Mid-Term Questions

Chose one of the following topic questions for your mid-term essay.

1. The concluding "Two Voices" chapter of G.K. Chesterton's The Napoleon of Notting Hill is one of the novel's most memorable and widely remarked aspects. Identify the specific literary form that the chapter adopts, locate the chapter and its form historically, and then describe the effects that the chapter has on the understanding of the chapters preceding it.
2. H.G. Wells' The Sleeper Awakes incorporates Darwinian evolution--of which Wells, having learned it directly from T.H. Huxley, was a strong advocate--into both theme and plot. Detail the favourable presentation of Darwinism throughout the text, and harmonise that with Wells' astonishing expression of "Ostrog's Point of View" in explicitly Darwinian terms.
3. Several important writers name P.G. Wodehouse as supreme prose stylist of the 20th Century. Analyse the prose in Psmith in the City and identify and detail specific characteristics of Wodehouse's writing which support the judgement of his literary peers.