French Literature Trivia

1. Who was the first recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature?

From Quiz French Winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature

Answer: René François Sully Prudhomme

Sully Prudhomme (1839-1907) debuted with the poetry collection "Stances et poèmes" ("Stanzas and Poems") in 1865. This collection contains his best known poem: "La vase brisée", about a flower vase with a tiny crack . As the water leaks away drip by drip, the flower in the vase withers. Sully Prudhomme compares this vase with a broken heart inflicted by a tiny action. In 1896 Sully Prudhomme published "Que sais-je?" ("What Do I Know?"), a compact treatise of his philosophy. After receiving the Nobel Prize, Sully Prudhomme spent most of it to found a French poetry prize. De Maupassant (1850-1893) wrote at least 238 short stories. Sand (born Amandine Lucile Dupin, 1804-1876) is known as Chopin's mistress, but also as the author of over fifty novels and a dozen theatre plays. Jules de Goncourt (1830-1870) and his brother Edmond (1822-1896) have given their name to the most prestigious French literature prize. As these people were already dead before the short list for the first winners was made, they were not eligible for the Nobel Prize.

From Quiz (More or Less) Basic French Poetry

Answer: Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte (Napoléon III)

Victor Hugo was a deputy of the 2nd Republic in 1848. He supported the president Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte. When the latter nominated himself "emperor" (he became Napoleon III), Hugo didn't appreciate this change of regime (which wasn't very democratic...). He went to live in exile and began his campaign against the emperor. His collection of poems "Les Châtiments" (the punishments), which targeted the 2nd Empire, was written during his exile.

From Quiz Famous French Novels

Answer: letters

It's an epistolary novel, which was very popular in the 18th century.

From Quiz 18th Century French Literature

Answer: The French Revolution-1789

The term "eighteenth century French Literature" within the Age of Enlightenment, can be used to describe the period between the death of Louis XIV in 1715 and the French Revolution in 1789. Some consider it to extend to the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815.

From Quiz French Literature 842 - 1980

Answer: The Strasbourg Oaths

These oaths of mutual support were sworn in 842 by Louis the German and Charles the Bald, who were at war with their brother Lothair for the throne. Beginning "Pro deo amur et pro christian poblo et nostro commun salvament",("for the love of God and for the common salvation of the Christian people and ourselves"), they are of obvious linguistic interest.

From Quiz French Literature

Answer: Emma

"Madame Bovary" is one of Flaubert's most famous novels.

From Quiz Placenames In French Literature

Answer: Cabourg

Bayeux is not exactly a seaside resort but the little town where the famous Tapestry describing the Battle of Hastings can be seen. Proust was born at Auteuil (1871) and died in Paris (1922).

From Quiz French Winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature

Answer: Occitan

Mistral (1830-1914) studied law and the history of his home region, the Provence. He dedicated his life to revive the local language, the Occitan. This language (comprising the two main dialects Limousin and Provençal) has no written standard, although Mistral published a dictionary translating Occitan into French ("Lou Trésor do Febrilige", 1878-1886, where Febrilige is a literary and cultural association for the benefit of the Occitans). Mistral's best known work, other than the aforesaid dictionary, is the long poem "Mireio" (1859) about the impossible love between Vincent and Mireille, two youngsters from different social classes. Unlike the other Nobel Prizes, the Literature Prize is usually attributed to a single winner. However, Mistral had to share his prize with the Spanish José Echegaray (1832-1916). Romanian and Portuguese are official languages of the Romance language family. Basque is a language of its own, not related to any of the surrounding Romance languages.

From Quiz Old French Literature

Answer: He met his death in battle because of the traitor Ganelon

"The Song of Roland" is a "chanson de geste", an epic poem celebrating heroic deeds. It was written around 1100 and is based on the historical battle of Roncevaux Pass (778), where King Charlemagne's troops were attacked by Basques. In the poem, the enemy became Saracens (Muslims), which gives the episode the tone of a crusade. Because of his old grudge against his stepson Roland, Ganelon betrays the secret of the army's passage through a mountain pass to the enemy. Roland realizes he has been set up to die, yet refuses to sound his horn to ask for reinforcement until it is too late. He bravely accepts his fate and dies saving his honour, for his king and for Christendom, after promising his soldiers a place in paradise as martyrs.

From Quiz (More or Less) Basic French Poetry

Answer: blessent mon coeur d'une langueur monotone.

"Les sanglots longs / des violons / de l'automne / blessent mon coeur / d'une langueur / monotone." This is the first stanza of the poem "Chanson d'automne" from "Poèmes saturniens", written by Paul Verlaine (19th century). I suppose you have immediately recognized the code sentence used during WWII, to inform the Resistance of the imminence of the Normandy landings ("Débarquement") and the beginning of the operations.

From Quiz Famous French Novels

Answer: Justine

The title is: "Justine ou Les Malheurs de la vertu", meaning: "Justine or the Unhappiness of Virtue".

From Quiz 18th Century French Literature

Answer: Denis Diderot

Denis Diderot (1713-1784) was a french philosopher and writer. He was the chief editor of the "L'Encyclopédie", one of the most important literary works of the Age of Enlightenment. He spent 26 years of his life on this work. With 17 volumes of text and 11 of illustrations, the Encyclopaedia presented a summary of human learning in one work. It challenged all aspects of French authority including that of the Roman Catholic Church.

From Quiz French Literature 842 - 1980

Answer: Le Roman de Tristan

Béroul's is not the first treatment of the legend of Tristan and Iseult, but it is undoubtedly one of the greatest.

From Quiz French Literature

Answer: Emile Zola

Lantier is the hero of "Germinal", a novel telling about the hard conditions of workers at the mines during the 19th century

From Quiz Old French Literature

Answer: It is a message from Tristan asking to meet Iseult for a tryst

Marie de France was a noblewoman who lived at the court of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine. She wrote lays based on songs sung by Breton musicians. They are tales of love which often include fantastic events, such as shape-shifters and talking animals. The "Lay of the Honeysuckle" recounts an episode of Tristan and Iseult's passionate love story. One day when they are apart, Tristan leaves on the path of his lover a bough of hazel intertwined with honeysuckle, with his name carved on it, as a symbol that they cannot be separated. "I would die without you and you would die without me", so intertwined are their fates. Iseult correctly interprets the sign and meets Tristan secretly.

From Quiz Famous French Novels

Answer: Napoleon Bonaparte

He was a republican, but had to keep that secret in order not to lose his job. The novel takes place in 1830, during the French Restoration.

From Quiz 18th Century French Literature

Answer: Voltaire

François-Marie Arouet de Voltaire wrote the satirical short novel "Candide" in 1759. It is one of his most famous works.

From Quiz French Literature

Answer: Honoré de Balzac

"La Comédie Humaine" is a big collection of several novels, painting French society.

From Quiz Placenames In French Literature

Answer: Milly-Lamartine

Verlaine was born in Metz in 1844 and died in Paris 1896. Rimbaud was born in Charleville 1854 and died in Marseille 1891. Hugo was born in Besancon 1802 and died in Paris 1885. Lamartine was born at Macon 1790 and died in Paris in 1869. A large part of his life was spent at Milly.

From Quiz French Winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature

Answer: France

François-Anatole Thibault (1844-1924) started his career as a journalist. When he turned to writing novels, he chose the pseudonym Anatole France. Those of you who paid attention to the quiz title will probably had no trouble picking the correct country: this quiz is all about *French* winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Anatole France published more than twenty novels, four theatre plays, a biography ("Vie de Jeanne d'Arc", 1908), literary and social criticism and some poetry. His novels were characterized by sarcasm, pointed (among others) at the Catholic Church. This explains that his entire oeuvre was put on the "index", and France was very proud of this ecclesiastical ban on his works. One of Anatole France's masterpieces was "La révolte des anges" ("The Revolt of the Angels", 1914), in which he described the story of Arcade, a guardian angel of a bishop who was truly without sin. The guardian angel became weary of his job, embraced atheism, lost his virginity and revolted against God - only to find out replacing God with the devil would not satisfy his aim to be free.

