Quixotic Literature Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ignatius J. Reilly

John Kennedy Toole committed suicide in 1969, so it was lucky that his most famous novel was finally published in 1980. "A Confederacy of Dunces" comically explores the life of the strange, idealistic Ignatius J. Reilly, who is unwilling to accept the boring and money-driven world of 1960s New Orleans. When Ignatius' mother finally kicks her overweight and lazy son out of the house, he manages to find a job at the comically inefficient Levy Pants Factory, where he protests the labor and eventually antagonizes most of the city.

Interestingly, Toole's only successful novel is semi-autobiographical; the author spent time working at a pants factory and selling hot dogs in New Orleans during his life. The book itself was only published because Toole's mother found a copy of the manuscript after her son's tragic suicide at the age of 31. "A Confederacy of Dunces" won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize, the first time the prize was given posthumously.

Answer: Henry Fielding

Henry Fielding first gained fame in the eighteenth century English literary world with the anonymous publication of his satirical novel "Shamela." The novel parodied Samuel Richardson's "Pamela" by representing the title character as an amoral woman attracting the advances of a man named Squire Booby. Fielding's next biggest hit was "Joseph Andrews," which was also intended as a parody but ended up becoming a successful novel on its own. Fielding's most enduring work is probably "The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling," written in 1749 as one of the first truly English novels.

The book begins when the title character is discovered by Squire Allworthy, who lives in Somerset, England. Even though Tom and his neighbor Sophia Western fall in love, they cannot marry because of Tom's low social status.

After a series of ridiculous adventures around England, Tom discovers his true parentage and marries Sophia.

Answer: Jorge Luis Borges

The Argentine author Borges is notable for his short stories in which strange, chaotic events offer symbolic representations, often dealing with themes of writing or literature. Perhaps his most famous collection, "Ficciones," includes notable short stories like "The Circular Ruins," in which a wizard creates an artificial human before realizing his own nonexistence, or "The Library of Babel," during which humans wander around a hexagonally-shaped building filled with all of the world's information. Perhaps Borges' most acclaimed short story is "The Garden of Forking Paths," a complicated story about a Chinese spy for the Germans during World War II, who learns that after every action that a person takes, a path "diverges" and a new world is formed in which the action did not occur.

Answer: Cyrano de Bergerac

Edmond Rostand was a French dramatist almost exclusively famous for his 1897 play "Cyrano de Bergerac," a fictionalized account of the life of a real French playwright. The play itself bears almost no resemblance to Cyrano's actual history, highly exaggerating the length of the author's nose, for instance, and modeling Cyrano's love after his real-life cousin. Anthony Burgess (of "A Clockwork Orange" fame) translated Rostand's verse play into English, a translation that also helped the word "panache" enter the English language.

In the play, Cyrano and his rival Christian compete for the love of Roxane (Cyrano's cousin) before they agree that, while Christian will physically be Roxane's love, Cyrano will write poetic love letters to her. Afraid that Roxane would be turned off by Cyrano's huge nose, the protagonist allows Christian's relationship to blossom even after both men are sent into battle. Soon Christian dies, and Cyrano reunites with Roxane minutes before his tragic death.

Answer: Tennessee Williams

Tennessee Williams was born Thomas Lanier Williams in 1911, but soon changed his name in honor of his father's birthplace. His early dramas were some of his biggest hits; for instance, his 1944 memory play "The Glass Menagerie" is still read and analyzed today. Perhaps his most famous work, "A Streetcar Named Desire," details the decline of Southern aristocrat society with the mental breakdown of Blanche duBois at the hands of her sister's husband Stanley Kowalski. "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" was written late in Williams' career, which also encompassed hit Broadway plays like "Camino Real," "The Rose Tattoo," "Summer and Smoke," "Suddenly Last Summer," and "Night of the Iguana."

Answer: The Pickwick Papers

Just like "Don Quixote," Dickens' first novel entitled "The Pickwick Papers" has an episodic plot structure, where the major characters experience several unrelated, often comical interludes while they scour the countryside for interesting stories. This form fit perfectly for Dickens, because many of his novels were released in serial form, one chapter at a time. In "The Pickwick Papers," Samuel Pickwick is the head of the Pickwick Club, which also includes his aforementioned friends Snodgrass, Tupman, and Winkle. As the plot continues, more people join the club's meanderings, including the comically-drawn Alfred Jingle, who Mr. Pickwick bails out of prison, or Sam Weller, who becomes a servant to Pickwick like Don Quixote's assistant Sancho Panza.

"The Pickwick Papers" itself was used as an allusion in Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women," a novel in which the girls form their own writing society. It also lent its name to Pickwickian syndrome, an early name for Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome, because of a minor character's fictional snoring problems.

Answer: John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck is probably best-known for his Depression-era novel "The Grapes of Wrath," in which the Joad family resists harsh conditions when they move from Oklahoma to California in search of work, but his career was filled with literarily-significant works. "Travels with Charley" was subtitled "In Search of America" and detailed Steinbeck's long trip around the United States in his camper Rocinante, accompanied only by his poodle Charley. Along the way, he makes interesting conclusions about social problems, like the pervasion of mass media, widespread political ignorance, and racial segregation. Steinbeck's other works include "Of Mice and Men," the story of two migrant workers and their doomed friendship, a highly allegorical novella entitled "The Pearl," and enduring novels like "Tortilla Flat" and "Cannery Row."

Answer: Tristram Shandy

Laurence Sterne is mostly famous for two novels: "A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy," and his acclaimed comic work "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman." Influences upon "Tristram Shandy" include not only Cervantes' "Don Quixote," but also works like Rabelais' "Gargantua and Pantagruel" and the empiricist beliefs of John Locke. Tristram begins Volumes I and II of his novel by discussing his family and friends, including his quixotic Uncle Toby, the chambermaid Susannah, and Yorick the parson.

His actual birth doesn't become important, apparently, until Volume III. Tristram's actual life isn't much discussed in the novel due to so many ridiculous tangents, but he does mention how his nose was crushed when he was born, how he was named in direct opposition of his father's wishes due to a miscommunication, and how, as a toddler, he was circumcised by a falling window sash.

Answer: Graham Greene

Graham Greene was an early twentieth-century novelist who worked political and religious conflicts into his usually action-filled works. "Monsignor Quixote" isn't a fair representation of the body of his work, which is considerably less comical, but, in addition to the jokes, the novel also managed some political commentary on Spain after the rule of Francisco Franco.

In "The Power and the Glory," a Mexican priest struggles to retain Catholic values after political suppression. "The Heart of the Matter" features Major Henry Scobie, a Catholic convert who commits suicide after having an affair with shipwreck survivor Helen Rolt. Maurice Bendrix and Sarah Miles' attempts at love are frustrated in Greene's 1951 novel "The End of the Affair." Greene's later novels, like "The Quiet American" and "Our Man in Havana" touch upon themes of espionage and political dissatisfaction.

Answer: William Shakespeare

"Cardenio" is described as a "lost play," a literary work in which there are no original, surviving copies. After Thombald made his edits to a play attributed to Fletcher and Shakespeare, he was allowed to publish the new script because the play was a previously unknown part of the Bard's canon. Scholars still aren't sure how much of the history was written by the author naturally accredited to Shakespeare, because the style of "Cardenio" is dissimilar to his many other works. In 2010, the group of scholars known as Arden Shakespeare republished "Double Falsehood," and provided proof for why the altered work was originally one written by the great writer and contemporary of Cervantes.

In 1990, another Shakespearean scholar, Thomas Middleton, acquired a manuscript of a play entitled "The Second Maiden's Tragedy," which he believed was a slightly-altered version of "Cardenio" and utilized a style more similar to the Bard's. The new version bore little resemblance to "Double Falsehood" or to "Don Quixote," but did replicate Shakespeare's keen ability to kill off characters in Act V of the play.