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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 was Hesse's family's religion?

2. What did Hesse do in 1907?

3. What was the name of the periodical to which Hesse contributed around the time of his first child's birth?

4. What medical event took place in 1909 for Hesse?

5. After Tubingen, how often did Hesse return home from his new job to visit family for holidays?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What was Hesse's early childhood like?

3. What was Hesse's social life like in Basel?

4. What was Hesse's relationship with his family's values as a young man?

5. Where did Hesse meet his first wife?

6. How big was Hesse's family?

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

8. Who were Hesse's parents? How did they meet?

9. How did Hesse's style change after his initial success?

10. What circles did Hesse enter in Tubingen?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Hesse was an apprentice in a bookshop. What was Hesse's apprenticeship like, and how did he serve his apprenticeship as a writer? Where did he learn his trade, and what was the process of acquiring a trade like for him? Was he encouraged and trained, or did he learn by trial and error on his own? How did he pass his apprenticeship as a writer? When was his apprenticeship finished? What "masterpiece" established him as a writer, no longer an apprentice?

Essay Topic 2

Which of Hesse's books is most important in his life? Why is it the book that had the greatest effect on Hesse as a man and as a writer?

Essay Topic 3

Hesse experienced periods of depression from time to time throughout his life. What was he depressed about? What did he learn to do to fight his depression? What did he learn from examining the causes of his depression? What was his experience of psychoanalysis like?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 667 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample