In discussing a novel that relies on actual events, consider the elaborate research process the author had to use. Try to distinguish between historical and fictional events.

1. Observing the many changes around him, Adams begins to feel like an anachronism, a man out of time. He describes the pneumatic tubes that carry communications around Paris as delightful old technology, and compares them to the distancing dots and dashes of the more up-to-date telegraph. How do the technological changes at the turn of the twentieth-century age of industry compare to those at the turn of the twentyfirst century? How might a fifty-or sixty-year-old person feel today about learning technologies such as e-mail or Internet surfing?

2. As Adams begins to unravel the mystery surrounding the French Interoceanic Canal Company, the story becomes more and more suspenseful. In what ways does Zencey challenge expectations about the characters to build...