This is a story of how a woman's inability to read or write actually destroys her humanity and

causes her to murder her father and the family for whom she then works. The first sentence
of the book tells it all, "Eunice Parchman killed the Coverdale family because she could not
read or write. Eunice is the sad product of a poor upbringing in Tooting, London. She has
spend her life blackmailing people, such as her friend Annie. Annie continued to claim her
mother's pension after she had died and so Eunice received money from her each week.
Eunice's father was finally bedridden and one day Eunice had had enough of caring for him
and smothered him with a pillow. Annie, seeing a way to get rid of Eunice, suggested that
she applied for a job that she had seen in the newspaper, it was as a housekeeper in the
country. Suspecting that Eunice was illiterate, she offered to write the letter for her.

Eunice was interviewed in London by Jacqueline Coverdale, who was the second wife of
George Coverdale. She had a son, Giles from her first marriage and George had three
children from his first marriage - his first wife had died. Melinda was at college and came
home for holidays, Paula lived in London and was pregnant with her second child and Peter
also lived in London. Jacqueline was tired of cleaning and cooking in her large manor house,
even though she did have a lady, Eva, who came in three days a week to help.

It was decided to interview Eunice at Paula's house. Paula took an instant dislike to Eunice
the minute she opened the door to her but Jacqueline did not seem to notice the coldness
which Eunice exuded and put it down to 'knowing her place'. It was agreed that Eunice
Parchman would work for the Coverdale family. Her room was made ready and Eunice
arrived and started work. George took an immediate dislike to her, but tolerated her because
he knew his wife needed a housekeeper and they had been battling with a string of useless
au pairs.

Giles, who was still at school, had his head in the clouds most of the time and couldn't make
up his mind whether he wanted to become a Catholic priest or a Buddhist monk, or whether
he should just run away with his stepsister, Melinda. Melinda was the only member of the
family that he actually had a conversation with. His mother and stepfather usually got one
word answers from him. They assumed Giles was going through a phase and would come
out the other side one day. He was academically brilliant.

Melinda was always happy and chatty and was definitely George's favorite. Jacqueline and
George were deeply in love and, altogether, life was extremely good - that is, until Eunice
Parchman arrived. Initially, Eunice was exceptionally polite and definitely knew her place, but
as time went on she began doing what she pleased. She was always aware of her inability to
read and terrified that someone would discover her disability.

Eunice was exceptionally excited to have a television in her room and spent all her spare
time watching it or knitting. She finally plucked up the courage to wander into the village and
met Joan and Norman Smith who ran the local shop and post office. Joan Smith was a
prostitute, turned religious fanatic and tried to convert everyone she met. she persuaded
Eunice to go to her church with her, which Eunice did only after checking that their no
reading involved. They became firm friends. Joan has episodes where she rants and raves
like something possessed. Her husband, Norman, is at a loss as to what to do with her. He
does not approve of her friendship with Eunice.

Joan often visits Eunice at the house, when she knows that the family are out. They sit and
have tea and Eunice gives Joan a guided tour of the house. George does not approve of
Joan coming to the house as he knows that she has told everyone that he is an adulterer, as
in her eyes, even though George's first wife is dead, marrying Jacqueline has made George
an adulterer. George also knows that their mail is frequently opened and resealed and he
believes that Joan is responsible for this invasion of privacy.

Giles ignores Eunice (but then, he ignores everyone), George tries to be civil to her,
Jacqueline is still civil to her but is now finding it more difficult and Melinda feels
exceptionally sorry for Eunice and tries to make her feel at home. Eunice overhears a
telephone conversation which Melinda has with her boyfriend, Jonathan, telling him that she
is pregnant. Even though it is a false alarm, they decide they will marry as soon as they have
finished college. Eunice doesn't know that it is a false alarm. Melinda arrives home
unexpectedly the weekend before Valentine's Day and sits in the kitchen with Eunice having
tea. Melinda is flicking through magazines and suggests they do a quiz together and asks
Eunice to read the questions to her. Eunice says that she doesn't have her glasses but
Melinda spots them in her top pocket. Melinda then notices that these glasses and just plain
glass and asks Eunice if she can read? Eunice is absolutely mortified and says that if she
ever tells anyone that she can't read or write, she will tell the family that she is pregnant and
called her a tart.

Melinda is totally distraught and is sobbing when her father and Jacqueline come home.
Melinda tells him what has happened and George immediately goes upstairs and tells
Eunice that she must leave. He would like her to leave now but will give her a week's notice
to enable her to find another job, however, if she is in the house, she must only go to her
room or the kitchen. Eunice now thought that everyone in the village would know that she
was unable to read, as it happens George and Jacqueline did not share this information and
told everyone that they had dismissed Eunice for insolence.

It is George's birthday on 13th February and George, Jacqueline, Giles and Melinda go out
for dinner in the local town to celebrate. They had a very enjoyable evening. There is a
televised version of Don Giovanni on Sunday 14th February and George persuades Melinda
to stay on Sunday night and go back to college on Monday morning. The television was
brought into the morning room and Melinda brought her tape recorder to record the opera.
George had given her this for Christmas. Don Giovanni began at 7.00 p.m. and all four
family members were there, mesmerized by the performance. Jacqueline, who had been at
the Royal School of Music many years before, made notes in the Radio Times on things
which were not quite as she thought they should be.

Eunice left the house in the afternoon to go the Joan's church, as it was her last day in the
area. Joan began one of her rants in the church about how she had seen the light and given
up prostitution to devote her life to the Lord. She started screeching and spitting but she
stopped, almost as soon as she had begun and calmly walked out of the door, with Eunice in
tow. Joan drove Eunice back to the house and Eunice invited her in for a cup of tea, saying
she was leaving tomorrow anyway, so they could hardly fire her again. Joan was fascinated
with the two shotguns and placed one on the kitchen table. The two then made a pot of tea
and took it upstairs, creeping past the morning room, where the family for immerse in their
opera. Joan walked straight into George and Jacqueline's bedroom and started to wreak
havoc - smashing photographs, pouring tea on the bed, shredding clothes. Eunice was
caught up in the frenzy and happily joined in.

Jacqueline went into the kitchen to make coffee and noticed that the kettle was still warm, so
she knew that Eunice was back. As soon as Eunice and Joan knew that Jacqueline was
back in the morning room, they went downstairs as Joan now planned to cut the telephone
line and the wire cutters were in the gun room. Between acts Jacqueline poured more coffee
and asked if George had heard sounds from upstairs earlier. He said he hadn't. At that point,
they hear a little shriek and realize that Joan is in the house. George says he will go and sort
it out. Meanwhile, Eunice has loaded both shotguns and when George arrives in the kitchen
and asks them to give him the guns, they both shoot him dead.

Jacqueline hears the shots but Melinda says it's Joan's van backfiring. All this time, the tape
recorder is running. Eunice tells Joan that they will have to kill the whole family now. Giles
was just opening the door to go into the kitchen, when he saw Joan and the blood on her
hands, face and clothing. Joan and Eunice proceed to shoot the three remaining family
members and it almost becomes a competition, as Eunice is determined not to be left out of
this killing spree.

Joan calmly leaves knowing that she has done right in God's eyes. She slowly drives away
in her van and is distracted by an owl and crashes into a wall and is seriously injured.
Eunice's immediately reaction was to clean up the mess. She didn't like seeing the blood on
that lovely carpet but realizes that she must leave it. She puts the TV back into the room it
came from and puts the Radio Times and newspaper away.
She than decides to make a cup of tea instead, walking back and forth past George's body
as if he literally was part of the furniture. Eunice then thought the best plan of action would
be to go into the village and phone the police from the public telephone box.

Detective Chief Superintendent William Vetch from Scotland Yard, arrived in village to
investigate the matter. Eunice was exceptionally helpful and, even though she was meant to
leave that day, it was decided she should stay for a while at least to help with the
investigation. It was first thought that two men who had come into the local pub on Sunday
14th February were responsible for the killing. They were cleared and then Vetch discovered
the Radio Times, which not only had blood stains on it but referred a recording.

Joan was in a coma. Her husband, Norman, had found a tape recorder in the back of the
van that Joan had written off and he sold it to a freelance journalist. While Vetch was having
a meeting in the morning room at the house, the journalist arrived, accompanied by another
policeman and they joined the meeting. Eunice then heard her voice and Joan's voice
coming from the room. She knew that she had been discovered. Eunice was sentenced to
15 years in prison, but it wasn't the prison sentence which Eunice found hard to take, it was
the fact that it was announced in court that she was illiterate. Joan was in a coma in a
mental hospital

The remaining family members were in a legal wrangle as it was not known if George or
Jacqueline had died first. If George had died first, then Jacqueline would have inherited the
house which would mean it would gone to Giles. Giles' father now wanted his share.
However, if Jacqueline had died first, then the house would have gone to Peter.
Best part of story, including ending:​The story is a fascinating insight into how life's
circumstances can mold a character. Even though you know the outcome of the story from
the first sentence, you are impelled to discover how on earth this could have happened.

Best scene in story:​The scene where Joan and Eunice murder the family is written in such a
way that you can envisage every movement and shot. This scene is described in a few, very
well chosen words.

Opinion about the main character:​Eunice Parchman is one of the world's most cold,
calculating creatures but you cannot help but feel empathy for her.

Structure of the work:  

A Division into: chapters 
B Introduction: 
Social settings: The story takes place in Greeving by Suffolk. The Coverdales are upper-class 
and their housekeeper Eunice and her friend Joan are lower-class.  
Geographical settings: They live in a big house called Lowfield Hall. The people who live in 
the village gossip a lot about each other.  
Historical setting: The story takes place in the same decade as we live now. I found out 
because they drive in modern cars, have colour television, Melinda goes far from home to 
study. 
C Initial Incident 
The first incident that poets the story in a working is that Eunice comes to Lowfield Hall for 
housekeeping. Because if they didn’t let Eunice in, they never would been murdered. After 
that there doesn’t happen much until Eunice comes in contact with Joan Smith. She is the 
first person Eunice loves and if those two didn’t met and got friends, the change that the 
Coverdales would been killed would be smaller. Eunice does much what Joan says, so when 
Joan gives Eunice the gun Eunice shoots. But when there was no Joan, Eunice would have 
never would have taken a gun. 
D Climax  
The climax for me was in the end. When Melinda found out that Eunice couldn’t read or 
write. That was the climax for me because Eunice threatened Melinda to tell her parents 
that she was pregnant. I really found it exciting because I wanted to know if Eunice really 
would tell it and what would be the reaction of George. I personally found the book a bit 
boring but when that part came I really wanted to read on. Maybe I found it exciting to read 
because Melinda is a pretty young to have a child and that in a few years I am in the same 
age. 
 
7) Account for the title and/ or subtitle, and their relevance to the work: 
The title of the book is: A Judgement in stone. First: A judgement, Eunice Parchman is always 
thinking about the life’s of the Coverdales. And she thinks that she can decided of the 
Coverdales have the right to live or that they have to die. That’s her judgement and the main 
reason that they die. Second a stone, a stone doesn’t have feelings and is very cold. Eunice is 
a very cold person who doesn’t care about other people. She lives her live in her own world. 
A world where no one else lives. 
 
8) Theme(s) of the work 
The theme of the book is killing and being Illiterate. First of all the illiteracy. Eunice 
Parchman can’t read or write. That’s why she feels that the Coverdales are people who 
haven’t deserve to live because she thinks that they read and write notes to Eunice on 
purpose. She thinks that when she drops eggs and the next day she goes to Giles’s room 
and reads the word egg on a poster that Giles means Eunice with it. Illiteracy slowly takes 
over her mind and she can’t think about anything else. That’s why she kills the Coverdales in 
the end. So that’s why another theme in the book is killing. 
 
9) Characters 
a) Mention the main characters and describe them briefly: 
Eunice Parchman: she is the housekeeper of the Coverdales and the murder from the 
Coverdales. She is a very cold woman, who doesn’t love are cares about anyone. In her head 
she lives in a own world, in that world she has her own judgements about people. These 
judgements sometimes take over her body and let Eunice to things who aren’t good. The 
main reason that she killed the Coverdales is that Eunice can’t read or write, and that is a 
real handicap in the time we live in now. In the book something happens with Eunice. Se 
meets Joan who is a influence on Eunice. This is the first person in her live Eunice starts to 
respect and she is the person who poets Eunice over to do things she isn’t used to. 
Joan Smith: She is a woman is sees herself as the right hand of God. Al the things she does, 
does she do because God wants he to do these things. Joan is married to Norman Smith. A 
man who doesn’t care much about his wife’s actions. Joan has worked as a street woman 
and now has her own Grocery store together with her husband. She helps Eunice with killing 
the Coverdales. I haven’t red that she is changed in the book. I believe she is the whole book 
the same Joan. 
George Coverdale: When the story starts, George is married for the second time to 
Jacqueline. His first wife died at cancer. He has got three children: Peter, Paula and Melinda. 
George is 57 years old and works in his late fathers company. George only wants one thing: 
the best for his family. On of the biggest mistakes he makes in the book is to try to interfere 
in Eunice’s life. He also forbids Eunice to see Joan Smith in his house. That was a big mistake 
to. 
Jacqueline (mont) Coverdale : She is 37 years old and has a son called Giles. She was already 
married ones when she met George. She is a very literate person. When she has time of she 
is reading. She also likes music very much. She isn’t glad with Eunice in the first place but 
she really needs one to do the housekeeping. She wants to keep Eunice very much because 
she doesn’t wants to do the household bye herself. She first wants to dismiss Eunice when 
she threatened Melinda that’s when she changed a bit.  
Melinda Coverdale: She is 20 years old and studying English. She always want to know what 
happened in the village. She really likes to gossip. When other people feel bad she wants to 
help them because she wants them to be better. She also wants to get friends with Eunice 
who isn’t interested. Jonathan is her boyfriend and she is in love with him very much. 
Melinda is the one who finds out that Eunice is illiterate. 
Giles Mont: He is 17 years old and still at school. He likes to read very much and wants to be 
left alone very often. He is very much in his room alone. Giles gathers posters with quotes of 
the month or day. Eunice sometimes thinks that these quotes are mend for her so that’s 
one of the reasons she hates Giles. Giles falls in love with Melinda and wants to be with her. 
He is not much of a sportsman. When George tries to make him one, he turns away. 
 
