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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. Anne Stevenson wrote that "it took me two unhappy marriages and ____ children to make me reconsider my assumptions."

2. Anne Stevenson left her second husband and children to go off with what poet?

3. Elizabeth Sigmund recounted an incident, soon after Sylvia's death, in which Ted did all except __________.

4. In a letter to Anne Stevenson, Ted defended his stance of publicly disassociating himself from ________.

5. What was the name of the man Sylvia was involved with when she met Ted Hughes?

Short Essay Questions

1. What did Anne Stevenson reveal about Ted Hughes in her interview with Malcolm in Part Two: Chapter IV?

2. What parallel did Malcolm make of Anne Stevenson's relationship to Olwyn Hughes?

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

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

5. How did Sylvia Plath demonstrate her "not nice" side in her journals?

6. Why was the book The Journals of Sylvia Plath widely criticized?

7. What did Alvarez tell Malcolm about Ted and Sylvia's relationship in Part Two: Chapter VII?

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

9. Who was Trevor Thomas? What did Malcolm learn from him?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe and discuss the life and career of the author. What led Janet Malcolm to approach this subject and book?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the role that literary criticism plays in the publication of books. What impact do critics have on book sales and the public opinion of works?

Essay Topic 3

Describe and analyze Sylvia Plath's The Wishing Box. How was Plath's personal life and emotional state revealed in the work? When was it published?

(see the answer keys)

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