuss the following with the students: (a) Pat Connell goes to hell as a warning that he must change the way he lives. The man who is telling the story (who is a churchman) tells him he won’t go back to hell if he lives a good life from then on. But he will go back there because he has made a promise to do so. Are the words of the man who is telling the story (the churchman) therefore without meaning? (b) What is the warning that George is giving when he ‘holds one finger up’?

‘The Ghost in the Bank of England’ & ‘The Italian’s Story’ 1 Put students into small groups to discuss this question. Julius Mendez knows that he could die before the end of his 57th year. How do you think he knows this? 2 Put students into groups of three. They role-play a conversation between Wilson, the man from the Bank of England, and the policeman, when they go to the Bank of England. The policeman asks lots of questions about the cheque and the banknote, and about the ghost at the Bank of England. 3 Put students into pairs. They role play the conversation between Mr and Mrs Greathead when she tells him that she saw a ghost in their garden.

ACTIVITIES AFTER READING THE BOOK Put students into small groups. They choose a part of one of the stories (which they haven’t role-played) and write the dialogue. They then act it out for the rest of the class. They should make their performance last for two to three minutes. The rest of the class watch and say which story the dialogue is from.

Glossary It will be useful for your students to know the following new words. They are practised in the ‘Before You Read’ sections of exercises at the back of the book. (Definitions are based on the Longman Active Study Dictionary.) ‘The Dead Man of Varley Grange’ & ‘The Ghost Detective’ cash (v) to give a cheque to the bank and get money from the bank ghost (n) a dead person who you see servant (n) somebody who works for another person in their house ‘The Dream’ & ‘The Man with Two Shadows’ God (n) many people believe that God made the world hell (n) the place where bad people will go after they die moth (n) a small animal with wings, which flies at night ‘The Ghost in the Bank of England’ & ‘The Italian’s Story’ cashier (n) somebody who works at a bank or shop, and takes and gives out money scar (n) when your skin is cut badly, the cut leaves a scar banknote (n) a piece of paper money nephew (n) the son of your brother or sister

Published and distributed by Pearson Education Factsheet written by Tony Garside Factsheet series developed by Louise James

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Penguin Readers Factsheets

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Student’s activities

Photocopiable

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The Man with Two Shadows and Other Ghost Stories

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Students can do these exercises alone or with one or more other students. Pair/group-only activities are marked.

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Activities before reading the book

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Read the introduction at the front of the book, and answer the following questions.

(d) is in the painting on the wall of the Loxleys’ sitting-room?

(a) Why did ghost stories become popular in the 1800s?

(e) gives James Loxley a cheque just before Christmas?

(b) How did the ghost story change in the middle of the 1800s? (c) Which of the writers of these stories: (i)

started a British magazine?

(iii) also wrote poems? (iv) wrote a play with Charles Dickens? (d) Which of the stories in this book were written by someone whose name we do not know?

Activities while reading the book

calls James Loxley a thief?

2 How does the ghost help Martha to find the money? 3 Talk with another student. Susan is wrong to take the money, but she is also unlucky. Do you agree with this? Why/Why not?

‘THE DREAM’ & ‘THE MAN WITH TWO SHADOWS’ ‘The Dream’ 1 Are these sentences about Pat Connell right or wrong? Change the wrong sentences so that they are right.

‘THE DEAD MAN OF VARLEY GRANGE’ & ‘THE GHOST DETECTIVE’

(a) He doesn’t die because the doctor gives him blood.

‘The Dead Man of Varley Grange’

(b) He falls down the stairs twice.

1 Answer the following questions.

(c) In his dream, he falls into hell.

(a) Why can’t Jack and the writer’s sister get married? (b) Why is Varley Grange ‘uncomfortable’? (c) How many times does the ghost of Dennis Varley appear?

(d) In his dream, he promises to go back to hell after three weeks. (e) After his dream he doesn’t go to a pub. 2 Join the half-sentences with because. (i)

Pat Connell’s daughter goes to find the writer of the story ...

(d) How does Jack Darent know he will die in a year?

(ii) Pat Connell’s wife screams ...

(e) Why does Bella always wear black and look sad?

(iii) The writer goes back to the house three times ...

2 In your own words, describe:

(iv) Pat Connell will drink again ...

(a) the ghost of Dennis Varley

(v) Pat Connell’s wife is proud of him ...

