View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Ted Hughes was the British Poet Laureate beginning in what year?

2. In what year did Anne Stevenson write to Olwyn about never contacting her again?

3. What was the title of Ted Hughes' last work?

4. On the eve of her death, Sylvia Plath insisted on paying for what which she got from Trevor Thomas?

5. How long had Anne Stevenson worked on her biography of Sylvia Plath before it was published?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What surprised Malcolm about Anne Stevenson in her similarities to Sylvia?

3. When and why did Ted Hughes and A. Alvarez put their differences behind them?

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

5. What outraged Ted Hughes in The Haunting of Sylvia Plath? What response did the author write?

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

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

8. When and why did Anne Stevenson and Olwyn Hughes put their differences behind them?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the aftermath of Bitter Fame's publication. Should Anne Stevenson have published the book, considering her apprehension about its validity? Why or why not?

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

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?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 873 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample