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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Where was A. Alvarez born?
(a) England.
(b) Mexico.
(c) El Salvador.
(d) Spain.

2. 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 ___________.
(a) A mystery.
(b) An abomination.
(c) An atrocity.
(d) An unjustified murder.

3. What poems did Plath write for the most part in the two months after Ted had left Devon?
(a) Winter Trees.
(b) The Colossus and Other Poems.
(c) Three Women: A Monologue for Three Voices.
(d) Ariel.

4. To what friend of the Hughes was William Stanley Merwin married?
(a) Janet Malcolm.
(b) Sylvia Plath.
(c) Anne Stevenson.
(d) Dido Milroy.

5. Where did Janet Malcolm travel to meet with Anne Stevenson in Part Two: Chapter I?
(a) Durham, England.
(b) Helmsley, England.
(c) Shirebrook, England.
(d) Beaconsfield, England.

Short Answer Questions

1. When was Anne Stevenson born?

2. Who wrote The Colossus and Other Poems?

3. Where did Anne Stevenson move after college and marrying?

4. What university had Sylvia Plath attended?

5. Who was the consulting editor on The Journals of Sylvia Plath?

Short Essay Questions

1. What lecture did Malcolm read of Anne Stevenson's defense of her biography in Part Two: Chapter I?

2. What does Malcolm write of the power and struggle of the biographer in Part One: Chapter I?

3. What did Aurelia Plath have published regarding Sylvia after her death? Why?

4. What qualities of Sylvia Plath's work made her appealing to feminists?

5. How did Anne Stevenson find she related to Sylvia Plath in their youths?

6. Where did Olwyn and Malcolm go together in Part One: Chapter VII? What did Malcolm learn there?

7. What friend of Sylvia Plath's commented negatively about her life and death in Part One: Chapter II?

8. What power did Olwyn Hughes have over the Plath Library? What was Malcolm's impression of her after working with her on the book?

9. What portrait of Sylvia Plath did Anne Stevenson paint in her biography of Sylvia? Why did critics refute that image?

10. How did Janet Malcolm know Anne Stevenson in their youth? What was Malcolm's opinion of her?

(see the answer keys)

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