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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. Anne Stevenson left her second husband and children to go off with what poet?
(a) Walt Whitman.
(b) Phillip Hobsbaum.
(c) Allen Ginsberg.
(d) Oscar Wilde.

2. What did Elizabeth Sigmund portray Olwyn Hughes as being envious of in her interview with Malcolm?
(a) Sylvia's compassion and depth.
(b) Sylvia's love from Ted.
(c) Sylvia's talent and beauty.
(d) Sylvia's money.

3. What was the name of Clarissa Roche's husband of whom Sylvia had less than kind things to say about?
(a) Mark.
(b) Frank.
(c) Paul.
(d) Jim.

4. When was Anne Stevenson's book Correspondences: A Family History in Letters published?
(a) 1978.
(b) 1968.
(c) 1971.
(d) 1974.

5. Since Sylvia's death, Ted had served two masters--the literary artist who wanted her work to be her legacy and ____________.
(a) Her eternal lover.
(b) The ultimate critic.
(c) An ambassador of truth.
(d) The protector of his children's mother.

Short Answer Questions

1. When did Assia Wevill die?

2. Where did Malcolm ask her taxi driver to detour on the way to interview Clarissa Roche?

3. Sylvia's failed confrontation with whom in Paris comprised the most interesting and least tampered with entries of The Journals of Sylvia Plath?

4. Malcolm drew a parallel between Anne Stevenson's failed relationship and her guilt-ridden past to the subservient role she took on with whom?

5. In Part Two: Chapter II, Ted described the battle Sylvia had to get her short story published in what periodical?

Short Essay Questions

1. When and why did Clarissa Roche begin a biography on Sylvia? What was it like?

2. Describe the letters that Malcolm read between Anne Stevenson and Olwyn Hughes. What was the relationship between the women like?

3. What public dispute did Alvarez and Ted Hughes have via letters?

4. What did Anne Stevenson assert as her take on Sylvia in a letter to Malcolm?

5. Who was Richard Sassoon? How did Sylvia know him?

6. What did Elizabeth Sigmund relate about Sylvia? How did she know her?

7. When was The Haunting of Sylvia Plath written? What was its premise?

8. What was A. Alvarez's main criticism about Anne Stevenson's biography of Sylvia?

9. How did Clarissa Roche know Sylvia Plath?

10. How did Anne Stevenson equate her early days in England with Sylvia Plath's?

(see the answer keys)

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