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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is the term used for a novel describing real life, behind a façade of fiction?
(a) Autobiography.
(b) Nonfiction fiction.
(c) Biography.
(d) Roman a clef.

2. Whose memoir depicting Sylvia Plath did Olwyn Hughes criticize relentlessly?
(a) A. Alvarez's.
(b) Anne Stevenson's.
(c) Ted Hughes'.
(d) Janet Malcolm's.

3. What book by A. Alvarez about suicide gained added resonance from his friendship with Plath?
(a) Where Did It All Go Right.
(b) Life after Marriage: Scenes from Divorce.
(c) School of Donne.
(d) The Savage God.

4. Ronald Hayman wrote in The Independent that whose biography was vindictive?
(a) Anne Stevenson's.
(b) Janet Malcolm.
(c) Frances McCullough.
(d) A. Alvarez.

5. What did Hughes claim Sylvia had discarded during the last years of her life in the first publication of The Journals of Sylvia Plath?
(a) Prejudices.
(b) Personal relationships.
(c) False selves.
(d) Religion.

6. The Bell Jar is based in part on Plath's own life and, in particular, her suicide attempt in what year?
(a) 1950.
(b) 1953.
(c) 1949.
(d) 1955.

7. In their interview in Part Two: Chapter I, Anne Stevenson told Malcolm of the hurt she felt when a critic had accused her of ___________.
(a) Being envious of Plath's talent.
(b) Telling lies.
(c) Leaving out details.
(d) Secretly hating Plath.

8. The long and confused letter Janet Malcolm received from Olwyn in response in Part One: Chapter IV only reiterated her disdain for ____________.
(a) The Hughes family.
(b) Ted Hughes.
(c) The Sylvia Plath myth.
(d) The postal service.

9. How did Sylvia Plath commit suicide?
(a) She overdosed.
(b) She shot herself.
(c) She hung herself.
(d) She gassed herself.

10. How many words did Ted Hughes cut from Linda Wagner-Martin's manuscript?
(a) 1,800.
(b) 11,000.
(c) 15,000.
(d) 3,700.

11. Who prescribed antidepressants for Plath a few days before her death?
(a) Dr. Hefner.
(b) Dr. Horder.
(c) Dr. Holiday.
(d) Dr. Hollingsworth.

12. In the first publication of The Journals of Sylvia Plath, Hughes commented how in the last several years of her life, Sylvia had found ______________.
(a) Her true voice as a poet.
(b) Happiness.
(c) The perfect editor.
(d) Her lost journals.

13. In the second version of The Journals of Sylvia Plath, Hughes indicated that he might be able to get his hands on what?
(a) A lost journal.
(b) Love letters.
(c) Additional material.
(d) The original manuscript.

14. What did Sylvia Plath leave for her children when they awoke the night she killed herself?
(a) Bread and milk.
(b) Their backpacks.
(c) Milk and cookies.
(d) A note.

15. What literary genre emphasizes the intimate, and sometimes unflattering, information about details of the poet's personal life, such as in poems about mental illness, sexuality, and despondence?
(a) Realistic poetry.
(b) Sinful poetry.
(c) Truthful poetry.
(d) Confessional poetry.

Short Answer Questions

1. When was the book The Colossus and Other Poems first published?

2. To what friend of the Hughes was William Stanley Merwin married?

3. In what year had a literary critic declared that what stood out about Plath's works was that Plath's "not nice" quality was what set her apart from her contemporaries?

4. Anne Stevenson sent a completed draft of her story for Penguin Books to whom for his comments?

5. In 1952, William Stanley Merwin's first book of poetry was published under what title?

(see the answer keys)

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