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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. What shape is the pattern of The Ambassadors?

2. Forster wonders how ____ will combine with the "furniture of common sense" when it comes to prophecy.

3. Forster believes that happiness and misery exist in the ___________.

4. Which one of the following is NOT an author that Forster considers to use prophecy well?

5. What is the thing a novelist should never aim for, but fails if this is not achieved?

Short Essay Questions

1. What are the two basic elements that Forster comes back to again and again throughout the lecture series?

2. What is Forster's opinion of readers who do not like fantasy?

3. What is the relationship between pattern and plot in a novel?

4. What is the metaphor that Forster uses to describe literary criticism?

5. Why does Forster refer to George Elliot as a preacher?

6. What role does the setting play in novels by Henry James?

7. Why does Forster say that novelist Thomas Hardy is essentially a poet?

8. What does Forster mean when he says that the works of Melville, Dostoevsky, and D.H. Lawrence have an "intermittent realism"?

9. How does a Marcel Proust novel demonstrate the aspect of rhythm?

10. What does Forster mean when he describes a novel with a grand chain pattern?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What does Forster contend is the important difference between real people and people in novels? Why is this an important distinction? Using research on Forster himself, what is the irony of his discussion of the importance of real people keeping their secrets?

Essay Topic 2

As Forster discusses Wuthering Heights, his lecture reaches a higher point of emotion. How does his tone parallel that of the Emily Bronte novel? Does his lecture on prophecy border on obsession?

Essay Topic 3

How is Forster's exploration of the aspects of fantasy and prophecy at the core of his overall philosophy on the novel? What is the fine line between these two aspects?

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