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James Joyce Trivia

James Joyce Trivia Quizzes

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James Joyce may be best known as the author of one of the most famous of impenetrable works, "Ulysses" (first published in 1922), but he also wrote the highly accessible short stories collected in "Dubliners" (1914), and the semi-autobiographical "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" (1916).
3 James Joyce quizzes and 60 James Joyce trivia questions.
1.
  James Joyce: "Ulysses"   great trivia quiz  
Multiple Choice
 25 Qns
"Ulysses" is one of the most famous novels of the twentieth century, but also one of the most difficult and controversial. Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom walk through Dublin on Bloomsday, while Molly stays at home.
Tough, 25 Qns, queenofsheba, Apr 27 07
Tough
queenofsheba
893 plays
2.
  James Joyce's 'Dubliners'   great trivia quiz  
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
'Dubliners' is perhaps the most accessible of Joyce's works. Joyce claimed he wrote this collection to expose what he referred to as the 'paralysis' permeating Dublin. Interestingly, most of the stories were written while Joyce lived outside Ireland.
Tough, 10 Qns, kevinatilusa, Jul 30 04
Recommended for grades: 11,12
Tough
kevinatilusa
746 plays
3.
  Mondo James Joyce    
Multiple Choice
 25 Qns
Questions covering the greatest of the greatest writers in the history of literature.
Average, 25 Qns, dorian_june, Sep 29 11
Average
dorian_june
782 plays
trivia question Quick Question
Who 'dealt with moral problems as a cleaver deals with meat'?

From Quiz "James Joyce's 'Dubliners'"





James Joyce Trivia Questions
1. While James Joyce was in Italy writing "Ulysses", he wrote a prose poem. This prose poem's title second word was 'Joyce' and the first word was the Italian form of his first name. What was that name?

From Quiz Mondo James Joyce

Answer: Giacomo

This prose poem was supposedly written about a young girl Joyce had an affair with, Signora Popper.

2. What's the nickname of Stephen Dedalus?

From Quiz James Joyce: "Ulysses"

Answer: Kinch

Buck Mulligan calls him Kinch in the first chapter. Poldy is Leopold Bloom. Buck's real name is Malachi. Artifoni is Molly's Italian music teacher.

3. Who was the first and original publisher of James Joyce's "Ulysses"?

From Quiz Mondo James Joyce

Answer: Shakespeare and Co.

The owner of this bookstore was Sylvia Beach.

4. In the story 'Araby', what exactly is Araby?

From Quiz James Joyce's 'Dubliners'

Answer: An Arabian bazaar

As part of a promise to a girl, the narrator goes to the bazaar late one evening, only to find that it is near closing time and his money is not nearly sufficient.

5. "I'm the queerest young fellow that ever you heard. My mother's a jew [sic] and my father's a bird." In what century did I live?

From Quiz James Joyce: "Ulysses"

Answer: 1st century AD

It's a fragment from the "Ballad of Joking Jesus" in chapter 1. His father was a bird: the Holy Spirit in the shape of a dove. It's one of the many jokes about religion.

6. What are the common names of the twin sons in "Finnegans Wake"?

From Quiz Mondo James Joyce

Answer: Shem and Shaun

Shem being the rowdy and rebellious son, and Shaun being the goody-good son.

7. Whose death is eulogized in 'Ivy Day in the Committee Room'?

From Quiz James Joyce's 'Dubliners'

Answer: Charles Stuart Parnell

Parnell was an Irish political leader of the late 19th century. Joyce felt the people of Ireland betrayed him by forcing him to resign after being named a claimant in Kitty O'Shea's divorce.

8. What country is the only one that never persecuted the Jews, according to Mr Deasy?

From Quiz James Joyce: "Ulysses"

Answer: Ireland

Mr Deasy is the anti-Semitic school headmaster in chapter 2. The persecution of the Jews is one of the central themes in "Ulysses". Bloom had a Jewish father who turned Protestant. His mother was Catholic, and Leopold was baptized Catholic.

9. In "Ulysses", what was Buck Mulligan's nickname for Stephen?

From Quiz Mondo James Joyce

Answer: Kinch

Kinch being the sound made by a knife.

10. What type of race has just occurred in 'After the Race'?

From Quiz James Joyce's 'Dubliners'

Answer: Auto race

Doyle is a rider in the 2nd place French car, who gambles away his money and his future during a celebration afterwards.

11. Where do Leopold and Molly Bloom live?

From Quiz James Joyce: "Ulysses"

Answer: 7 Eccles Street

All the places in the novel really exist. 7 Eccles Street was empty in 1904, but Joyce knew someone who someone lived there in 1909. Buck Mulligan lived in the Martello Tower. Tourists still visit these places. 221B Baker Street is where Sherlock Holmes lived in London.

12. Name the place where James Joyce's wife Nora Barnacle hailed from?

From Quiz Mondo James Joyce

Answer: Galway

Throughout their life together, Nora rarely read anything that Joyce wrote, which Joyce himself found unbearable.

13. Who is Michael Furey?

From Quiz James Joyce's 'Dubliners'

Answer: A young man who died of pneumonia

We learn about him near the climax of 'The Dead', the last story in the collection. Gabriel Conroy's wife feels Furey may have died for her long ago, and it raises a barrier between them that he cannot overcome.

14. What difficult word does Leopold have to explain to Molly?

From Quiz James Joyce: "Ulysses"

Answer: metempsychosis

It means transmigration of souls. It's a central theme in "Ulysses", because you can recognize the Homeric characters in Dublin in 1904: Stephen = Telemachus, Leopold = Ulysses, Molly = Penelope. "Omphalos" means "navel". Ithaca was called the navel of the sea.

15. In the "Anna Livia Plurabelle" section of "Finnegan's Wake" what is the text filled with?

From Quiz Mondo James Joyce

Answer: names of rivers

Anna Livia Plurabelle is named after the river Liffey in Dublin.

16. Which object does Maria first pick from a bowl in a fortunetelling game?

From Quiz James Joyce's 'Dubliners'

Answer: Clay

The story is titled 'Clay', but telling you that would have been too easy. The clay traditionally represents death, and Maria was herself choosing the death of her genes by remaining a spinster.

17. What's the name of Leopold Bloom's daughter?

From Quiz James Joyce: "Ulysses"

Answer: Milly

He reads her letter in chapter 4. Molly is his wife, Rudy his son. Gerty MacDowell is the girl on Sandymount shore in chapter 13.

18. What is Stephen Dedalus' motto in "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man"?

From Quiz Mondo James Joyce

Answer: silence, exile and cunning

19. Who 'dealt with moral problems as a cleaver deals with meat'?

From Quiz James Joyce's 'Dubliners'

Answer: Mrs. Mooney from 'The Boarding House'

A classic line. Mrs. Mooney decided who her daughter was going to marry and when she wanted her to do it, so the only question remaining was how to set it all up.

20. What does Leopold Bloom have for breakfast?

From Quiz James Joyce: "Ulysses"

Answer: kidney

It's only a little burnt. He gives the burnt part to the cat. In spite of having a Jewish born father Leopold Bloom doesn't eat kosher.

21. At the beginning of "Ulysses", who does Stephen feel Buck Mulligan insulted?

From Quiz Mondo James Joyce

Answer: Stephen himself

Stephen thought Buck's comment of "O, it's only Dedalus whose mother is beastly dead" was insulting to Stephen himself.

22. What relation are Miss Kate and Miss Julia to Gabriel Conroy in 'The Dead'?

From Quiz James Joyce's 'Dubliners'

Answer: His aunts

The two aunts, music teachers both, host the annual Christmas party at which the story opens.

23. Who doesn't belong in this row?

From Quiz James Joyce: "Ulysses"

Answer: Nosey Flynn

Leopold Bloom, Poldy and Henry Flower are one and the same person. Poldy is what Molly calls him, Henry Flower is his alias for his correspondence with Martha. Bloom and Virag (his father's name) also mean "flower". This refers to Homer's Lotus Eaters.

24. Finish this line from "Ulysses": The heaventree of stars hung with humid (blank) fruit.

From Quiz Mondo James Joyce

Answer: nightblue

Some consider this line the most beautiful line in the book.

25. Where is Eveline expecting to run off to with Frank in 'Eveline'?

From Quiz James Joyce's 'Dubliners'

Answer: Argentina

In the end, she is not quite able to leave the family she cares for and remains paralyzed on the docks, unwilling to take the final steps towards Frank.

26. What stylistic device does Joyce often use? Stream of _____________ .

From Quiz James Joyce: "Ulysses"

Answer: consciousness

It means that the thoughts of a character (or the writer himself) are written down. It's a kind of interior monologue based on free association, with a lot of elliptic sentences and grammatical errors. This is one of the things that make "Ulysses" so difficult to read. Another writer who used this device is Virginia Woolf.

27. Who is the main person in "Ulysses" that Molly Bloom has an affair with?

From Quiz Mondo James Joyce

Answer: Blazes Boylan

Blazes Boylan has a song that he wrote that Bloom hums and sings throughout the novel. A few lines being "those girls, those girls, those lovely seaside girls" and "your head it simply swurls".

28. This story is the last in 'Dubliners' and was written several years after the others.

From Quiz James Joyce's 'Dubliners'

Answer: 'The Dead'

Also the longest story, it tells of Gabriel Conroy and the astonishing realization that he doesn't even know his own wife very well (see question 5).

29. What did Martha Clifford send along with her letter?

From Quiz James Joyce: "Ulysses"

Answer: a yellow flower with flatted petals

Chapter 5 is based on the Lotus Eaters, the creatures in the "Odyssey" that eat flowers. If you eat these flowers, you forget. The chapter is full of references to flowers, oblivion and eating.

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