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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. How does Luzhin hurt himself during the chess game with Turati?

2. What present does Luzhin's fiancee bring to him at his hotel room?

3. What does Luzhin do immediately after proposing to his future wife?

4. Where does Luzhin find the magazines where he studies chess problems?

5. When Luzhin suggests teaching his son chess, where in the country house do they find a chess set?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Luzhin's future wife feel about introducing him to her family?

2. Why does Luzhin's mother leave her husband and son to return to Russia, and how does Luzhin's father react?

3. How doe Luzhin's fiancee seem like a dream to him?

4. How does Valentinov view Luzhin?

5. Why does Luzhin's father decide that the boy he wants to write about, based on his son, will die young?

6. What does Luzhin ask his fiancee to do, on the second day she comes to his Berlin chess tournament?

7. How does Luzhin's father feel when he finally hears that his son is a prodigy?

8. What problem does Luzhin have getting to his game with his final rival?

9. How does Luzhin respond to his fiancee's parents' home?

10. What authors does Luzhin like to read?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss Luzhin's character.

1) How is Luzhin different from other people? What are the consequences to him in his life?

2) Why is Luzhin obsessed with chess? What does Luzhin see and enjoy that most people don't?

3) What kind of world would Luzhin be happy in? In what ways is Luzhin mismatched to society, and why?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss marriage in the novel.

1) How does Luzhin's parent's marriage play out? What example of marriage does Luzhin have as a child?

2) Why does Luzhin marry? What does he expect from marriage? What does his wife expect from marriage? What do others expect from their marriage?

3) What other examples of marriage are there in the novel? What is Luzhin's wife's parents' marriage like? What does the novel say about marriage in general?

Essay Topic 3

Luzhin's father expects his son to follow the patterns of the father's novels. Discuss Luzhin's father's expectations.

1) What effects do his father's expectations have on Luzhin? How much is Luzhin aware of his father's expectations, and how does he react to them?

2) How are Luzhin's father's expectations echoed in his wife's expectations?

3) What would Luzhin's father's relationship with a normal, average son be like? How would his expectations play out?

(see the answer keys)

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