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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 Sir Quentin try to justify his behavior to Fleur?

2. When Fleur goes out with Wally, what does he tell her about Bucks Gilbert?

3. What is Fleur's greatest concern upon learning the tragic news of the suicide of one of the Association's members?

4. Who interrupts the argument between Fleur and Sir Quentin?

5. What is the primary reason Fleur feels so indignant about being accused of libeling the Autobiographical Association?

Short Essay Questions

1. What was it that Fleur scolded herself when she determined who had likely stolen the manuscript from her room?

2. How does Sir Quentin lure Fleur to his office after she retypes her manuscript and gives the copies to Solly?

3. What is Fleur's reaction when Dottie calls her to tell her of Sir Quentin's death?

4. Why doesn't Fleur tell Edwina that she believes Sir Quentin is behind the theft of her manuscript?

5. Fleur consults her friend, Solly Mendelsohn, when she realizes that the publisher now has the only copy of her manuscript. Why?

6. Fleur mentions a parallel to another novel, not of her writing, at this point. What novel and what parallel?

7. Before Fleur works out a plan to retrieve her manuscript, fate intervenes and presents her with a way to do so. What happens?

8. Describe how at least one of the maxims Fleur remembers from childhood helps direct her actions as attempts to get her manuscript back.

9. What does Fleur first think might be the problem with her novel when the publisher requests to meet with her in person?

10. As Fleur goes to bed the night after the meeting with the publisher, about what can she not stop thinking ?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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?

Essay Topic 2

Describe Fleur Talbot as "character type," as she does with Beryl Tims and Dottie, the "English Roses." What would her character type be named? Who else might fit into this character type - another literary character, someone in a movie, someone from your life? Why? How does that person compare to Fleur?

Essay Topic 3

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.

(see the answer keys)

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