Braingle: 'Nobel Laureates in Literature: Samuel Beckett' Trivia Quiz

#1 In what year was Beckett awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his writing, which - in new forms for the novel and drama - in the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation"?

#2 Beckett was born in Dublin, Ireland in the year 1906, on the same day that _____ was celebrated.

Ash Wednesday
Good Friday
Easter Sunday
Saint Patrick's Day

#3 Which of the following novels was not a work by Beckett?

How It Is
Malone Dies
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Mercier and Camier

#4 Beckett concluded his Nobel Prize acceptance speech with the line, "The perception of human degradation - which we have witnessed, perhaps, to a greater extent than any previous generation - is not possible if human values are denied."

#5 In 1938, Beckett was stabbed in the streets of Paris by a man who had asked him for some money. Beckett was hospitalized for a perforated lung, but afterwards visited the man in prison and asked him why he had attacked Beckett. The man replied:

"Je ne peux pas vous dire maintenant." ("I cannot tell you now.")
"Parce que vous ne m'avez pas donné d'argent." ("Because you did not give me any money.")
"Je ne sais pas, Monsieur." ("I do not know, sir.")
"Ce n'est pas important, Monsieur." ("That is not important, sir.")

#6 Which of Beckett's plays features characters such as Estragon, Vladimir, Lucky, and Pozzo?

All Strange Away
Endgame
Happy Days
Waiting for Godot

#7 During World War II, Beckett joined a resistance movement in England, but was forced to flee for his life and to seek refuge in Ireland.

#8 "The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new" is the first line to which one of Beckett's novels?

Murphy
Dream of Fair to Middling Women
The Unnamable
Watt

#9 In what year did Beckett receive an honorary doctorate from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland?

#10 Suzanne Descheveaux-Dumesnil, Beckett's wife, died on July 17th, and Beckett himself died on December 22nd of the same year from respiratory problems. What year was this?

Nobel Laureates in Literature: Samuel Beckett