Specific Subjects & Themes Trivia

1. A rest cure for hysteria led a woman to feel the walls closing in on her in what 1892 Charlotte Perkins Gilman short story?

From Quiz A Page of Madness

Answer: The Yellow Wallpaper

Perhaps the best-known work of Victorian author Charlotte Perkins Gilman, "The Yellow Wallpaper" took an approach to feminism that leaned into the Gothic horror sensibilities of the time, placing its protagonist into an isolated room of a new home and letting her suffer her alleged madness. When the narrator hears a woman creeping behind the yellow wallpaper, she tears it free from the walls before declaring herself free (though quite the opposite is obvious). The work was the inspiration for a number of radio plays and literary works over the years-- Angela Carter's "The Bloody Chamber" extrapolated on similar themes (such as oppression and madness) through the lens of contemporary fairy tale retellings the better part of a century later.

From Quiz It was a dark and stormy night

Answer: Washington Irving

Although it is accepted that previous authors may coincidentally have also used the phrase, Washington Irving is first recorded as having used it in a mockfactual satirical 1809 work, 'The History of New York'. It is part of the opening sentence to the fourth paragraph of the book's fifth chapter. The whole sentence reads: 'It was a dark and stormy night when the good Antony arrived at the creek (sagely denominated Haerlem river) which separates the island of Manna-hata from the mainland.'

From Quiz Ten

Answer: Agatha Christie

First published in 1939, this mystery tells of ten people who have been brought to a small island off the English coast who die in different ways one by one. A common factor for all ten is that each is responsible in some way for another person's death but each has escaped responsibility for it--up until now. This novel alone has sold millions of copies and it is estimated that the collected works of Agatha Christie (1890-1976) have been outsold only by the works of Shakespeare and the Bible.

From Quiz Finally! You Realize I Was Write

Answer: the Moon

In 1865, 104 years before Apollo 11 took men to the moon, Jules Verne wrote his novel "From the Earth to the Moon". Verne described a launch into space from the state of Florida, with three astronauts, who experienced changes in gravity. He even fairly accurately made rough calculations required for a launch. Apollo 11 launched from Florida in July, 1969, shooting three men toward the moon, very like what Verne had described. This story had great influence on future space travel scientists and authors. Some believe Verne also predicted airships and submarines, though the technology did exist during his lifetime.

From Quiz The Music of Books

Answer: The Crystal Singer

Killashandra Ree has failed in her ambition to become an operatic soloist. She comes across an organisation called The Heptite Guild. Their members must have perfect pitch as they find seams of crystal hidden in the rocks of the planet Ballybran, and mine it by tuning cutters to the pitch of the crystal by singing. This has given them the name "Crystal Singers". She first appears in "The Crystal Singer" in 1982, a novel based on previously published short stories. This books is the first of a trilogy and recounts her disappointment at failing in her chosen occupation, her induction into the Guild and her early training and adventures on Ballybran. Anne McCaffrey was an acclaimed writer of science fiction/fantasy books. Her most famous series is probably "The Dragonriders of Pern". Since her death these continue to be written by her son, Todd.

From Quiz On the Right Track

Answer: Neverland

In both the play "Peter Pan" (1904) and the novel "Peter and Wendy" (1911), the direction is given as "second to the right and straight on 'til morning." Walt Disney added the word "star" to this direction in 1953, making it "second star to the right and straight on 'til morning," and so it has been ever since.

From Quiz The Perks of Being the Catcher in the Jar

Answer: coming-of-age

A coming-of-age novel deals with the protagonist growing up. It isn't just about growing older, but also the psychological and sociological changes that accompany becoming an adult and entering the world of adulthood. The characters need to find themselves and discover their true identities.

From Quiz On the Road, Again?

Answer: It was printed on a scroll.

When "On the Road" was finally published in 1957, six years after Kerouac finished the novel, critical responses were all over the board. They ranged from "The New York Times" as "the most beautifully executed" expression of the Beat movement, all the way to "not a well made novel, nor a saleable one, nor even, I think, a good one." Contemporaries judge Kerouac's novel, accurately, as the epitome of the 50s and 60s counterculture movement in the US. Even the creation of the novel was abnormal. Kerouac printed the manuscript on one continuous scroll, eventually measuring 120 feet long. He claimed to have written the book in three weeks, directly onto the scroll. Sections of the manuscript were excised from the scroll in the six years between authorship and publication. The novel is called a "roman a clef" because each character in it corresponds to a person in the real world, from Kerouac's experiences. The narrator of the novel, Sal Paradise, is a thinly-disguised depiction of Kerouac himself. Paradise meets Dean Moriarty (Neal Cassady), who introduces him to the Beat generation and takes him all over the US on a jazzed-up, drug-induced roller coaster ride. Another Beat poet, Allen Ginsberg, is represented in the novel as Moriarty's companion, Carlo Marx. Ray Bradbury's sci-fi classic "Fahrenheit 451" actually was first published in "Playboy".

