Gabriel García Márquez

Gabriel García Márquez Study questions

One Hundred Years of Solitude

Facts about Gabriel García Márquez

➾ Gabriel García Márquez did not meet his mother until he was almost eight years old.

➾ He derived his rich, pungent writing style directly from the storytelling mannerisms of his grandmother.

➾ He quit law school because he felt that the study of law “had nothing to do with justice”.

➾ As a reporter, he once staged a fake rebellion using sirens and drums in a remote jungle village to create a news story.

➾ An exposé he wrote on a shipwrecked sailor revealed that the naval destroyer had been carrying black market goods, which deeply embarrassed the government.

➾ He rewrote his novel No One Writes to the Colonel a remarkable eleven times.

➾ During extreme poverty in Paris, he sustained himself by re-boiling chicken bones to make daily broth.

➾ His hotel landlord trusted him enough to allow him to accumulate massive debt because they saw him constantly writing in his room.

➾ He later reflected that his three years of poverty taught him that “nobody dies of hunger” and one is capable of sleeping under bridges.

➾ He worked for a magazine sometimes nicknamed Venezuela Pornografica and stated that he read and believed all the gossip within.

➾ After experiencing writer’s block, he broke it by turning his family car around and barricading himself at home for 15 months to write One Hundred Years of Solitude.

Gabriel García Márquez MCQs

1. What is the full name of the author, born March 6, 1928?

A. Gabo Jimenez
B. Gabriel José García Márquez
C. Luis Alejandro Velasco
D. William Faulkner

B. Gabriel José García Márquez
This is his full birth name, though he is often known by his affectionate nickname, Gabo.

2. What is one of the common nicknames Gabriel García Márquez is known by?

A. Gabby
B. Gabito
C. Colonel
D. Maestro

B. Gabito
“Gabito” (or “Gabo”) was a popular and affectionate nickname used for him throughout Latin America.

3. In which Colombian village was Gabriel García Márquez born?

A. Sucre
B. Macondo
C. Bogotá
D. Aracataca

D. Aracataca
He was born in Aracataca, which became the real-life inspiration for the fictional town of Macondo.

4. In which year did Gabriel García Márquez die?

A. 1982
B. 1999
C. 2012
D. 2014

D. 2014
He died of pneumonia at the age of 87 in Mexico City.

5. What was the immediate cause of Gabriel García Márquez’s death?

A. Lymphatic cancer
B. Dementia
C. Pneumonia
D. Heart failure

C. Pneumonia
Though he suffered from cancer and dementia, his death in 2014 was attributed to pneumonia.

6. García Márquez was diagnosed with what type of cancer in 1999?

A. Lung
B. Lymphatic
C. Bone
D. Skin

B. Lymphatic
He was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer in 1999 but recovered following treatment.

7. What was García Márquez reported to be suffering from in 2012?

A. A severe infection
B. Paralysis
C. Dementia
D. Writer’s block

C. Dementia
In 2012, his brother announced that García Márquez was suffering from dementia.

8. What is considered García Márquez’s first serious writing or novella, published in 1955?

A. The Evil Hour
B. Big Mama’s Funeral
C. Leaf Storm (La Hojarasca)
D. The Colonel

C. Leaf Storm (La Hojarasca)
Leaf Storm was his first novella and the first work to introduce the fictional town of Macondo.

9. Which novel, published in 1985, is described as his second most well-known work?

A. The Autumn of the Patriarch
B. Chronicle of a Death Foretold
C. Love in the Time of Cholera
D. Leaf Storm

C. Love in the Time of Cholera
After One Hundred Years of Solitude, this is his most celebrated novel.

10. Who raised García Márquez for the first ten years of his life?

A. His father
B. His mother
C. His maternal grandparents
D. Fidel Castro

C. His maternal grandparents
He was raised by his maternal grandparents, who had a profound influence on his storytelling.

11. García Márquez credited his grandmother with providing the foundation for what aspect of his work?

A. His political views
B. His financial stability
C. His pungent style
D. His love of cinema

C. His pungent style
His grandmother’s “pungent style” of telling fantastic stories matter-of-factly inspired magical realism.

12. The author’s grandfather became the model for what archetype character in his fiction?

A. The Seaman
B. The Dictator
C. The Colonel
D. The Telegraph Operator

C. The Colonel
His grandfather, a veteran of the War of a Thousand Days, became the model for the recurring colonel archetype.

13. What traumatic Colombian civil war did García Márquez’s grandfather participate in?

A. La Violencia
B. The War of a Thousand Days
C. The Cuban Revolution
D. The Spanish Civil War

B. The War of a Thousand Days
His grandfather was a colonel in this devastating civil war, a recurring theme in his novels.

14. The village of Aracataca is the real-life inspiration for what fictional town?

A. Sucre
B. Cartagena
C. Cienaga
D. Macondo

D. Macondo
Macondo, the setting of One Hundred Years of Solitude, is based on his childhood home of Aracataca.

15. What US company established a banana headquarters in Aracataca, leading to massacres?

A. Standard Oil
B. The United Fruit Company
C. Chiquita Brands
D. Wells Fargo

B. The United Fruit Company
The 1928 “Banana Massacre” by this company became a key event in One Hundred Years of Solitude.

16. When did García Márquez first publish short stories?

A. 1955
B. 1967
C. 1947 while a student
D. 1970

C. 1947 while a student
He began his literary career publishing short stories in newspapers while he was a student.

17. After abandoning his higher studies, what profession did García Márquez fully commit to?

A. Film direction
B. Pharmacy
C. Journalism
D. Political activism

C. Journalism
He dropped out of law school to become a journalist, a profession that deeply shaped his writing style.

18. What newspaper column did García Márquez write for El Heraldo in Barranquilla?

A. El Espectador
B. La Hojarasca
C. La Jirafa
D. El Pueblo

C. “La Jirafa”
He wrote a regular column called “La Jirafa” (The Giraffe) under the name “Septimus.”

19. Which literary quality characterized García Márquez’s early journalistic writings?

A. Academic formality
B. Irony and mordant humor
C. Pure naturalism
D. Excessive pathos

B. Irony and mordant humor
His early columns were known for their biting humor and ironic observations.

20. García Márquez preferred to cover what type of stories as a reporter for El Espectador?

A. Editorials
B. Foreign correspondence
C. Fires and crimes
D. Political analysis

C. Fires and crimes
He preferred covering the “police beat” and sensational stories, like fires and crimes.

21. The fabricated rebellion story in Quibdo was staged to protest what?

A. Government corruption
B. The correspondent’s assignment
C. Censorship
D. The price of bananas

B. The correspondent’s assignment
He staged the story out of boredom and frustration with his assignment in the remote town.

22. What did the sailor Luis Alejandro Velasco reveal that embarrassed the Rojas Pinilla government?

A. The storm was fabricated
B. The destroyer carried black market goods
C. The sailor was a spy
D. The storm hit in New Orleans

B. The destroyer carried black market goods
Velasco revealed the shipwreck was due to contraband, not a storm, embarrassing the dictatorship.

23. When was The Tale of A Shipwrecked Sailor first published under García Márquez’s name?

A. 1954
B. 1966
C. 1970
D. 1982

C. 1970
Though written as a newspaper series in 1955, it was first published in book form in 1970.

24. Which of his novels was García Márquez rewriting eleven times while stuck jobless in Paris?

A. Leaf Storm
B. The Evil Hour
C. One Hundred Years of Solitude
D. No One Writes to the Colonel

D. No One Writes to the Colonel
He wrote this novella, a masterpiece of conciseness, during a period of extreme poverty in Paris.

25. What was García Márquez’s first novel focused on the theme of violence?

A. La Hojarasca
B. La Mala Hora (The Evil Hour)
C. El Coronel
D. Cien años de soledad

B. La Mala Hora (The Evil Hour)
This novel was his first to directly confront the theme of *La Violencia*, the political violence in Colombia.

26. What conclusion did García Márquez reach after three years of poverty in Paris?

A. That he required political asylum
B. That he needed a US visa
C. That nobody dies of hunger
D. That he should stop writing

C. That nobody dies of hunger
His experience of extreme poverty in Paris gave him a sense of resilience and this philosophical conclusion.

27. Who was the fiancée and eventual wife of García Márquez, described as having a “beautiful neck”?

A. Luisa Santiaga
B. Pilar Ternera
C. Mercedes Barcha
D. Consuelo

C. Mercedes Barcha
He married Mercedes Barcha, his childhood sweetheart, in 1958.

28. García Márquez finished which short story collection while working in Caracas, Venezuela?

A. No One Writes to the Colonel
B. Big Mama’s Funeral
C. Leaf Storm
D. The Tale of A Shipwrecked Sailor

B. Big Mama’s Funeral
He completed this collection (Los funerales de la Mamá Grande) while living in Venezuela.

29. After the Cuban revolution, García Márquez opened the Bogotá office for what Cuban news agency?

A. El Espectador
B. Momento
C. Prensa Latina
D. Alternativa

C. Prensa Latina
His support for the revolution led him to help establish the Bogotá office for Cuba’s official news agency.

