FREE! Click here to Join FunTrivia. Thousands of games, quizzes, and lots more!
Quiz about Literature in Spanish
Quiz about Literature in Spanish

Literature in Spanish Trivia Quiz


This is a response to the challenge by Adams627. This quiz covers famous Spanish novels from Peninsular Spain. You will pick the correct title in Spanish. By the end, you'll have learned of ten world-famous Spanish novels. Hints will help, I promise.

A multiple-choice quiz by Windswept. Estimated time: 4 mins.
  1. Home
  2. »
  3. Quizzes
  4. »
  5. Literature Trivia
  6. »
  7. Literature by Region
  8. »
  9. Literature from Spain

Author
Windswept
Time
4 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
318,729
Updated
Dec 31 22
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Average
Avg Score
8 / 10
Plays
547
Awards
Top 10% Quiz
- -
Question 1 of 10
1. What is the title of the renowned novel satirizing the rites of chivalry, along with many other inbred social patterns? Among other characters, the novel features two literary classics: Sancho Panza and the sought-after comic-heroine Dulcinea. Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. Which nineteenth century naturalist novel written by a woman deals with the powerful effects of a force in life we call maternal? Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. Which novella presents a story of one young man in his many adventures and difficulties? Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. This is a Spanish novel by a novelist many in Spain consider second in quality only to Cervantes. His acclaimed and extensive 1887 novel involves class and love and two women characters who were dramatically affected by both class and love. What is this novel called? Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. Here is a startling novel published by a woman in 1944. Its title in the field of math could be zero.
Carmen Laforet's first novel presents a torturous situation for young Andrea who discovered evil and sordid loneliness in her grandmother's house in Barcelona. Some readers compare Andrea to Alice from 'Alice in Wonderland.' What is this spectacular novel called?
Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. Which novel in dialogue has been called the first European novel? It was anonymous published as "La Comedia de Calisto y Melibea." The title character, an older woman, is a go-between, sometimes called a sorceress. Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. Which contemporary Spanish novel seems to refer to a battle in which the Greeks win over the Persians? Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. Which is the novel by an internationally acclaimed writer about her character's encounter one night with a man in black who appears out of nowhere and with whom she overcomes her writer's block to complete the novel readers are reading? The novel deals with places which often remain unseen, in the background, or beyond view. Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. In which novel is a character perhaps killed by the author? This novel's translated English title is "Mist." In Spanish, it is "fog." As you can see, fog/mist, the simple meaning of the title is also, most agree, nebulous. Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. What was the trilogy which dealt with the struggle of the poverty-stricken to live? Hint



(Optional) Create a Free FunTrivia ID to save the points you are about to earn:

arrow Select a User ID:
arrow Choose a Password:
arrow Your Email:




Most Recent Scores
Mar 16 2024 : Guest 14: 5/10
Jan 29 2024 : Guest 80: 7/10

Score Distribution

quiz
Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. What is the title of the renowned novel satirizing the rites of chivalry, along with many other inbred social patterns? Among other characters, the novel features two literary classics: Sancho Panza and the sought-after comic-heroine Dulcinea.

Answer: Don Quixote

This novel by Miguel de Cervantes satirizes the age of chivalry and its heroic principles. The novel implodes fairy tales both in social and private life. Additionally, it includes inset stories, journey and dystopian fiction. Most importantly, the figures of the suffering, idealistic Don Quixote and his faithful earthy ally, Sancho Panza, have earned the respect, laughter and tears of generations of readers.
2. Which nineteenth century naturalist novel written by a woman deals with the powerful effects of a force in life we call maternal?

Answer: La madre naturaleza

Emilia Pardo Bazán is a writer who has not gained the attention she deserves. The nineteenth century novel 'La Madre Naturaleza' is both an extended praise of nature in a world which may be changing to disrespect nature and also a powerful Naturalist critique of the values of late nineteenth century Spain.
3. Which novella presents a story of one young man in his many adventures and difficulties?

Answer: Lazarillo de Tormes y de sus fortunas y adversidades

This anonymous sixteenth century novella belongs to a genre called the 'picaresque.' It recounts from the vantage point of a sometimes lower class narrator a series of events occurring in many places. It also ironically depicts people from highly diverse social classes. Often, these forms of fiction introduce the stories of people hidden or outlawed from "respectable" society. Parts of this particular novel were banned at one time because of scenes and comments which were considered anti-clerical.
4. This is a Spanish novel by a novelist many in Spain consider second in quality only to Cervantes. His acclaimed and extensive 1887 novel involves class and love and two women characters who were dramatically affected by both class and love. What is this novel called?

Answer: Fortunata y Jacinta

The novel is actually the story of the two women named in the title: Fortunata and Jacinta. Fortunata comes from a lower class; Jacinta is Juanito's cousin. Juanito is the son of a rich family. Juanito's life overlaps with each of the two women named in the title. The novel is an astoundingly rich depiction of later 19th century Madrid and the changes which profoundly affect its citizens.

Benito Pérez Galdós (1843-1920) has been often compared with Dickens for his comprehensive social view, his careful social criticism and his heart-wrenching characterizations. Galdos wrote some 31 novels, including "Doña Perfecta," "Misericordia" and his extensive series, "Episodios Nacionales." He is particularly famous for abandoning Romanticism and presenting the world of "common people" in realistic terms.
5. Here is a startling novel published by a woman in 1944. Its title in the field of math could be zero. Carmen Laforet's first novel presents a torturous situation for young Andrea who discovered evil and sordid loneliness in her grandmother's house in Barcelona. Some readers compare Andrea to Alice from 'Alice in Wonderland.' What is this spectacular novel called?

Answer: Nada

One telling section from the novel's English translation by Edith Grossman explains the novel's title:

"'And it came to me in waves,' says Andrea when she realises...that she has walked into a nightmare: 'First, innocent memories, dreams, struggles, my own vacillating present, and then, sharp joys, sorrows, despair, a significant contraction of life, a negation into nothing.'"

The mystery throughout the book is whether Andrea will be able to cope with the sordid meaninglessness of her time at her grandmother's house? The novel powerfully presents her struggles to do so.
6. Which novel in dialogue has been called the first European novel? It was anonymous published as "La Comedia de Calisto y Melibea." The title character, an older woman, is a go-between, sometimes called a sorceress.

Answer: La Celestina

Calisto, a nobleman, sees and falls in love with Melibea after Celestina (whom he hired) arranged a meeting between them. He has a highly unromantic death, falling from a ladder leaving Melibea's house. Melibea, a beautiful girl, is talked into meeting Calisto. Her death is a suicide. The novel poignantly emphasizes the class difference between then.

Celestina is a famous literary type in medieval literature. Her job is literally to find ways to get people to meet (for a fee, of course). She is a mixture of the bawdy, the comic and the pathetic.
7. Which contemporary Spanish novel seems to refer to a battle in which the Greeks win over the Persians?

Answer: Soldados de Salamina

Javier Cercas was born in Extremadura in 1962. His 2001 novel seems to refer to the classical Greeks, but actually the novel takes place in Spain during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Cercas the novelist becomes a character in this novel which many call "factoid fiction," that is, a blend of fiction and non-fiction.

This novel was a huge best seller in Spain and became a film in 2003.
8. Which is the novel by an internationally acclaimed writer about her character's encounter one night with a man in black who appears out of nowhere and with whom she overcomes her writer's block to complete the novel readers are reading? The novel deals with places which often remain unseen, in the background, or beyond view.

Answer: El cuarto de atrás

Carmen Martín Gaite was born in Salamanca in 1925. She was a most respected writer whose work ranged from the censorship of mid-century and Franquist Spain to powerful meta-fictional explorations of conversations, mothers and daughters, and of the writing process.

As the author of more than eleven novels, poetry, drama, translations of "Madame Bovary" and "To the Lighthouse," and numerous non-fictional studies of social customs, writing fiction, the eighteenth-century, New York City, and women as writers and readers, her work certainly deserves attention and careful reading.
9. In which novel is a character perhaps killed by the author? This novel's translated English title is "Mist." In Spanish, it is "fog." As you can see, fog/mist, the simple meaning of the title is also, most agree, nebulous.

Answer: Niebla

Miguel de Unamuno (1864-1936) is a pivotal, awe-inspiring figure who died in the midst of the Franquist uprising in Spain. He wrote in all literary genres, wanting to find ways to erase differences between them.
Ever a radical, he invented his new term for novels, "Nivolas,' to name a form not as factual or cut and dried as objective realist fiction.

He is famous for this belief, "My religion is to seek for truth in life and for life in truth, even knowing that I shall not find them while I live."
10. What was the trilogy which dealt with the struggle of the poverty-stricken to live?

Answer: La lucha por la vida

Pío Baroja is a major early twentieth century writer who wrote various trilogies. Also a physician, his "El árbol de la ciencia" ("The Tree of Science") grapples with the issue of belief and knowing. His main character becomes more negative the more he comes to know. This is an echo of the pessimism which would develop in the wake of World War I.

Ernest Hemingway is said to have respected Baroja's writing enormously.
Source: Author Windswept

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor agony before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.
3/28/2024, Copyright 2024 FunTrivia, Inc. - Report an Error / Contact Us