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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 Dottie behave when she comes down with the flu?

2. How does Fleur learn about the job at the Autobiographical Association?

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

4. How do Gray and Fleur define the differences between men and women?

5. What does Maisie tell Fleur the ex-priest had said about her?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. Describe any two members of the Association introduced in Chapter 2.

4. How does Fleur react to the beginning manuscripts of the memoirs when she first begins her work?

5. An important parallel is drawn at the end of Chapter 6 that has, up to that point, only been mentioned by Fleur. What is it, and who brings it up?

6. What does Wally suggest Fleur should do about her job, and how does she respond?

7. What convinced Fleur that Sir Quentin had begun acting out an evil plan on the members of the Autobiographical Association?

8. What does Fleur realize about Maisie Young when Maisie comes to visit her apartment?

9. What are Fleur's feelings about Lady Edwina after her first month on the job?

10. Fleur describes the day she is sitting in the graveyard working on a poem as the last day of a whole chunk of her life, although she isn't aware of it at the time. Why do you think she feels this way?

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 drug Dexedrine is used by Sir Quentin to control his group of "followers."

What do the members gain, or perceive to gain, from following Sir Quentin? Could he have gained their confidence without the drugs? What did Sir Quentin's Association members have in common that made them susceptible to someone like him, similar to the blind faith cult members place in their leaders?

Essay Topic 3

Fleur Talbot, as an author, seems to spend her life observing, categorizing and accumulating ideas for her writing. Discuss how this impacts her life. Does it get in her way? Do you think most authors work this way?

(see the answer keys)

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