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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 color is Melusine's hair?

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

3. What does Blackadder tell Fergus when Fergus asks where Roland is?

4. What does Ellen have from Christabel?

5. What does the knight hear coming from a waterfall?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. How does Ellen Ash feel about Christabel?

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

4. What are Cropper's relationships with the Ash family like?

5. What does the knight tell Melusine when he first sees her?

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

7. How does Blackadder feel about his work?

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 Maud tell Roland about other people's perceptions of what the two are doing?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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?

Essay Topic 2

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?

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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