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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. Who does Forster say is the real hero of The Old Wives' Tale?

2. The purpose of food in fiction is mostly a ____________ one.

3. Whose characters does Forster describe as being as "flat as a photograph"?

4. In which novel does Forster say that the author bounces the reader around characters?

5. Where is Moll sent after she is caught stealing?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Forster say that Scheherazade avoids her fate?

2. According to Forster, what is the purpose of food in fiction?

3. Why does Forster believe an Austen novel is more complicated than a Defoe novel?

4. What does Forster say is the difference between a novel and a memoir?

5. What does Forster mean when he says that novels give us the "illusion of perspicacity"?

6. What does Forster consider to be the strangest of the five basic elements of life?

7. Why are flat characters sometimes referred to as humorous characters?

8. What is the tone that Forster notes both in the writing of Laurence Sterne and Virginia Woolf?

9. What is striking about the funerals described in the excerpts by H.G. Wells and Charles Dickens?

10. How does Forster define the novel in its most basic terms?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does Forster's point about how varied points of view reflect life parallel his points about characters made in the first People section?

Essay Topic 2

Does being a novelist himself make Forster more qualified to present this lecture series or cloud his objectivity? What are specific examples of both?

Essay Topic 3

What does Forster contend is the important difference between real people and people in novels? Why is this an important distinction? Using research on Forster himself, what is the irony of his discussion of the importance of real people keeping their secrets?

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