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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. Which of the following is NOT the name of one of Van's books?

2. What does Van insist on doing to avoid going to bed the first night on the cruise?

3. Why have the Robinsons given Lucette some medicine?

4. What name does Van have for frightening dreams?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. What exercise in memory does Van attempt, which he also gives to his patients?

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

3. What is Cordula's conversation like?

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

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

6. Why does Van need to go back for more surgery?

7. What does Cordula tell Van about Vanda Broom?

8. What does Van say is as common in dreams as metaphors are in poetry?

9. How did Percy de Prey die?

10. Why does Van think he is sterile?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Nabokov is known for wordplay, and part of this is using significant names or manipulating names. Discuss the names of characters and places in the novel.

1) What meanings are put onto the characters' names by their association with other words? For example, what do Demon, Aqua, and Marina's names mean? What meanings are put on "Ada" and "Van"?

2) Discuss the name of Ardis Hall and what meanings and associations it has in the novel.

3) How do characters' names change in different contexts? What do these name changes signify?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the mental and physical worlds in the novel.

1) How does the mental world of Van's intellectual investigations and books relate to the physical world around him?

2) How does Van's mental relationship with Ada relate to their physical relationship?

3) How does the balance of mind and body, mental and physical change over time, as Van ages?

Essay Topic 3

The novel is filled with reflections of reality through art, such as films and photographs. Discuss these elements of the novel.

1) How do reflections of reality in the novel, like photographs or films, differ from reality itself? How do they create reality through memory?

2) What significance is there to Marina and later Ada's careers as actresses? How does the mimicking of reality in acting affect the characters?

3) How does the governess's screenplay reflect reality at Ardis Hall? How is it modified and changed in the process of production? What does this process of change show about imitations of reality?

(see the answer keys)

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