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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. What family trait does Freedman say Hesse seems to have inherited?

2. When was "Peter Camenzind" published?

3. How did Hesse react to his loneliness?

4. Why did Hesse travel to the spa at Badenweiler?

5. What was Hesse primarily working on in 1907?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Freedman say about Hesse's popularity over the years?

2. When did Hesse begin to write?

3. What is Freedman's stance with regard to the relationship between Hesse's life and works?

4. What did Hesse get from his trip to India in 1911?

5. Describe the importance of spas and cures in Hesse's life.

6. Describe Hesse's marriage with Maria.

7. What was Hesse's arrival in Tubingen like?

8. Why was 1902 an important year for Hesse?

9. Where would Hesse run away from? Where would he run away to?

10. What was Hesse's early childhood like?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Hesse once tried to kill himself after he was rejected by a woman. How important was this event, both in terms of his rejection by a woman, and in terms of his failure to kill himself? How did Hesse overcome the emotions he felt as a result of these events? How did he confront them again and again over time?

Essay Topic 2

Describe Hesse's life as a reader. Which authors drew him? Which authors did he return to again and again? What did his favorite books do for him? From whom did Hesse learn to write? Which authors did he write his books to? Whose influences did he struggle to elude? Whose influences did he fail to escape from?

Essay Topic 3

Describe Hesse's relationship with his parents and family. Why didn't they get along? What traits of Hesse's strained their relationship, even from his childhood? What traits of his parents contributed to a strained relationship? How did Hesse's works, marriages, and decisions change the nature of that relationship over time?

(see the answer keys)

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