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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 material were the netsuke rates made from?

2. What was the name of the man that Charles brought his netsukes from?

3. What was the name of the Monet painting Charles convinced his friend to buy?

4. What country does the author say was like a box of sweets?

5. What was considered a Jewish sin?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did the Dreyfus affair change Charles' attitude towards life?

2. What was expected of Viktor and his friends?

3. What evidence does de Waal to prove Charles was friends with all the great Paris artists of the late 19th century?

4. What was the family's goal in terms of their grain business?

5. How did Charles start collecting?

6. Why does Charles buy a vitrine in Chapter 6?

7. How did Charles spend his time in Paris?

8. How does Edmund describe his family's palais?

9. What problems were Charles and his relative having at the end of Chapter 20?

10. How did Charles live his life differently from his brothers?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Which family member in the book does de Waal identify with the most? Why does he identify with that particular family member? How do think they would have gotten along if they had met in real life?

Essay Topic 2

Choose one of the city's de Waal's family lived in and examine how anger towards the Jewish population developed. Why were the originally accepted into the city? Why were the eventually ran out of the city?

Essay Topic 3

Examine the Dreyfus affair.

1. What was the Dreyfus affair?

2. How was de Waal affected by the Dreyfus affair?

3. What was Emile Zola's role in the Dreyfus affair?

(see the answer keys)

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