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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. Whose number does Val give to Fergus?

2. What does Christabel ask for when she first comes to Sabine's home?

3. Does the medium say that the apprentice has mystical powers?

4. Why doesn't Ellen show Ash what Christabel has sent?

5. What does the medium gain from giving séances?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Blanche Glover feel at the end of her life?

2. How do Roland and Maud feel about each other?

3. What does Maud fear in relationships?

4. What similarities are there between Christabel and Ash's trip and Roland and Maud's trip?

5. What happens at Sabine's house when Christabel disappears?

6. How does the medium in the poem introduce her practices to the apprentice?

7. What does Roland start to do at the end of Chapter 26?

8. Where has Euan located Cropper and Hildebrand?

9. What do Roland and Maud decide to do at the end of Chapter 18?

10. What does Beatrice Nest overhear?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

One of the fundamental ideas in the novel is the nature of knowledge. Discuss knowledge and unknowability in the novel.

1) How is the characters' knowledge about their poets thrown into upheaval? How does what the characters "know" differ from objective truth?

2) What knowledge do the characters have about each other? How does Roland's knowledge of Maud change over the course of the novel?

3) What does the postscript at the end of the novel say about knowledge and its limits?

Essay Topic 2

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 3

Discuss the structure of the novel.

1) Why and how does the novel use letters, excerpts of poems, and journal entries in its telling of the story?

2) How does the novel gradually reveal the story of Ash and Maud?

3) How do the characters of Roland and Maud change over the course of the novel?

(see the answer keys)

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