View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. For what reason was Hesse determined to be an artist?

2. What culture did Hesse participate in?

3. What medical event took place in 1909 for Hesse?

4. What was Hesse's first child's name?

5. What book did Hesse publish in 1911 that was based on his travels to India?

Short Essay Questions

1. What did Hesse get from his trip to India in 1911?

2. What does Freedman say about artists' lives, at the beginning of the prologue?

3. What was Hesse's health like, and how did it affect his development?

4. When were Hesse's sons born?

5. What was Hesse's arrival in Tubingen like?

6. What circles did Hesse enter in Tubingen?

7. What was Hesse's social life like in Basel?

8. Describe Hesse's schooling.

9. With what nationality did Hesse identify?

10. Why was 1902 an important year for Hesse?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Which of Hesse's books is most important in his life? Why is it the book that had the greatest effect on Hesse as a man and as a writer?

Essay Topic 2

Write a short review of Freedman's biography of Hesse. What were Freedman's methods in writing the biography, and what were the biography's strengths and weaknesses? What did Freedman leave out or skip over? What could have been treated in greater detail?

Essay Topic 3

Describe the importance of other writers and artists in Hesse's life and in his development as a writer. What role did the circle of writers in Tubingen play for him? What did he get from their company? What did he give to that circle? What connections did he make? How did Hesse play the role of "writer" differently with his writer friends than he played the role with his family?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 678 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample