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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. Which day of the week is dinner served early at Combray?

2. What made the narrator's family avoid Swann's Way?

3. What makes the narrator remember Combray as an adult?

4. In "Swann In Love," who does Swann refuse a dinner invitation from?

5. What makes the Verdurins finally disapprove of Swann in "Swann In Love"?

Short Essay Questions

1. In "Place-Names," what does the narrator say has changed about his faith since his childhood?

2. What does the narrator do every day at Champs-Elysees in "Place-Names"?

3. As a young boy how did the narrator spend his time before and after dinner?

4. What makes Bergotte see the narrator as an intellectual?

5. In "Combray," why does the narrator read a lot?

6. In "Mme. Swann at Home," how does the narrator feel about his relationship with Gilberte?

7. How does the narrator's grandmother start a fight with her family in "Overture"?

8. What does M. Vinteuil do with his compositions in "Combray" that the narrator finds funny?

9. What happens when the narrator's family decides to walk through Swann's Gardens after having not walked that way since M. Swann's marriage?

10. What happens the first two times Swann visits Odette's house?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Bloch and Saint-Loup are two of the narrator's friends. What does each friend have to offer with their friendship? What events in the novel helped to further define these friendships? In what ways are these friends similar? Different? How do these friendships help create a full picture of the narrator?

Essay Topic 2

How does Vinteuil's sonata work a symbol in this novel? What other pieces of music are symbolic? How do these symbols help to create the characters and plot?

Essay Topic 3

How does the narrator's relationship with Gilberte mirror the relationship between M. Swann and Odette? Where do they differ? What is the literary value in paralleling these relationships? What is the lesson the author creates?

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