30. García Márquez’s political leanings, since his student days, are described as being what?

A. Liberal
B. Conservative
C. Revolutionary, even communist
D. Federalist

C. Revolutionary, even communist
He was a committed leftist and socialist his entire life, stemming from his student activism.

31. While representing Prensa Latina at the UN, what famous incident did García Márquez witness?

A. Castro’s long speech
B. Khruschev using his shoe as a gavel
C. The signing of a peace treaty
D. An assassination attempt

B. Khruschev using his shoe as a gavel
He was present for the infamous (and possibly apocryphal) incident of Khruschev banging his shoe.

32. García Márquez’s US visa was withdrawn around 1961 due to what reason?

A. Financial debt
B. His political leanings and association with Cuba
C. Criminal activities
D. A dispute with immigration officials

B. His political leanings and association with Cuba
His left-wing politics and friendship with Castro made him a target of the US government.

33. García Márquez traveled through the US Deep South by bus as an homage to which writer?

A. Ben Hecht
B. Ernest Hemingway
C. John Steinbeck
D. William Faulkner

D. William Faulkner
He deeply admired Faulkner and traveled through his territory, the American South, by Greyhound bus.

34. What period of intense political violence and repression in Colombia occurred around 1948?

A. The Banana Massacre
B. The War of a Thousand Days
C. La Violencia
D. The Latin Boom

C. La Violencia
“La Violencia” (The Violence) was a brutal ten-year civil war that became a major theme in his work.

35. Who was the famed Mexican novelist with whom García Márquez collaborated on screenplays?

A. Julio Cortázar
B. Jorge Rojas
C. Carlos Fuentes
D. Juan Ramon Jimenez

C. Carlos Fuentes
He formed a close friendship with Fuentes, and they worked together on several film projects in Mexico.

36. What did García Márquez realize he lacked working on film scripts compared to novels?

A. Sufficient money
B. Technical expertise
C. The writer’s complete control over the work
D. Critical acclaim

C. The writer’s complete control over the work
He felt that in filmmaking, the writer’s vision was diluted by the collaborative process.

37. García Márquez experienced a four-year period of difficulty known as what, before writing his masterpiece?

A. Exile
B. Writer’s block
C. Political imprisonment
D. Journalism fatigue

B. Writer’s block
He suffered a severe writer’s block for four years before his breakthrough inspiration for his masterpiece.

38. While driving from Mexico City to Acapulco, García Márquez began planning which masterpiece?

A. The Evil Hour
B. Chronicle of a Death Foretold
C. One Hundred Years of Solitude
D. Love in the Time of Cholera

C. One Hundred Years of Solitude
He had a sudden flash of inspiration for the novel while on this drive, ending his writer’s block.

39. Approximately how long did García Márquez work on writing One Hundred Years of Solitude?

A. Six months
B. Eighteen months
C. Three years
D. Ten years

B. Eighteen months
He locked himself away for 18 months, writing in a haze of creative energy to complete the novel.

40. In which year was One Hundred Years of Solitude first published in Spanish (Cien años de soledad)?

A. 1961
B. 1967
C. 1970
D. 1982

B. 1967
The novel was an immediate and massive success upon its 1967 publication in Buenos Aires.

41. Which Argentinean writer, alongside Carlos Fuentes, was an early supporter of Cien Años de Soledad?

A. Jorge Luis Borges
B. Julio Cortázar
C. Pablo Neruda
D. Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza

B. Julio Cortázar
Julio Cortázar, a major figure of the “Latin Boom,” was an important early champion of the novel.

42. Who was the translator who rendered One Hundred Years of Solitude into English?

A. William Kennedy
B. Gregory Rabassa
C. Ben Hecht
D. Luisa Santiaga

B. Gregory Rabassa
Rabassa’s 1970 translation was highly acclaimed by García Márquez himself as a work of art.

43. What term describes the rise in popularity of Latin-American writing in the 1960s and 1970s?

A. The New Wave
B. The Latin Boom
C. Modernism
D. Postmodernism

B. The Latin Boom
His novel was a central work of the “Latin Boom,” which brought global attention to Latin American authors.

44. One Hundred Years of Solitude is considered a central work in which literary movement?

A. Postmodernism
B. Naturalism
C. Magical realism
D. Existentialism

C. Magical realism
The novel is the most famous example of magical realism, blending the fantastic with the mundane.

45. In 1973, following the assassination of Salvador Allende, García Márquez co-founded which left-wing magazine?

A. El Espectador
B. Prensa Latina
C. Alternativa
D. Momento

C. Alternativa
He co-founded this political magazine in Colombia in response to the coup in Chile.

46. What novel, published in 1975, focused on the theme of dictatorship and power?

A. Love in the Time of Cholera
B. The Autumn of the Patriarch
C. Chronicle of a Death Foretold
D. The Evil Hour

B. The Autumn of the Patriarch
This dense, experimental novel is a portrait of an archetypal Caribbean dictator, isolated by absolute power.

47. García Márquez established a personal relationship with which Cuban leader?

A. Che Guevara
B. Fidel Castro
C. Omar Torrijos
D. Salvador Allende

B. Fidel Castro
His controversial and long-standing friendship with Fidel Castro often drew criticism from the West.

48. In which year was García Márquez awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature?

A. 1967
B. 1970
C. 1981
D. 1982

D. 1982
He was awarded the Nobel Prize for his novels and short stories, which combined the fantastic and realistic.

49. García Márquez claimed that the atmosphere of his books is the atmosphere of what stage of life?

A. Old age
B. Journalism
C. Childhood
D. Adulthood

C. Childhood
He stated that his style was based on his grandmother’s way of telling stories, rooted in his childhood.

50. In his Nobel lecture, García Márquez expressed belief in the possibility of creating what?

A. Scientific advancement
B. Eternal solitude
C. The opposite utopia
D. Universal warfare

C. The opposite utopia
He concluded his lecture with a powerful call for a “new and sweeping utopia of life.”

Of Love and Other Demons MCQs

Of Love And Other Demons MCQs

1. What animal initially entered the market, stirring events?

A. Ash-gray dog
B. Hungry vulture
C. Stray cat
D. Abyssinian slave

A. Ash-gray dog.
An ash-gray dog with a white blaze ran through the market, knocking down stalls and biting several people.

2. What was Sierva María doing when she was bitten?

A. Stealing candy
B. Buying bells
C. Looking for pets
D. Watching slaves

B. Buying bells.
Sierva María went to the market with a servant to buy a string of bells for her twelfth birthday celebration.

3. What did the Governor sell for the slave woman?

A. All his money
B. Her weight in gold
C. Discounted silver
D. Two hundred pounds

B. Her weight in gold.
The Governor paid the Abyssinian slave’s weight in gold because of her unsettling and sublime beauty.

4. How did the maid treat Sierva María’s bite initially?

A. Ignored the injury
B. Herbal bandage
C. Lemon and sulfur
D. Hot ashes

C. Lemon and sulfur.
The maid quickly treated the bite on the left ankle with a mixture of lemon and sulfur, keeping it quiet.

5. What substance did Bernarda Cabrera habitually abuse, leading to her decline?

A. Turpentine
B. Fermented honey
C. Cacao tablets
D. Opium and coca

B. Fermented honey.
Bernarda was “erased from the world” due to her severe abuse of fermented honey and cacao tablets.

6. How did Bernarda Cabrera physically change due to her vices?

A. Became very thin
B. Wits were sharpened
C. Bloated and coppery
D. Eyes were brighter

C. Bloated and coppery.
Her body became “bloated and coppery as a three-day-old corpse” and her eyes were extinguished.

7. What location did the Marquis typically use for his siesta?

A. Master bedroom
B. Slave shack
C. Orange grove hammock
D. Drawing room sofa

C. Orange grove hammock.
Don Ygnacio de Alfaro y Dueñas usually slept in his siesta hammock hung between two orange trees.

8. What did the Marquis blame for draining his blood while he slept?

A. Evil spirits
B. Large mosquitoes
C. Attack by slaves
D. Bats

D. Bats.
The Marquis was pale like a lily because bats drained his blood while he slept, causing his forlorn appearance.

9. What unique physical trait characterized Sierva María’s hair?

A. Never cut
B. Always short
C. Black and straight
D. Braided simply

A. Never cut.
Her hair was never cut due to a promise made by Dominga de Adviento until her wedding night.

10. Who was Dominga de Adviento, and what was her role?

A. The Governor’s wife
B. Sierva María’s nurse
C. A freed slave
D. The Abbess’s vicar

B. Sierva María’s nurse.
Dominga de Adviento, a formidable black woman, ruled the house and raised Sierva María.

11. What item did Sierva María wear to prevent her from being lost in the shadows?

A. A lantern
B. Santería necklace
C. Small cowbell
D. A brightly colored ribbon

C. Small cowbell.
Frightened by the girl’s stealthy nature, her mother hung a cowbell around Sierva María’s wrist.

12. What was the name of the woman who arrived warning the Marquis about rabies?

A. Caridad del Cobre
B. Dulce Olivia
C. Sagunta
D. Olalla de Mendoza

C. Sagunta.
An old, notorious Indian woman named Sagunta, known for healing secrets, warned the Marquis about the plague.

13. What celestial event did the Marquis initially say was required for a plague to occur?

A. Tidal wave
B. Comet or eclipse
C. Divine wrath
D. Sudden freeze

B. Comet or eclipse.
The Marquis stated he saw no reason for a plague as no comets or eclipses had been forecast.

14. What shocking discovery did Bernarda make about the dog that bit Sierva María?

A. It was rabid
B. It was stolen
C. It bit the Marquis
D. It was the Governor’s

A. It was rabid.
The maid saw the carcass of the ash-gray dog hanging from a tree to confirm it had died of rabies.

15. What horrifying event did the Marquis witness at the Amor de Dios Hospital?

A. A dying leper
B. A possessed child
C. A rabid man tied up
D. A doctor operating

C. A rabid man is tied up.
The Marquis found the mulàtto rabies victim tied to a pillar in the pavilion for raving lunatics.

16. How old was Don Ygnacio de Alfaro y Dueñas, the Marquis, when he lost his virginity?

A. Thirty-six years
B. Fifty-two years
C. Twenty years
D. Seventy years

B. Fifty-two years.
Bernarda mounted him, gagged him, and left him exhausted, depriving him of his virginity at age fifty-two.

17. What item did Bernarda’s father bring, leading to the Marquis’s marriage?

A. A harquebus
B. A deed
C. A whip
D. Gold coins

A. A harquebus.
Bernarda’s father brought an ancient harquebus, implying a challenge, forcing the Marquis to marry his pregnant daughter.

18. What was the fate of the Marquis’s first wife, Doña Olalla de Mendoza?

A. Died of fever
B. Struck by lightning
C. Died by Suìcide
D. Returned to Spain

B. Struck by lightning.
While playing a duet in the orchard, a sudden flash struck down Doña Olalla de Mendoza.

19. What material was Bernarda’s most profitable business, even more than slaves?

A. Coffee beans
B. Sugar cane
C. Flour
D. Gold

C. Flour.
Bernarda realized that the greatest profits in traffic lay not in slaves, but in illegally imported flour.

20. What happened to Bernarda’s lover, Judas Iscariot?

A. Imprisoned
B. Killed in a fight
C. Escaped to the jungle
D. Poisoned by Bernarda

B. Killed in fight.
Judas Iscariot was beaten to death with a chair during a card dispute with three galley slaves.

21. What was the name of the controversial physician the Marquis met on the hill?

A. Juan Méndez Nieto
B. Father Delaura
C. Abrenuncio de Sa
D. Rodrigo de Buen

C. Abrenuncio de Sa.
The Marquis met Licenciate Abrenuncio de Sa Pereira Cao, the most notable and controversial physician in the city.

22. What item did Abrenuncio sometimes use to sedate his patients?

A. Herbal smoke
B. A silver knife
C. The harp
D. Loud music

C. The harp.
Abrenuncio was known to play the harp at his patients’ bedsides to sedate them with certain music.

23. What does Abrenuncio believe is the only recourse for a patient after the initial outbreak of rabies?

A. Herbal treatments
B. Commending to God
C. None at all
D. Surgery immediately

C. None at all.
Abrenuncio states that after the initial outbreak, there is “none at all” to cure rabies.

24. What critical detail about Sierva María’s condition did Abrenuncio discern through subtle means?

A. Her hidden fever
B. Her love for dancing
C. Her knowledge of rabies
D. Her lack of pulse

C. Her knowledge of rabies.
Abrenuncio knew the girl knew the dog was rabid because her heart pounded like a “little caged frog”.

