First-Hand Experience Trivia Quiz

Answer: Villette (Charlotte Brontė)

Published in early 1853, "Villette" is a reworking of Charlotte Brontė's first novel, "The Professor", which was published posthumously in 1857. While the earlier novel had a male protagonist, "Villette" is narrated from the point of view of the young Lucy Snowe. Featuring some of the Gothic elements also present in Brontė's best-known work, "Jane Eyre", "Villette" has been praised for its attention to the development of Lucy's personality from a quiet, reserved young girl to an independent woman.

In 1842, like her novel's protagonist, Charlotte Bronte and her sister Emily left England to study at a boarding school in Brussels (fictionalized in the novel as Villette), where they taught English and music in return for board and tuition. Though the sisters had to return to England after a few months because of her aunt's death, Charlotte went back to Brussels in 1843 to teach at the same boarding school. There she fell in love with the school's director, Constantin Héger, who was married. The character of Paul Emanuel, the prickly but kind fellow teacher with whom she falls in love, is believed to have been modeled on Héger. The love story does not have a happy ending, as the lovers are separated by the scheming of a group of other characters, motivated by religion (Paul being a devout Catholic, like Héger, and Lucy a staunch Protestant). However, Paul's help and guidance are essential for Lucy to find her own footing, and eventually open her own school.

After her return from the continent in 1844, Charlotte and her sisters also tried to open their own boarding school in their family home at Haworth, but the project was unsuccessful.

Answer: A Farewell to Arms (Ernest Hemingway)

First published in 1929, "A Farewell to Arms" (titled after a poem by 16th-century playwright George Peele) draws heavily upon Hemingway's personal experience as an ambulance driver during the Italian campaign of WWI. Narrated in the first person by American officer Frederic Henry, the novel relates the protagonist's doomed romance with an English nurse, Catherine Barkley - which mirrors Hemingway's own relationship with American nurse Agnes von Kurowsky, who cared for him after he was wounded in 1918. When Hemingway returned to the US, he hoped Agnes would join him, so that they could get married; however, a few months later, she broke off the engagement. Catherine's death in childbirth in the novel could be seen as a kind of retaliation against the woman who had inflicted such heartbreak on the author.

Many of the other characters are modeled on people Hemingway met when in Italy. The author, however, was not involved in the battles described in the novel: his description of the disastrous battle of Caporetto (October-November 1917) was based on other people's accounts, since at the time he had still been in the US. "A Farewell to Arms" was not published in Italy until 1948, because of its controversial description of Caporetto, and also the antipathy between Hemingway and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.

Before he wrote "A Farewell to Arms", Hemingway had produced another work of autobiographical fiction in "The Sun Also Rises" (1926), based on his trip to Spain in 1925.

Answer: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (James Joyce)

James Joyce's first novel, "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" was published at the end of 1917 after a long and troubled composition process. Originally titled "Stephen Hero", it had been conceived as a realist autobiographical novel narrated by an omniscient third-person narrator. This earlier version, however, was abandoned in 1907, when Joyce decided to rework his story thoroughly. The final version of "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man", completed during Joyce's stay in Trieste, comprises just five chapters (while "Stephen Hero" had 25), and makes extensive use of free indirect speech - a precursor of the stream of consciousness technique that Joyce would employ with great effect in "Ulysses".

As its title implies, "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" is a "Bildungsroman" - that is, a novel dealing with its main character's coming of age. The narrative traces the transition of the protagonist - Joyce's fictional alter ego - from childhood to adulthood, and his growth as an artist, reflected in his surname (Daedalus was the most famous craftsman of Greek myth, and the father of Icarus). Many of the events narrated in the novel mirror events in Joyce's own youth - such as his relationship with his parents, and his rejection of the Catholic faith. Stephen returns as a character in "Ulysses", where his character corresponds to that of Telemachus, Odysseus' son.

Answer: In Search of Lost Time (Marcel Proust)

Previously known in English as "Remembrances of Things Past", "In Search of Lost Time" ("Ą la recherche du temps perdu") is by far the best-known work of French author Marcel Proust. Published in seven volumes between 1913 and 1927, this monumental novel - over 4,000 pages long, and containing almost 1,300,000 words - is one of the 20th century's most influential works of fiction. Proust devoted the final years of his life, from 1909 to 1922, to the composition of this novel, whose first volume was rejected by various publishers.

