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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. Who does Val come home with?

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

3. What did Christabel LaMotte write?

4. When is the poem Swammerdam set?

5. How does Roland feel about the library?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Maud's dilemma about Leonora?

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

3. How do Christabel and Ash feel about meeting secretly?

4. How does Swammerdam's family treat him?

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

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

7. How does Cropper feel about Blackadder?

8. What is Roland researching at the library?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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?

Essay Topic 2

The novel deals with perceptions of women, and women's relationships with men. Discuss perceptions of women in the novel.

1) Why is Christabel unwilling to enter into a relationship with Ash? Why does she perceive a relationship with a man as infringing on her identity and independence?

2) How is Maud perceived as a woman, and how does this affect her life? How do women's appearances in the novel affect their relationships and identities?

3) How is Beatrice Nest perceived, and how are perceptions of her related to gender?

Essay Topic 3

Compare Ash and LaMotte's relationship to Maud and Roland's.

1) How are the two couples' experiences in Yorkshire similar? How are they different? What does this show about the characters?

2) What allows Maud and Roland to come together in a relationship, while Ash and LaMotte's relationship can only be fleeting and secret?

3) What compels Ash and LaMotte together? What needs do they fulfill in each other? How does this compare to Maud and Roland, and the forces that compel them toward each other?

(see the answer keys)

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