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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 kind of interpretation does the writing that Maud gives Roland put on Christabel's imagery?

2. How long have Maud and Roland given themselves to work?

3. Whose writings on Christabel does Maud give Roland?

4. What does the light reflected from the water on the cave ceiling look like?

5. What is Maud's suggestion for herself and Roland to read the letters?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What is the weather like on Roland and Maud's day trip away from Ash and Christabel?

3. How does Cropper feel about Blackadder?

4. Describe the relationship between Blackadder and Cropper.

5. What does Roland like about the library?

6. What do Roland and Maud do on their day trip?

7. How does Roland compare Maud to Christabel?

8. What is Roland researching at the library?

9. What are Maud and Roland concerned might happen to their find in Christabel's room?

10. How do Beatrice Nest's students view her?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The novel follows two parallel stories, one in the past and one in the present. Discuss the relationship of the past and the present in the novel.

1) How is communication possible between the past and the present?

2) What drives the characters to try to understand the past? Why does Roland study the past?

3) What do parallels between the past and the present say about human experience?

Essay Topic 2

In many ways, the novel is a mystery. Discuss the aspects of mystery in the novel.

1) How do the characters gather clues in order to unravel the story? How is this similar to a traditional detective story, and how is it different?

2) What mysteries do the characters resolve in the course of the story? What remains a mystery? Why are parts of the mystery left unsolved?

3) How is literature a kind of puzzle in the novel?

Essay Topic 3

In the novel, reading is an active experience, which is greatly influenced by not only the writer's perspective but the reader's perspective. Discuss the role of the reader's bias in the novel.

1) How does Roland's life influence how he interprets Ash? How does this dynamic cause Blackadder, Roland, and Cropper to all have distinctive experiences of Ash?

2) How do the characters' readings of Ash and LaMotte change over the course of the novel, not because of what they learn about the poets, but because of changes in themselves? How do the characters' personal experiences and biases prevent objective understandings of the authors' intentions?

3) How do formal perspectives, like feminism, create a group bias in the reading of LaMotte? What other examples of this dynamic are there in the novel?

(see the answer keys)

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