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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Where in his career was Emerson, in the scene Richardson describes in the Prologue?
(a) In its decline.
(b) At rock bottom.
(c) At the beginning.
(d) At its peak.

2. What imagery filled Emerson's prose and poems in 1836?
(a) Forging and birth.
(b) Travel and arrival.
(c) Health and insanity.
(d) Illness and death.

3. What stance did Emerson take on American literature?
(a) He treated it as a narrow branch of British literature.
(b) He said that it began with him.
(c) He celebrated it.
(d) He said that it needed to learn its history from British literature.

4. What were Emerson's religious beliefs tending toward, at the time of his ordination?
(a) Uncertainty about the nature of the divine.
(b) Certainty that the self provides the only access to divinity.
(c) Certainty that divine grace is the only avenue to redemption.
(d) Doubts regarding divine grace.

5. How does Richardson characterize Emerson's perspective on approaching Europe?
(a) He became a free-floating individual without a country.
(b) He became a citizen of the world.
(c) He became a 'defensive American.'
(d) He abandoned his identity.

6. What did this turning point do for Emerson?
(a) It filled him with knowledge of the classics.
(b) It introduced him to people who could forward his career.
(c) It centered his attention on his own experience.
(d) It gave him the confidence to pursue his studies.

7. What does Richardson say his book illustrates in Emerson's life?
(a) His literary development.
(b) His emotional life.
(c) His genius and his flaws.
(d) His life as opposed to his reputation.

8. Who came to live with Emerson after his brother Charles died?
(a) Margaret Fuller.
(b) Elizabeth Hoar.
(c) Caroline Sturgis.
(d) Ellery Channing.

9. What was Emerson's first son's name?
(a) Edward.
(b) Waldo.
(c) Henry.
(d) Charles.

10. How did Emerson describe Ellen Tucker?
(a) Rhapsodic and angelic.
(b) Beautiful, with a vibrant spirit.
(c) Strong-willed and supportive.
(d) Sensitive and religious.

11. What did Emerson suffer in 1837?
(a) The loss of his wife.
(b) Economic troubles.
(c) The death of his brother.
(d) The loss of his son.

12. How does Richardson characterize Emerson's relationship with his brothers?
(a) Competitive.
(b) Distant.
(c) Contentious.
(d) Intimate.

13. What does Richardson say was happening as Emerson and his brother Charles grew closer?
(a) Charles was subscribing to Emerson's new confidence about religion.
(b) Charles' health was declining.
(c) Charles was expecting his first child.
(d) Charles was leaving the church.

14. How does Richardson characterize Emerson's relation to other writers?
(a) He is terrified before each of them, and has to figure out how to defend himself against their work.
(b) He is afraid of his own attraction to others' ideas, and learns to protect against his identification with others.
(c) He assimilates the best part of each work, and discards the rest.
(d) He is greater than them, and finds himself in each of them.

15. How does Richardson characterize Margaret Fuller's tone toward Emerson?
(a) Unctuous.
(b) Persistent.
(c) Submissive.
(d) Self-aggrandizing.

Short Answer Questions

1. What limitation does Emerson describe in Christianity in his Divinity School Address?

2. How did Emerson change after opening Ellen's casket?

3. How does Richardson characterize Emerson's household in 1835-1836?

4. What was Emerson like as a student?

5. How does Richardson characterize the development of Emerson's writing in 1834?

(see the answer keys)

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