I Also Wrote (Foreign Language Books) Quiz

Answer: Foucault's Pendulum

Umberto Eco (1932-2016) was an Italian author and philosopher, who is best known for "The Name of the Rose" and "Foucault's Pendulum". He was trained in medieval philosophy, and his first books as a college professor were philosophical in nature. "The Name of the Rose", his first popular novel, told the tale of a series of murders in a monastery that were solved by William of Baskerville. "Foucault's Pendulum", his second popular novel, told the tale of an invented conspiracy plot that became dangerous.

Later books include "The Island of the Day Before", "Baudolino", and "The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana".

Answer: Faust

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) is perhaps the most celebrated German writer. He originally studied law, but soon became enamored with poetry and Shakespeare's writing. His first novel (1774), "The Sorrows of Young Werther", was a loosely autobiographical tale of his life at that time. Throughout his life he authorized and printed revisions to this book.

His drama "Faust" was published in parts, the first part in 1808 and the concluding part posthumously after 1832.

Answer: The Plague

Albert Camus (1913-1960) was a French philosopher and author, most known for his books "The Stranger" and "The Plague".

The novella "The Stranger", published in 1942, is the tale of a French Algerian man (Meursault) who murders an Arab and is sentenced to death. Meursault displays lack of emotion and calculated indifferences towards his mother's death which preceded the murder and towards his trial and sentencing.

"The Plague"(1947) is the story of a plague sweeping the Algerian city of Oran. It is considered an existentialist masterpiece that stressed the powerlessness of individuals to control their destiny.

Answer: A Death in Venice

Thomas Mann (1875-1955) emigrated to the United States at the onset of World War II and taught at Princeton University before moving to Los Angeles. He strongly opposed Hitler and was featured on BBC broadcasts to Germany during the War. He later moved to Zurich due to issues with Senator McCarthy.

His novel "Buddenbrooks" tells the tale of the decline of a merchant family over four generation in his hometown of Lubeck. "The Magic Mountain" described the experiences of a young man as he encountered residents of a sanitarium. "A Death in Venice" is the tale of a writer who vacationed in Venice to overcome his writer's block. There he saw a beautiful fourteen year old boy and became obsessed with him and struggled with his sexual feelings.

Answer: The Fencing Master

Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870) is one of the most popular French authors through his books and their adaptations for movies and television. He was the son of a French general who had been born in Haiti to a French nobleman and an African slave.

After writing successful plays, he published one of his first novels, "The Fencing Master" in 1840, an account of the Decembrist revolt in Russia.

He is most famous for "The Three Musketeers", "The Man in the Iron Mask", and "The Count of Monte Cristo".

Answer: The Death of Ivan Ilyich

Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) was born into an aristocratic Russian family. He is best known for "War and Peace", "Anna Karenina", and his novella "The Death of Ivan Ilyich". "War and Peace" is the sweeping, epic tale of the Napoleonic War and the invasion of Russia. "Anna Karenina" is the tragic tale of her forbidden love with Count Vronsky.

His service in the Crimean War impacted Tolstoy greatly. He underwent a spiritual awakening that kindled his pacifism and advocacy of non-violent resistance.

Answer: The Brother Karamazov

Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) was an eminent Russian writer who explored the psychology of humans in the troubled Russia of the 19th century. His most acclaimed works are "Crime and Punishment", "The Idiot", and "The Brothers Karamazov".

"Crime and Punishment", written after ten years of exile in Siberia, describes the mental anguish of the ex-student Raskolnikov after he murdered a pawnbroker. "The Brothers Karamazov" is a deeply philosophical story of the relationships between Fyodor Karamazov and his three sons.

Answer: Siddhartha

Hermann Hesse (1877-1962) was a German-Swiss author, whose parents had spent some time in India as missionaries. He moved to Switzerland in 1912 and protested against growing nationalism in Germany. He spent some time also in India, in an attempt to find a spiritual reawakening.

"Siddhartha" is a 1922 novel that deals with the spiritual journey of self-discovery of a man named Siddhartha during the time of Buddha.

"Steppenwolf", published in 1927, portrays a profound crisis in Hesse's spiritual world during the 1920s while memorably portraying the protagonist's split between his humanity and his wolf-like aggression.

Answer: The Dog Years

Günter Grass (1927-2015) was a German novelist, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1999. He was born in Danzig (now Gdansk, Poland); and his best known novel, "The Tin Drum", is part of the Danzig Trilogy, along with "Cat and Mouse" and "Dog Years".

"The Tin Drum" is a fictional memoir of Oskar Matzerath, who refuses to grow up and beats a tin drum as a means of bringing attention to himself.

The "Dog Years" is the story of Walter Matern and Eduard Amsel between the 1920s and the 1950, one of whom is half Jewish and one of whom joins the SA.

Answer: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008) was a Russian novelist and dissident. While serving in the Soviet army during World war II, he was arrested for writing a letter to a friend criticizing Stalin and was sentenced to eight years imprisonment in a gulag.

His novel "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich", based on these experiences, is set in a Soviet labor camp in the early 1950s and describes a single day in the life of an ordinary prisoner. This work was published with the approval of Nikita Khrushchev, but more repressive regimes confiscated his works. He finished "The Gulag Archipelago" secretly and smuggled out of Russia. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1970, but was not allowed to travel to Sweden to accept it. In 1974 he was expelled from Russia, but returned in 2004 after the collapse of the USSR.

Answer: The Master of Hestviken

Sigrid Undset (1882-1949) was a Norwegian novelist and Nobel Prize winner in 1928. She was born in Denmark, but her family moved to Oslo when she was two years old. Due to the early death of her father, she was unable to attend college and was self-taught.

Her early works centered around difficult family situations, especially for women. Her two masterworks, "Kristin Lavrandatter" and "The Master of Hestviken", were multi-volume books set in Medieval Norway. The former is a fictional tale of a woman in the 14th century, who enters into what is considered a sinful relationship with a married man, performs penance, and later redeems herself before death. "The Master of Hestviken" was set in the Norwegian Civil War era (c. 1200) and was deeply influenced by Undset's conversion to Roman Catholicism.

Answer: Peer Gynt

Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) was a Norwegian author and playwright, whose works include "Peer Gynt", "A Doll's House", "Hedda Gabler", "Ghosts", and "The Master Builder". He is the most frequently performed dramatist after Shakespeare.

Ibsen worked in the theater and had limited success, finally leaving in 1864 to live in Germany and Italy for the next 27 years. "Peer Gynt", one of his first successful plays, is based on an old Norwegian fairy tale. "A Doll's House", written in 1879, is a scathing criticism of marital roles accepted by men and women of the time. "Hedda Gabler", first performed in 1891, is the story of a woman who is trapped in a marriage and a house that she does not want.

Answer: The Last Temptation of Christ

Nikos Kazantzakis (1883-1957) is a Greek author, perhaps recognized more for movies adapted from his books than by name.

"Zorba the Greek", first published in 1946, is the tale of a young Greek intellectual who ventures to escape his bookish life with the aid of the boisterous and mysterious Alexis Zorba.

"The Last Temptation of Christ", written in 1955, depicts the life of Jesus and his struggles with various forms of temptation, including fear, doubt, depression, reluctance, and lust.

Kazantzakis was born on Crete, when it was still part of the Ottoman Empire. He received a doctorate in philosophy from the Sorbonne in 1909. He was involved in Greek politics and for a while was the leader of a non-Communist left wing political party.

Answer: The Metamorphosis

Franz Kafka (1883-1924) was a German speaking Czech novelist, known for writing about protagonists facing surreal predicaments and an incomprehensible bureaucracy. He is most well known for "The Trial", "Metamorphosis", and "The Castle".

He trained as a lawyer and published few books in his lifetime before dying of tuberculosis. His executor published several books after Kafka's death in defiance of his wishes.

"The Trial" is the story of a man being prosecuted for a crime that is not revealed to him by an authority he cannot contact. "The Metamorphosis" is a novella about a man who wakes up and finds that he was transformed into a giant insect. "The Castle" is an unfinished story about a man attempting to gain access from a mysterious authority.

Answer: The Seagull

Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) was a noted Russian playwright and short story author. As a young man he supported his family after his abusive father had a business failure. Chekhov was certified as a doctor, but he was writing sketches for newspapers. After a bout with tuberculosis, he started to write in earnest with "The Steppe". In 1887 he wrote a popular play "Ivanov".

"The Seagull", written in 1896, dramatized the romantic and artistic conflicts between four theatrical characters.

"Uncle Vanya", written in 1898, describes the visit of an elderly professor and his glamorous, much younger second wife, Yelena, to the rural estate that supports their urban lifestyle.

His final play, "The Cherry Orchard", describes an aristocratic Russian landowner who returns to her family estate (which includes a large and well-known cherry orchard) just before it is auctioned to pay the mortgage.