Reading Group Guide

Discussion Questions

1. From the first page of The Glass of Time, we are transported to a different time and place. How does Michael Cox evoke the world of nineteenth-century England, and how does this setting affect the unfolding story?
2. How would you characterize the relationship between Esperanza and Lady Tansor as the former ascends from lady’s maid to companion? Are they friends or is there relationship more oblique?
3. How does Esperanza’s nobility shine through when she occupies a modest position as lady’s maid? To what extent is this characteristic a mark of “Duport blood,” and how does the novel’s broader conflict of succession convey the importance of lineage and social station in Victorian England?
4. Why does Madame choose to only gradually reveal the facts and instructions that will guide Esperanza in her completion of the Great Task? Does this method help or hurt Esperanza’s chances of succeeding?
5. Esperanza often pities Lady Tansor, even though she knows that Emily once betrayed her father. Is Emily deserving of our sympathy as well?
6. How do love and obsession shape the actions of both Madame and Lady Tansor?
7. Why is Esperanza attracted to Perseus despite his often temperamental manner? What do they have in common?
8. Why don’t Perseus and Randolph get along? How does Randolph’s carefree, independent nature set him apart from the rest of his family?
9. Esperanza breaks off her engagement with Perseus when she learns that she must marry Randolph in order to take her rightful place in the Duport family line. What does her decision say about familial duty versus individual will, and how does this theme play out in the rest of the novel?
10. Although Mrs. Battersby displays antagonism toward Esperanza, Lady Tansor alludes to a certain similarity between these two women. In what way might these women be alike?
11. Lady Tansor and Esperanza both take pains to hide their true selves. What are the consequences of this behavior? Do these women ultimately unburden themselves of their masks?
12. Even after Esperanza discovers that her father murdered Phoebus Daunt, she forgives him and proceeds with the Great Task. What did her father do that is, perhaps, unforgivable?
13. Does Esperanza allow herself to be ruled by the past? Does the image of her new family with Perseus and their son offer hope for a new beginning?
14. The Great Task succeeds, although not quite in the way that Edwin Gorst had planned. Why would Edwin set this plan in motion, knowing full well that he would never reap its benefits?
15. The Glass of Time is full of characters intent on exposing the truth or uncovering it for themselves. Why, after months of searching through letters and documents in her pursuit of the truth, does Esperanza choose to ignore her father’s Historia?