From Quiz The Daze of Wines and Roses

Answer: Ernest Dowson, "Vitae Summae Brevis"

The phrase has become ubiquitous as a symbol of fleeting times of pleasure. It was also the title of a 1962 movie about the dangers of alcoholism. The movie stars Lee Remick and Jack Lemmon and is based on the screenplay of the same name by JP Miller.

From Quiz Antimacassars and Liniment

Answer: Of Mice and Men

Crooks is so named because of his deformed back, and the novel refers to him using liniment to ease his pain. He works on the ranch owned by Curley's father and is isolated, because of his disability and also as he is black. He hopes to join the main characters, George and Lennie, in their dream of owning their own land, which is an aspiration doomed to failure. The story was originally published in 1937 and is set during the Great Depression. It has been filmed for both the cinema and television, with the first adaptation coming out in 1939, only two years after the publication date. The other novels listed are also by Steinbeck.

From Quiz The Number You Have Reached...

Answer: Big Brother

Probably modeled after the friendly face with which "Uncle Joe" Stalin masked Soviet dictatorship, Big Brother is supposedly concerned only with his people's best interests. He will take on any burden to help them, be it spreading propaganda through the Ministry of Truth; watching individuals constantly through television-like screens; or even torturing or killing the insufficiently grateful. And what can one person do about it? Remember, Big Brother is watching ...

From Quiz A Selection of Literary Insults

Answer: Count Leo Tolstoy

As indefensible assertions go this one takes some beating, I reckon. For good measure Tolstoy went on to characterise England's favourite dramatist as "crude, immoral, vulgar and senseless". Apparently Tolstoy was not well when he made these observations.

From Quiz Quest - The Hero's Journey

Answer: The Hero with a Thousand Faces

As evidenced by stories such as the "Lord of the Rings" and "Star Wars" series in modern times, and epic myths such as the story of "Gilgamesh" from ancient times, the Quest tale follows the same pattern each time. Campbell's writings detailed seventeen stages of a quest, but authors such as Phil Cousineau and David Adams have proposed eight stages - essentially the same, but with less differentiation of various smaller details. The actual word 'monomyth' was taken by Campbell from James Joyce's "Finnegan's Wake".

From Quiz A Lovely Quiz

Answer: Love in a Cold Climate

The title derives from George Orwell's novel 'Keep the Aspidistra Flying'.

From Quiz Plot Killers

Answer: The Cat in the Hat

Sally and her brother let the Cat in the Hat inside, and things go downhill from there. That is, until Thing 1 and Thing 2 help clean up. If you've never read Dr. Seuss, get yourself some kids right now and read!

From Quiz Hey! There Are Real People in my Fiction!

Answer: Drood

Charles Dickens died before finishing his "The Mystery of Edwin Drood", and Simmons's book postulates that there may--MAY--have been an actual creature named 'Drood' acting as bête noire and muse for Boz. It's a stunner of a novel.

From Quiz When I'm Sixty Four

Answer: After Many A Summer Dies The Swan

Mr Stoyte is an American millionaire who has absolutely everything and who can buy anything he desires until he is forced to face his own mortality and realises he cannot buy the one thing he desperately needs, the secret of eternal life. Written in 1939 this book is still fresh and relevant today.

From Quiz Around the World of Literature

Answer: Upton Sinclair

Sinclair's "The Jungle" tells the story of Jurgis and his family struggling in the brutal conditions of a meatpacking factory in Chicago. Sinclair's motive for writing the book was to promote his socialist viewpoint by striking out at the inhumane treatment of capitalist-owned factories. However, the major public response was one of outrage at the unhygienic meatpacking plants. As Sinclair famously said, "I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach."

From Quiz Card Games in Literature

Answer: Bridge

Two groups of four people play bridge at the time of the murder. Poirot analyzes the bidding system of the suspects. The player who took the highest risks turns out to be the murderer.

From Quiz Head Hunting

Answer: Rugby

'Tom Brown's Schooldays', set in Rugby School, was written by Thomas Hughes. Thomas Arnold was a great reforming educator, although his ideas were not widely accepted at first. His son was Matthew Arnold the poet.