From Quiz Famous French Novels

Answer: about 100

There are different figures given, since this is not an official publication, but a description of the way in which he wrote around 100 novels and short story collections using intertwined characters and events. There are also a number of essays and incomplete fragments that some include in their total number.

From Quiz 18th Century French Literature

Answer: That he was blind

Diderot´s philosophical writings include his "Pensées philosophiques" ("Philosophical Thoughts") (1746) and "Lettre sur les aveugles" ("Letter on the Blind") (1749). Saunderson´s blindness is used to define the image of light for eighteenth century thinkers as a metaphor for knowledge.

From Quiz French Literature 842 - 1980

Answer: Gargantua

"Gargantua" was published after "Pantagruel", though it precedes it in the chronological order of the story. Gargamelle is Gargantua's mother, Picrochole is a neighbour with whom he goes to war, and Alcofribas Nasier is the pseudonym (an anagram of Rabelais' own name) under which the book was published.

From Quiz French Literature

Answer: Victor Hugo & Hugo

He probably is the most famous French author ever.

From Quiz Placenames In French Literature

Answer: Brittany

More information on Combourg at www.combourg.com

From Quiz French Winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature

Answer: Henri Bergson

Henri-Louis Bergson (1859-1941) was a French philosopher who lived in London up till he was nine. He studied literature and philosophy, although he was also gifted in sciences. Bergson's major publications were "Essais sur les données immédiates de la conscience" (1889, translated as "Time and Free Will") ; "Matière et mémoire" (1896, "Matter and Memory"); "L'évolution créatrice" (1907, "Creative Evolution") and "Les deux sources de la morale et de la religion" (1932, "The Two Sources of Morality and Religion"). In Bergson's time, philosophy was quite deterministic: all events were predetermined by the mechanics of previous events. Bergson made room for the free will in his philosophy, and for the creativity influenced by experience. He also asserted that pure reasoning is not good enough: for instance pure reasoning by a walking man will never teach him how to swim, for it is a totally different kind of movement. Wittgenstein (1889-1951) was an Austrian (later British) philosopher. Russell (1872-1970) was a British philosopher. Nietzsche (1844-1900) was a German philosopher.

From Quiz Old French Literature

Answer: Chretien de Troyes

Chrétien de Troyes lived in the 12th century and was a poet at the court of the Count and Countess of Champagne. He invented the courtly romance. Some of his works are lost, including his version of Tristan and Iseult. His knights go on a quest for glory and adventure, fight magicians and unknown knights, rescue damsels in distress, and face all sorts of trials before finally proving their worth. Chrétien was extremely successful as a writer, and he has been often imitated in the century that followed, for instance by the German writers Wolfram von Eschenbach, who wrote a "Parzifal", adapted from "The Story of the Grail", and Hartmann von Aue, who authored an "Erec" and an "Iwein."

From Quiz Famous French Novels

Answer: by drowning him in the Seine

Afterwards, the murderer has to identify the corpse.

From Quiz 18th Century French Literature

Answer: Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-78). A philosopher and political theorist and a member of Diderot's circle, he was one of the great figures of the French enlightenment and re-wrote the laws for educating children of both sexes. He was one of the most significant thinkers to shape post French Revolution thinking.

From Quiz French Literature 842 - 1980

Answer: Pierre Ronsard

The other poets mentioned were also members of the Pléiade. The name was taken from the name given to a group of seven Greek tragic poets in Alexandria in the third century BC: this is turn was of course inspired by the group of seven stars in the constellation Taurus.

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