Charlotte Gray Reading Guide & Discussion Questions

1. Why does Charlotte so deeply identify with France? What tradition does the Loiseau family represent to her? Where, and in whom, does Charlotte recognize this tradition during her undercover work in France?
   
2. Why does Dr. Burch, the psychiatric examiner, mark Charlotte down as "T. C. by 1/2" (too clever by half) [p. 82]? Is this meant as a compliment or a criticism? Would you say it is an accurate description of Charlotte? Does it square with Daisy's view of Charlotte as "unstable" and "vulnerable" [p. 95]?
   
3. Cannerley, in England, feels "frightened" by the political decisions he is being compelled to put into force. "Everyone he knew had made an accommodation with the war, with the demands on their lives of a national emergency, and it seemed to him that he had been drawn into the wrong compromise" [p. 150]. Julien, in France, sees "a chain of compromise and inertia, at no single point perceptible as choice in moral colors, had had in the end a cumulative effect" [p. 154]. What accommodations and compromises have the following characters made: Cannerley, Bernard, M. Levade, Sir Oliver, Gerd Lindemann? At what point, and in what characters, can the choices be said to be positively evil?
   

Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Vintage. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.