Food for Bookworms Trivia Quiz

Answer: Don Juan

In his masterpiece "Don Juan", English poet Lord George Gordon Noel Byron (1788-1824) reversed the traditional roles, making of the notorious philander a man chased by women. The poem, spanning 17 cantos, remained incomplete at his death.
Many scholars have seen in "Don Juan" explicit references to Lord Byron's own life. An idol for the fashionable society of his time, he was famous not only for his poetry, but also for his extravagant life, his numerous love affairs, and his scandals, including allegations of sodomy and incest.
The poem touches all facets of human experience, but is, above all, an occasion for the poet to satirise contemporary society, politics, and art.
Among Lord Byron's best-known works is also the travelogue poem "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage".

Answer: Margaret Atwood

"The Edible Woman" by Canadian poet and novelist Margaret Atwood was published in 1969, when the term "anorexia" was mostly unknown outside medical circles. A novel about women and their role in a patriarchal society, it shows how eating disorders can be a vehicle for women to express the need of gaining control over their own bodies, and ultimately over their own identities.

The protagonist, Marian McAlpin, has only two alternatives, as Atwood writes in her introduction to the novel, "a career going nowhere, or marriage as an exit from it." Marian's rejection of food, and her growing feeling of being "consumed" reflect her struggle to accept her pre-determined role. Her renewed approach to food, after a long process of self-awareness, is also the acceptance of her life.

Answer: Anatole

Aunt Dahlia is Bertie Wooster's favourite aunt. Not amazing, actually, considering that his other relative, Aunt Agatha, is known for "eating broken glass for breakfast, wearing barbed wire next to the skin and conducting human sacrifices at the time of the full moon".
To coerce Bertie into rendering her dangerous services (such as stealing an antique cow creamer, or - horror! - giving prizes at a grammar school ceremony), Aunt Dahlia has no scruples in employing "good old-fashioned blackmail": either Bertie does what she requests, or there will be no more Anatole, her superb French chef, "god's gift to the gastric juices". What follows is always lot of trouble for poor Bertie. Thank goodness, though, at the end his valet Jeeves always manages to get him out of the soup.
Along with the delightful Jeeves and Wooster stories, humorist P. G. Wodehouse (1881-1975) is also famous for his Blandings Castle series.

Answer: Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway's "A Moveable Feast" was published posthumously in 1964. It is an autobiographical set of twenty essays in which he sketches his life in Paris during the period between 1921 and 1926, when he was part of the "Lost Generation", the circle of American expatriate writers including Gertrude Stein, Francis Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, Hart Crane etc.
"A Moveable Feast" offers a lively chronicle of those days: the sight and smell of food, the atmosphere of the brasseries, the bars and the cafés he frequented, and the people he met.
The first publication was edited by Hemingway's fourth wife, Mary. She was accused by many of excessive manipulation of the original material, and was especially criticised for deleting Hemingway's long apology to Hadley, his first wife.

Answer: Sauerkraut

"Sei mir gegrüßt mein Sauerkraut / Holdselig sind Deine Gerüche" (I greet you, my Sauerkraut / Enchanting is your scent) wrote German poet Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) in his epic poem "Germany. A Winter's Tale".
One of the most political of his works, it was written during the poet's Parisian exile, and published in 1844, together with other poems. The volume was immediately banned in Prussia, and the king issued a warrant for the poet's arrest.
Heine's yearning for the traditional German cuisine is found in the ninth chapter of the poem. It is a nostalgic remembrance of culinary joys, but at the same time a satirical allusion to the social and political conditions in his homeland that forced him into exile.

Answer: Babette's Feast

This charming story centers on Babette, a former French chef who escapes the Paris riots of 1871, and seeks refuge in a remote village on the Danish coast. She is taken in as housemaid by two aged and virtuous sisters, spiritual leaders of a small Lutheran congregation.

After many years of austere life, Babette wins 10,000 francs at a lottery, and secretly spends all her money on one sumptuous dinner to commemorate her employers' late father. The banquet, consisting of many courses, is a gastronomic masterwork, an explosion of heavenly delights-- all the best that French cuisine can offer, and champagne! At first stiff, hesitant and disapproving, the guests slowly start opening their hearts, and discover that sharing the pleasures of the table can reinforce friendship and unity. Isak Dinesen (1885-1962) was the pseudonym of Danish baroness Karen Blixen, especially renowned for her memoir "Out of Africa".

Answer: Franz Kafka

First published in 1922, Frank Kafka's short story "A Hunger Artist" was later included, together with other three stories, in a collection of the same title, and published posthumously in 1924.
It is a parable about an ascetic man who entertains crowds with fasting performances. He starves forty days at a time, sitting in a cage on public display. Desperately craving the approval of an ever more indifferent audience, he dies at the end for his "art".
Many critics have seen in "The Hunger Artist" numerous autobiographical parallels, particularly in regard to the isolation and alienation of the modern artist, and the fear of personal failure, all of which were profoundly felt by the author himself.
Born in Prague, Kafka (1883-1924) was one of the most important writers of the 20th century. His major novels include "The Trial", "The Metamorphosis" and "The Castle".

Answer: Falstaff

"He hath eaten me out of house and home, he hath put all my substance into that fat belly of his", bemoans Mistress Quickly, hostess of the Boar's-Head Tavern, in Shakespeare's drama "Henry IV Part II". Object of her accusation is Sir John Falstaff, the hedonistic and fat knight regarded as the greatest comic character created by Shakespeare.
A complex figure, Falstaff is mostly presented as a glutton, a drunkard, a liar, a coward and a thief. He appears as a man who shirks every responsibility and laughs at "law and order", but whose grandiose eloquence always saves him from bad consequences.
The character of Falstaff also appears in Shakespeare's "Henry IV Part I" and "The Merry Wives of Windsor".

Answer: Pablo Neruda

"Ode to Bread", "Ode to Tomatoes", "Ode to an Onion", "Ode to a Lemon", "Ode to Maize" or "Ode to Olive Oil": in each of his poems, Pablo Neruda celebrates the uniqueness and the beauty of those familiar, apparently insignificant, edibles we consume in daily life. The evocative lyrics not only immortalise the magic of food, but also explore the mysterious relationship between man and nature.
Neruda's interest in everyday life, and his wish to write poetry for common people, are reflected in the nearly 250 "Odas Elementales" (also translated as "Odes to Common Things"), in which he praises the most ordinary objects, from socks to scissors.
Revered by Gabriel García Márquez as "the greatest poet of the 20th century in any language", Chilean Pablo Neruda (1904-1973) lived from 1948 to 1952 in exile because of his Marxist ideals. He died of cancer during the week of General Pinochet's military coup, and his funeral became the first public act of rebellion against the new regime.

Answer: Markus Zusak

Best-selling and award-winning author Markus Zusak was born in 1975 in Sydney, to German and Austrian parents.
"Death and Chocolate" introduces the first chapter of "The Book Thief", and its narrator: nothing less than Death itself. Death recounts the story of Liesel, a nine-year-old girl, and of her battle to survive in Nazi Germany. The novel follows her as she starts learning to read and stealing books, and shows how words and language can provide succour for the soul.
This fascinating and original book was released in 2005, and has been translated into thirty languages.

Answer: Boeuf en Daube

"Boeuf en Daube" is a traditional dish from the French region of Provence, consisting of beef braised in wine with vegetables and herbs. In Virgina Woolf's novel "To the Lighthouse", the long cooking of the stew and the preparation of the table for the dinner party seem to assume for Mrs. Ramsay - the hostess - the traits of a religious rite.
At the beginning of the dinner, all the characters are lost in their egos. Through interior monologues the author reveals their personal conflicts and sense of isolation. Then gradually, the atmosphere changes, and at table the company seems to merge into a cohesive whole. The savoury "Boeuf en Daube" is indeed a triumph, not least because it represents an act of communion, a brief moment of harmony and stability within a fragmentary world.
Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) is also the author of "Mrs. Dalloway" and "Orlando".

Answer: Aphrodite

"Appetite and sex are the great motivators of history", states Chilean writer Isabel Allende, and she blends them in her publication "Aphrodite: A Memoir of the Senses". The book is a joyful celebration of sensuality, a rich feast centred around the power of food and drink over romantic life. It assembles erotic poems, stories from ancient literature and folklore, essays, personal anecdotes, suggestions and a series of aphrodisiac recipes.
Isabel Allende is the author of several best-sellers, such as "The House of the Spirits" and "Eva Luna".

Answer: The Belly of Paris

"The Belly of Paris" (1873) is the third volume of "The Rougon-Macquarts", the cycle of twenty novels by French naturalist author Émile Zola which includes famous works such as "Germinal", "Nana" and "Thérèse Raquin".
"Belly of Paris" is the sobriquet for the spectacular food market of Les Halles, which is both the setting and the protagonist of a grandiose literary fresco. The novel, telling of a small group of people who live in and around Les Halles, employs much mouth-watering food imagery in order to cast a light on the social differences and the political conflicts of the time.
By the way, the historic market of Les Halles was demolished in 1971, much to the dismay of Parisians.

Answer: Anne Tyler

Anne Tyler is the author of several best-selling and award-winning novels, such as "The Accidental Tourist" and "Breathing Lessons".
"Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant", her ninth novel, is a portrait of the family Tull. Their experiences, feelings and struggles are recollected from different perspectives -- first from that of Pearl, a mother abandoned by her husband; then from the point of view of her three children, Cody, Ezra and Jenny.
Gentle Ezra, owner of the "Homesick Restaurant", longs for reconciliation and unity. A recurrent scene in the novel shows Ezra's attempts through the years to gather the broken family in his place. Significantly, though, these reunion dinners always end abruptly, leaving all conflicts unresolved.

Answer: Cerberus

"The Divine Comedy" is the magnum opus of Dante Alighieri (1265-1321). The epic poem is divided into three canticles - three basic sections describing the poet's journey through Inferno (Hell), Purgatorio (Purgatory) and Paradiso (Paradise).
Gluttons are found in the third circle of Hell. Their retribution is highly allegorical. They lie in the mud like pigs; greedy and insatiable during their lives, they are now destined to become food themselves, prey of the voracity of Cerberus.
In Greek mythology, Cerberus was a ferocious hound with three heads and the tail of a dragon, who guarded the entrance of Hades, the world of the dead. The capture of Cerberus was one of Hercules' twelve labours.