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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 is Dolmance's religious inclination?

2. Who is the first character to begin kissing and caressing Eugenie?

3. What term does the Marquis de Sade use to refer to his readers in the beginning of his Introduction?

4. How are Madame de Saint-Ange and Chevlaier connected?

5. In the Third Dialogue, what topic does Eugenie broach that makes Dolmance scoff and chastise her?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. Describe Dolmance's attitudes toward the poor.

4. Describe Dolmance.

5. What skill do women have for cruelty, according to Dolmance at the end of the Third Dialogue?

6. What odd and incorrect theories of conception are discussed in the Third Dialogue?

7. What specific instructions does Sade give his readers about emulating characters in To the Libertines?

8. Describe the argument that Dolmance and Chevalier have in the Fourth Dialogue?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Sodomy plays an incredible role in the libertine philosophy of Dolmance. He expounds upon its pure, unadorned pleasure. Write a three-part essay about the libertine ideal as expressed through the act of sodomy:

Part 1) What reasons does Dolmance explain through the book that society has for frowning upon anal intercourse? Why is it considered unnatural and dirty? To what extend is the substance of semen made sacred through these arguments?

Part 2) Discuss the various ways in which Dolmance rebuke the arguments against sodomy. How does he connect the notion of nature to justify the value of sodomy? Aesthetically, why does Dolmance think that the anus is more perfect than the vagina?

Part 3) Discuss how Dolmance applies his beliefs about sodomy in his everyday life. What does he abstain from? What does he lecture and practice on a regular basis?

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

Much of the trajectory of The Bedroom Philosophers involves the increasingly deviant sexual endeavors of the libertines. Write a three-part essay about this trajectory, discussing the purpose of this evolution:

Part 1) Why do Dolmance, Chevalier and Madame de Saint-Ange plot the seduction of Eugenie? What lessons do they teach her in the early dialogues, and how do these sexual acts connect to the libertine lifestyle? What does Eugenie learn about this worldview? How does she react, and how does she change?

Part 2) At the end of the Fifth Dialogue, the libertines engage in increasingly deviant sexual behavior. Discuss the acts they engage in immediately after the reading of the pamphlet. How does Dolmance justify his vulgarity and extremity? What is the libertine's purpose in being especially disgusting in sexual acts?

Part 3) Discuss the meaning behind the gang-rape and torture of Madame de Mistival. How is this a culmination of the libertines lessons? How has Eugenie changed over the course of the novel? What has she renounces in the proceedings and how does her violation of her own mother serve as a compact with Dolmance's worldview?

(see the answer keys)

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