Penguin Readers Factsheets
T e a c h e r’s n o t e s
The Fox
by D H Lawrence
S U M M A R Y
he Fox is a short story by one of England’s most
T famous writers. It was written in 1922, not long
after the end of the First World War.
Two women, Banford and March, live together on an
isolated farm in the south-west of England. Banford is
small, thin and ill. March is tall and strong. Both are about
thirty and neither is married. They are not very successful
farmers. They lose a lot of chickens to the fox. They try to
shoot the fox but he is too quick for them.
Then one day a human fox comes to the farm - a young
man of about twenty. He has come back from Canada.
His name is Henry, and he used to live on the farm when
he was a boy. He is interested in the two women and their
lives, and soon March, the strong one, becomes his prey.
He slowly circles round her until she cannot say no.
Banford tries to keep March but Henry is too clever for
her.
Henry begins to hate Banford and finally he kills her,
although it seems to be an accident. Henry and March
marry and prepare to leave for Canada. But Henry is still
not satisfied. He wants to possess March completely, but
he cannot. She will not give up her independent spirit.
ABOUT D H LAWRENCE
David Herbert Lawrence was the first English novelist
from a genuine working class background. He was born in
1885 in Nottinghamshire. His father was a coal-miner and
his mother was a teacher. His mother gradually came to
resent his father because he did not share her intellectual
interests, and the family home was full of tension.
Lawrence, one of five children, was always very close to
his mother. She had great ambitions for him to rise out of
his poor background and do something great. Lawrence
had to leave school at 15, however, and work as a clerk.
But later he won a scholarship to train to be a teacher at
Nottingham University. He wrote his first novel, The White
Peacock, in 1911.
When Lawrence’s mother died he became very ill,
however, and gave up teaching. His most famous novel,
Sons and Lovers, written at this time in 1913, is largely
autobiographical and deals with the deep love between
mother and son and how it conflicts with the sexual love
between son and other women.
Lawrence soon fell in love. He ran away with Frieda von
Richthofen, the wife of one of his teachers at Nottingham.
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ELEMENTARY
Their lives together were full of passions and storms, but
they stayed together for the rest of Lawrence’s life. They
travelled widely, living in Germany, Ceylon (now Sri
Lanka), Australia, America and Mexico. They lived fully
and mixed with people from all walks of life, giving
Lawrence great insight into how people interact with each
other. They had many literary friends, including Aldous
Huxley, Bertrand Russell and Katherine Mansfield. All the
time Lawrence wrote energetically - short stories, novels,
poems, essays.
Lawrence loved the natural world and believed that
modern man was becoming alienated. People had
THE FOX
become too materialistic and had lost touch with their
inner selves. And much of his work is about men and
women trying to release their spontaneous feelings.
Suffering from ill health all his life, Lawrence was
diagnosed in Mexico as having advanced tuberculosis.
He and Frieda came back to Europe and settled in Italy
where he wrote Lady Chatterley’s Lover. He could not find
a publisher because of its sexual content and free use of
‘impolite’ words. It was privately printed in Florence in
1928 but not published in England in its uncut form until
1960 after a notorious court battle between the publisher,
Penguin Books, and the crown. Lawrence died soon after
its publication in Italy, in 1930, at the age of 44.
BACKGROUND AND THEMES
The Fox is set in 1918 just after the end of World War I in
the south-west of England. Although there are no specific
references to contemporary events in this Penguin
adaptation, some background information helps to
explain how the story comes about.
It was not unusual for these two women in their thirties
to live together without men. The war had taken away the
men of their generation. Women had had five years to
learn to live without men - working the land and working
with their hands. When Henry comes to the farm and
makes light work of March’s chores, it has a powerful
impact on them because they are not used to a man’s
strength.
Henry was born in Cornwall in the west of England, and
lived there as a boy. He then moved with his grandfather
to a farm, which was probably in Devon. It is on this farm
that the two women March and Banford now live. Henry
must have been 14 or so when he left England for

