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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. Where is the largest collection of Ash's books housed?

2. Where is the book that Roland looks at usually kept?

3. What does Ash do that makes Christabel say that perhaps they should stop writing?

4. How does Christabel react to her feelings of love with Ash?

5. What did Ash send his wife during his trip?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Roland read at the end of the chapter?

2. Who is responsible for ending the affair between Christabel and Ash?

3. What does Maud tell Beatrice about the importance of what she finds in Ellen's journal and papers?

4. What, in her own life, does Val compare Roland's work to?

5. Who are Ask and Embla?

6. What is Swammerdam's situation at the end of his life?

7. How does Roland react to Maud's idea of how to go about reading the letters?

8. How does Fergus describe Maud?

9. What does Roland like about the library?

10. How does Fergus Wolff know about Christabel LaMotte?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the metaphoric meanings in LaMotte and Ash's poems and stories as presented in the novel.

1) What is the meaning of "The Threshold," and why is it placed where it is in the story?

2) What is the meaning of the portion of "The Fairy Melusine" in the novel, and why is it placed where it is?

3) What are the meanings of the portions of "Mummy Possest" and "Swammerdam" in the novel, and why are they placed where they are?

Essay Topic 2

Discus the role of objects in the story, and how they are and are not invested with meaning.

1) What gives an object meaning? How do the letters that Roland finds have meaning, and why is the meaning only identified when Roland reads the letters?

2) How does context relate to meaning? Why can Maud only interpret Christabel's doll poem correctly in the context of Christabel's room? What other examples are there in the novel of context giving meaning to objects or words?

3) What meanings do the physical objects in Ash's box have? How are these meanings different for different people, in different contexts?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss point of view in the novel.

1) What different points of view does the novel use to present both modern and historical events? Why does the author present events from different perspectives? How does point of view affect the interpretation of events?

2) How do the characters', particularly Roland and Maud's, perspectives change over the course of the novel?

3) How are Ash and LaMotte's perspectives of themselves different from the perspectives of others, both in their own time and in the future?

(see the answer keys)

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