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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Dencombe feel about his future?
(a) He is depressed about his narrowing prospects.
(b) He expects to begin over again.
(c) He looks forward to critical appreciation for the book he is working on now.
(d) He is apprehensive about his savings holding out.

2. What does May Bartram buy in London?
(a) A house.
(b) A golden bowl.
(c) A necklace.
(d) A pet bird.

3. What does Eve Sedgwick suggest was John Marcher's real secret?
(a) His pathological fears.
(b) His death.
(c) His homosexuality.
(d) His bankruptcy.

4. What distracts Dencombe from his meditation on his own future?
(a) He watches people milling about on the lawn below him.
(b) He watches the birds in the trees.
(c) He picks up his book.
(d) Three people walking up the path.

5. Where is the telegraph office located in ''In the Cage'?
(a) In Crocker's grocery.
(b) In the library.
(c) In the post office.
(d) In the bank.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does James characterize Spencer Brydon's alter ego?

2. What quality does a premise have to have in order to be suitable for a novel, in James' opinion?

3. What does James say fiction must be, above all?

4. What does the main character think Captain Everard thinks about her?

5. In what month is 'The Beast in the Jungle' set?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the telegraph operator's fiancée asking her to do?

2. What is the irony in the secret Marcher has been keeping all these years?

3. Describe Dencombe's feelings about his own work.

4. Who is Dr. Hugh?

5. What happens to bring May Bartram and John Marcher into closer friendship?

6. What is the significance of the title?

7. What did James study before he took to writing, and how did this influence his writing?

8. What is Marcher's realization at the end of 'The Beast in the Jungle'?

9. What effect does the affair of Lady Bradeen and Captain Everard have on the telegraph operator?

10. How does Spencer Brydon react to the changes that took place in New York over the last 33 years?

(see the answer keys)

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