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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. To what story are both Christabel and Maud compared?

2. What does Melusine offer the knight to drink?

3. What does Roland say to Blackadder after the meeting?

4. What does the group hope to do?

5. Who does Euan say he is advising?

Short Essay Questions

1. What are all the things Ellen puts in the box?

2. How does Ellen Ash feel about Christabel?

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

4. What does Maud fear in relationships?

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

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

7. What does Beatrice Nest overhear?

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

9. Describe Cropper's lectures.

10. What does Roland think about Blackadder's letter?

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

Discuss communication in the novel.

1) How does literature and poetry function as communication in the novel? How does a reader or scholar know that he or she is communicating with an author like Ash or LaMotte?

2) How do the characters communicate with each other? How do they often not communicate, and exist at cross-purposes with each other?

3) How does communication build knowledge in the novel?

Essay Topic 3

In the novel, the characters are scholars who study two Victorian poets. Discuss the importance of poetry in the novel.

1) Why does Roland decide to write poems, and find a poetic voice, at the end of the novel? How is writing poetry different than studying and analyzing it?

2) What do poets accomplish with their poems in the novel? Who are the poems written for?

3) What causes poetry to persist over time in the novel? Why do the characters study poetry that is written far in the past?

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