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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. How does Fleur get rid of Maisie when she can tolerate her vapid conversation no longer?

2. What was located across the street from Sir Quentin's flat?

3. What did Fleur tell Dottie when she invited her into the Association?

4. How does Fleur react about her book find when she shops for Maisie?

5. Who serves as the primary comic relief in the early part of the book?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Fleur meet Lady Edwina?

2. Fleur and Dottie argue about whether or not Fleur should stay on at the job. Why does Fleur believe she should?

3. How does Sir Quentin introduce Fleur to the Autobiographical Association members the first time, and why?

4. Why did Fleur bring her friends, Theo and Audrey, in to read the proofs of Warrender Chase for her?

5. What is the basis for the argument between Maisie Young and Fleur in Chapter 5?

6. Fleur describes both Beryl Tims and Dottie, the wife of Fleur's lover, as "English Roses." What does she mean by this?

7. What happens in January of 1950 that begins to shed light on Sir Quentin's intentions?

8. What new information does Dottie share with Fleur when they are nursing each other through the flu that further blurs the line between the reality of the Association and the fiction transpiring in the Warrender Chase manuscript?

9. How had Fleur originally come up with the idea for her novel, Warrender Chase?

10. Describe Fleur's impressions of Sir Quentin Oliver upon their first meeting.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Writers can describe the values of a culture or a society through characters who succeed in the culture, or conversely, are alienated from society. How do this novel's characters, through their success or alienation, reveal the 1949 London society's assumptions or moral values?

Essay Topic 2

The element of time is used in creative ways in literature. A sequence of events might be told other than chronologically; sometimes time is suspended, accelerated or slowed down. How does Spark use time as a framework for the novel? Do not merely summarize plot points, rather, discuss how her use of time affects the story.

Essay Topic 3

Describe as much as you can about the culture in which Fleur lives based on descriptions from the novel. How much of that culture is revealed through her eyes? Could this novel be set anywhere else? Could the story have transpired, in tact, had it taken place in the US, or Shanghai or Paris or Munich in 1949? How might it have differed had it been moved from England?

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