Current Affairs MCQs – Page 57 (Q561-570)

Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote The Brothers Karamazov, published in 1880, his final and arguably greatest novel, exploring themes of faith, doubt, morality and free will through the story of three brothers and the murder of their father. The novel is celebrated for its profound philosophical and theological depth, particularly in the famous chapter known as The Grand Inquisitor. Nikolai Gogol, Ivan Turgenev and Leo Tolstoy are tempting distractors, as each was another major figure of 19th-century Russian literature, though none wrote The Brothers Karamazov. Dostoevsky died just months after the novel's publication, leaving it as the definitive culmination of his literary career.

Victor Hugo, a French writer, wrote Les Miserables, published in 1862, an epic novel following ex-convict Jean Valjean's quest for redemption against the backdrop of early 19th-century French social and political upheaval. The novel's sweeping exploration of poverty, justice and revolution has made it enduringly popular, further amplified by its adaptation into a hugely successful stage musical. Alexandre Dumas, Gustave Flaubert and Emile Zola are tempting distractors, as each was another major 19th-century French novelist, though none wrote Les Miserables. Hugo was also a prominent political figure and social critic in France throughout his long and influential life.

Victor Hugo wrote The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, published in 1831, a novel set in medieval Paris centered on the deformed but kind-hearted bell-ringer Quasimodo and his tragic love for the beautiful Roma dancer Esmeralda. The novel is also notable for its role in inspiring renewed public interest in preserving the actual Notre-Dame Cathedral, which had fallen into disrepair at the time of its publication. Alexandre Dumas, Honore de Balzac and Gustave Flaubert are tempting distractors, as each was another major 19th-century French novelist, though none wrote this particular work. Hugo's vivid descriptions of the cathedral itself have made the building almost a character in its own right within the story.

Gustave Flaubert, a French writer, wrote the novel Madame Bovary, published in 1857, a landmark work of literary realism following the discontented wife of a provincial doctor as she pursues romantic affairs and extravagant spending to escape the boredom of her ordinary life. The novel was controversial upon publication and Flaubert was even prosecuted, though ultimately acquitted, on charges of immorality. Guy de Maupassant, Victor Hugo and Emile Zola are tempting distractors, as each was another significant French novelist of a similar era, though none wrote Madame Bovary. Flaubert's meticulous attention to precise language and detail heavily influenced the development of the modern realist novel.

Oscar Wilde, an Irish writer, wrote The Picture of Dorian Gray, published in 1890, his only novel, telling the story of a young man who remains eternally youthful while a magical portrait of him ages and bears the marks of his moral corruption instead. The novel explores themes of vanity, hedonism and the consequences of a life devoted purely to pleasure and aesthetic beauty. George Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells and Arthur Conan Doyle are tempting distractors, as each was another notable British or Irish writer of a similar era, though none wrote this particular novel. Wilde's own flamboyant public persona and later legal persecution for his homosexuality closely paralleled some of the novel's darker themes.

Oscar Wilde wrote the play The Importance of Being Earnest, first performed in 1895, a sharply witty comedy of manners satirizing the rigid social conventions and hypocrisy of Victorian upper-class society through a plot built around mistaken identities and double lives. The play remains one of the most frequently performed and quoted comedies in the English language. George Bernard Shaw, Sean O'Casey and J.M. Synge are tempting distractors, as each was another notable Irish playwright, though none wrote this particular play. Wilde's career and personal life took a dramatic downturn shortly after the play's success, when he was imprisoned later that same year following a highly publicized trial.

Samuel Beckett, an Irish playwright and novelist, wrote the play Waiting for Godot, first performed in 1953, a landmark work of absurdist theatre in which two characters endlessly wait for a mysterious figure named Godot who never actually arrives. Beckett won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1969, honored for writing that, in the destitution of modern man, acquires its elevation. Jean Genet, Harold Pinter and Eugene Ionesco are tempting distractors, as each was another significant playwright associated with absurdist or experimental theatre, though none wrote Waiting for Godot. The play's famously minimal plot and repetitive dialogue have made it a defining, if often puzzling, work of 20th-century drama.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez wrote One Hundred Years of Solitude, published in 1967, a landmark novel following multiple generations of the Buendia family in the fictional town of Macondo, widely regarded as the definitive masterpiece of the magical realism literary style. The novel's blending of fantastical and mundane elements profoundly influenced generations of writers across Latin America and beyond. Jorge Luis Borges, Pablo Neruda and Mario Vargas Llosa are tempting distractors, as each was another major Latin American literary figure of a similar era, though none wrote this particular novel. Garcia Marquez later won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982, with this novel specifically cited among his most significant achievements.

The Nobel Prize award ceremonies were historically interrupted mainly during periods surrounding the two World Wars, with prizes in several categories going unawarded during 1914 to 1918 and again during 1939 to 1945 due to the widespread global conflict and disruption. Even when prizes were not awarded in a given year, the Nobel Foundation's rules generally allowed the funds to be reserved and later distributed. Natural disasters, economic recessions and pandemics are tempting distractors, as none of these types of global events caused comparable interruptions to the Nobel Prize schedule historically. The Nobel Prizes have otherwise been awarded with remarkable consistency for over a century.

The Nobel Prize medals are made primarily from gold, specifically 18-karat green gold plated with a thin layer of 24-karat gold, a tradition dating back to the very first prizes awarded in 1901. Each medal features a portrait of Alfred Nobel on one side, with the reverse design varying depending on the specific prize category. Platinum, bronze and silver are tempting distractors, as none of these metals forms the primary material used in the actual Nobel Prize medals. During World War II, some laureates famously dissolved their gold medals in acid to prevent them from being seized by occupying Nazi forces, later having them re-cast after the war.