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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 did Hesse feel about his novel "Gertrud?"

2. What family trait does Freedman say Hesse seems to have inherited?

3. Where did Hesse spend Christmas 1902?

4. How did Hesse react to his loneliness?

5. What circles was Hesse running in when he took his job after Tubingen?

Short Essay Questions

1. Where would Hesse run away from? Where would he run away to?

2. What is Freedman's stance with regard to the relationship between Hesse's life and works?

3. With what nationality did Hesse identify?

4. Describe Hesse's marriage with Maria.

5. Describe the importance of spas and cures in Hesse's life.

6. When did Hesse begin to be successful as a writer?

7. When were Hesse's sons born?

8. Where did Hesse meet his first wife?

9. How did Hesse's style change after his initial success?

10. How does Freedman describe Hesse's childhood?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Hesse experienced periods of depression from time to time throughout his life. What was he depressed about? What did he learn to do to fight his depression? What did he learn from examining the causes of his depression? What was his experience of psychoanalysis like?

Essay Topic 2

Hesse was an apprentice in a bookshop. What was Hesse's apprenticeship like, and how did he serve his apprenticeship as a writer? Where did he learn his trade, and what was the process of acquiring a trade like for him? Was he encouraged and trained, or did he learn by trial and error on his own? How did he pass his apprenticeship as a writer? When was his apprenticeship finished? What "masterpiece" established him as a writer, no longer an apprentice?

Essay Topic 3

How did Hesse develop as a novelist? What trajectory do his novels trace? What events in his personal life influenced this trajectory? What did he learn as a novelist, and how do his novels reflect an evolution as he acquired various techniques in his writing?

(see the answer keys)

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