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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. Whose work did Renoir call Jew Art?

2. Where does the author say was the best place to buy Japanese art?

3. What was the name of the area in Paris the Ephrussi family moved to?

4. In which city did Viktor live?

5. What country does the author say was like a box of sweets?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Edmund think he has fallen for Charles?

2. Why was Japan a box of sweets for foreigners in the 1880s?

3. What passion did Charles and his love share?

4. Describe Edmund's relative Ignace von Ephrussi.

5. What was expected of Viktor and his friends?

6. What did Drumont write about Jews in his anti-Semetic newspaper?

7. Describe the Ringstrasse when it was first built in Vienna.

8. Why does Charles buy a vitrine in Chapter 6?

9. How did anti-Jewish feeling in France effect Charles?

10. How did the Dreyfus affair effect Jewish people?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Identify the main themes of the story. In what way are these themes relevant to the period? How does the author use character and setting to express these themes?

Essay Topic 2

How did his family's suffering effect de Waal's own upbringing? How has de Waal tried to cope with what his family has been through? Do the students think second and third generations can be effected by problems that occurred within their family over 50 years before?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss elements of the narrative structure; Exposition, conflict, complication, climax, resolution and conclusion. Do all the elements make for a logical and linear story? How does the story's structure express the book's themes?

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