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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 the name of the sexton at the church where Gideon spent his first night in London?

2. With what does Esther clean her stitches?

3. What is the name of Neuilly’s landlady?

4. Who had been Angela’s landlady?

5. Which constable challenges Cutter and Gideon at the church where Gideon spent his first night in London?

Short Essay Questions

1. What reason does the inspector who accompanies Cutter and Gideon to Esther Tull’s lodgings ask to shut the open window?

2. For what does Angela note the mudlarks root?

3. What reason is given for the attempt to prevent Octavia from confronting her editor at his club?

4. How does Esther Tull note having regarded snow as a child?

5. In their first tutoring session, how does Gideon offend Angela?

6. What remarks does Cutter’s landlady make regarding Gideon’s appearance as a sergeant?

7. What reason for pride does Esther Tull have in her self-stitching?

8. How does Neuilly restrain a butterfly when Gideon first encounters him?

9. What reasons does Gideon cite for hastening to answer his uncle’s summons?

10. What observation about teeth does Cutter make in reference to the slaughter of the St. Johns?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Late in the novel, readerly attention focuses itself on the comment that “We can only keep house, in this life. We cannot tear up the foundations” (394). Does the novel support the comment or not? What in the text shows as much, and how does it show it?

Essay Topic 2

Explicate the significance of the name of any one character in the novel.

Essay Topic 3

Overall, what is the most important theme of The House on Vesper Sands. What in the text indicates as much? How does it do so?

(see the answer keys)

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