From Quiz Literary Letters

Answer: The House at Pooh Corner

This is the first letter taken from the chapter 'In which Rabbit has a busy day, and we learn what Christopher Robin does in the mornings'. The second letter reads: 'GONE OUT. BACK SOON' - Christopher Robin goes to school in the mornings to learn to spell. As Rabbit so wisely says: 'You can't help respecting anybody who can spell TUESDAY, even if he doesn't spell it right'.

From Quiz Great Non-English Novels

Answer: Boris Pasternak

The author was Boris Pasternak who wrote "Doctor Zhivago", an epic novel about the Bolshevik Revolution. The Russian government refused to allow its publication because of its "subjective anti-revolutionary views". However, the manuscript was smuggled out of Russia and it was published in Italy. After Pasternak won the Nobel Prize, the Kremlin exiled him to the country (to Peredelkino, about 25 km west of Moscow) and he was banned from writing.

From Quiz Me, Myself and I - First Person Narratives

Answer: "To Kill A Mockingbird" (Harper Lee)

"To Kill a Mockingbird" was published in 1960 and won a Pulitzer Prize in 1961. The character of Jean Louise ("Scout") Finch is the narrator of the story. In 1962, it was made into a movie starring Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch and Mary Badham as Scout. It was Harper's Lee's only novel for 55 years until the publication of the sequel, "Go Set a Watchman", in 2015.

From Quiz Mixed Literature in "Wolves of the Calla"

Answer: King Lear

Browning's poem was published in 1855 as part of the two volume work "Men and Women." He said "King Lear" gave him the idea for the poem. In Shakespeare's play, at the end of Act 3, Scene 4, the disguised Edgar speaks the line of nonsense with which Browning ends his poem: "Childe Roland to the dark tower came."

From Quiz The Short Story

Answer: Boccaccio

Up until the 14th century, short stories were primarily written in order to provide exempla and convey Judeo-Christian morals. With Boccacio's "The Decameron" and Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales," however, the shift moved from the sacred to the profane. These writers focused primarily on human folly rather than on religious instruction.

From Quiz Rings of Power in Legend and Literature

Answer: Gyges

According to the Republic (Glaucon), Gyges “was a [seventh century BCE] shepherd laboring for the then ruler of Lydia [i.e., Candaules, a descendant of Lydia’s first and eponymous King Lydus] and some part of the earth was shattered by a violent thunderstorm developing along with an earthquake and a chasm appeared at the place where he was pasturing. Seeing this and wondering, he went down and the fable says that he saw, among other wonders, a hollow bronze horse having openings, through which, peeping in, he saw that there was a corpse inside, as it seemed, greater than is usual for men, and wearing nothing else but a golden ring at his hand, that he took off before leaving. When time came for the shepherds to hold their customary assembly in order to prepare their monthly report to the king about the state of the flocks, he came too, wearing this ring. While he was sitting with the others, it chanced that he moved the collet of the ring around toward himself into the inside of his hand; having done this, he disappeared from the sight of those who were sitting beside him, and they discussed of him as of someone who had left. And he wondered and once again feeling for the ring, he turned the collet outwards and, by turning it, reappeared. Reflecting upon this, he put the ring to the test to see if it indeed had such power, and he came to this conclusion that, by turning the collet inwards, he became invisible, outwards, visible.” (Republic, II, 359b-360b.) Gyges used the power of the ring to get into Candaules’ court, where he seduced Candaules’ queen and slew Candaules himself, taking the kingship and founding the Mermnad dynasty, the strongest dynasty to rule ancient Lydia. Plato argues that even the most just of men would be corrupted by the power of such a ring. (Lydus was an Anatolian king at around the year 1000 BCE; Croesus, Gyges’ great-great-grandson, was the last and most powerful Mermnad king; Alcibiades was a student of Socrates and a ward of Pericles, notable for his overweening ambition.)

From Quiz Books And Book-Publishing.

Answer: Publication based on pre-payment for the book by its readership before the book has actually been written.

This technique is usually limited to specialist books or books for which there is only a limited market.

From Quiz Anecdotes, Mockery, Scandals In Literature

Answer: mice against frogs

This parody of Homer's "Iliad" describes a war that is fought over the accidental drowning of a mouse prince while being carried across a lake by the frog king. The Greek gods get involved, but it is all over by sunset. The term has come to be applied to any altercation over something trivial.

From Quiz You're Hired At The Bookstore!

Answer: Cleveland Amory

The book sells like hotcakes at Christmas. Amory used to write for TV Guide.

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Last Updated Apr 13 2024 5:46 AM

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