"Mr. Know-All" by W. Somerset Maugham

  1. How does the title of this story set the tone for what you’re about to read?
  2. Give a good working definition of the term setting.
  3. What is the setting of this story? Is it important to the story? Why?
  4. What sort of person do you think of when somebody is called a "know-all" ?
  5. What is our narrator’s opinion of Max Kelada?
  6. What sort of things does Max Kelada do that gets him labeled as "Mr. Know-All"?
  7. Why didn’t Mrs. Ramsay want Mr. Kelada to look at her pearls?
  8. Did your opinion of Max Kelada change by the end of the story? How?
  9. What do you think happened by the end of the story, from the dinner party to the end of the tale?
  10. What is the theme, or message in this story?
  11. What literary devices are used in this story? Provide examples to support your answers.

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