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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. To which of the following is Octavia compared?

2. What drink does Cutter order for Gideon when they first repair to his preferred establishment?

3. What drug does Esther Tull use to ease her pain?

4. What is the name of the physician in charge of Angela’s hospital care?

5. How many vials does Esther Tull steal from the safe in Strythe’s workroom?

Short Essay Questions

1. For what does Angela note the mudlarks root?

2. How does Esther Tull note having regarded snow as a child?

3. Why is Gideon commended to the care of the groundskeeper at his boyhood school?

4. Why does Cutter note not having asked Carew about Esther Tull’s lodgings?

5. What reason is advanced for Strythe preferring oil lamps to gas lamps?

6. What explanation is given for calling Gideon’s uncle “Old Nelly” (31)?

7. What observation about teeth does Cutter make in reference to the slaughter of the St. Johns?

8. Angela celebrates her birthday as being 7 May. Why?

9. How does Octavia’s editor initially attempt to alter his agreement with her?

10. What lunch does Octavia prepare for herself after her fruitless pursuit of information about Strythe and his travels?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Late in the novel, readerly attention focuses itself on the comment that “We can only keep house, in this life. We cannot tear up the foundations” (394). Does the novel support the comment or not? What in the text shows as much, and how does it show it?

Essay Topic 2

What attitude does the novel display towards alcohol use? What in the novel effects that display, and how does it do so?

Essay Topic 3

Overall, what is the most important theme of The House on Vesper Sands. What in the text indicates as much? How does it do so?

(see the answer keys)

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