Penguin Readers Factsheets
T e a c h e r’s n o t e s
Canada. He then fought in France and has just returned
from the war. He is now stationed with the army at
Salisbury Plain, some 100 kilometres away from the farm.
Lawrence often uses animals in his writing to try to
explain feelings and states of mind that are hard to
describe in words. The idea of man as animal also
symbolizes the close relationship between man and
nature that Lawrence idealizes. In this story, there is a real
fox and a metaphorical fox. The real fox looks at March
just as Henry looks at her. They know she cannot beat
them. If March were an animal she would be a rabbit - the
prey.
The fox has a special place in English life because of fox
hunting. Fox hunting symbolizes the aristocratic way of
life in the countryside, and Lawrence would surely have
been on the side of the fox. But during the war fox hunting
was banned, so fox numbers increased and foxes
became braver, as March and Banford discover. The fox is
a quick, clever creature and very hard to shoot. It soon
learns to fool the farmer by taking one route to the chicken
shed and a different route on its way home. It will wait for
hours for the wind to be in the right direction. It is indeed
cunning and sly.
Much of Lawrence’s work deals with the theme of one
person trying to dominate another emotionally. We see
both Banford and Henry struggling to dominate March
THE FOX
and keep her love and her loyalty. And even when Henry
wins in the end, he is still not satisfied. He can see that
March has kept her independence as an individual, but he
wants her to give herself up completely to him.
Lawrence was a great thinker and sometimes his novels
become more like lectures. His short stories, like The Fox,
are in some ways better than his novels because he is
forced by the short story format to keep the style and
structure simple. In his shorter works, he lets the literature
tell the story.
Communicative activities
The following teacher-led activities cover the same
sections of text as the exercises at the back of the reader,
and supplement those exercises. For supplementary
exercises covering shorter sections of the book, see the
photocopiable Student’s Activities pages of this Factsheet.
These are primarily for use with class readers but, with the
exception of discussion and pair/groupwork questions,
can also be used by students working in a self-access
centre.
ACTIVITIES BEFORE READING THE BOOK
Introduce the idea of animals as symbols for human
behaviour and character as follows. Write these animals
on the board: fox, horse, cat, dog. Add any others that
students know. Ask students to think of adjectives that
they associate with each of these animals. Write their
suggestions on the board. For example: fox - clever,
quick, quiet; horse - strong, fast; cat - unfriendly, cold,
intelligent; dog - friendly, good, warm. Now introduce the
phrase ‘like a ...’. Give an example:
The man walked quietly round the house. He stopped at
© Pearson Education 2000
level
2
each window and looked in. He stayed out of the light. He
was like a fox.
In pairs, students choose one or two animals. They make
sentences using each animal to explain what someone is
like, as in the example above. When they have finished,
invite pairs to read out their work.
ACTIVITIES AFTER READING A SECTION
Pages 1-13
March and Banford are best friends. But they are very
different from each other. Ask students to work in pairs.
Tell them to think of two famous people who are very
different - different ages, families, interests, jobs. Students
imagine that these two people are best friends. They
make up a short conversation between them. Ask
students to act their conversations in front of the class.
Pages 14-25
Divide the class into six groups. There are six pages of
text in this section. Give each group a page. Ask them to
tell the story of their page. They can write four or five
sentences in the present tense. They cannot use dialogue.
Tell students to write each sentence on a different piece of
paper. They give their sentences to another group. Groups
put the sentences in the right order. Then get groups to
read their summaries, in the correct page order.
Pages 26-37
At the end of the book, Lawrence writes about Henry: ‘He
knew that he had her now.’ In groups, ask students to talk
about this question. Then have a class discussion.
What did Henry do to get March?
ACTIVITIES AFTER READING THE BOOK
Put students into groups. Ask them to talk about this
question:
In what ways is Henry like a fox? Think of as many ways
as possible.
Then have a class discussion. Write students’ ideas on
the blackboard.
Glossary
It will be useful for your students to know the following new words.
They are practised in the ‘Before You Read’ sections of exercises at
the back of the book. (Definitions are based on those in the Longman
Active Study Dictionary.)
Pages 1-13
ago (adv) in the past: a year ago = a year in the past
corner (n) this is where two walls meet
farm (n) people live here, and grow food and have animals
fox (n) this animal looks like a dog and has a big tail (see below). It
kills smaller animals
like (prep) the same as
must (v) have to
tail (n) this is at the end of an animal’s back
too (adv) more than you want: too hot, too cold
voice (n) you make this sound when you speak
Pages 14-25
kiss (v) to touch a person with your mouth
Pages 26-37
axe (n) people cut down trees with this thing
heart (n) this is in your body. People love and hate with it.
soon (adv) in a short time
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Factsheet written by Jane Rollason
Factsheet series developed by Louise James
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Student’s activities 1

Photocopiable
The Fox 3
Students can do these activities alone or with one or more
other students. Pair/group-only activities are marked. 4

5
Activities before reading the book
6
1 Read the introduction on page v of your book and 2 Look at these answers. Write the questions.
answer these questions. (a) Bailey Farm.
(a) How many people are there in the story? (b) Because she’s too busy. ELEMENTARY
(b) How do you think the story will end? (c) Because they suddenly hear a man’s voice.
(c) What difficulties did D. H. Lawrence have as a (d) William Grenfell.
child?
3 Answer these questions.
(d) What difficulties did he have as a man?
(a) What is wrong with the chickens on the farm?
2 These sentences are about the writer. Put the words
in italics into the past tense. (b) Why do you think Banford and March sometimes
do not speak for two or three days?
D. H. Lawrence is one of the most famous English (c) Why does March see the fox when she looks at
language writers of the last hundred years. He Henry?
(a) ...................... (be) born in a small village in (d) Why does March stay in a dark corner when
Henry is there?
England. He (b) ...................... (leave) school when
(e) Why does Banford like Henry at first?
he (c) ...................... (be) 15 and (d) ......................
4 Which animals do you think these people are most
(work) in an office. Later he (e) ...................... (go) to

