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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Part Two: Chapter II.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How many pages did the manuscript which Anne Stevenson wrote for Penguin Books contain?
(a) 75 pages.
(b) 100 pages.
(c) 150 pages.
(d) 50 pages.

2. What literary genre emphasizes the intimate, and sometimes unflattering, information about details of the poet's personal life, such as in poems about mental illness, sexuality, and despondence?
(a) Realistic poetry.
(b) Confessional poetry.
(c) Truthful poetry.
(d) Sinful poetry.

3. Who prescribed antidepressants for Plath a few days before her death?
(a) Dr. Hollingsworth.
(b) Dr. Hefner.
(c) Dr. Holiday.
(d) Dr. Horder.

4. Whose biography of Sylvia Plath did Olwyn Hughes laud?
(a) Ronald Hayman's.
(b) A. Alvarez's.
(c) Janet Malcolm's.
(d) Anne Stevenson's.

5. The Bell Jar is based in part on Plath's own life and, in particular, her suicide attempt in what year?
(a) 1955.
(b) 1953.
(c) 1950.
(d) 1949.

Short Answer Questions

1. When did the Inquisition of the Roman Catholic Church begin?

2. The long and confused letter Janet Malcolm received from Olwyn in response in Part One: Chapter IV only reiterated her disdain for ____________.

3. In her biography of Sylvia Plath, Stevenson writes of Plath as a sober and confused perfectionist whose suicide as well as the inspiration for her art remain ___________.

4. According to a letter from Anne Stevenson in which she provided her take on Sylvia and her work, Sylvia had used poetry as a way to stage her own what?

5. Under what pseudonym was The Bell Jar originally published?

(see the answer key)

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