The History of Mr Polly Trivia Quiz

Answer: Alfred

Mr Polly is rarely addressed by his first name, with only his female relatives using it. Even then, his cousins tend to pronounce it 'Elfred', presuming it to sound more refined. The narrator never refers to him as anything other than Mr Polly; his first name is used only when speech is reported.

Answer: On a stile

At this point, Mr Polly is at his lowest ebb. His shop is close to bankruptcy, his wife is indifferent to his welfare and he is suffering severe indigestion. The latter problem is likely to be caused by the diet of cold meat, cold potatoes and pickles which seem to be the extent of his wife's culinary ability. Having set the scene, the author goes back in time to explain how Mr Polly reached this situation.

Answer: His father dies

His mother had died when Mr Polly was seven, his career was never successful enough for promotion and the pools had not yet begun. The death of his father is not a sad event for Mr Polly as the two men had little contact, but it does change his life. Firstly, he inherits what is, to him, a great deal of money (actually £350, but worth a lot more then than now).

The funeral also brings him into contact with his extended family, notably his three female cousins.

Answer: Window dressing

Mr Polly's education, which has been less than successful, ceases at the age of fourteen when his father removes him from school and apprentices him to a shop, in the gentlemen's outfitting department. He makes friends with two other apprentices and settles into the life until Mr Parsons is dismissed for allowing his imagination to run away with him while designing a window.

The ensuing fracas is one of the funniest scenes in the book.

Answer: Christabel

Mr Polly has acquired a bicycle and spends a lot of time riding around the countryside. He comes across Christabel when she is sitting on a wall, and begins to weave romances around her in his mind. He is a knight, while she is a damsel to be saved. The wall is both literal and figurative - Christabel never descends from it, and it takes Mr Polly some time to realise that she is merely a child.

The scales fall from his eyes when he climbs the wall and sees her giggling with her friends, bringing him back to earth in more ways than one.

Answer: Cribs

After Parsons loses his job, Mr Polly leaves the shop as well and begins a series of new jobs, which he refers to as cribs. The only one of these which he enjoys is in Canterbury, but he loses the position after arriving late after a day out. Subsequent positions put him on an ever downward path.

Answer: Larkins

The cousins are the first female company Mr Polly has had. Annie, Miriam and Minnie think he is funny and clever (or, at least, give him the impression that they do) and he keeps turning to the Larkins family for comfort when things go wrong in his life.

After the debacle with the schoolgirl, he finds himself proposing to, and marrying, one of the cousins, which turns out to be yet another of Mr Polly's bad decisions.

Answer: Fishbourne

Although another cousin, Johnson, has found him suitable premises and worked out detailed costings to prove that the shop could be successful, Mr Polly has set his heart on the seaside town of Fishbourne. This is a bad move in many ways, as the trade is seasonal and the premises are far from ideal. Add to this the fact that he manages to alienate all his neighbours and it's not hard to see why Mr Polly has reached such a low point in his life.

Answer: Cutting his throat with a razor

Mr Polly decides that the only way out of his predicament is to burn down the shop and kill himself. This will give his wife some insurance money, rather than being left destitute. Having set the building on fire, Mr Polly finds it much harder than he expected to commit suicide.

He then realises that the fire will spread and that his elderly neighbour will be trapped. Having gone to her rescue, Mr Polly finds himself in the unusual situation of being a hero.

Answer: False

Mr Polly takes courage from his new status, and takes to the road, leaving his wife to claim the insurance money. He settles into a new life as a handyman in a pub and finds himself to be happy. After five years, he suffers pangs of conscience and goes back to make sure his wife is settled. Mr Polly discovers that he is believed to have drowned so his wife has received payments from both fire and life insurances with which she has used to open tea rooms - quite surprising based on her lack of cookery skills. Having assured her that he has no intention of disrupting her life, Mr Polly returns to the pub a contented man.