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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 of the following is not a recommendation Dolmance makes to Eugenie in this section regarding sodomy?

2. What is the value of starvation, according to Dolmance in the Third Dialogue?

3. Instructing Eugenie on the precautions she must take as a wanton woman, Madame tell her to do what regularly?

4. What color is Eugenie's hair?

5. How does Dolmance characterize the poor at the end of this section?

Short Essay Questions

1. What standing wager does Madame de Saint-Ange have?

2. What methods does Madame recommend for avoiding pregnancy?

3. What is the relationship between Madame de Saint-Ange and the Chevalier?

4. What does Dolmance think about parental control of children?

5. Why is sodomy, according to Dolmance, the height of libertine pleasure?

6. How is Madame de Saint-Ange acquainted with Eugenie?

7. How does the Chevalier reassure Eugenie at the beginning of the Fourth Dialogue?

8. How does Chevalier frame Dolamnce's entrance in the First Dialogue?

9. What is the value of blasphemy to the libertine?

10. What arrangement does Dolmance create with Chevalier in the Fourth Dialogue?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay on the topic of phalli in The Bedroom Philosophers. Discuss the order in which phalli are introduced in the narrative and how one tops the other. How are Dolmance, Chevalier, Augustin and Lapierre's phalli all put to different uses? What are the women's reactions to each? Analyzing the use of phalli in the text, determine what they represent in the world of the novel? Excess? Pleasure? Death?

Essay Topic 2

The Bedroom Philosophers is presented in the form of a series of dialogues in two rooms, almost like a play. In a three-part essay, discuss the use of offstage characters to relate information. In what for do these unseen characters appear? What do we learn from these characters? Why are they not present in the boudoir?

Part 1) V.

Part 2) Eugenie's father.

Part 3) The unnamed pamphleteer.

Essay Topic 3

The story of The Bedroom Philosophers is, to a certain extent, the story of Eugenie's education. She enters the narrative a relative innocent and leaves it a libertine. In a three-part essay, discuss Eugenie's character arch:

Part 1) Why is Eugenie initially an innocent? Discuss her life before she arrived in Madame de Saint-Ange's boudoir. What compels her about the libertine lifestyle? How has she explored her sexuality thus far, and what does she expect from this lesson?

Part 2) Discuss the components of Dolmance's lessons that particularly shock Eugenie? Why is she reticent to let the Chevalier break her hymen? How do her perceptions of the world change as she learns more about the philosophy of libertinage?

Part 3) Discuss the type of women Eugenie has become by the end of The Bedroom Philosophers. How does she view the world and her family? What plans does she have for her life going forward? How is this different from her outlook on life at the beginning of the book?

(see the answer keys)

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