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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. When do they arrive in Paris?

2. What game does the whole family often play on the estate?

3. What does Nabokov's mother do on the trip to Paris?

4. They board the Sud-Express and disembark in what town?

5. To whom is Chapter Five devoted?

Short Essay Questions

1. What evidence does the chapter give of Nabokov's bourgeois, aristocratic life?

2. Why is the couple allowed to be on their own.

3. Describe Nabokov's ancestors.

4. How does young Nabokov react to rumor that his father has challenged someone to a duel?

5. How is Nabokov's experience at Cambridge?

6. What is Nabokov's life like after leaving Cambridge?

7. What does Nabokov experience in Crimea?

8. He also had several art instructors. Who are they and what does he learn from them?

9. What does the Russian revolution do to most of Russia's writers and artists?

10. Who is Tamara?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Nabokov speaks mainly of his brother and himself as experiencing a liberal education, even though Nabokov has two sisters.

Part 1) Why are they rarely mentioned?

Part 2) What training would be important for a girl in this society?

Part 3) What is the role of women at this time?

Essay Topic 2

With what is Nabokov fascinated, in fact, obsessed? Give examples from the text to support your response. How do the members of his household encourage this obsession?

Essay Topic 3

How does the Nabokov family's lifestyle before exile contradict with the father's philosophy? Why might there be this discrepancy? What do you think is the opinion of the father about his family's lifestyle in Western Europe? Use information from the text to support your response.

(see the answer keys)

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