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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. In the second version of The Journals of Sylvia Plath, Hughes indicated that he might be able to get his hands on what?
(a) The original manuscript.
(b) Additional material.
(c) A lost journal.
(d) Love letters.

2. When Anne Stevenson wrote her biography of Sylvia Plath, she found that she and Sylvia had gone through the same teen-aged angst and sexual frustrations of the American youth of what era?
(a) 1920's.
(b) 1940's.
(c) 1950s.
(d) 1930's.

3. When did Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath marry?
(a) 1960.
(b) 1957.
(c) 1956.
(d) 1959.

4. 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) Sinful poetry.
(b) Confessional poetry.
(c) Truthful poetry.
(d) Realistic poetry.

5. Toward the end of her life, according to Alvarez, Sylvia Plath developed a problem with ___________.
(a) Animals.
(b) Schizophrenia.
(c) Hygiene.
(d) Fear.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where did Janet Malcolm travel to meet with Anne Stevenson in Part Two: Chapter I?

2. When was Sylvia Plath born?

3. Anne Stevenson began a lecture describing how her and Sylvia's background as well as ideology were similar, and they had both married _________.

4. For what magazine is Janet Malcolm on staff?

5. Who edited The Journals of Sylvia Plath?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. When were Ted and Sylvia separated? What did Sylvia reveal to Alvarez during that time?

3. How old were Sylvia and Ted when Sylvia died? How did she die?

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

5. What did Ted Hughes write in the second edition introduction of The Journals of Sylvia Plath? When was it published?

6. What happened between Linda Wagner-Martin and Ted and Olwyn Hughes?

7. How did Janet Malcolm compare her writing to Anne Stevenson's in college? What was Stevenson's career like?

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

9. What was the first official bad review of Bitter Fame? Who wrote it?

10. Ted Hughes wrote two introductions to The Journals of Sylvia Plath. What did he write in the first introduction, and when was this edition published?

(see the answer keys)

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