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The House of Doors
The year is 1921. Lesley Hamlyn and her husband, Robert, a lawyer and war veteran, are living at Cassowary House on the Straits Settlement of Penang. When “Willie” Somerset Maugham, a famed writer and old friend of Robert’s, arrives for an extended visit with his secretary Gerald, the pair threatens a rift that could alter more lives than one.
Maugham, one of the great novelists of his day, is beleaguered: Having long hidden his homosexuality, his unhappy and expensive marriage of convenience becomes unbearable after he loses his savings—and the freedom to travel with Gerald. His career deflating, his health failing, Maugham arrives at Cassowary House in desperate need of a subject for his next book. Lesley, too, is enduring a marriage more duplicitous than it first appears. Maugham suspects an affair, and, learning of Lesley’s past connection to the Chinese revolutionary, Dr. Sun Yat Sen, decides to probe deeper. But as their friendship grows and Lesley confides in him about life in the Straits, Maugham discovers a far more surprising tale than he imagined, one that involves not only war and scandal but the trial of an Englishwoman charged with murder. It is, to Maugham, a story worthy of fiction.
A mesmerizingly beautiful novel based on real events, The House of Doors traces the fault lines of race, gender, sexuality, and power under empire, and dives deep into the complicated nature of love and friendship in its shadow.
This discussion guide was shared and sponsored in partnership with Bloomsbury Publishing.
Book club questions for The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng
Use these discussion questions to guide your next book club meeting.
Willie is already a well-known and celebrated author when he arrives in Penang, but his story is not the main focus of the novel. What is Willie’s role in the novel? In what way does his story underscore the stories of the other characters’?
Lesley is critical that Willie writes only about unhappy marriages and adultery. Why do you think she takes this view? How do her own experiences tie into this criticism, and do you think she sincerely believes it?
What transpires between Willie and Lesley the night of Noel’s party? What made Lesley’s attitude towards him shift and decide to make Willie her confidante?
Lesley asks herself if her life would have been different if she’d asked Robert at the beginning of their courtship why he left London and moved so far away. Do you think he would have revealed enough of his true self to her if she had? Are there unasked questions in your life that would have changed its course?
After Ah Peng learns of Robert’s affair, she tells Lesley “no man can bring you sorrow, only yourself.” What do you think she means by this? Do you agree with her?
Why is Ethel Proudlock’s murder trial so important to this story? What parallels do you see between her story and Lesley’s?
When Ethel stays with Lesley and Robert on her way back to England she tells Lesley, “I had no choice. He made me do it.” Two decades pass before Robert reveals to Lesley exactly what Ethel meant. Do you think Ethel truly had no choice? Does Ethel’s lack of choice have echoes in our own time?
What does this novel suggest are the repercussions of repressed sexuality and repressed homosexuality more specifically? What are the repercussions in the book of using marriage to cover up your sexual identity?
Despite being a colonizer herself, Lesley is inspired by Sun Yat Sen’s quest for equality for all and joins the cause. On what other occasions in the book does Lesley seem to contradict herself? Does she ever acknowledge these contradictions?
In what ways does Lesley seek and find independence within her marriage? Do you consider her someone who has control of her life ultimately or not?
Almost every character in this book has a secret and no one is exactly as they appear. What are examples of these dualities? How do the doors that Arthur collects relate to this?
Willie wonders if the hamsa’s protection will turn into the curse of old age, leaving him alone and forgotten. What did the hamsa come to mean to Lesley and Arthur? Do they see it as a protection or a curse?
Why doesn’t Lesley take Robert offer to stay in Penang with the house while he goes to New Zealand? What do you make of her choice to remain with Robert?
Early in the book during their visit to the cemetery, Leslie remarks that “for a woman to be remembered she has to either be a queen or a whore.” Do you think Lesley feels the same way when we reach the end of the novel?
The House of Doors Book Club Questions PDF
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“The House of Doors is brilliantly observed and full of memorable characters. It is so well-written, everything so effortlessly dramatized, the narrative so well structured and paced, that this is a book that will mesmerize readers far into the future.” —Colm Tóibín, author of The Magician
“This is historical fiction at its best—a novel that doesn’t feel as though it was written about a time but rather as though it was written directly from that time. The House of Doors is immersive, transporting, and exquisitely crafted.” —Cristina Henríquez, author of The Book of Unknown Americans
“A magnetic tale of love, betrayal, and colonialism.” —Entertainment Weekly
“The House of Doors is a tremendous feat of literary imagination. Highly evocative, richly observed and entirely convincing, it is a tour de force!” —William Boyd, author of Any Human Heart and Trio
“Exquisite . . . Tan takes on a behemoth task here: combining sensational fact and intimate fiction in a British colonial Asian setting complicated by white privilege, politics, social hypocrisy, gender inequity, racism, homophobia, and more . . . [He] succeeds in delivering another intricate literary gift.” —Booklist, starred review
“The narrative dwells on memory and loss, its lush, dreamy prose evoking the bygone days of colonial pre-WWII British Malaya amid musings on life’s ephemeral nature, while never losing its eye for injustice . . . This is a stunner.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Outstanding . . . The House of Doors again displays [Eng’s] talent for atmospheric evocation of place and period . . . A finely accomplished piece of work.” —Sunday Times (UK)