"In Search of Lost Time" should not be read as a literal account of Proust's life, but rather as a fiction created out of raw autobiographical material. The first-person narrator's account of his life is presented as an allegorical search for truth. In the first volume, the taste of a "madeleine" (a small sponge cake) soaked in tea triggers an involuntary recall of his happy childhood; this famous episode is based on a similar occurrence in Proust's own life. Although the narrator's identity remains vague, at one point (in volume 5) his lover, Albertine, calls him "Marcel". Another link with the author's personal experience is the theme of sexual ambiguity, which parallels Proust's own closeted homosexuality. At the end of the novel, the narrator realizes his mission of describing the events in his life as they really happened, and sets out to write before death catches up with him.

Answer: Sons and Lovers (D.H. Lawrence)

The name of D.H. Lawrence is often associated with his controversial novel "Lady Chatterley's Lover" and the obscenity trial that followed the book's UK publication in 1960. While much of Lawrence's work indeed gives a prominent role to sexuality and physical intimacy, "Sons and Lovers" - as implied by its title - also focuses on the complex relationship between a mother and her son. Published in 1913, the novel (Lawrence's third) follows the development of the personality of Paul Morel, a young man caught between his somewhat morbid attachment to his mother, Gertrude, and his attraction to two very different women, Miriam and Clara. The story also provides a vivid depiction of the realities of working-class life in early 20th-century England.

Like his protagonist, Lawrence was deeply attached to his mother, Lydia, a genteel woman fallen on hard times who had married a working-class man whose temperament was very different from hers. In the novel, Gertrude's marriage to Walter Morel is driven by physical attraction, but founders because of financial difficulties. Lawrence began writing "Sons and Lovers" during Lydia's terminal illness; Paul's sense of loss at the end of the novel closely mirrors the author's emotional devastation after his mother's passing in 1910. The character of Miriam is modeled on his close friend Jessie Chambers: sadly, their friendship ended after the relationship turned physical, and Chambers never spoke to Lawrence again after the novel's publication.

Answer: The Mill on the Floss (George Eliot)

Published in three volumes in 1860, "The Mill on the Floss" is George Eliot's second full-length novel. The original manuscript was dedicated by the author to George Henry Lewes, a philosopher and literary critic with whom she had lived since 1854, and whom she called "her husband". Lewes, however, was married, and unable to divorce his wife. Though the two could not marry, Eliot always referred to herself as Lewes's wife, and their relationship lasted until his death in 1878. When the relationship became public, the initial backlash was intense, and caused the couple to be ostracized from polite society for many years, but ultimately did not affect Eliot's popularity as a novelist.

The novel's main character, the fiery Maggie Tulliver, has been called Eliot's alter ego, reflecting the author's untamed, tomboyish nature as a girl. The characters of Tom, Maggie's brother, and their father are also modeled on Eliot's brother, Isaac, and their father, Robert Evans, while the character of Lucy, Maggie and Tom's cousin, is said to have been inspired by Eliot's pretty and proper sister, Christiana. The life of Eliot's fictional heroine is also touched by scandal because of a romantic relationship - though Maggie's romance with Stephen, Lucy's fiancé, does not go beyond a boating trip - and the uproar negatively affects her close bond with her brother. The idyllic country setting of Maggie and Tom's childhood was also inspired by Eliot's recollections of her youth.

Answer: Death in Venice (Thomas Mann)

Published in 1912, the novella "Death in Venice ("Der Tod in Venedig") was inspired by a number of events, both public and private, that had affected German author Thomas Mann (winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1929) during the previous year. The story's main character, Gustav von Aschenbach, is a middle-aged writer who, during his stay in Venice, sees Tadzio, a young Polish boy of astonishing beauty. His initial artistic interest in the boy (with whom he has no contact except a few glances) develops into a veritable erotic obsession, which eventually leads to Aschenbach's death.

The character of Tadzio - who towards the end becomes aware of Aschenbach's admiration, and seems to accept his interest with almost imperceptible looks and smiles - was inspired by Wladzio Moes, a young boy that Mann had seen during his stay in Venice in 1911. The author had been staying in the same hotel at the Lido of Venice in which the novella is set, and his meeting with Wladzio's family in the dining room is closely mirrored by the events of the book. However, unlike Aschenbach, Mann did not turn into a stalker, pursuing the boy through the city, though he was clearly fascinated by him. Of all of Mann's works, "Death in Venice" embodies most clearly the author's struggles with his homosexuality: though married and father of six children, in his diaries and correspondence Mann often hinted at being attracted to younger men.

In 1971, "Death in Venice" was adapted into a film, starring English actor Dirk Bogarde as Aschenbach, by Italian director Luchino Visconti.

Answer: The Bell Jar (Sylvia Plath)

"The Bell Jar" is the only novel by American writer and poet Sylvia Plath. It was originally published in the UK in January 1963 under the pseudonym of "Victoria Lucas", just one month before its author committed suicide. Narrated in the first person, the novel follows the experiences of a young woman, Esther Greenwood, trying to balance her studies, her social life, and a budding writing career, while dealing with her deteriorating mental state. Though the novel ends on a hopeful note of sorts, and the grim depiction of Esther's struggles and attempts at getting treatment (which at the time consisted mainly of electroconvulsive therapy) is laced with irony and almost comical incidents, it often makes uncomfortable reading - especially in the light of its author's tragic death. The title refers to the sense of suffocation - like being trapped under a bell jar (a device that draws the air out of the space it encloses) - used by Esther to describe the effects of her mental illness.

"The Bell Jar" contains various references to real people and events in the author's life. In terms of narrative structure, it shifts between past and present, with many of the events in Esther's life being presented in the form of flashbacks. Like much of Plath's poetry, the novel also brings up a number of issues relating to women's lives in the late 1950s and early 1960, which have contributed to the author's status as a feminist icon.

Answer: Typee (Herman Melville)

Published in 1846, when the author was 26 years old, "Typee: A Peep of Polynesian Life" was Herman Melville's most popular novel during his lifetime, earning the author a reputation as the man who had lived among cannibals. A good part of Melville's work - including his masterpiece, "Moby-Dick" - was inspired by the years he spent working on various ships. "Typee", in particular, was based on the time he and another young man, Richard Tobias Greene (called "Toby" in the novel, while the first-person narrator is "Tommo"), spent in the Taipi valley on the island of Nuku Hiva, one of the Marquesas Islands (now part of French Polynesia), after deserting from the whaling ship on which they had been working in the summer of 1842. In spite of its popularity, the novel's authenticity was questioned, as many of its aspects sounded too wild to be true: however, the events were eventually corroborated by "Toby".

In any case, even if quite a few details are clearly exaggerated, the novel is remarkable for its depiction of the islanders, which is not only sympathetic (though sometimes relying a bit on the idealistic "noble savage" stereotype), but often critical of the behaviour of European colonists towards native peoples. In fact, Melville's four-week stay on Nuku Hiva coincided with the arrival of the French on the island, which was promptly claimed as a protectorate. Melville wrote a sequel to "Typee", titled "Omoo" (1847), loosely based on his experiences after leaving Nuku Hiva on a whaling ship bound for Tahiti.

Answer: David Copperfield (Charles Dickens)

Charles Dickens' "David Copperfield", first published as a serial in 1859 and 1860, is one of the best-known examples of autobiographical fiction, and one of its author's most enduringly popular works. Like Joyce's "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" (Q. 3), "David Copperfield is a "Bildungsroman" that follows the psychological development of the main character from a pampered child to a professionally successful adult.

Narrated in the first person by the eponymous protagonist, "David Copperfield" opens with the narrator wondering whether he will be the hero of his own life. The story weaves elements of fact and fiction, employing the fragments of the autobiography that Dickens had attempted to write a few years earlier, but had had to abandon because the memories were still painful. The most important part of this autobiographical material refers to Dickens' experience of working at a boot-blacking factory as a child, his youthful love for Maria Beadnell (who inspired the character of Dora, David's first wife), and his career in writing. In addition, the character of the bumbling but kind-hearted Wilkins Micawber, who befriends David as a boy, was inspired by Dickens' father, John, who also ended up in debtors' prison.

Though "David Copperfield" is Dickens' most explicitly autobiographical novel, elements of his personal experience surface in other works, such as the court cases and legal arguments in "Bleak House", and the description of the Marshalsea debtor's prison in "Little Dorrit".