Book Trivia | 100 random trivia & facts about literature [Part 3]

Literature is a great way to escape from reality, to travel with your mind to different worlds and cultures. A book is the best escape for the mind.

So let’s dive into some trivia and facts about literature.

Ibn Tufail and Ibn al-Nafis were pioneers of the philosophical novel
Ibn Tufail wrote the first fictional Arabic novel Hayy ibn Yaqdhan as a response to al-Ghazali’s The Incoherence of the Philosophers
Then Ibn al-Nafis also wrote a novel Theologus Autodidactus as a response to Ibn Tufail’s Philosophus Autodidactus
Both of these narratives had protagonists who were autodidactic feral children living in seclusion on a desert island, both being the earliest examples of a desert island story
These protagonists were Hayy in Philosophus Autodidactus and Kamil in Theologus Autodidactus
Hayy lives alone with animals on the desert island for the rest of the story in Philosophus Autodidactus
The story of Kamil extends beyond the desert island setting in Theologus Autodidactus
It was the earliest known coming of age plot
It eventually became the first example of a science fiction novel
A Latin translation of Ibn Tufail’s work, Philosophus Autodidactus, first appeared in 1671, prepared by Edward Pococke the Younger
It was followed by an English translation by Simon Ockley in 1708, as well as German and Dutch translations
These translations later inspired Daniel Defoe to write Robinson Crusoe, a candidate for the title of “first novel in English”
Philosophus Autodidactus also inspired Robert Boyle to write his own philosophical novel set on an island, The Aspiring Naturalist
The story also anticipated Rousseau’s Emile: or, On Education in some ways
It is also similar to Mowgli’s story in Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book as well as Tarzan’s story
The similarities were in that a baby is abandoned but taken care of and fed by a mother wolf
Among other innovations in Arabic literature was Ibn Khaldun’s perspective on chronicling past events
By fully rejecting supernatural explanations, Khaldun essentially invented the scientific or sociological approach to history
Lyric poetry advanced far more in China than in Europe prior to 1000, as multiple new forms developed in the Han, Tang, and Song dynasties
The greatest poets of this era in Chinese literature were Li Bai and Du Fu
Printing began in Tang Dynasty China
A copy of the Diamond Sutra, a key Buddhist text, found sealed in a cave in China in the early 20th century
It is the oldest known dated printed book, with a printed date of 868
The method used was block printing
The scientist, statesman, and general Shen Kuo was the author of the Dream Pool Essays (1088)
This is a large book of scientific literature that included the oldest description of the magnetized compass
During the Song Dynasty, there was also the enormous historical work of the Zizhi Tongjian
His work was compiled into 294 volumes of 3 million written Chinese characters by the year 1084 AD
The true vernacular novel was developed in China during the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644 AD)
Some authors feel that China originated the novel form with the Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong (in the 14th century)
Although others feel that this epic is distinct from the novel in key ways
Fictional novels published during the Ming period include the Water Margin and the Journey to the West
These two represent two of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature
Classical Japanese literature generally refers to literature produced during the Heian Period
By some it is considered a golden era of art and literature
The Tale of Genji (early 11th century) by Murasaki Shikibu is considered the pre-eminent masterpiece of Heian fiction
It is also an early example of a work of fiction in the form of a novel
It is sometimes called the world’s first novel, the first modern novel, the first romance novel, or the first novel to still be considered a classic
Other important works of this period include the Kokin Wakashū (905), a waka-poetry anthology, and The Pillow Book (990s) Sei Shōnagon
He was Murasaki Shikibu’s contemporary and rival
The Pillow Book is an essay about the life, loves, and pastimes of nobles in the Emperor’s court
The iroha poem was also written during the early part of this period
It is now one of two standard orderings for the Japanese syllabary
The 10th-century Japanese narrative, The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, can be considered an early example of proto-science fiction
The protagonist of the story, Kaguya-hime, is a princess from the Moon who is sent to Earth for safety during a celestial war, and is found and raised by a bamboo cutter in Japan
She is later taken back to the Moon by her real extraterrestrial family
A manuscript illustration depicts a disc-shaped flying object similar to a flying saucer
In this time the imperial court patronized the poets, most of whom were courtiers or ladies-in-waiting
Editing anthologies of poetry was a national pastime
Reflecting the aristocratic atmosphere, the poetry was elegant and sophisticated and expressed emotions in a rhetorical style
Had nothing occurred to change literature in the 15th century but the Renaissance, the break with medieval approaches would have been clear enough
The 15th century, however, also brought Johann Gutenberg and his invention of the printing press
It was an innovation that would change literature forever
Texts were no longer precious and expensive to producethey could be cheaply and rapidly put into the marketplace
Literacy went from the prized possession of the select few to a much broader section of the population
As a result, much about literature in Europe was radically altered in the two centuries following Gutenberg’s unveiling of the printing press in 1455
William Caxton was the first English printer and published English language texts including Le Morte d’Arthur and Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
It is a collection of oral tales of the Arthurian Knights which is a forerunner of the novel
These are an indication of future directions in literature
With the arrival of the printing press a process begins in which folk yarns and legends are collected within a frame story and then mass published
In the Renaissance, the focus on learning for learning’s sake causes an outpouring of literature
Petrarch popularized the sonnet as a poetic form
Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron made romance acceptable in prose as well as poetry
François Rabelais rejuvenates satire with Gargantua and Pantagruel
Michel de Montaigne single-handedly invented the essay and used it to catalog his life and ideas
Perhaps the most controversial and important work of the time period was a treatise printed in Nuremberg
It was entitled De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium
In it, the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus removed the Earth from its privileged position in the universe
It had far-reaching effects, not only in science, but in literature and its approach to humanity, hierarchy, and truth
A new spirit of science and investigation in Europe was part of a general upheaval in human understanding which began with the European discovery of the New World in 1492
It continues through the subsequent centuries, even up to the present day
The form of writing now commonplace across the world, the novel, originated from the early modern period and grew in popularity in the next century
Before the modern novel became established as a form there first had to be a transitional stage when “novelty” began to appear in the style of the epic poem
Plays for entertainment (as opposed to religious enlightenment) returned to Europe’s stages in the early modern period
William Shakespeare is the most notable of the early modern playwrights
But numerous others made important contributions, including Molière, Pierre Corneille, Jean Racine, Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Lope de Vega, Christopher Marlowe, and Ben Jonson
From the 16th to the 18th century Commedia dell’arte performers improvised in the streets of Italy and France
Some Commedia dell’arte plays were written down
Both the written plays and the improvisation were influential upon literature of the time
Particularly upon the work of Molière
Shakespeare drew upon the arts of jesters and strolling players in creating new style comedies
All the parts, even the female ones, were played by men but that would change by the end of the 17th century
It first changed in France and then in England
The epic Elizabethan poem The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser was published, in its first part, in 1590 and then in completed form in 1597
The Fairie Queen marks the transitional period in which “novelty” begins to enter into the narrative in the sense of overturning and playing with the flow of events
Theatrical forms known in Spenser’s time such as the Masque and the Mummers’ Play are incorporated into the poem in ways which twist tradition
It turn to political propaganda in the service of Queen Elizabeth I
The earliest work considered an opera in the sense the work is usually understood dates from around 1597
It is Dafne, written by Jacopo Peri for an elite circle of literate Florentine humanists who gathered as the “Camerata”
17th century is considered as the greatest era of Spanish and French literature where it is called Siglo de Oro and Grand Siècle respectively
The most famous authors beside playwrights include Jean de La Fontaine and Charles Perrault known primarily for their fables
Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quixote has been called “the first novel” by many literary scholars
It is the first of the modern European novels
It was published in two parts
The first part was published in 1605 and the second in 1615
It might be viewed as a parody of Le Morte d’Arthur
In this case the novel form would be the direct result of poking fun at a collection of heroic folk legends
This is fully in keeping with the spirit of the age of enlightenment which began from about this time and delighted in giving a satirical twist to the stories and ideas of the past
It’s worth noting that this trend toward satirising previous writings was only made possible by the printing press
Without the invention of mass-produced copies of a book it would not be possible to assume the reader will have seen the earlier work and will thus understand the references within the text