Why So Mysterious? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Naples

The author of "The Neapolitan Novels", a four-book series about two girls growing up in 1950s Naples published between 2012 and 2015, and translated into many languages, Elena Ferrante was born in Naples in 1943. Her identity has been kept secret since the publication of her first novel, "L'amore molesto" (Troubling Love), in 1992. Based on the analysis of the content of her works and the information gleaned from interviews, various attempts have been made to discover Ferrante's true identity; several so-called experts have also been trying to prove she is a man, a suggestion firmly dismissed by the author. Ferrante has explained her choice by stating that, in her opinion, books cease needing their authors once they are written.

In 2016, Time Magazine included Ferrante among the world's 100 most influential people.

Answer: Robert Kennedy

J.K. Rowling is no stranger to the reasons that can bring writers to disguise their identity: in fact, she was urged by her publishers to adopt a gender-neutral pen name to increase the appeal of the "Harry Potter" books with the male part of her intended readership, children aged 9-11. In 2013, Rowling published "The Cuckoo's Calling", the first of a series of crime novels detailing the cases of private detective Cormoran Strike, under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith; as of November 2018, four novels have been published, with at least six more in the works. Though Rowling's secret identity was revealed not long after the book's publication - causing some controversy - the author stated that writing under a pseudonym was a liberating experience for her. While Galbraith was a fantasy name Rowling had invented for herself as a child, the name Robert was inspired by Robert Kennedy, the younger brother of US President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1968.

None of the other Roberts listed as incorrect choices was a 20th-century politician.

Answer: Walter Scott

Though Walter Scott had already achieved worldwide fame as a poet, he decided to publish his first foray into novel writing anonymously, because at the time prose fiction was still considered inferior to poetry when it came to the depiction of historical events. "Waverley" (1814) is based on the Jacobite Rising of 1745; its protagonist, Edward Waverley, is an English gentleman who becomes involved in the Scottish rebellion seeking to restore the Stuart dynasty. The novel became extremely popular, and is now widely regarded as the first historical novel in the western tradition. In the following years, Scott published a long series of novels on similar themes, which came to be known as "the Waverley novels". As his authorship was not revealed until 1827, Scott's novels were credited to "The Author of Waverley", and the author earned the nickname of "The Great Unknown". Edinburgh's main railway station is named Waverley after the novel.

All the other options are major English writers who wrote at least one historical novel.

Answer: romance

Dame Agatha Christie was fascinated by human psychology, but felt that the expectations of the fans of her detective stories prevented her from exploring it in full. According to her daughter, Rosalind, the pseudonym Christie chose to write her six "bitter-sweet stories about love" combined her second name, Mary, and the name of some distant relatives, Westmacott.

The first of these books, "Giant's Bread", was published in 1930, the year in which she met and married archaeologist Max Mallowan, her second husband; the last Westmacott novel was published in 1956. Christie managed to keep her Mary Westmacott identity a secret for almost twenty years. Though not as successful as Christie's mystery novels, the Westmacott books were received positively, which made the author very happy.

Answer: Benjamin Franklin

Polymath and Founding Father Benjamin Franklin frequently used pseudonyms - the best-known of which is Richard Saunders, the character under whose name he published the yearly "Poor Richard's Almanack" for 25 years. Mrs. Dogood's persona, however, was created by Franklin at the age of 16, after he had tried several times to get his letters published in the "New England Courant", the newspaper founded by his older brother, James Franklin, at whose printing shop Benjamin worked as an apprentice. When publication was repeatedly denied, Franklin started leaving letters signed by Mrs. Dogood under the door of his brother's printing shop. The letters, 14 in total, were sent every two weeks, between April 2 and October 8, 1722; the first two letters introduced Franklin's fictional persona in great detail. The newspaper's readers found the letters (which poked fun at various aspects of life in the American colonies, such as hoop skirts) very entertaining - so much that a number of them offered to marry Mrs. Dogood. However, James Franklin was not amused, and eventually Benjamin left his post as an apprentice and fled to Philadelphia. The Silence Dogood letters are featured in the 2004 film "National Treasure", where it is suggested they are the basis for a secret code.

Benjamin Franklin is the only one of the four options who was an inventor as well as an author and politician.

Answer: his wife

C.S. Lewis was a bachelor for most of his life; however, when he was in his late 50s, he met American divorcee Joy Gresham Davidman, and in 1957 entered into a civil marriage with her in order to allow her to remain in the UK. They eventually fell in love after she was diagnosed with bone cancer, and were allowed a brief spell of happiness together until 1960, when Joy died of her illness. "A Grief Observed", a collection of reflections on bereavement based on Lewis' own notes, was published under a pseudonym because Lewis did not want to be identified as the author of such an intensely personal work. Davidman is referred as "H" (the initial of her first, rarely used name, Helen) throughout the book, which was republished under Lewis' name after his death in 1963. "A Grief Observed" inspired the 1985 stage play "Shadowlands" by William Nicholson, later adapted into the eponymous film directed by Richard Attenborough and starring Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger (1993).

Answer: George

French author George Sand (1804-1876) is probably better known for her affair with composer Frédéric Chopin than her literary production. Her pseudonym was inspired by the name of fellow writer Jules Sandeau, with whom she had a relationship at the beginning of her career; she first used the pen name that made her famous for her 1832 novel "Indiana". On the other hand, though George Eliot (1819-1880) was already well-established as an editor and critic with her real name, she adopted a masculine pen name when she started writing fiction. One of the main reasons for this choice was that women authors as a whole were not taken seriously unless they wrote light romances; she also wanted to protect her private life from public scrutiny because of her relationship with philosopher George Henry Lewes (who was married), which lasted until his death in 1878.

The first "George Eliot" work, published in 1857, was one of the short stories comprising "Scenes from Clerical Life".

Answer: Gulliver's Travels

Jonathan Swift published most of his work under various pseudonyms. First published in 1726, "Gulliver's Travels" was meant as a satire on human nature and the literary subgenre of "traveller's tales". However, because of the political nature of much of the novel - most of which can be read as an anti-Whig satire - Swift had the manuscript copied to prevent his handwriting from being identified, then had it secretly delivered to his publisher, Benjamin Motte. Afraid of prosecution, Motte made some changes to the manuscript, leaving out the most controversial parts, and published the book anonymously. "Gulliver's Travels" was an immediate success - followed by many sequels, imitations and parodies - and is now considered one of the classics of English-language literature.

The other three options are all major 18th-century English-language novels: "Robinson Crusoe" by Daniel Defoe, "Tom Jones" by Henry Fielding, and "The Vicar of Wakefield" by Oliver Goldsmith.

Answer: A Lady

Jane Austen probably started writing "Elinor and Marianne" - the first draft of what later became "Sense and Sensibility" - around 1795, at the age of 19. Like her earlier short novel "Lady Susan", "Elinor and Marianne" was written in an epistolary format, which was later changed into third-person narration. Described as written "By A Lady", "Sense and Sensibility" was published in three volumes in 1811, and became so popular that it sold out in less than two years.

At the time, it was common for women writers to have their work published anonymously - both for legal reasons and because writing was considered acceptable for a woman as a hobby rather than a full-time career. Austen's following novel, "Pride and Prejudice" (1813), was published as written by the author of "Sense and Sensibility".

Answer: Louisa May Alcott

Louisa May Alcott's A.M. Barnard novels were written in the years that preceded the publication of her best-known work, "Little Women" (1868); one of them, "A Long Fatal Love Chase", remained unpublished until 1995. These fiery, sensational stories with a Gothic undertone are quite different from Alcott's later output; they feature strong female characters, exotic locales and lots of suspense. Alcott wrote them quickly and under considerable pressure because of her precarious financial situation; the novels were successful, but it was only with the publication of "Little Women" that Alcott's career as a writer took off. A.M. Barnard's true identity was first brought to light in the 1940s by two New York-based scholars, who found the pseudonym in a series of letters written to Alcott by a group of Boston publishers.

All the remaining choices are major American 19th- and 20th-century women writers.