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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. How is Rouen different from the first time Geoffrey visited the city?

2. What happened to the letters?

3. Who was Loulou?

4. How did Flaubert first come to know Juliet Herbert?

5. What do Du Camp and Flaubert do the night before climbing the Great Pyramid?

Short Essay Questions

1. What places does Geoffrey go to learn more about Gustave Flaubert?

2. What examples of literary mistakes does the professor from Cambridge talk about?

3. What are some connections between Flaubert and Gertrude Collier?

4. What was the trick Flaubert planned to play at the Great Pyramid and what was the outcome?

5. What are several different parrots mentioned in the bestiary?

6. What does Geoffrey say is the difference between internal mistakes in writing literature and external ones?

7. How successful was Flaubert during his student days?

8. What does Geoffrey find on the subject of Madame Bovary's eyes when he rereads the book?

9. Explain why Flaubert refers to himself as a bear, and particularly as a white one.

10. What is the plot of "Un coeur simple"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Geoffrey defends Flaubert throughout the book. Given what you have learned about Flaubert, on what points do you think Flaubert deserves to be defended and on what points do you feel he rightly deserves the criticism he was given?

Essay Topic 2

Do you think the reader is led to believe from the beginning that Geoffrey will find the actual parrot that once sat on Flaubert's desk? Comment on why or why not and analyze the book as a mystery story, describing its twists and turns.

Essay Topic 3

Throughout the book, Geoffrey searches for the answer to the mystery of which parrot is authentic as well as the answer to questions which plague him about Flaubert and about himself.

Part 1) Describe Geoffrey's actual search for Flaubert's parrot.

Part 2) Explain what mysteries Geoffrey attempts to explain about Flaubert's life.

Part 3) Explain what questions about himself Geoffrey attempts to answer in his quest.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 665 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample