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

2. When was Sylvia Plath born?

3. What did Olwyn Hughes claim was something Sylvia's mother had never addressed and, in fact, enabled for years?

4. Whose memoir depicting Sylvia Plath did Olwyn Hughes criticize relentlessly?

5. When did Sylvia Plath die?

Short Essay Questions

1. 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?

2. Which biography of Sylvia Plath did Malcolm find to be the best? What criticism did the book meet?

3. What was Sylvia Plath's response to her mother's criticism of her dark works?

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

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

6. Aurelia Plath's intentions in having her daughter's letters published is implied to be in retaliation for what?

7. What memoir did A. Alvarez write about Sylvia? What was Ted Hughes' response?

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

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

10. What was A. Alvarez's first impression of Ted and Sylvia? How did that opinion change?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the two introductions of The Journals of Sylvia Plath and analyze the introductions of each. What differences are in the work of Ted Hughes in the book?

Essay Topic 2

Describe and discuss The Savage God. When and where was this work first published? What was Ted Hughes' reaction to the piece and why?

Essay Topic 3

Describe Linda Wagner-Martin and Ronald Hayman. When was Wagner-Martin's biography written? Was it published?

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