(b) the ghost of Dennis Varley’s sister. Write a description of her face, which Jack Darent could never describe to anyone.

(vi) Pat Connell stops drinking and stealing ...

Compare your descriptions with the descriptions of other students.

(b) Pat Connell is always sleeping.

3 Write the letter that Henderson wrote to Jack Darent when he invited him to Varley Grange for Christmas with some other friends.

(a) he promises to go back.

(c) he stops drinking. (d) he doesn’t want to die. (e) he is sitting up. (f)

‘The Ghost Detective’ 1 Who ... (a) gets a new job and is able to get married? (b) is pretty with fair hair and blue eyes? (c) is helpful but rather stupid?


he works for the church and Pat Connell is dying.

3 Do you think this is a story about religion? Talk about your ideas with other people.


(ii) saw few people after his wife died?

(f)

PREINTERMEDIATE

Penguin Readers Factsheets Student’s activities ‘The Man with Two Shadows’

(d) the woman who is Wilson’s wife

1 The following sentences are about the picture of George. Put them in the right order.

(e) the man who is Wilson’s boss (f)

(a) The picture is uncovered.

(g) the man who worked for twenty years at the Bank of England

(b) The picture is covered. (c) George holds one finger up. (d) The picture cuts Vincent Grieve’s head open. (e) There is a moth on the picture. (f)

There is water on George’s face.

‘The Italian’s Story’ 1 Are the following sentences about the story right or wrong? (a) Jacopo Ferraldi steals his nephew’s money because some of his money was stolen.

(g) The picture falls down. (h) George’s eyes follow Vincent Grieve everywhere.


the woman who is Fred Hawes’ sister

(i)

George’s face looks like a dead man’s, with no eyes.

(b) Jacopo goes to England so that he won’t see his nephew’s ghost again.

(j)

George’s face is too white.

(c) When he is at his sister’s house, Jacopo thinks that the servants are going to rob him.

2 Look up connect (v) in your dictionary. Which of the sentences in exercise 1 are connected with . . . (i)

(d) The servants steal Jacopo’s boxes, which are full of money.

the sea?

(e) Mr Greathead wants Francesco to go to his house in the country to teach his daughters to be gardeners.

(ii) a murder? (iii) blood?

(f)

3 Talk with another student. How does the picture of George tell the story of ‘The Man with Two Shadows’?

(g) Mr Greathead is pleased because he is right and his wife is wrong.

‘THE GHOST IN THE BANK OF ENGLAND’ & ‘THE ITALIAN’S STORY’ ‘The Ghost in the Bank of England’ 1 Join the half-sentences with so. (i)

Mendez died on 11th September, and the date on the letter and the cheque is 12th September ...

(ii) Everyone at the Bank of England says that the ghost at the Bank cashes the cheques of dead men ... (iii) The ghost always comes to the Bank of England when someone cashes the cheque of a dead man ... (a) the police believe Wilson’s story in the end. (b) the police think that Wilson wrote the letter and the cheque. (c) Julius Mendez died and didn’t write the cheque for £1,000 - his ghost did. 2 Read these sentences about the people in the story. What are their names? Choose from the list below. Nancy, Annie, Mr Mendez, Mr Wilson, Mr Deacon, Fred Hawes, Isaac Ayscough

Mrs Greathead doesn’t want to build in the part of the garden where there are Italian flowers.

(h) Francesco is not surprised that the ghost in the garden is the ghost of Jacopo Ferraldi. 2

Jacopo’s sister wrote to Jacopo to ask if her son could stay with him in Florence. Write that letter.

Activities after reading the book 1 Talk to another student. Which story do you like best? Why? Does your partner agree or disagree with you? 2 Have your feelings about ghost stories changed, now that you have read these ghost stories? Which story feels the most real? 3 In which story can you find the following? (a) ‘He gave me a cheque and I immediately took it to a bank and cashed it ...’ (b) ‘I took the cheque from my pocket and looked at it again.’ (c) ‘He saw her too, but not her face. The others only saw the brother.’

(a) the man who dies in prison

(d) ‘Not long after this, a letter arrived from his sister, who lived in England.’

(b) the man who is a doctor and who becomes very rich

(e) ‘He fell into the ice-cold sea and slowly his head went under.’

(c) the man who frightens Nancy and says that Fred Hawes is a thief


Published and distributed by Pearson Education Factsheet written by Tony Garside Factsheet series developed by Louise James

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