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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 thinks that the narrator should be allowed time to play outside as a boy?

2. What often happens to the narrator during the night in "Overture"?

3. In "Place-Names," how does the narrator's mother describe Mme. Blatin?

4. Overall, what conclusion does the narrator draw about Gilberte's feelings for him in "Place-Names"?

5. Who helps to improve Mme. Swann's opinion of the narrator in "Mme. Swann at Home"?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens on New Year's Even in "Mme. Swann at Home"?

2. What makes Bergotte see the narrator as an intellectual?

3. What does M. Vinteuil do with his compositions in "Combray" that the narrator finds funny?

4. In "Overture," how does the narrator describe his sleep?

5. In "Overture," how do the narrator's aunts treat M. Swann?

6. How does the narrator's grandmother start a fight with her family in "Overture"?

7. What ends Swann's relationship with Uncle Adolphe?

8. What happens when Swann spends time away from Odette in "Swann In Love"?

9. What ends Swann's relationship with the Verdurins?

10. In "Combray," why does the narrator want to meet M. Swann's daughter?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How is Paris a character in this novel? How do the characters respond to the city of Paris? What does Paris represent and embody? How does going to Paris and leaving Paris help to develop the novel?

Essay Topic 2

How does the narrator's relationship with Gilberte mirror the relationship between M. Swann and Odette? Where do they differ? What is the literary value in paralleling these relationships? What is the lesson the author creates?

Essay Topic 3

Describe and analyze the relationship between the narrator and his mother. Follow their relationship from boyhood into adulthood. What things change? What remain the same? What does each character want from the other?

(see the answer keys)

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