Famous Polish Writers Quiz | People

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1. A novel by this world-famous Polish science fiction writer was adapted into a movie "Solaris" by Steven Soderbergh in 2002. What is the name of the writer?

Answer: Stanislaw Lem

The film stars George Clooney and Natascha McElhone. The novel "Solaris" by Stanislaw Lem was published for the first time in 1961. It has been translated into more than 30 languages. "Solaris" was first adapted into a film by Russia's Andrei Tarkovsky in 1972. Stanislaw Lem died in 2006, at the age of 84.

2. In the 50s another book by a great Polish novelist was made into a Hollywood movie. The title of the book is "Quo Vadis" and its author was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature at the beginning of the 20th century. Who is he?

Answer: Henryk Sienkiewicz

Henryk Sienkiewicz was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "because of his outstanding merits as an epic writer" in 1905. Sienkiewicz was the most celebrated and prolific Polish writer of the second half of the 19th century. His greatest literary achievement is a historical trilogy, which consists of "Ogniem i Mieczem" (With Fire and Sword), "Potop" (The Deluge) and "Pan Wolodyjowski" (Pan Michael), about Poland's glorious past (all three novels were adapted into very popular movies).

In 1895 Sienkiewicz published "Quo Vadis", a novel about Christians persecuted in Rome under the reign of Emperor Nero. Several movies were based on that novel, but the most elaborate version was produced by MGM in 1951, and starred Robert Taylor, Deborah Kerr and Peter Ustinov.

3. The author of "Quo Vadis" was the first of a series of Polish laureates of Nobel Prize in Literature. Name the writer who was awarded this prize several years after him.

Answer: Wladyslaw Reymont

Wladyslaw Stanislaw Reymont won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1924 "for his great national epic, 'The Peasants'" (Chlopi). Reymont died a year after he had received the long-awaited Nobel Prize.

4. This law graduate had emigrated to Argentina just a few days before World War II broke out. His first novel "Ferdydurke", published in 1937 was adapted into a movie many decades later. Even though his books were officially banned in communist Poland for many years, they were widely read and their author became a cult writer. Who is he?

Answer: Witold Gombrowicz

His major works include novels "Transatlantyk" (Trans-Atlantic) "Pornografia" (Pornography), "Kosmos" (Cosmos), plays "Slub" (The Marriage), and The Diary (Dziennik). His last play (and work), "Operetka" (Operetta) was published in 1966. He died three years later in Vence, in the southern France.

His books were banned for many years in Poland. However, they were read secretly and enjoyed an immense popularity. The first full edition of his works was published in 1988.

5. He was already an adult when he learnt English, yet he became one of the most outstanding anglophone writers of all time. What name did he adopt as a writer?

Answer: Joseph Conrad

The real name of Joseph Conrad, a famous British writer of Polish origin, was Teodor Josef Konrad Korzeniowski. His 20 years at sea provided the background for most of his novels and stories, notably "The Nigger of the Narcissus" (1897) and "Lord Jim" (1900).

6. Let's switch to poetry now. Winner of the 1980 Nobel Prize in Literature, this poet worked as a lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley for 20 years. What is his name?

Answer: Czeslaw Milosz

According to the Nobel Committee, Czeslaw Milosz was the one "who with uncompromising clear-sightedness voices man's exposed condition in a world of severe conflict". Milosz was born in 1911 in Lithuania, then belonging to Poland. In 1960 he moved to the U.S., at the invitation of the University of California, where he worked as Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures. Since 1989 he had two homes: in Berkeley and in Krakow, Poland. Czeslaw Milosz died in 2004 at the age of 93 in Krakow.

7. In 1996, Poland being a free and democratic country by then, another Polish poet was granted this distinguished prize by the Nobel Committee, "for poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments of human reality". Who is she?

Answer: Wislawa Szymborska

Born in 1923, Szymborska has published more than a dozen collections of poetry, which have been translated in many languages. She is also the Goethe Prize winner (1991) and Herder Prize winner (1995). Wislawa Symborska lives in Krakow, regarded by many as the cultural capital of Poland.

8. Considered the greatest Polish poet of all time, he lived in the 18/19th century when the Nobel Prize didn't exist yet and that is the only reason why he was not among its laureates. His poems are on the obligatory reading list for Polish pupils, and his great epic poem, "Pan Tadeusz" (Master Thaddeus) was adapted into a movie by Andrzej Wajda. What is the name of this poet?

Answer: Adam Mickiewicz

Mickiewicz was born in 1798 in the former Polish territory that, after the partition of Poland, was annexed by the Russian Empire (it belongs to Belarus since that country won its independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991). At the age of 31, the poet left Eastern Europe for ever.

He stayed in many different countries of Western Europe, and died in 1855 Constatinopole (now Istanbul). His epic poem "Pan Tadeusz" is for Poles what Dante's "Divine Comedy" is for Italians and Homer's "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" for Greeks.

His another masterpiece is "Dziady" (Forefathers' Eve), also adapted into a movie.

9. This ethnologist, aeronaut, occultist and historian had a very interesting and stormy life. He travelled exstensively, and was also one of the first to fly a hot-air balloon. In 1815 he killed himself with a bullet to his head. His novel "The Manuscript Found in Saragossa" became a world classic. Who was he?

Answer: Jan Potocki

Potocki, born into an aristocratic family, studied in Geneva and Lausanne. He travelled through the Balkans, the Cauacsus, China, and the Mediterranean. His "Rekopis Znaleziony w Saragossie" (Manuscript Found in Saragossa) was made into a movie in 1963 by Polish film director Wojciech Has.

In 1999 it was restored and re-released in the U.S. under the auspices of Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola.

10. This imaginative playwright and painter was also an adventurer, who ultimately took his own life. He lived in the 20th century and was most known by his artistic nickname derived from his real surname. Who is he?

Answer: Witkacy

His full name was Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz. He was the most extraordinary artist in inter-war Poland, creator of a new approach to theatre, which he called Pure Form, a precursor of the Theatre of the Absurd. He wrote more than 40 plays, and was notorious for his catastrophical view of the world. He travelled a lot, accompanying his friend, famous Polish social ethnologist and anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski on his trip to Australia. Witkacy committed suicide in 1939, several days after World War II had broken out and the next day after the Red Army had invaded Poland.

All citations in this quiz are from the official site of the Swedish Nobel Committee (www.nobel.se).

Source: Author beatka

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor thejazzkickazz before going online.
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Famous Polish Writers Trivia Quiz

This quiz deals with the most outstanding Polish novelists, playwrights and poets, many of whom gained a huge recognition and an everlasting place in the world's literature. All questions are multiple choice.

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