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. Who does Fleur call for advice when she realizes she has no copy of her novel?

2. When Lady Edwina realizes that her son has been up to no good, how does she react to Fleur?

3. When she looks through pages of the memoirs, what does Fleur see?

4. What happens when Dottie visited Fleur's room the evening after Fleur found her manuscript?

5. Fleur's job has changed from altering the manuscripts to what?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why doesn't Fleur tell Edwina that she believes Sir Quentin is behind the theft of her manuscript?

2. Fleur desperately wants to do what when she gets home with her manuscript? What does she do instead?

3. What does Fleur first think might be the problem with her novel when the publisher requests to meet with her in person?

4. How does Fleur happen upon the title of the book she is now narrating?

5. Even though Fleur and Dottie have quite a tumultuous relationship, after Sir Quentin's death, she keeps Fleur well-informed about the other members of the Autobiographical Association. Describe what happens to any two members.

6. What was it that Fleur scolded herself when she determined who had likely stolen the manuscript from her room?

7. Describe how at least one of the maxims Fleur remembers from childhood helps direct her actions as attempts to get her manuscript back.

8. Before Fleur leaves the flat, Lady Edwina gives her something in secret. When she reads it later, what does she find?

9. How does Sir Quentin lure Fleur to his office after she retypes her manuscript and gives the copies to Solly?

10. When her novel is ultimately published, how does Fleur initially react?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe as much as you can about the culture in which Fleur lives based on descriptions from the novel. How much of that culture is revealed through her eyes? Could this novel be set anywhere else? Could the story have transpired, in tact, had it taken place in the US, or Shanghai or Paris or Munich in 1949? How might it have differed had it been moved from England?

Essay Topic 2

Describe Fleur Talbot as "character type," as she does with Beryl Tims and Dottie, the "English Roses." What would her character type be named? Who else might fit into this character type - another literary character, someone in a movie, someone from your life? Why? How does that person compare to Fleur?

Essay Topic 3

A recurring theme in literature is the classic conflict between passion and responsibility. How does Fleur confront honoring her passion for finding the story with her responsibilities? Describe the nature of the conflict, how it affects the character, and its importance to the story.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,000 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample