How to Be Good

Virtue is its own reward – that warm feeling of having done the right thing! But what if you are set on that path against your will? Exactly who gains the reward then – and who pays the price? The novel How to Be Good by British novelist Nick Hornby investigates just such questions. In the excerpt we look through the eyes of a long-suffering wife, whose husband has found the path of virtue and happiness and is herding his family down it.

Read more in Access to English: Social Studies, pp. 265-269. Then do the tasks in the textbook and on this website.

David in David in "How to Be Good" wants to help people in need, but his family suffers as a result of his new-found idealism.