If you Trivia Quiz

Answer: War

If you were "A Farewell to Arms" you were written by Ernest Hemingway and set during World War I. Like the main character Frederic Henry, Hemingway was wounded while an ambulance driver in wartime Italy, and fell in love with his nurse. Hemingway said that war strips away illusion, which makes for unflinching, gritty and succinct writing. This novel is well known for exactly that.

Answer: War

If you were "Little Women" you were penned by Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888). Alcott was transformed by the American Civil War when she volunteered as a nurse, and was physically altered by a bout of typhoid fever. Her writing began when letters she sent home were published, later morphing into this much-loved novel set during the Civil War.

Answer: War

If you were "Man's Search for Meaning" (1946), Viktor Frankl is your author--a psychiatrist who survived three years in WWII Nazi concentration camps, losing his entire family. He created a new movement, based on the idea that suffering, no matter how devastating or cruel, can be endured.

His book about the camps was named among the most influential books in the USA. Anne Frank ("Diary of a Young Girl", 1947) and Joseph Heller ("Catch-22", 1961) are but two of the many accomplished writers who experienced war and wrote about it.

Answer: Physical handicap

If you are Stephen King you published "Dreamcatcher" in 2001, not long after you were on a walk and struck by a van, in June 1999. Very similar to King, in the novel Jonesy is hit by a car and goes through a painful and difficult recovery process. King was heavily medicated for his pain as he wrote this work, and the medications triggered past addictions, so he does not like this book. Yet he healed both physically and mentally, in much part through his writing. "The Dark Tower", "The Stand", "The Dead Zone", and others feature characters who are disabled, ostracized or powerless and terrified, yet strong and resilient.

W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) wrote "Of Human Bondage" (1915), detailing a character's painful struggle with a physical handicap, a club foot. Maugham understood disability and its impact due to his prominent stammer.

Answer: Mental Illness

If you were the novel "Mrs Dalloway" (1925) your author is Virginia Woolf, who, in hindsight, may have had bipolar disorder. She committed suicide in 1941 at age 59. Woolf writes about the shell-shock symptoms WWI veteran Septimus displays before he commits suicide, and the inner musings of Clarissa Dalloway, who admits she relates to this veteran.

Ernest Hemingway committed suicide in 1961. He too may have had untreated bipolar disorder.

Answer: Mental Illness

If you are Franz Kafka (1883-1924) you created the absurd and astounding novella, "The Metamorphosis". You have depression, severe anxiety, insomnia, nightmares, headaches, and a debilitating sense of alienation, as well as tuberculosis, all driving the novel. The story depicts Gregor Samsa, who wakes up to find he is a giant insect. He attempts to continue his obligations and routines, however futile. His family finds him deeply repulsive, causing his death. Kafka said his "unbearable" unhappiness drove his torturous writing, where art reveals unacceptable reality. "Don't edit your own soul", he advised.

H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) wrote about weirdness, horror and science fiction. He had night terrors, which appear in his fiction, as well as isolation, insomnia, headaches and a sense humanity was meaningless. Hunter S. Thompson ("Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas") shot himself in 2005 at age 67. "I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone," he said, "but they've always worked for me". In his works the author is often a central character, though he purposely exaggerated details to convey "a deeper truth".

Answer: Love

If you are "Tender Is the Night" (1934) you are the fourth novel of F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940). Set on the French Riviera, characters Dick and Nicole, a wealthy and glamorous couple, struggle with Nicole's recent mental breakdown and the dark undertones of wealth and trauma, mirroring closely the lives of Fitzgerald and his love Zelda.

They met in 1918 and became America's darlings, though their excesses and passion led to destruction. Zelda was committed to an institution, and Scott died of a heart attack. Several of his novels depict Zelda as a heroine or a burden. "I love her and that's the beginning and end of everything..." he wrote. Yet later, "I wouldn't care if she died, but I couldn't stand to have anybody else marry her." They were known for flamboyance, enchantment and demise, themes Fitzgerald carried into his greatest novels.

Answer: Love

If you are Dante Alighieri you are very much in "courtly" love with Beatrice Portinari, whom you met only twice. Though both married someone else, it was Beatrice served as the model for "Vita Nuova" and she's also named as the celestial guide through Paradise in the "The Divine Comedy". Dante writes about Beatrice having elevated his soul, causing him awe and spiritual joy.

When she died at about age 24, Dante's love merely deepened. In "The Divine Comedy" she challenges him and leads him closer to God.

Answer: Love

If you are "Annabel Lee" than you are the last poem by Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849). In 1849 Poe pens his sorrow and longing for the dead Annabel, "my darling--my life and my bride...". Poe's wife and cousin Virginia had died of tuberculosis in 1847, age 24. They were married when she was 13. The poem expresses eternal love, claiming envious angels took Annabel away in a "chilling" wind. Poe sunk into depression and heavy drinking after Virginia's death, and he depicted dying young women in "The Raven", "Ulalume" and "Ligeia". However, Poe was guilty of romantic scandals and infidelity during their marriage, as well as lying, drinking and many conflicts with others. Life with him could not have been so heavenly as this poem suggests. Still, his love for Virginia and the despair her illness and death caused him is reflected in "Annabel Lee":

"It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of ANNABEL LEE;--
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me..."

Answer: Physical handicap

If you are American writer Flannery O'Connor (1925-1964) you wrote "Everything That Rises Must Converge" (1965), a collected work influenced by your struggles with the autoimmune disease lupus. O'Connor's dad died of it. The broken and deformed body is a central theme in many of her works, as are characters who interact with the disabled in "grotesque" ways. Isolation, mortality, and seeking God are also strong themes she experienced herself. From her hospital bed O'Connor raced to complete this collection before dying at age 39. Contemporary writer Alice McDermott said, "It was the illness I think that made her the writer that she is".