Book excerpt: Grammardog Teacher's Guide contains 16 quizzes for this novel. All sentences are from the novel. Figurative language is characteristic of Naturalism ("the oars smacking with a loud kiss on the face of the stream," "Is a woman a thinking unit at all, or a fraction always wanting its integer?"). Allusions include references to mythology, religion, literature, Naturalism and fatalism, and folklore and superstition (Iliad, Venus Apollo, Robinson Crusoe, Voltaire, fate, Eve, Nemesis, fairy, sprite, Apostle's Creed).