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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What book by A. Alvarez about suicide gained added resonance from his friendship with Plath?
(a) School of Donne.
(b) Life after Marriage: Scenes from Divorce.
(c) The Savage God.
(d) Where Did It All Go Right.

2. Sylvia had told her mother about the dismal kitchens and ____________ in England.
(a) Bathrooms.
(b) Bedrooms.
(c) Roofing.
(d) Flooring.

3. Under what pseudonym was The Bell Jar originally published?
(a) Johanna Mills.
(b) Victoria Lucas.
(c) Melissa Bouvier.
(d) Cassandra Owens.

4. When was the second version of The Journals of Sylvia Plath released?
(a) 1983.
(b) 1987.
(c) 1985.
(d) 1982.

5. What university did Janet Malcolm attend?
(a) University of Idaho.
(b) University of Montana.
(c) University of Michigan.
(d) University of Illinois.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who wrote The Colossus and Other Poems?

2. What poet and playwright had previously lived at the residence where Sylvia Plath committed suicide?

3. A. Alvarez was initially much more impressed with Ted--thinking of Sylvia as __________.

4. What was the name of Sylvia Plath's mother?

5. A. Alvarez's remarks placed Sylvia's suicide in what type of scenario?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Sylvia's demeanor and image change from her youth to her death?

2. How did Janet Malcolm know Anne Stevenson in their youth? What was Malcolm's opinion of her?

3. Aurelia Plath's intentions in having her daughter's letters published is implied to be in retaliation for what?

4. Which biography of Sylvia Plath did Malcolm find to be the best? What criticism did the book meet?

5. What portrait of Sylvia Plath did Anne Stevenson paint in her biography of Sylvia? Why did critics refute that image?

6. What happened between Linda Wagner-Martin and Ted and Olwyn Hughes?

7. What friend of Sylvia Plath's commented negatively about her life and death in Part One: Chapter II?

8. What lecture did Malcolm read of Anne Stevenson's defense of her biography in Part Two: Chapter I?

9. How old were Sylvia and Ted when Sylvia died? How did she die?

10. What did Anne Stevenson do with the manuscript she had been commissioned to write about Sylvia Plath for a series at Penguin Books?

(see the answer keys)

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