THE FOX
like?
university. There he (f) ...................... (learn) how to Banford March Henry
teach. He (g) ...................... (fall) in love with the Find any new words in your dictionary.
wife of one of his teachers. Her name
Pages 7-13
(h) ...................... (be) Frieda von Richthofen and
1 Answer these questions.
she (i) ...................... (be) German. They
(a) Why doesn’t March want to marry Henry?
(j) ...................... (run) away to Germany. They
(b) Why does Banford stop liking Henry?
(k) ...................... (get) married in 1914. After the
2 How can March stop the fox? Think of ideas. Show
fighting in Europe (l) ...................... (end), they them to a student. Are your ideas the same?
(m) ...................... (leave) Britain again. They
(n) ...................... (go) to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), PAGES 14 - 25
Australia, America and Mexico. They Pages 14-18
(o) ...................... (meet) many people. They 1 Put these sentences right.
(p) ...................... (know) many other writers. (a) March hears the sound of the fox singing
Lawrence (q) ...................... (write) lots of books and outside.
stories. He (r) ...................... (write) about people’s (b) When March saw the fox, it had a smile on its
face.
feelings and about love. Lawrence (s) ......................
(c) Henry kisses March on her arm.
(be) always ill, and he (t) ...................... (die) when
(d) March tells Banford that they are going to marry.
he (u) ...................... (be) only 44.
2 Make sentences.
3 Look at the fox on the front of the book. Write a (a) March is thinking
sentence about it. Use these words:
ears eyes nose (b) March suddenly stands
(c) March brings
(d) Banford goes
Activities while reading the book
(i) up.
PAGES 1 - 13 (ii) about the wind.
(iii) out of the room.
Pages 1-6
(iv) in some bread and milk and tea.
1 On page 3 March meets the fox. What are they
thinking? Write a conversation between them. (For 3 On page 18 Banford says, ‘It’s not right’. What is she
this activity, the fox can talk!) talking about? Why does she think this?

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Penguin Readers Factsheets 2
Student’s activities

4 Banford also says, ‘Perhaps she knows you too well.’ 3 Look back to page 21. Banford thinks Henry will kill
What do you think she means? her. Answer these questions. Talk about them to a
student.
Pages 19-25
What happens at the end of the story?
1 Answer these questions.
Do you think it is really an accident?
(a) Banford says ‘He wants me to die’. Why does
Do you think that Henry really kills her?
she think this?
Does Banford want Henry to kill her?
(b) Why does March cry when she looks at the dead
fox? 4 Is life with Henry going to be easy for March? What
will life in Canada be like?
(c) Henry didn’t tell March that he wanted to go
back to Canada. Why? 5 You are March. What will you do? Will you stay in
England? Will you go to Canada? Talk to a student.
(d) Why does March carry all Banford’s things?
(e) Why does Henry want to see March tonight?
2 Work with a student. Write some sentences about an Activities after reading the book
animal. Don’t write the name of the animal. Give the
sentences to your partner. He or she says the name of 1 Read these sentences about the story. Do you think
the animal. they are right?
PAGES 26 - 37 (a) The Fox is a story about two people. These two
people are fighting for one person’s love.
Pages 26-33
(b) The fox is important in the story because it
Put these words in the right places. shows us Henry’s feelings.
cries kisses pretty marry heart bed wife (c) March is a strong woman. She understands her
THE FOX

heart and her feelings.

(a) March wears a dress. She wants to look ..................
for Henry.
(b) Banford won’t go to .................. because she
doesn’t want to leave March and Henry downstairs.
(c) Banford .................. because March goes outside
with Henry. March loves Henry more than she loves
Banford.
(d) Henry puts March’s hand on his .................. .
(e) Henry .................. March on the mouth.
(f) March says she will .................. Henry. She wants to
be his .................. .
Pages 33-37
1 March feels different when Henry is away. She can
think better. Talk with a student and answer this
question:
(d) The writer likes Henry but he doesn’t like
Banford.
2 Can you answer these questions? Do not look at your
book!
(a) What is the name of March and Banford’s farm?
(b) What does Henry look like?
(c) Who lived at the farm before March and
Banford?
(d) Henry tells Banford that he and March want to
get married. He tells her when they are eating
....................... .
(e) The dead fox’s tail is ....................... and black.
(f) What colour is March’s dress?
(g) Henry leaves the farm. How many days later
does he get March’s letter?

Do you think March loves Henry? (h) What colour is Henry’s face when he reads the
letter?
2 Put these sentences in the right order.
(i) How does Henry get back to the farm again?
(a) Henry thinks the tree is going to hit her.
(j) How many chickens are standing near the tree
(b) She stops near the tree. when Henry cuts it down?
(c) The tree falls on Banford.
(k) When do Henry and March marry?
(d) Henry takes the axe from March.
(e) Banford says the tree won’t hit her. She says she
knows what she’s doing.
(f) Banford runs after the chickens under the tree.
(g) He tells her the tree is going to hit her.

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Factsheet written by Jane Rollason
© Pearson Education 2000
Factsheet series developed by Louise James