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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 game does the whole family often play on the estate?

2. Why does Nabokov's father force the family to leave a sidewalk cafe?

3. To what does Nabokov compare existence?

4. Where does Nabokov's family live until his father's death in 1922?

5. What does this thriving upper-class tourist industry offer?

Short Essay Questions

1. How are the Nabokov's affected by their son? What do we learn about Dmitri, as he grows?

2. What does the Russian revolution do to most of Russia's writers and artists?

3. Describe Nabokov's ancestors.

4. The local schoolmaster is brought in to give the children a crash course in the Russian language. What takes place at a meeting between the father, son, and schoolmaster?

5. Why is the couple allowed to be on their own.

6. When does Nabokov meet Colette? How do they spend their time together?

7. How does young Nabokov react to rumor that his father has challenged someone to a duel?

8. What is a difficulty that Russian writers endure?

9. How do the Nabokovs travel from St. Petersburg to Paris?

10. Why does Nabokov have trouble sleeping?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Nabokov seems to have a close relationship with his father.

Part 1) Describe their relationship.

Part 2) Compare and contrast Nabokov's relationship with his father and his relationship with his mother.

Part 3) What are possible reasons for the differences in the two relationships?

Essay Topic 2

Nabokov lives a bourgeois, aristocratic life.

Part 1) What evidence from the text suggests this?

Part 2) When and why does this lifestyle end?

Part 3) How does Nabokov handle this change in lifestyle?

Essay Topic 3

Nabokov gives a brief history of his maternal and paternal ancestors.

Part 1) Describe his paternal and maternal ancestors.

Part 2) Compare and contrast these ancestors.

Part 3) What can one learn about Nabokov from this information?

(see the answer keys)

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