Black Hearts in Literature Trivia Quiz

Answer: Humbert Humbert

Vladimir Nabokov's "Lolita" is narrated by the literary scholar Humbert Humbert, whose obsession with 12-year-old Dolores Haze -- whom he calls Lolita privately -- leads Humbert to murder Clare Quilty for Quilty's attempt to have Dolores star in a pornographic film.

Von Aschenbach is a character in Thomas Mann's "Death in Venice" who is a pedophile but never even speaks to the object of his affection, Tadzio.

McLeod is a character in "The Man Without a Face" who killed a boy with his car, but is run out of town based on a hint of possible inappropriate conduct with another boy.

Price is a female pedophile in the novel "Tampa" by Alissa Nutting. "Tampa" is a dramatization of the recent spate of female teacher-male student pedophilia cases.

Answer: Hester Prynne

Hester Prynne is the protagonist in Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter." Prynne believed her husband was dead and began a relationship with pastor Arthur Dimmesdale. She became pregnant out of wedlock and was convicted of adultery. Adultery is still a crime in most U.S. states even though prosecutors rarely try to charge anyone with the crime.

Wilmot is Arthur Huntington's lover in Anne Bronte's "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall".

Bovary is the lead character in Gustave Flaubert's "Madame Bovary".

Chatterley is the lead character in D. H. Lawrence's "Lady Chatterley's Lover".

Answer: Hamlet

"Hamlet" is William Shakespeare's longest play, and its body count is fairly high as well. In the end, most of the main characters, including Hamlet, Polonius, Claudius, Gertrude, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, Ophelia, and Laertes, end up dead.

Brutus does not make an appearance in Hamlet.

Answer: Tom Ripley

Tom Ripley is the central character in a five-book series by Patricia Highsmith that was published starting in 1955. The crimes listed above are from the first book, "The Talented Mr. Ripley", which was made into a movie starring Matt Damon in 1999.

"Catch Me If You Can" was Frank Abagnale's autobiography and was made into a movie in 2002 directed by Steven Spielberg.

David Hampton was the real-life inspiration for the Pulitzer Prize-winning play "Six Degrees of Separation", which was made into a 1993 movie starring Will Smith, Stockard Channing, and Donald Sutherland.

Pendelton "Penny" Wise was the lead character in a straight-to-DVD movie called "The Prime Gig", which starred Vince Vaughn and Julia Ormond.

Answer: Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov

Raskolnikov is the main character in Fyodor Dostoyevsky's masterpiece, "Crime and Punishment". Living in poverty, Raskolnikov kills pawnbroker Alyona Ivanovna and her sister in Alyona's apartment. He takes very little from the apartment and gives away much of the money he steals. His descent into madness and an eventual confession occupies the main portion of the novel.

The remaining answers are characters in other works of 19th Century Russian literature. Of course, Karamazov is one of the "Brothers Karamazov", Onegin is the title character in an Alexander Pushkin novel, and Kutuzov is one of the characters in Tolstoy's "War and Peace" (and was also a real life Field Marshal in the Russian Army).

Answer: Stanley Kowalski

Stanley Kowalski is the rough, abusive lead male character in Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize winning play, "A Streetcar Named Desire". Stanley beats and emotionally abuses his wife Stella and, in the play, it is implied that he rapes Blanche. The rape causes Blanche to lose her slipping grasp on mental stability, and she is committed to a mental institution.

Robinson is the man falsely accused of rape whose story is the main focus of "To Kill a Mockingbird".

George Harvey is the man who rapes and murders 14-year-old Susie Salmon in the novel "The Lovely Bones" written by Alice Sebold.

Alec d'Urberville rapes Tess, the lead character of Thomas Hardy's novel called "Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented".

Answer: Cruella de Vil

Cruella de Vil is the famous villain from Dodie Smith's children's novel "The Hundred and One Dalmatians". Disney turned this into an animated film in 1961 and re-released that same film in 1969, 1979, 1985 and 1991.

Old Mother Hubbard may have been responsible for animal neglect for not having enough food for the dog, but from all indications she loved the dog of rhyme.

Billy Bickle was the lead character in the 2012 film "Seven Psychopaths", a film in which Bickle made his living by stealing dogs and returning them for ransom money.

Montgomery Burns is, of course, a character on the Simpsons. He stole Santa's Little Helper, that dog's girlfriend, and their puppies to make a tuxedo. In the end, though, Burns called the puppies too cute and could not kill them.

Answer: Milo Minderbinder

Milo Minderbinder runs a criminal syndicate in Joseph Heller's 1961 novel "Catch-22". Milo starts with selling and then repurchasing eggs at incrementally higher prices back to the mess hall. His enterprise stretches across the Mediterranean, and he is revered as the "Shah of Oran", the "Mayor of Palermo", and the "Caliph of Baghdad", among other honorifics. He is court-martialed for treason for having his own aircraft attack the American base where he lives, but he is exonerated.

The remaining answers are other characters in the same novel.

Answer: Patrick Bateman

Patrick Bateman is the main character and anti-hero in Bret Easton Ellis's novel "American Psycho". Bateman's investment firm, Pierce & Pierce, is the same fictitious firm used by Tom Wolfe as Sherman McCoy's firm in "The Bonfire of the Vanities". Bateman was played in the original "American Psycho" film by Christian Bale.

Lecter is the lead character in the Thomas Harris novels "Red Dragon" and "The Silence of the Lambs".

Van Patten is one of Bateman's co-workers in the novel.

Voorhees is, of course, the main character of the "Friday the 13th" movies.

Answer: Sir John Falstaff

Sir John Falstaff is one of the most memorable characters in Shakespearean theater. He first appears in "Henry IV, Part I" and appears also in "Henry IV, Part II". He is the central character in "The Merry Wives of Windsor", a play purportedly written because Queen Elizabeth I wished to see a play with "Falstaff in love".

Mouldy is one of the less-than-able rural army recruits Falstaff meets in Gloucestershire.

Poins is Prince Hal's more youthful sidekick in the tavern world who assisted Hal in stealing from Falstaff the money that Falstaff stole from the anonymous travelers.

Shallow is one of Falstaff's old mates from his youth who helps with army recruiting in Gloucestershire.