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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. How many days after Isabel's meeting with Maugham does she invite Larry and Sophie for lunch?

2. Why does Elliott refuse to lend Paul his costume?

3. What is Hakim's?

4. For what does Mr. Achilles marry his previous wife?

5. Who iss Sophie supposed to meet the day she disappeares?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Elliot leave to the main characters in his will?

2. What does Maugham imagine about Isabel and Gray's life in Texas?

3. What is the story of Sophie's disappearance?

4. How does Suzanne become a successful artist?

5. In what way does Maugham criticize the church?

6. Explain what Larry sees and feels when he experiences the Absolute?

7. What is Isabel's terrible news?

8. Do you think there is anything suspicious about the incident with the vodka?

9. What does Larry learn about evil in India?

10. Describe the cafe in which Maugham and Larry drink?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Examine the problems Europe faced after the First World War. Did Europe change? How did this change affect America? Was this change reflected in the arts? Find an art movement after the First World War and examine what kind of thoughts and feelings it was trying to express. Are these thoughts also reflected in Maugham's the Razor's Edge?

Essay Topic 2

The novel is set mostly in Paris.

1) What meaning does Paris bring to the novel? What would you automatically presume about a novel that was set in Paris?

2) How different do you think today's Paris is to the Paris in the novel? How do you think the novel's meaning would change if it were set in today's Paris?

3) How do you think the Paris settings of the novel contributes to the novel's spiritual meaning?

Essay Topic 3

The Razor's Edge is written in the first person and with the author himself as narrator. Why do you think Maugham chose to write the story in the first person? How do you think the meaning of the story would have changed if it were written in the third person? What difference does it make it make to the story that Maugham is one of the characters?

(see the answer keys)

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