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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 Madame Scholtz and Oxtiern plan to do to break up Herman and Ernestine?

2. Fabrice asks Oxtiern to have a "trifle" bit more ______________.

3. In addition to confessing to the theft of Madame Scholtz's money, what else does she require Herman to do?

4. Whose daughter does Duc want to marry?

5. What does Oxtiern say that he and Herman need to do before they duel?

Short Essay Questions

1. In a short summary, what happens during the action of Duclos' story?

2. Who assumes the task of the storytelling in December?

3. Why does the narrator wish to see the famous mines in Sweden?

4. During the sixth week festival in December, what happens?

5. Who are the guests at the first dinner party of the "four libertines"?

6. Why do Oxtiern and Madame Scholtz scheme to keep Ernestine and Herman apart?

7. What are the details surrounding Herman?

8. What does the Duc require of Curval if he is to allow Curval to marry his daughter Julie?

9. What do the "four libertines" do to strengthen their ties?

10. Why does Herman want to wait to marry?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Women have fought over Sade's writing. Angela Carter ("The Sadeian Woman: And the Ideology of Pornography" (1979)) believed Sade to be a "moral pornographer." Andrea Dworkin ("Pornography: Men Possessing Women" (1979)) saw Sade as the model of the "woman-hating pornographer." With whom do you agree? Did Sade hate women, or did he create a "special place" for women in the lives of men?

Essay Topic 2

Many ancient cultures, dating back over 4,000 years, boasted very sexual imagery. Some of the imagery was very perverse in nature. While perverse, the desire for such imagery remained among many of the great cultures. Based upon this, do you believe that Sade's writings had a place in his own culture? Why/Why not? Why do you think that writings, such as Sade's, were desired among the great societies of the world?

Essay Topic 3

While it is a fact that Sade's writing was banned for close to 170 years in France, it was also banned in England and the United States. Why do you think that the ban was lifted on the text? What about the text did some find worthy of lifting the ban? Would you have lifted the ban? Why/Why not?

(see the answer keys)

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