The House of the Spirits Trivia Quiz

Answer: Rosa has green hair and yellow eyes

Nivea, Rosa's mother, dreams that this daughter will be beautiful, but in a strange and different way. At Rosa's birth, the midwife screams, then states that Rosa is, "...the most beautiful creature to be born on earth since the days of original sin." Esteban worships his fiancee and works hard as a gold miner to make his fortune so they can marry. Rosa, while perfectly happy to marry Esteban, is somewhat absent-minded and forgetful and spends her time embroidering strange creatures on the largest tablecloth in the world.

Answer: Rosa the Beautiful

Rosa develops a chill and the family doctor recommends bed rest, fluids, and a drop of liquor to bring down the fever. Her father gives permission for Rosa to have some excellent brandy sent to him by supporters of his bid to win a seat in Congress.

The brandy is laced with rat poison which kills Rosa. The brandy, of course, was meant for her father as a politically-based assassination attempt, hence Clara's prophecy of "a mistake" comes true. Devastated, following the funeral, Esteban Trueba leaves, not to see the del Valles for the next nine years.

Answer: The saltcellar

Clara is a happy child; she is clairvoyant and can move objects at will, and has no problem communicating with the various spirits that seem to surround her. Rosa's death, however, and her clandestine witnessing of her sister's autopsy, causes Clara to stop speaking.

She is silent for nine years, until the return of Esteban Trueba, who is once more looking for a bride. Clara speaks then, and announces that she is planning to marry.

Answer: Tres Marias

During his time at Tres Marias, Trueba rebuilds the house and puts the whole estate into working order, turning it into a huge, beautiful, working farm. However, his violent temper and harsh ways do not endear him to his tenants whom he brutalizes, seducing the women and brow-beating the men who dare not turn against their patron.

The first woman he rapes at Tres Marias, Pancha Garcia, bears him a son, named for his father, Esteban. The boy grows up hating his father, who has abandoned both him and his mother, and later he sires another boy whom he also names for his hated father. So we have a younger Esteban Garcia, raised to hate the Truebas, and this boy will years later exact savage revenge upon the Truebas.

Answer: His sister, Ferula

Ferula has foregone any chance of matrimony by nursing her sick mother, Dona Ester Trueba, so when Dona Ester dies and Trueba marries Clara, Ferula is sick with worry that she has nowhere to go and no-one to care for. Her relationship with her brother is less than loving, so she approaches Clara to see if she could become housekeeper for the newlyweds. Before she can say anything, Clara says, "Don't worry, you're going to live with us and the two of us will be just like sisters." This ensures Ferula's complete devotion to Clara, which leads to problems later.

Answer: All of these

Blanca and Pedro have been in love since they were children, playing together at Tres Marias. As young adults they become secret lovers, knowing that Trueba would never countenance such an alliance. Betrayed by both a suitor of Blanca's and Trueba's nasty young grandson, Esteban Garcia, they are wrenched apart by Trueba's fury. Clara calmly spits out her broken teeth, nurses Blanca, then the two of them leave Tres Marias and return to the capital, Clara refusing to even speak to her husband, who by now has regretted harming his wife and daughter. Blanca is pregnant and is forced by her father to marry the French count who had betrayed her. Blanca lives with the count for a few months in a very strange platonic relationship, then returns to her mother's house to give birth to her daughter, Alba.

Answer: Physician

Nicolas tries all sorts of ridiculous business ventures which fail; he travels and learns how to dance flamenco, which he then teaches; he goes to India and returns, setting up an Institute for Union with Nothingness, which horrifies his father, now Senator Trueba, and in one bizarre event, causes Trueba to have a heart attack. When he recovers, he exiles Nicolas to North America, where he finally makes a fortune with another ashram-type academy.

Jaime, on the other hand, feels an overwhelming need to help people, so he studies to become a doctor. Sometimes too generous with his time, money, clothes, skills, Jaime becomes a much-loved uncle to young Alba. He also befriends Blanca's long-time love, Pedro Tercero, and he comes to like Alba's boyfriend, Miguel. He also is a good friend of the man who eventually becomes President of the country, and who replaces the government which Trueba has supported all his life.

Senator Trueba takes little interest in his children's activities, hence his astonishment at how all three turn out.

Answer: Puts them in an old sock and gives them to Blanca

Clara's preoccupation with the spiritual continues, with short breaks during family crises, throughout her life. She can summon spirits, play Chopin without opening the piano lid, and generally drift through life in a distracted fashion. Her husband adores her, and after her death wears mourning for the rest of his life; he also wears her false teeth in a little bag hung around his neck as a reminder that he was the one who had knocked his wife's teeth out in a fit of temper. Blanca and her lover, Pedro Tercero, who is wanted by the revolutionary government, finally escape to Canada and Blanca takes the jewels with her, hoping to save them for Alba.

Answer: All of these

The President has been killed by the military junta, as has Uncle Jaime. Alba's boyfriend, Miguel, is being hunted by the military police but Alba does not know where he is hiding. She helps people escape by arranging for them to enter the compounds of neutral ambassadors.

When finally caught, she is brutalized by Esteban Garcia, now Colonel of the military police, Senator Trueba's unacknowledged grandson. Trueba, however, still has some political power, and with the help of a prostitute he's known since he was a young man, Alba is set free.

She recovers in her grandfather's house, the house of the spirits, and begins to write the story of her family, which Clara had recorded minutely in many notebooks.

Answer: The curse of his sister, Ferula

Ferula's devotion to Clara develops into a form of adoration which her husband cannot tolerate. It all comes to a head one night when there is a minor earthquake, and Ferula creeps into the sleeping Clara's bed for comfort. Trueba comes home, finds Ferula in bed with his wife, loses that famous temper of his and orders his sister out of the house immediately, never to show her face to him again or he'll kill her on the spot. Ferula, who is no shrinking violet, yells back at him that she's set her curse on him, that he'll always be alone and that his body and soul will shrivel up and that he'll die like a dog. Her curse works in part: he loses his wife fairly early, he does shrink in size for no apparent reason, and the turmoil in his beloved country hurts his heart and soul.

He does not, however, die like a dog; he dies peacefully, lying in his beloved Clara's bed, attended by his grand-daughter, Alba. Clara's spirit has been seen for several days, waiting for her reunion with her husband.