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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. Where did Hesse's father meet his wife?

2. What cultures are blended in Hesse's writing?

3. Where was Hesse apprenticed before he was brought home?

4. Why did Hesse change jobs for less money around 1901?

5. What did Hesse begin to write in 1884?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What does Freedman say about Hesse's popularity over the years?

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

4. How does Freedman describe Hesse's childhood?

5. What circles did Hesse enter in Tubingen?

6. When did Hesse begin to write?

7. With what nationality did Hesse identify?

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

9. What was Hesse's early childhood like?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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?

Essay Topic 2

How has Hesse been received, and how has his popularity waxed and waned over time, and in different countries? What parts of his work have been responsible for his popularity? What parts for his unpopularity? What aspect of of movements in Western culture made Hesse's work attractive and popular? What did people see in his work?

Essay Topic 3

Hesse moved around a great deal, never settling in one place for very long, not until later in life. Why did Hesse move? What made him resist moving? Would you characterize him as a wanderer, a vagrant, an explorer, or an exile? What was he always looking for in a home? Where was he most at home?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 726 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample