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Montmorency: Thief, Liar, Gentleman by Eleanor Updale

Summary

In Victorian London, after his life is saved by a young physician, a thief utilizes the knowledge he gains in prison and from the scientific lectures he attends as the physician's case study exhibit to create a new, highly successful, double life for himself.

Booktalk

Who would have thought that falling though a skylight and breaking just about every bone in your body would change your life . . . for the better? But this is exactly what happens to Prisoner 493 when he takes a tumble after stealing a bag of tools from a factory. Of course, he wasn't Prisoner 493 until after his fall, and he wouldn't have even been alive to become Prisoner 493 had it not been for Dr. Farcett, a man interested in the treatment of complex wounds. Dr. Farcett patches him back together and then continues studying and treating 493 during the three years of his incarceration. Farcett also is a member of the Royal College of Surgeons and occasionally takes 493 to the college's meetings and other lectures in order to discuss the doctor's pioneering techniques. But the posh audiences aren't the only ones learning a thing or two at these lectures. In fact, it is at a meeting of the Scientific Society where Sir Joseph Bazalgette is speaking on the new underground sewer system, that 493 begins formulating a plan for his post-prison life. The plan is to break into London's best jewelry shops, steal the loot, then escape back down the sewers where the police will be unlikely to search. But when Scarper (as 493 now calls himself) is released and tries to put the plan into action, he doesn't anticipate all of the problems that come with sewer work. Will he be able to transform himself from Scarper, liar and thief, to Montmorency, gentleman? Or will he get caught and sent back to prison, or worse - crash, burn, and drown in the putrid sewers of Victorian London?

232 pages, 6th grade and up

Discussion questions

Warning! Some of the questions contain key elements of the plot. Do not read if you don't want to know what happens!

  1. Why did Dr. Farcett want to save Scarper's life and how did he do it?
  2. How did Scarper come up with his idea for using the sewers to help him commit crimes? How did the sewers help him?
  3. What were some of the things about the sewers that caused him problems at first, and how did he solve those problems?
  4. What were the other prisoners like? What did Scarper learn from them?
  5. How did Montmorency feel, knowing that Freakshow was going to be hanged for his crimes? How would you feel if someone else got punished for something you had done?
  6. Can you like Montmorency even though he is a criminal? Is there any good in him?
  7. Did you like any of the other characters? Why or why not?
  8. Do you think Montmorency will ever stop turning into Scarper?
  9. If you could become someone else, what would he or she be like? What would he or she do and where would they live?

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