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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How was Emerson received in Europe?
(a) He was criticized.
(b) He was treated as a curiosity.
(c) He was treated as a celebrity.
(d) He was hardly noticed.

2. What was the focus of "The Dial" under Emerson's editorial leadership?
(a) Science and history.
(b) Culture and philosophy.
(c) Art.
(d) Literature.

3. On what theme did Emerson's letters and journals begin to focus after Margaret Fuller's death?
(a) Time.
(b) The sea.
(c) Self-reliance.
(d) Freedom.

4. What was the subject of Emerson's speech at Dartmouth?
(a) The danger of contamination by British thought.
(b) The inadequacy of American creativity.
(c) The debt Americans owed to Britain.
(d) The superiority of American literature to British poetry.

5. Who does Emerson say he had always considered his best friend?
(a) Lidian.
(b) Thoreau.
(c) Fuller.
(d) Ellen.

Short Answer Questions

1. What did Emerson call his house after he changed how it was used?

2. How does Richardson characterize Emerson's feeling about the essay "The Poet?"

3. How did Andrews Norton review Emerson's Dartmouth lecture?

4. What did Emerson do for Carlyle?

5. What event threw Emerson into despair in 1840?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Richardson characterize the importance of Emerson's friendships after his return from Europe?

2. What was the significance of Emerson's first daughter's name?

3. In what ways did Emerson differ from his friends' opinions?

4. To what use does Emerson put great men in Representative Men?

5. What was Hegel's importance to Emerson's thinking?

6. How did Emerson balance writing and editing?

7. What was Fourier's influence on Emerson's thinking?

8. How does Richardson characterize the change that took place in Emerson after Waldo's death?

9. What does Richardson say was Emerson's last characteristic book?

10. How does Richardson characterize Emerson's fame?

(see the answer keys)

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