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. What does Claude recognize about the group that still comes together for the Thursday night soirees?

2. Why does Claude suggest that Christine stay with Mme. Vandaze?

3. Who visits Claude while Christine is hiding behind the screen?

4. Why do they return late to Paris?

5. How has Jory stirred up the Paris art scene?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the reader know that Christine has been thinking of Claude since the night she spent in his studio?

2. How have the fortunes turned for Irma Bécot?

3. As the character of Claude develops in the novel, what appears to be his greatest fault?

4. How has Fagerolles become swallowed up by the commercial world of art?

5. In what way is Christine's response to their love making a believable part of the story?

6. How have things changed for Fagerolles?

7. How does Claude attempt to make Christine happy once again?

8. Describe Claude's behavior after the Salon.

9. When Naudet shows up at Bongrand's studio, why does he refuse to sell him his paintings?

10. What indicates that Claude would be perfectly happy just to see Christine from time to time rather than have her move in with him?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay of at least two typed, double-spaced pages on the topic of contradictory moral values during the 19th century. Use Henriette and Christine versus Irma and Mathilde to point out these contradictions. Be sure to include how Christine manages to maintain her moral character even though she lives many years with Claude before they are married. Also include how Irma is tolerated in polite society whereas Christine is the subject of gossip and condemnation.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay of at least two typed, double-spaced pages on the topic of Artistic Procrastination. In the essay, analyze the first summer for Claude and Christine in the country. (1) There is no end to the sights that inspire Claude. (2) Christine worries that she is keeping him from his work to which he responds, "...just you wait till tomorrow, you'll see what I can do." (3) The ways Zola describes Claude's summer of working in "fits and starts."

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay of at least two typed, double-spaced pages on the topic of Claude Lantier's Reverence for Nude Women in Art. The three specific areas of the novel that deal with this topic should be the main points of your essay: (1) looking at Christine posing nude for the first time, Zola says that Claude's "heart pounded in his breast as it might have done in the presence of a naked saint." (2) Zola later tells the reader that Claude saw his nude woman in his paintings as a symbol for Paris. (3) Finally, Claude is unable to recapture the woman in his final painting and ultimately commits suicide for the love of her.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,071 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample