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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 was the title of Proust's father's most successful book?

2. Who was the artist of Old Man and the Boy?

3. What does Proust find the newspaper reduces murders, tragedies, and the whole human experience to?

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

5. What type of physical attacks did Proust have growing up?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Proust say about friendship in the quotes De Botton gives in Chapter 6?

2. What was Proust's sexuality like?

3. What was Proust's father like?

4. What did Proust argue was most couple's problem falling out of love?

5. What is the Marquis de Lau Phenomenon?

6. What did Proust argue people were not being when they used cliches?

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

8. How did Proust's opinion about knowledge of the end of the world contradict his own way of living?

9. What question does De Botton wonder about the artist and his work?

10. Describe Proust's mother.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Analyze and discuss Proust's relationship with his mother and how his relationship with her affected his life greatly.

Essay Topic 2

Discuss and explain how Proust's response to the L'Intransigeant poll contradicted with the way Proust lived his own life.

Essay Topic 3

Analyze and explain the theme and moral of Proust's essay about the unsatisfied young man.

(see the answer keys)

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