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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 the finger placing ability, according to De Botton?

2. What question did the newspaper ask its readers that De Botton analyzes?

3. What was Proust's father in particularly concerned with?

4. How old was Proust when he died?

5. What did Proust refuse from the doctors on his deathbed?

Short Essay Questions

1. Discuss what question De Botton details that the L'Intransigeant asked in one of its polls?

2. Why was it fitting that Proust became a writer?

3. Describe the way Proust died.

4. What did Proust feel should be separated between a person and their friends?

5. What was Proust's sexuality like?

6. How did Proust's lifestyle contradict his prompts to his readers?

7. Why did Proust write in such long-winded form?

8. Describe Proust's mother.

9. Discuss the narrator and Gilberte from "In Search of Lost Time" and what their interaction demonstrates in real life.

10. What does Proust say about conversation?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Explain what purpose and benefits Proust argues books serve to humans and their experience in life. Discuss the list of pros and cons he gives to reading.

Essay Topic 2

Discuss and describe Proust's writing style and the effect it had on other forms of art.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss how Proust viewed cliched and trite expressions and why he feels as strongly as he does about them.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 655 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample