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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who does the woman on the boat mistake Van for?

2. What does Kim Beuharnais use to extort money from Ada?

3. How does Lucette say she feels when she runs into Van?

4. What day does Ada's husband die?

5. Who does Van see on the train?

Short Essay Questions

1. What were the reviews of Van's first book like?

2. How does Van characterize to Greg his relationship with Ada?

3. When Ada telephones Van, what does she tell him?

4. How does Van respond to Ada's arrival?

5. What does Van plan to do in the duel?

6. What is Van's opinion of acting?

7. What tragedy happened at the Villa Venus in Souvenir, Missouri?

8. What does Van write about in his unsent letter to Ada?

9. Why does Van think he is sterile?

10. How does Van remember his three farewell lectures on Bergson's Time?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss Terra and Antiterra in the novel.

1) Why does the author set the novel in an alternative reality, an "Antiterra"? What role does the imaginary planet, a mirror of our "real" world, play in the novel?

2) How do the characters envision Terra? What do their perceptions of Terra show about the characters themselves?

3) How do Terra and Antiterra differ? Compare the two worlds of the novel.

Essay Topic 2

Van and Ada part bitterly after 1888 because of jealousy, and jealousy plays an important role in their relationship. Discuss jealousy in the novel.

1) Why is Van so jealous of Ada's other sexual relationships, when he is also sexually active without her? How is Ada jealous of Van?

2) How is Lucette jealous of Ada? How does her jealousy affect and define her relationships with Van and with Ada?

3) What other jealousies exist in the novel? How do the different characters respond to and think of jealousy?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the structure of the novel.

1) What role does each of the five parts of the novel play? How does each represent a specific period in the relationship of Ada and Van, and how are those periods different from each other?

2) Why is the first book the longest? Why is the fourth book a single chapter?

3) In what ways is the structure chronological? How and why does it break out of chronological order?

(see the answer keys)

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