b) Mention the important minor characters and describe them briefly 
Paula Coverdale: she is the oldest daughter of George. She is married to Brian Caswall. She 
is mother of one little son and pregnant for the second time. 
Norman Smith: He is the husband of Joan Smith. He is the owner of a Grocer Store and a 
sub-post-office. He can’t get control about Joan and doesn’t interfere with her life. He is very 
relieved when he hears that his wife won’t recover and leaves Greeving. 
Eva Baalham: She is the first cleaner from the Coverdales. She can’t do the house on herself 
and that’s why Eunice is hired. She never says Madam to Jacqueline that is what annoys 
Jacqueline. She doesn’t like Eunice because she is very popular by her employers. 
 
10) The way the story is told 
The all-knowing narrator 
 
11) Type(s) of language used 
Everyday language 
 
12) Own opinion 
I found the book difficult to read. There where much difficult words in it that I didn’t 
understand. Sometimes I looked for a word in the dictionary and then I understood what 
their where saying but sometimes I didn’t. When I had red the first two chapters I thought it 
would be a very interesting book but when I red on it wasn’t. The first chapters where boring 
but that came because I didn’t understand the book. Many new people came in it and I 
didn’t understand who they are. I didn’t understand who Eva Baalham was until I red the 
book the second time. The parts I liked where the parts when Giles was with Melinda. When 
was described that he was in love with her I wanted to read on. The last chapters of the 
book where very interesting and it was to bad that the murdering of the Coverdales was 
only a few minutes to read. The person in the book I like the most is Giles. He is very 
different. He isn’t like Melinda and George and he isn’t like his mother. He lives in a own 
world same as Eunice only Eunice is really sick and has sick ideas. Giles does what he wants 
and doesn’t bother other people with it. I think that’s pretty cool.  
 
15) Story Line (short Summary) 
Jacqueline Coverdale goes to London to interview a prospective housekeeper. She bungles 
the job and ends up taking up Eunice Parchman, a cold and deceitful woman with a 
shameful secret, her inability to read or write. Eunice is also an amoral paranoid who bears 
the world a grudge for her inadequacy. Unable and unwilling to control her compulsions, 
she has no qualms about blackmailing neighbours or about murdering her own father. 
All goes well at Lowfield House, the huge house belonging to the Coverdales, until they start 
antagonising Eunice by handing her written words that mean nothing to her and fuel her 
dissatisfaction and her need for revenge. Obsessed by what she regards as a terrible secret, 
she spends the greatest part of her time in her room watching TV and keeping herself to 
herself, fending off the Coverdales' attempts at cross-class socialising. She has only one 
friend in the village: Joan Smith, a reformed sinner, who soon considers herself as God's 
vengeful minister. Although Eunice accompanies her to religious meetings, she never 
becomes a convert in order to conceal her illiteracy.  
George Coverdale distrusts and dislikes Joan, a notoriously vicious village gossip, and a dab 
hand at tampering with the mail which her meek husband is in charge of. Coverdale tells 
Eunice that she cannot entertain Joan at Lowfield House. The relationship between the 
housekeeper and her employers deteriorates further when Melinda, -the daughter-, finds 
out that Eunice cannot read. As usual, Eunice tries to blackmail the betrayer of her secret 
into silence, but this time, she fails miserably. This is the final straw, and George fires her, 
making one last and terrible mistake by giving Eunice a week's notice.  
The following Sunday the sect holds an uplifting meeting at the Epiphany Temple, during 
which Joan has a fit of madness. The two partners kill the Coverdales in a frenzy of long 
pent-up feelings and in an orgy of blood-letting. Later the same night, the stark mad Joan 
drives her car into a wall. She then sinks into a deep coma, to the delight of her long 
suffering husband and to the satisfaction of Eunice who feared Joan might have boasted of 
the murders.  
Inspector Vetch starts investigating the massacre, and is at first side-tracked by Eunice's 
frank and open statement, in which she mentions her lack of feeling for her employers, and 
by the apparently mysterious presence of two strangers in the village pub that night. 
Ultimately, Melinda's tape-recorder will enable the inspector to arrest the murderer. 
Sentenced to life imprisonment, Eunice will stubbornly refuse to learn how to read and 
write.