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History of the Detective-novel

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Fun Trivia : Quizzes : Mystery & Detective Fiction : History of the Detective-novel

Introduction:
"One of the few genres in Literature that doesn't date back to 'Olden Times' is definitely the detective story. Yet it has by now developed its own traditions, its own who is who, and its own milestone events. That's what this quiz tries to deal with."


1. Everybody seems to agree that Edgar Allan Poe is the first to have published a detective story in the English language. Which story exactly was that ?
    The Murders in the Rue Morgue
    The Mystery of Marie Roget
    The Purloined Letter
    The Cask of Amontillado


2. European historians of literature, however, point out that in the Old World some stories had already been written in which the hero solves problems of detection with a combination of observation and logic. To which story in particular do they point?
    Diderot's 'Rameau's Nephew'
    Voltaire's 'Zadig'
    Dr Johnson's 'Rasselas'
    Victor Hugo's 'Les Miserables'


3. Who was the French author who created a story in which the hero is a police-officer who stubbornly pursues 'his' criminal. However,when he ultimately has managed to lay hands on him, he lets him go and ...jumps into the Seine. Who is that author?
    Gaston Leroux
    Maurice Leblanc
    Victor Hugo
    Arsene Lupin


4. What was, in British English literature, the first 'detective story'?
    'The Moonstone 'by Wilkie Collins
    'Martin Hewitt, Investigator' by Arthur Morrison
    'A Study in Scarlet' A..C.Doyle
    'The Brotherhood of the Seven kings ', by L.T.Meade and Robert Eustace


5. Some of Dostoyevsky's novels can be viewed as (among other things) good detective stories. Especially 'Crime and Punishment' in which one of the characters acts as an amateur psychologist in trying to force Raskolnikov to admit his crime. Who is that character with a special interest for the murderer's motivations ?
    Razumikhin, R.'s fellow student
    Zametow, a clerk at the police station
    Ilya Petrovich, assistant to the police-chief
    Porfiry Petrovich, the chief of police


6. One of the great promoters of the detective-story was undoubtedly Arthur Conan Doyle. He even got tired of his own success and wanted to kill off his hero Sherlock Holmes. Later Holmes however made his re-appearance.Who was Holmes' secretive arch enemy who is mentioned in the story of 'The Final Problem' as apparently having eliminated Holmes
(though not without getting killed himself in the act) ?
    Col. Sebastian Moran
    Dr Watson
    Professor Moriarty
    Holmes's brother Mycroft


7. G.K. Chesterton also tried his hand at creating a good sleuth. What was the unusual choice he made for that role?
    a simple priest
    an Old-Age-Pensioner
    a bishop
    a young nun


8. The detective story got popular in unexpected circles. Even an English Monsignor (Ronald Knox) started to write detective stories and also compiled an excellent anthology the 'Best Detective Stories of 1928-9'. It was especially the participation of women authors such as Agatha Christie that was remarkable. Which of these 'sleuths' appeared in her first detective novel 'The Mysterious Affair at Styles' in 1920?
    Miss Marple
    Hercule Poirot
    Lord Peter Wimsey
    Superintendant Alleyn of the Yard


9. There were more successful women detective story-writers than just A.Christie. Which of the next four is the only one who did not belong to the so-called 'Big Four'?
    Dorothy L.Sayers
    Margery Allingham
    Ngaio Marsh
    Ellery Queen


10. Some detective stories were made into very successful films. E.g.Dashiell Hammett's Maltese Falcon (of course with Humphrey Bogart). A very big television success was 'Inspector Morse'. Who was his creator?
    Raymond Chandler
    Colin Dexter
    Michael Innes
    Nicholas Blake


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