ICSE Students can refer to A Face in The Dark Summary ICSE below which has been prepared by expert English teachers of ICSE as per that latest syllabus and guidelines issued by ICSE. These Chapter summaries have been prepared to help students to understand the entire chapter easily. You can also refer to more study material for ICSE Class 10 on our website
ICSE Class 10 English A Face in The Dark Summary
We have provided below a summary of Chapter A Face in The Dark. This is an important chapter in Standard 10th ICSE English. The summary provided below has been prepared by expert English faculty for ICSE based on the latest ICSE books. You should refer to all Chapter Summaries ICSE Class 10 English which will help you to understand all chapters and to get more marks in exams.
A Face in The Dark ICSE Class 10 English
About the Author
Ruskin Bond (19 May 1934 – Present), is a famous Indian author of British descent. He is an icon among Indian writers. His wide array of short stories, novels, essays, poems, travelogues and articles in newspapers and magazines have inspired many aspiring writers. He has presented a variety in his writing, ranging from ‘ghost stories’ to ‘odes to nature’ to ‘love stories’. He wrote his first novel, ‘The Room on the Roof’, at the age of seventeen. His other very famous novel being ‘The Blue Umbrella’. In 1992 he received the Sahitya Akademi award for his short stories collection, ‘Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra’. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1999 for his contributions to Children’s Literature and Padma Bhushan in 2014. He now lives with his adopted family, near Mussoorie.
Summary
In the story, Mr. Oliver, the protagonist, is an Anglo Indian teacher in the English Public School at Shimla, which is three miles distance from the Shimla Bazaar. The school is often referred as ‘Eton of the East’, because its name is synonymous with quality elite education. Mr. Oliver is a rational and mentally strong person. He does not easily give away to nervousness and imagination. He usually goes out after school to the Shimla market and returns back in the evening.
One day while, Mr. Oliver was returning from Shimla, it got quite late and he decides to take a short cut through the pine forests. Carrying his torch he moves on briskly. Suddenly he comes across a weeping boy who was sitting with his hands covering his face. As per his duty as a teacher, he asked the child the reason for crying. Getting closer, he repeats the question. The boy lifted his face and the teacher fills with horror to find that the boy had no features, no eyes, no mouth. Terror-stricken, Mr. Oliver runs towards his school. On the way he encounters a watchman swinging a lantern. On seeing him running, the watchman asks him what the reason was. Mr. Oliver tells him that he saw a boy with no face. The watchman then asks him if the boy looked like his and he raises his lantern to his face. To Mr. Oliver’s horror, the watchman too had no face, no eyes, no ears and no features. That moment the wind blew and the lamp went out.
The story ends with a sense of ambiguity, leaving the readers to think whether it were actually ghosts or some prank played upon the teacher by his students.
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