25. What unique odor did Abrenuncio detect in Sierva María’s perspiration?

A. Foul decay
B. Onion odor
C. Sulfur smell
D. Rosewater

B. Onion odor.
The doctor could not interpret the smell of onions in her perspiration, which was caused by slave remedies.

26. What was Abrenuncio’s final medical prescription for Sierva María, regardless of rabies?

A. Tie her up
B. Give her happiness
C. Begin exorcism
D. Keep her quiet

B. Give her happiness.
He advised the Marquis to fill the house with flowers, music, and things that would make her happy.

27. What treatment did the physicians attempt on Sierva María that nearly killed her?

A. Silver injections
B. Potions of antimony
C. Prayer and fasting
D. Leeches on her eyes

B. Potions of antimony.
She was brought to the brink of death through two weeks of fatal concoctions, including potions of natural antimony.

28. What was Abrenuncio’s cynical opinion of love?

A. Greatest healer
B. Natural emotion
C. Unhealthy dependence
D. Necessary sacrifice

C. Unhealthy dependence.
He said love was an emotion “contra natura” that condemned two strangers to base and unhealthy dependence.

29. What was Abrenuncio’s non-medical specialty, besides healing?

A. Horse breeding
B. Predicting deaths
C. Speaking Latin
D. Sailing ships

B. Predicting deaths.
His terrifying specialty was predicting the day and hour his patients would die.

30. What did Abrenuncio say he gave Cayetano to cure his solar blindness?

A. Holy water
B. Rainwater drops
C. A black patch
D. Medicinal herbs

B. Rainwater drops.
Abrenuncio admitted the supposed “eye wash” was merely drops of rainwater, the best cure for solar blindness.

31. Who was the Bishop of the diocese who summoned the Marquis?

A. Don Ygnacio
B. Don Toribio
C. Father Aquino
D. Cayetano Delaura

B. Don Toribio.
The Bishop of the diocese was Don Toribio de Cáceres y Virtudes, alarmed by the scandal.

32. What condition afflicted the Bishop, testing his faith?

A. Heart weakness
B. Malignant asthma
C. Severe gout
D. Leprosy

B. Malignant asthma.
The Bishop’s stentorian body was corroded by a malignant asthma that put his faith to the test.

33. What position did Father Cayetano Delaura hold, providing him access to the Bishop?

A. Exorcist
B. Librarian
C. Vicar General
D. Secretary

B. Librarian.
Delaura did not have a definite office but was known as the librarian of the Bishop’s impressive collection.

34. What was the name of the former nun condemned to life imprisonment?

A. Josefa Miranda
B. Martina Laborde
C. Dulce Olivia
D. Caridad del Cobre

B. Martina Laborde.
Martina Laborde was confined in the prison pavilion for murdering two of her companions with a carving knife.

35. What did the Abbess, Josefa Miranda, consider the Marquis’s aristocracy?

A. Holy blood
B. Gutter nobility
C. Shopkeeper class
D. African royalty

B. Gutter nobility.
The Abbess despised American-born aristocrats, whom she contemptuously referred to as “gutter nobility”.

36. What did Sierva María do when the novices tried to take her necklaces in the garden?

A. Screamed loudly
B. Bit a novice’s hand
C. Hid them quickly
D. Cried for help

B. Bit a novice’s hand.
When a novice tried to take her necklaces, Sierva María bit her on the hand with perfect, unhesitating aim.

37. What was Martina Laborde’s greatest obsession while confined?

A. Praying for pardon
B. Being free
C. Talking to demons
D. Sewing quickly

B. Being free.
Martina’s implacable obsession was to be free, even if she had to commit murder again.

38. What was the Bishops’ response when the Abbess complained about Delaura bringing food?

A. He ignored it
B. He rebuked Delaura
C. He agreed entirely
D. He promised a resolution

D. He promised resolution.
The Bishop stated he would resolve the memorandum of complaints with pastoral love when his health allowed.

