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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 are Luzhin's grades at school?

2. What happens when Luzhin goes to visit his father's grave after his death?

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

4. Why have Luzhin's parents put off telling him that they've enrolled him in a school?

5. How does Luzhin's future wife perceive him when she first meets him?

Short Essay Questions

1. What ability does Luzhin compare his ability to read chess notation with?

2. What is on Luzhin's father's mind during his first chess games with his son?

3. Why does Luzhin hide during his father's party?

4. What authors does Luzhin like to read?

5. How is Luzhin affected by spectators at his chess games?

6. Describe Luzhin's future wife when he meets her in Germany.

7. What does Luzhin resent while he is working on a puzzle?

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

9. What happens when Luzhin is found hiding in his family's house at the end of Chapter 1?

10. How does Luzhin senior's wife react when he has to go to town for the day?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Luzhin is a master chess player. Discuss chess in the novel.

1) When Luzhin sees a chess board, the pieces are just placeholders. He perceives something entirely abstract behind the board. What is it that Luzhin perceives? Why is it appealing to him? What does his relationship with chess show about his personality?

2) Near the end of the novel, Luzhin sees his life as a chess game. How is his life like a game of chess? Who is his opponent? What is he attempting to win? How does the chess analogy show how Luzhin is perceiving his world and his limitations in perceiving the world?

3) Why does Luzhin feel the need to hide his love for chess? In what ways is Luzhin ambivalent about chess? Is chess truly deadly unhealthy for Luzhin, as his psychiatrist says?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the structure of the novel.

1) What divides the novel into sections or parts? What roles do these parts play over the course of the novel?

2) How does Luzhin develop over the course of the novel? How does he change?

3) Why does the novel begin in Luzhin's boyhood?

Essay Topic 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

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