This page is for Chapter 7 of the NCERT Class 10 English supplementary reader Footprints Without Feet — “The Necklace”, a short story by the French writer Guy de Maupassant in English translation.
The chapter spans eight pages of the textbook, and the official NCERT PDF is right below, so you can open the story in its printed form before reading a word of the explanation.
The rest of this page tells you what that file actually contains: the story in six stages, the characters the book’s own questions ask about, the money figures that drive the plot, both illustrations, the glossary, and the question sets that close the chapter.
Download the Official NCERT Chapter PDF
The Necklace is printed inside Footprints Without Feet, NCERT’s Class 10 English Supplementary Reader, and NCERT publishes the whole book on its official website. If you want the story in its exact printed layout — with both illustrations and the question boxes in their original places — download The Necklace Class 10 NCERT chapter PDF (Footprints Without Feet) straight from ncert.nic.in.
This is the official NCERT edition, not a scanned or third-party copy. The link opens the full reader; Chapter 7, “The Necklace”, sits inside it after Chapter 6.
Chapter 7 at a Glance: What Is Inside This File
Before you download, here is what the file holds. This chapter is one complete short story; NCERT prints no summary for it, and the pages run straight from the tale into its question sets and glossary.
- The full story, opening with a teaser that gives the plot away in three lines: “Matilda is invited to a grand party. She has a beautiful dress but no jewellery. She borrows a necklace from a friend … and loses it. What happens then?”
- The three “Read and Find Out” boxes — two questions before the story begins, one before the ball, and two right after the necklace is lost. Each tests something you have just read.
- The closing sets — “Think about it” with four questions and “Talk about it” with three prompts.
- A nine-word glossary covering French forms of address (M., Mme) and story words such as tureen, usurers and awry.
- A “Suggested reading” list of three short stories: “The Dowry”, “A Cup of Tea” and “The Bet”.
What This Chapter Covers: The Story in Six Stages
A plot reconstruction that follows the printed story in order is the quickest way to fix the tale in your head. These six stages run from the invitation to the confession, and each one names the moment the chapter’s own questions depend on.
Stage 1 — The Invitation
Matilda Loisel is a pretty woman from a family of clerks with no dowry, and she has married a petty clerk at the Board of Education. She feels cheated: her shabby apartment, worn chairs and simple dinners torture her, while she dreams of elegant food, shining silver, and fine frocks and jewels that she does not have.
The story places all of this in its opening pages.
One evening her husband returns elated with a printed card: the Minister of Public Instruction and Madame George Ramponneau request the honour of M. and Mme Loisel’s company at the Minister’s residence. Instead of being delighted, she throws the invitation spitefully on the table and asks what she is supposed to want with it.
Her first concern is the dress — she has nothing to wear to such an affair.
Stage 2 — The Dress
She will not go unless she has a new costume. Asked how much it would cost, she hesitates and answers “four hundred francs” — a sum that turns her husband pale, because it is exactly what he had saved to buy a hunting gun. He gives it to her anyway, asking only that she try to have a pretty dress.
Stage 3 — The Necklace
With the dress nearly ready, a fresh problem appears: she has no jewels and nothing to adorn herself with, and she would rather miss the party than look shabby among rich women.
Her husband suggests natural flowers — they are very chic in that season — but it is he who finally cries out “How stupid we are!”: she should ask her rich schoolmate Mme Forestier to lend her some jewels.
At Forestier’s house, Matilda tries bracelets, a pearl collar and a Venetian cross, and then finds, in a black satin box, a superb necklace of diamonds. Her hands tremble as she takes it out: “Could you lend me this? Only this?”
Stage 4 — The Ball and the Loss
At the ball Mme Loisel is the prettiest of all — a great success, noticed by every man and full of joy. She leaves towards four in the morning, refusing to wait for a cab because her wrap is too poor to be seen, and the couple walk along the river until they find an old carriage.
At home she stands before the glass for one last look at herself in glory — and cries out. The necklace is no longer around her neck.
Stage 5 — The Replacement
They search the folds of the dress and the cloak, the pockets, the street, the police station, the cab offices, and a newspaper advertisement — nothing. Loisel has her write to Forestier that a clasp is broken and the necklace is being repaired, to gain time. At the end of a week they give up hope.
In a shop of the Palais-Royal they find a chaplet of diamonds that seems exactly like the lost one. It is valued at forty thousand francs and offered at thirty-six thousand; Loisel has eighteen thousand from his father and borrows the rest from usurers and lenders.
Mme Loisel returns the replacement, and Forestier’s only remark is cold: she might have needed them sooner. She does not open the jewel-box.
Stage 6 — Ten Years and the Confession
The debt forces them into what the story calls the horrible life of necessity. They dismiss the maid and move to attic rooms; she washes dishes and soiled linen and haggles with the grocer, the butcher and the fruiterer to the last sou, while he does bookkeeping in the evenings and copying at five sous a page at night.
For ten years. At the end of it the debt is fully paid, and Matilda has become a strong, hard woman of the poor household.
One Sunday, walking in the Champs-Elysees, she sees Mme Forestier, still young and pretty. Now that she has paid, she decides to tell her everything. Her friend cannot believe the change in her — but the truth is worse: the necklace was lost and replaced, and paying for the replacement took ten years.
Forestier, touched, takes both her hands: “Mine were false. They were not worth over five hundred francs!”
Mme Loisel and Her Husband: What the Book Asks About Them
The two character sketches below answer the questions in the chapter’s first “Read and Find Out” box, which appear before the story begins: what kind of person is Mme Loisel and why is she always unhappy, and what kind of person is her husband? All the evidence lies in the opening and closing pages.
Mme Loisel: dissatisfied at first, heroic later
- She loves only fine clothes and jewels, and her plain home tortures her; she suffers without stopping from the poverty of her apartment, the shabby walls, the worn chairs and the potpie dinners.
- She avoids visiting her rich schoolmate because returning home afterwards makes her weep for whole days.
- Given the ball, she is radiant; given the loss, she does not run away. She takes on the heavy work of the poor household — washing, cleaning, haggling, climbing the stairs with water — and does her part, the narrator says, completely, heroically.
- Even after ten years she keeps her pride: dressed like a woman of the people, she still sometimes sits at the window and dreams of the ball where she was so beautiful, and she confesses the truth only once the debt is paid.
Her husband: content, practical, generous
- A petty clerk at the Board of Education who is genuinely delighted by a good potpie — the simple life she despises is one he enjoys.
- Practical: when she needs jewellery he suggests natural flowers, and his “How stupid we are!” produces the idea of borrowing from Forestier.
- Generous: he hands over the four hundred francs saved for a hunting gun so she can have the dress.
- Steady in crisis: he searches the streets, goes to the police, places the advertisement and writes the delaying letter — then works evenings and nights for ten years to clear the debt.
Mme Forestier’s part
She is the rich schoolmate who lends without hesitation — “Choose, my dear” — and who, through one act of carelessness, sets the whole tragedy running: she never opens the jewel-box when the replacement is returned, so the substitution goes unnoticed for ten years, until her final line delivers the twist.
The Money in the Story: From 400 Francs to 36,000
The whole tragedy can be read through its account book, and the story gives every figure plainly. The comparison table below sets the two necklaces side by side using only the story’s own numbers.
| The borrowed necklace | The replacement necklace | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it came from | Mme Forestier’s jewel-case, lent for the ball | A shop in the Palais-Royal |
| What it was worth | False diamonds — not over 500 francs | Valued at 40,000 francs |
| What the Loisels paid | Nothing; it was a loan | 36,000 francs |
| What happened to it | Lost on the walk home from the ball | Returned to Mme Forestier, who never opened the box |
Laid out as a money timeline, the same figures read:
- 400 francs — the dress that started it, equal to the gun money her husband gave up.
- 500 francs — the true worth of the borrowed necklace, revealed only at the end (“not over five hundred francs”).
- 36,000 francs — the price of the replacement, down from a valuation of 40,000.
- 18,000 francs — the inheritance from Loisel’s father that paid exactly half.
- 10 years — the time the debt took to repay, with the rest borrowed from usurers.
Read the proportions and the irony is plain: a 400-franc dress led to a borrowed necklace, and the substitute the Loisels bought for 36,000 francs replaced something worth a fraction of the dress. The ruin began with dissatisfaction, not with the value of the jewellery.
The Twist: A Necklace Worth Less Than the Dress
A twist works when the reader is prepared for the wrong answer. This section explains what the ending reveals and why it still lands as a surprise.
- The Loisels never ask what the necklace is worth before replacing it; an identical-looking chaplet in a Palais-Royal shop is enough for them.
- Mme Forestier never opens the jewel-box when the replacement is handed back, so ten years pass with the substitution undetected.
- When Matilda, proud of having paid, finally confesses, Forestier’s answer undoes everything: the original was false — “They were not worth over five hundred francs!” — a sentence with one meaning for her and a devastating one for Matilda.
- The story’s narrator has already pointed at the moral shortly before: “How small a thing will ruin or save one!” The reflection comes just before the chance meeting in the Champs-Elysees.
The irony, in one sentence: Matilda’s ruin came from her own pride and dissatisfaction, not from the value of the necklace — she spent ten years and 36,000 francs replacing something her friend knew to be a trinket. The teaser on the opening page prepares a reader for a loss; the surprise is what the lost thing was actually worth.
Figure Walkthrough: Two Key Moments in the NCERT Edition
The NCERT edition carries two illustrations, and both captions are lines taken from the story itself. Each picture freezes a moment the plot depends on.
Figure 1 — The invitation is thrown aside
The first illustration belongs to the chapter’s opening. The caption records the moment Matilda’s character is set: her husband hoped the card would please her, and her answer is spite. The drawing shows her at the table with the invitation cast down in front of her — the instant everything later is born from.
This is the first strong clue that her unhappiness comes from her own expectations rather than from anything the world around her has done.
Figure 2 — The replacement is handed back
The second illustration captures the handover of the replacement. The caption matters for what it leaves out: Forestier’s only concern is her own convenience, with nothing about opening the box to check the jewels inside.
The narrator then confirms she never opens the box, which is what lets the substitution stand for ten years. The picture sets the anxious, worn Matilda against the untouched friend: two lives the necklace will divide for a decade.
Words Worth Knowing: The Chapter’s Glossary
The chapter ends with a nine-word glossary, and every word in it is used inside the story. The table gives each word, a plainer meaning, and where it appears.
| Word | Plain meaning | Where it appears in the story |
|---|---|---|
| incessantly | without stopping; all the time | Matilda “suffered incessantly” from her shabby home |
| tureen | a covered serving bowl for soup | her husband uncovers the tureen with delight at dinner |
| M. | Monsieur — the French form of address for a man | the invitation is addressed to “M. and Mme Loisel” |
| Mme | Madame — the French form of address for a woman | used for Mme Loisel and Mme Forestier throughout |
| vexation | distress or annoyance | Matilda controls her vexation when she says she has no dress |
| ruinous | disastrous; causing ruin | Loisel makes “ruinous promises” while borrowing |
| usurers | money-lenders who charge very high interest | they borrow from “usurers and the whole race of lenders” |
| sou | a former French coin of very low value | the husband copies at “five sous a page” |
| awry | twisted; not in its proper position | “her skirts awry” in the description of the aged Matilda |
Common Mistakes Students Make With This Chapter
This chapter has a few characteristic errors, and nearly all of them come from reading too fast past the ending. Each row names a mistake, gives the correct reading, and tells you how to check it in the story.
| Mistake | Correct rule | How to check your answer |
|---|---|---|
| “The necklace was worth 36,000 francs.” | No — 36,000 francs is what the replacement cost. The borrowed original was false, worth not over 500 francs. | Re-read Forestier’s final line in the confession scene. |
| “Mme Forestier must have noticed the substitution.” | She never opened the jewel-box when it was returned. For ten years she had no chance to see the necklace at all. | Check the line after the handover: the narrator says she did not open the box as Mme Loisel feared she would. |
| “Matilda stole the necklace” or “she should have confessed at once.” | She hid the loss and chose to repay it — the story says she did her part completely, heroically. She confesses only once the debt is settled. | Contrast her silence through the ten years with her confession at the end: “it is finished and I am decently content.” |
| “M. must be a typo for Mr.” | It is the French abbreviation for Monsieur; Mme is the abbreviation for Madame. Both are real French forms of address. | Look them up in the glossary at the end of the chapter. |
| “The ending is a simple moral, like ‘honesty is the best policy’.” | The ending is ironic: ten years of ruin for a false necklace. The “Talk about it” prompts invite debate on honesty and contentment; they do not settle for one moral. | Re-read the closing exchange, then read the three “Talk about it” prompts that follow. |
Exam Notes: How the Chapter’s Own Questions Test You
For a story chapter, the book’s own questions are the most honest map of what matters. The table below maps each set to the skill it tests.
| Question set | Where it sits | What it tests |
|---|---|---|
| Read and Find Out — first box | before the story begins | character reading: what kind of person Mme Loisel is and why she is unhappy; what her husband is like |
| Read and Find Out — second box | before the ball | plot attention: what fresh problem now disturbs Mme Loisel |
| Read and Find Out — third box | right after the loss | consequence: what the Loisels do next and how they replace the necklace |
| Think about it — four questions | end of the chapter | causal reasoning (how the necklace changed their lives), identifying the cause of ruin and its avoidance, counterfactual thinking (what if she had confessed), personal judgement (what would you do) |
| Talk about it — three prompts | end of the chapter | language awareness (the French clues), opinion on “honesty is the best policy”, opinion on contentment |
The “Talk about it” language question is the one students most often skim. The story is a translation, yet the French stays visible in the text: money counted in francs and sous, the titles M. and Mme, and Parisian places such as the Champs-Elysees and the Palais-Royal.
Those details are the evidence that the characters are French even though they speak English on the page.
One honest note: textbook contents and the examinable syllabus are not always identical — check the current official CBSE syllabus for what is examinable.
The Necklace in One Page: A Last-Minute Recap
NCERT prints no summary for this chapter, so here is the story recast for revision — one line per beat, in order.
- Matilda, a pretty clerk’s wife with no dowry, is unhappy in her simple life.
- Her husband brings an invitation to a grand evening at the Minister’s residence.
- She refuses to go without a new dress; he gives her the 400 francs saved for a hunting gun.
- Still dissatisfied, she borrows a diamond necklace from her rich schoolmate Mme Forestier.
- She is the success of the ball, then loses the necklace on the walk home.
- Every search fails, and they buy an identical-looking replacement for 36,000 francs.
- The money comes from 18,000 inherited francs plus loans from usurers.
- Ten years of poverty and hard work finally clear the debt.
- Meeting Mme Forestier in the Champs-Elysees, Matilda confesses the whole story.
- Forestier reveals the original was false — worth not over 500 francs.
When you write about this chapter, state the irony explicitly: the Loisels spent ten years and 36,000 francs replacing something worth at most 500. The ruin was caused by Matilda’s pride and dissatisfaction, not by the value of the necklace — the narrator’s own reflection, “How small a thing will ruin or save one!”, appears just before the chance meeting.
Related Resources
This listing is maintained for the 2026-27 academic session using the NCERT textbook information available to us. NCERT remains the authority for confirming the latest edition.
Once the story is clear, you can move through the rest of the book and the study material around it.
- Class 10 English book page — where the NCERT Class 10 English readers are listed on this site.
- Class 10 hub — navigation hub for the NCERT Class 10 books on this site.
- Previous chapter of Footprints Without Feet — the story that comes before “The Necklace”.
- Next chapter of Footprints Without Feet — the story that follows it.
- CBSE notes and Class 10 notes — study material across subjects.
- Class 10 English notes hub — chapter-wise revision help for the same book.
- Words and Expressions II: Madam Rides the Bus — a companion language unit from Class 10.
- The Sermon at Benares notes — another chapter from Footprints Without Feet, with study notes.
The official NCERT site (ncert.nic.in) is the authority for textbook editions and official PDFs; the CBSE site is the authority for the curriculum and examinations.
| What the chapter holds | Count | Where it is used |
|---|---|---|
| Printed pages | 8 | |
| Figures with NCERT captions | 2 | |
| Official NCERT PDF | Download the chapter PDF | the chapter exactly as NCERT publishes it |
Reference: NCERT Class 10 English (Footprints Without Feet) textbook, chapter 7, official edition on ncert.nic.in.
Sources and Data Verification
- The contents, story events and illustrations described on this page come from the NCERT Class 10 English textbook Footprints Without Feet — Supplementary Reader, chapter 7, “The Necklace”, official NCERT edition.
- This page covers Chapter 7 of that book only; it does not describe the full CBSE scheme of subjects or the whole syllabus.
- The page is maintained for the current academic session using the NCERT information available to us.
- NCERT settles textbooks, editions and official PDFs; CBSE settles curriculum, syllabus and examinations. Textbook contents and the examinable syllabus are not always identical — confirm what is examinable against the current official CBSE syllabus.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why was Matilda Loisel always unhappy at the beginning of The Necklace?
Because she felt born for luxury but lived in a clerk’s household. The story lists what she suffered from: the poverty of her apartment, the shabby walls, the worn chairs and the potpie dinners, while she dreamed of elegant food and shining silver.
With no dowry, no fine frocks and no jewels — and loving only those things — her simple life left her in constant distress.
How much did the replacement necklace cost and how long did the Loisels take to pay it off?
It cost 36,000 francs, and it took ten years to pay off. The shop valued the identical-looking chaplet at 40,000 francs and let it go for 36,000. Loisel had 18,000 francs from his father and borrowed the rest from usurers and lenders, and the debt was cleared only after ten years of hard work.
What is the twist at the end of The Necklace?
The necklace Matilda lost was not real diamonds. After ten years of poverty spent repaying the replacement, Mme Forestier tells her the truth: the original was false, worth not over five hundred francs. The twist is that the Loisels ruined their lives to replace something nearly worthless.
Why did Mme Forestier not notice that the necklace had been replaced?
Because she never opened the jewel-box when the replacement was returned. The narrator notes that Mme Forestier did not open the box as Mme Loisel feared she would; her only remark was a cold “You should have returned them to me sooner.” So the substitution went unseen for ten years.
What do M. and Mme mean in the story?
They are French abbreviations. M. stands for Monsieur, the form of address for a man, and Mme stands for Madame, the form of address for a woman. The chapter’s glossary lists both, and the story uses them because the characters are French.
What clues show that the story is set in France?
Money is counted in francs and sous; the titles M., Mme, Monsieur and Madame are French; the named places — the Champs-Elysees and the Palais-Royal — are in Paris; and the story is a translation of a French original by Guy de Maupassant. The chapter’s own “Talk about it” section asks exactly this question.
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