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Doris Lessing Trivia

Doris Lessing Trivia Quizzes

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Doris May Lessing was born in Iran in 1919 and moved to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in 1925 before settling in London in 1949 following her second divorce. When she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2007, she became the oldest recipient of that award. Her final book, 'Alfred and Emily', was published a year later.
2 Doris Lessing quizzes and 35 Doris Lessing trivia questions.
1.
  Doris Lessing: "The Golden Notebook"   great trivia quiz  
Multiple Choice
 20 Qns
"The Golden Notebook" by Doris Lessing, published in 1962, is arguably the most important novel of the 2007 Nobel Prize winner. It's about Anna, a novelist with a writer's block.
Tough, 20 Qns, queenofsheba, Jun 15 08
Tough
queenofsheba
333 plays
2.
  A New Lease on Lessing   popular trivia quiz  
Multiple Choice
 15 Qns
Doris Lessing, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, is a writer of many locations and many styles of writing. This quiz hopes to introduce her and give you a fresh look at (or lease on) an important, relatively unknown, woman writer.
Average, 15 Qns, windswept, Nov 07 18
Average
windswept
218 plays
trivia question Quick Question
The subtitle of "Free Women 2" is "Two visits, some telephone calls and a tragedy". What's the tragedy?

From Quiz "Doris Lessing: "The Golden Notebook""




Related Topics
  Contemporary Literature and Fiction [Literature] (23 quizzes)


Doris Lessing Trivia Questions
1. What sentence does Molly often repeat?

From Quiz Doris Lessing: "The Golden Notebook"

Answer: Odd, isn't it?

She uses it often in intimate conversations with Anna. Molly is based on Joan Rodker, a friend of Doris Lessing.

2. Richard visits Molly early in the novel. Who's Richard?

From Quiz Doris Lessing: "The Golden Notebook"

Answer: Molly's ex-husband

Molly was Richard's first wife; Marion is his second. Anna's ex is called Max Wulf.

3. What's the profession of Mother Sugar, otherwise Mrs Marks?

From Quiz Doris Lessing: "The Golden Notebook"

Answer: psycho-analyst

Anna and Molly both used to be clients of hers. Anna wrote about the therapy in her blue notebook.

4. Molly buys strawberries from a man with a hand-cart. Why does Molly say they're too expensive?

From Quiz Doris Lessing: "The Golden Notebook"

Answer: He has no overhead costs

The man picked the strawberries himself, so he doesn't have to pay anyone else.

5. Why is Richard worried about Tommy?

From Quiz Doris Lessing: "The Golden Notebook"

Answer: He keeps turning down job offers

Tommy is afraid that a job will determine his identity for the rest of his life. He will accept a job later, after his suicide attempt.

6. How many notebooks does Anna have in the complete novel?

From Quiz Doris Lessing: "The Golden Notebook"

Answer: 5

Originally she has four notebooks: black for her as a writer, red for her as a (former) communist, yellow for her attempts to write again, and blue for her everyday life. The golden notebook is meant to be a synthesis.

7. In the black notebook Anna discusses the plans for a film adaption of her first novel. What's the title of that novel?

From Quiz Doris Lessing: "The Golden Notebook"

Answer: Frontiers of War

She has negative experiences with the film people. They want to leave out major parts of the plot and change the title to "Forbidden Love".

8. Of which political party are Anna and Molly former members?

From Quiz Doris Lessing: "The Golden Notebook"

Answer: British Communist Paty

Molly became a communist in the 1930s during the Spanish Civil War; Anna followed later. They left the Party because of Stalin's atrocities. Doris Lessing is an "old Red" herself.

9. Which notebook begins like the manuscript of a novel?

From Quiz Doris Lessing: "The Golden Notebook"

Answer: the yellow notebook

Anna tries to write a semi-autobiographical novel called "The Shadow of the Third", but fails to complete it.

10. What does Mrs Dorothy Brown complain about in her letter to Dr Allsop?

From Quiz Doris Lessing: "The Golden Notebook"

Answer: rheumatism

This happens in the novel-within-the-novel in the yellow notebook. Ella thinks the woman doesn't have rheumatism, but is just lonely.

11. Anna stands to Michael the way Ella stands to ____?

From Quiz Doris Lessing: "The Golden Notebook"

Answer: Paul

Anna divorced Max, and had an affair with Michael for five years. Ella divorced George, and had an affair with Paul for five years. Anna's novel in the yellow book is based on her own life.

12. What does the first part of the blue notebook look like?

From Quiz Doris Lessing: "The Golden Notebook"

Answer: a diary

She decides to write about everyday events, because writing fiction seems an evasion.

13. In what year do you think Lessing was born?

From Quiz A New Lease on Lessing

Answer: 1919

Her father had been crippled in World War I. Her mother was a nurse. They both thought they could make money maize farming in Southern Rhodesia. Lessing had what she thought of as the freest time being in the wide open in the 'veldt,' but the struggles of her parents affected her very much. Her father suffered steadily from pain, and her mother didn't fit into the settlers' life, reacting to it as a Victorian woman would. To keep up appearances, her mother even had a piano shipped from England so that she could have a "proper" living room.

14. Anna collects newspaper cuttings. What are they mostly about?

From Quiz Doris Lessing: "The Golden Notebook"

Answer: war

She is so overwhelmed by the magnitude of international problems (Korean War, H-bomb...) that her own little problems seem meaningless. That's the real cause of her writer's block.

15. In what year did Doris Lessing won the Nobel Prize for Literature?

From Quiz A New Lease on Lessing

Answer: 2007

When she was awarded the Nobel Prize, she was honored for being "that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny". http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2007/press.html Interestingly, Lessing recently spoke very negatively about winning the Nobel Prize: -- "Nobel literature prize winner Doris Lessing says she is unlikely to write a new full-length novel, according to excerpts of an interview released Sunday. In extracts of a BBC interview, Lessing said that winning the prestigious prize had been 'a bloody disaster.' The 88-year-old author said she no longer has the energy to take on writing a full novel, blaming constant media demands. 'All I do is give interviews and spend time being photographed,' Lessing was quoted as saying in the radio interview, which will be broadcast Monday." http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/books/05/12/people.lessing.ap/index.html

16. The subtitle of "Free Women 2" is "Two visits, some telephone calls and a tragedy". What's the tragedy?

From Quiz Doris Lessing: "The Golden Notebook"

Answer: a suicide attempt

Tommy and Marion visit Anna. Anna calls Molly to say she's worried about Tommy. Tommy shoots himself, but survives. He will be blind for the rest of his life.

17. What does Anna's daughter Janet ask permission for?

From Quiz Doris Lessing: "The Golden Notebook"

Answer: to go to a boarding school

Anna gives her a very free education, and is surprised to find out that Janet actually wants a traditional education.

18. What bird is killed on November 11, 1955 according to the black notebook?

From Quiz Doris Lessing: "The Golden Notebook"

Answer: pigeon

A man accidentally kills a pigeon by kicking it on the pavement. This reminds Anna of a pigeon hunt in Africa in her childhood.

19. Why does Anna throw her lodger Ivor out?

From Quiz Doris Lessing: "The Golden Notebook"

Answer: He shares his room with his boyfriend

Ivor is homosexual. Anna throws his boyfriend Ronnie out, but he secretly moves back in. Then she throws Ivor out.

20. In the golden notebook Saul Green gives Anna the first sentence of a novel she has to write. What's this sentence?

From Quiz Doris Lessing: "The Golden Notebook"

Answer: The two women were alone in the London flat

This is the sentence that finally helps her overcome her writer's block, and also the opening sentence of Doris Lessing's "The Golden Notebook" itself. The reader finds out that the Anna's novel is the one he's just about to finish.

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