39. What event immediately followed Sierva María’s first, violent exorcism session?

A. Bishop’s collapse
B. A large earthquake
C. Fire in the convent
D. Delaura’s arrival

A. Bishop’s collapse.
The Bishop fell forward, gasping like a fish, ending the ceremony in an uproar.

40. What was the mysterious fate of Father Tomás de Aquino de Narváez, the second exorcist?

A. Killed by slaves
B. Vanished completely
C. Found dead in a cistern
D. Died of fever

C. Found dead in a cistern.
The priest was found floating on his back in the courtyard’s concrete cistern, a mystery never solved.

41. What did Cayetano Delaura see when he observed the total eclipse without protection?

A. Absolute darkness
B. A warning sign
C. A perfect black disc
D. A medal of fire

D. A medal of fire.
When he stopped looking, the image of a “medal of fire” persisted on his retina.

42. What action did Delaura take to punish himself for his desires for Sierva María?

A. Fasting completely
B. Flagellating himself
C. Reciting poetry
D. Leaving the hospital

B. Flagellating himself.
Delaura used the iron scourge to flagellate himself until he was in a mire of blood and tears.

43. What did Delaura confess was the “most terrible” demon?

A. Pride
B. Envy
C. Sexual desire
D. Disbelief

C. Sexual desire.
Delaura declared the demon that caused his blood and tears was “the most terrible of all”.

44. Where was Cayetano Delaura ultimately sent as punishment for his sin?

A. To Spain
B. To a cloistered cell
C. To Amor de Dios Hospital
D. To San Basilio

C. To Amor de Dios Hospital.
The Bishop stripped Delaura of his dignities and sent him to the Amor de Dios Hospital to nurse lepers.

45. What did Delaura use as an internal pillow when he slept next to Sierva María?

A. A silk sheet
B. His own arm
C. A feather bag
D. Her hair

B. His own arm.
He slipped his arm beneath Sierva María’s head to serve as a pillow, and she curled up at his side.

46. What cruel challenge did Sierva María pose to Delaura to test his love?

A. Eating a cockroach
B. Slitting his throat
C. Cutting her hair
D. Walking the plank

A. Eating a cockroach.
Sierva María asked him to eat a cockroach, and he caught and ate it live to prove his love.

47. What did the nuns do immediately before Sierva María’s second major exorcism session?

A. Shaved her head
B. Gave her a bath
C. Tried diplomacy
D. Locked Martina away

A. Shaved her head.
A gardener nun cut off Sierva María’s hair with pruning shears and then a barber nun shaved her head.

48. Who had Sierva María dreamt of fleeing with to the fugitive slave settlement?

A. Martina Laborde
B. Dulce Olivia
C. Cayetano Delaura
D. Her father

C. Cayetano Delaura.
Sierva María told Cayetano she would like to take refuge with him in San Basilio de Palenque, the slave settlement.

49. How did Sierva María die according to the final passage?

A. Of starvation
B. Of her fever
C. Of love
D. Of rabies

C. Of love.
The warder found Sierva María dead of love in her bed, her eyes radiant and skin like a newborn’s.

50. What physical detail grew back instantly after Sierva María’s death?

A. Her teeth
B. Her fever
C. Her hair
D. Her nails

C. Her hair.
Strands of hair “gushed like bubbles” as they rapidly grew back on her shaved head after she died.

Brief Overview

Of Love and Other Demons is a novel by Gabriel García Márquez. It was first published in 1994. The story is a work of Magic Realism based on a legend about a young noblewoman who died from rabies.

The novel centers on Sierva María de Todos los Ángeles, the only child of the Marquis de Casalduero. She is bitten in the market by a rabid ash-gray dog when she is nearly twelve years old. The dog later dies from rabies.

The Marquis, who loves Sierva María out of guilt and fear, seeks to protect her. He takes her to see Dr. Abrenuncio, who advises him to cure her with happiness, as no medicine will work otherwise. Her mother, Bernarda, an alcóholic, is indifferent to the threat.

Sierva María later exhibits strange behavior and becomes ill. The Bishop believes a demon possesses her. The Marquis, feeling guilty, confines her in the Convent of Santa Clara for an exorcism ritual. She is taken there on Palm Sunday.

Father Cayetano Delaura, a young priest, is assigned the case. He believes the girl is terrified, not possessed. He falls deeply in love with Sierva María. He visits her secretly at night, bringing her gifts and reciting poetry. They fall in love, but Cayetano remains chaste.

After the first exorcism fails, Cayetano is caught and punished for his love. Sierva María loses hope when he stops coming. She dies soon after, found dead of love in her bed. Strands of her distinctive hair are found to be still growing quickly after her death.