View a FREE sample

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Which Meredith novel does Forster discuss at length?

2. In comparing music and literature, Forster says a novelist must try to achieve what?

3. What is the setting of Thais?

4. What is the setting of The Ambassadors?

5. Who is the author of Les Faux Monnayeurs?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What are the two elements that Forster says are necessary for plot?

3. How does Forster distinguish between fantasy and prophecy as aspects of the novel?

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

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

6. Why does Forster disagree with Aristotle about the purpose of characters?

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

8. What does Forster describe as being a typical character in a Henry James novel?

9. How does Forster define prophecy in terms of fiction?

10. What does Forster mean when he says that the plot in the novel is its most logical intellectual aspect?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the relationship that Forster paints between prophecy and symbolism? Discuss this in terms of Melville and other novelists.

Essay Topic 2

What are some of the flaws of Forster's arguments throughout the lecture series? Please use references to literature to substantiate the various points.

Essay Topic 3

What is the difference between the life in time and the life by value? How does Forster illustrate this point through the work of Sir Walter Scott?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 650 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample