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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 is Geoffrey's marital status?

2. Who is Humbert?

3. At the Hotel-Dieu, the museum is partly about Flaubert and partly about what?

4. Who was Loulou?

5. When Gertrude's son-in-law, the explorer Henry Morton Stanley, was forced to get rid of his belongings during a trip, what book did he toss?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why might Geoffrey be so interested in the mystery of the parrots?

2. Why is Geoffrey so anxious to meet with Ed a second time?

3. What factual information does Geoffrey tell the reader about himself?

4. How successful was Flaubert during his student days?

5. Whose deaths greatly affected Flaubert's life?

6. Why does Geoffrey say he hates critics?

7. Why did Ed say he burned the correspondence between Juliet and Flaubert?

8. What is Flaubert's opinion of democracy?

9. How did Ed happen to get the letters between Julie and Flaubert?

10. Why does Geoffrey think Flaubert might also be compared to a camel?

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

Geoffrey says that individuals always want to know the worst about the people in their lives; however, he also says that individuals always want to know the best about the authors they read.

1) Explain why Geoffrey believes this statement.

2) Give examples using his feelings towards Flaubert and his wife.

Essay Topic 3

"History is always incomplete" is a theme that surfaces repeatedly throughout the novel. Discuss this theme as it applies 1) to Geoffrey's inability to completely know everything he would like to know about Flaubert, and 2) to Geoffrey's inability to know everything about his wife.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 599 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample