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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 does Elliott miss while he is bedridden?

2. What play does Maugham go to see in this chapter?

3. Who comes instead of the local bishop?

4. Of what nationality is Edna?

5. What has Larry got enough money to do?

Short Essay Questions

1. In what way does Sophie embody the book's theme of good and evil?

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

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

4. How does Sophie give in to temptation?

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

6. What does Elliott say in answer to Edna's invitation?

7. In what ways does the story end happily?

8. What is Isabel's terrible news?

9. What reasons does Larry give for wanting to marry Sophie?

10. In what way has Elliot changed from the last time Maugham saw him?

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

Examine the following statement: "The Razor's Edge fails because it examines the effects of the First World War from too privileged a viewpoint." Using two examples from the book argue for or against the statement.

Essay Topic 3

The Razor's Edge is part of the philosophical genre.

1) What are the conventions of the The Razor's Edge genre in terms of character, language and plot?

2) In what way did The Razor's Edge help to set the template for similar novels? Do modern novels still use the ideas used in The Razor's Edge?

(see the answer keys)

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