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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 night of the week is it when the man with the red waistcoat arrives in London in the opening of Chapter 1?

2. Who is the chief actor at the Lyceum Theatre and a guest at Mr. Buckle’s estate in Chapter 7?

3. Tobias is said in Chapter 13 to have ambitions to become “a novelist who might topple” who himself?

4. Tobias tells the guests at the dinner party in Chapter 7 that the cerebrum “is a vessel that never” what?

5. To whom does Jack pen a letter in Chapter 21?

Short Essay Questions

1. What conversation does Mercy overhear between Mr. Buckle and Mr. Makepeace in Chapter 33?

2. What news does Mr. Butler bring to Mr. Oates when Mr. Oates returns in Chapter 36?

3. What does Jack write about his first experience with thievery in his letter to Henry in Chapter 26?

4. How is the setting for the novel established in Chapter 1? When and where does the story begin?

5. What does the reader learn about the relationship between Mr. Butler and Mercy in Chapter 30? What does Jack reveal to Mr. Butler in this chapter?

6. What is discovered about the history of Jack in Chapters 23 and 24? How is this discovery made?

7. Where do Jack and Percy go in Chapter 22? Why?

8. How is Tobias’s household and family described in Chapter 10? What is Tobias’s secret that is revealed in the chapter?

9. To whom does Jack write a letter in Chapter 21? What is revealed in this letter?

10. How are the emotional and mental states of Mr. Butler’s servants described in Chapters 40-42?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss Charles Dickens and his fascination with psychology and the “Criminal Mind.” How did Dickens develop the characters from his novels? What historical evidence suggests that Dickens based these characters on real individuals? How faithful is the depiction of Tobias Oates in comparison with the history of Charles Dickens?

Essay Topic 2

Describe and discuss the setting of Islington and Jack’s life with Mary Britten, Sophina, Tom, and Silas Smith there. How does Jack feel about each of these characters? How does the setting of Islington compare with the previous home of Jack’s family?

Essay Topic 3

Analyze and discuss the character of Edward Constable in the narrative. How old is Constable? What new information has the reader learned about Constable’s history with Henry Phipps in Chapters 46-48? Why does Constable refrain from telling Jack this information?

(see the answer keys)

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