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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. Dolmance believes all laws are a crime against whom?

2. What is Lapierre infected with?

3. According to Dolmance in this section, what is pleasure in its highest point?

4. What do the libertines adjourn to do at the end of The Bedroom Philosophers?

5. According to Dolmance in this section, laws are written for whom?

Short Essay Questions

1. How is Madame de Mistival punished after her tribunal in the Final Dialogue?

2. Why does the author of the pamphlet reject the notion of laws as important to order?

3. According to Dolmance in this section, how does nature disprove the existence of vice?

4. What proclamation regarding crime does Dolmance make at the beginning of this section?

5. Why does Dolmance not break Eugenie's hymen?

6. How does Dolmance conclude his argument with Chevalier in this section?

7. What arrives for the libertines in the Sixth Dialogue?

8. How does Eugenie's reaction to her mother in the beginning of the Final Dialogue reflect a change in her character?

9. How does sexual fluid give way to blood at the beginning of the Fifth Dialogue?

10. How could The Bedroom Philosophers be viewed as satire?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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?

Essay Topic 2

In a point-counterpoint essay, determine what the Marquis de Sade would be satirizing if The Bedroom Philosophers were satire. Would his targets be the French aristocracy? The Revolution? Is it more reasonable to believe that he intends the text as a critique of excess? Discuss, on the other hand, what Sade's goal would be if the text were earnest. What evidence from his personal life would contend that the book should be taken straight?

Essay Topic 3

Review the orgy texts of The Bedroom Philosophers and write an essay about how the Marquis de Sade portrays actually copulation. How does the author make clear the specific actions that each character is undertaking? For Eugenie, how does involvement in these activities transition from trepidation to euphoria? What occurs in the text that indicates that the participants are reaching orgasm?

(see the answer keys)

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