The Harder Three Clue Book Quiz

Answer: The Divine Comedy

"The Divine Comedy" by Dante Alighieri is widely considered one of the greatest allegories of all time. Virgil meets a terrified, lost Dante in a dark woods on the night before Good Friday and conducts him through the ten levels or circles each of Hell and Purgatory. Beatrice, whom Dante adores, takes him through the 10 circles of Paradise.

William Saroyan authored "The Human Comedy" about an Armenian family living in Ithaca, CA during the 1940s.

"Black House" is a Stephen King/Peter Straub horror collaboration.

Boccaccio wrote "The Decameron" in the 14th century. It is based on the stories of young people fleeing from the Black Death and finding themselves in need of entertainment.

Answer: Trainspotting

"Trainspotting" is Irvine Welsh's first book. It centers on Mark Renton and the group of heroin users he hangs with in Edinburgh, Scotland. One of the first sections shows Renton having anti-social conversations with his gang and injecting every chance he gets. One of his mate's girlfriend had a baby named Dawn whose death from neglect affected the gang mightily.

The other three books are more of Irvine Welsh's ouvre.

Answer: Death in Venice

In "Death in Venice", a great writer, Gustav von Aschenbach, travels to Venice hoping to shake his writer's block. While there he is introduced to Tadzio, the very beautiful son of a Polish family staying in the writer's hotel. Aschenbach becomes overly attached to the boy and struggles with the feelings that the boy engenders in him. Venice is swamped by a cholera plague and the writer succumbs to it moments after seeing Tadzio for the last time. Thomas Mann's book is heavily influenced by his interest in Siegmund Freud.

All three of the other books were written by Thomas Mann.

Answer: Life of Pi

"Life of Pi" details the struggle of Pi (Piscine Patel) to survive after a ship with his entire family sank beneath the waves. He managed to board a small rescue boat with four animals. The tiger, Richard Parker, ate the hyena that had eaten the orangutan and the zebra. So Pi had to find a way to co-exist with Richard Parker for 277 days at sea. Once he was rescued, he told two investigators two different stories; the second one had Pi himself as the cannibalizing tiger and the other animals as the ship's cook, his mother and a stranger. His question to the investigators was, "Which story do you prefer: the one with the animals, or the one without the animals?"

"Animal Farm", written by George Orwell, illustrates the old adage, "Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely."

"The Wide Sargasso Sea," by Jean Rhys, reimagines the Jane Eyre story as seen by her employer and lover's wife.

Answer: The Screwtape Letters

Screwtape is a senior demon coaching his nephew Wormwood in the various tricks and temptations used to bring a human soul into the realm of what Screwtape calls "Our Father Below." "The Screwtape Letters" is an epistolary novel, as the name implies and one of C.S. Lewis's least favorite to write. He certainly brought Evil to life in all its malicious hatefulness, but he also wrote movingly of God's love and compassion for His weak children.

"The Exorcist" is a William Peter Blatty book detailed a fictional exorcism of a 12 year old girl in Washington, D.C. Scary stuff!

"The Taming of the Shrew" is a sexist Shakespeare play that could have been titled "How to Break Your Woman." Not fun reading today for feminists, it was still "amusing" as late as mid-twentieth century. Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor took on the roles of Petruccio and Katherine in the 1967 film.

"Surprised by Joy" is a autobiographical book by C.S. Lewis that tells of his late life marriage.

Answer: Dune

"Dune" is the first book in a series that originator Frank Herbert and others have written about the prophesized savior of millions, Muad'Dib and his spice planet Arrakis. The all female religious/political order Bene Gesserit opposes a male taking their ceremonial drug melange, but has to work with him if they wish to retain any power.

"Foundation" was written by Isaac Asimov and gave us the three rules of robotics.

"The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" by Robert Heinlein is a science fiction vehicle for Heinlein's ideas about the corrupt power of most governments.

"The Fountainhead" is yet another of Ayn Rand's far right fables.

Answer: Madame Bovary

"Madame Bovary", written by Gustav Flaubert, is the story of Emma Bovary. She is married to Charles, a small town doctor. Their life together affords her little stimulation and she seeks excitement with two extra-marital lovers. Neither gives her satisfaction intellectually or romantically. She rejects Charles and (spoiler alert) downs poison. She is a vapid thing that ruins the lives of her family.

"Main Street" by Sinclair Lewis, "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald and "Lady Chatterley's Lover" by D.H. Lawrence all explore similar themes: restlessness, efforts to pass oneself off as something other than what we are, faithlessness and misery.

Answer: Lonesome Dove

While all four books are written by Larry McMurtry, it is "Lonesome Dove" alone that describes Augustus McCrae's and Woodrow Call's cattle drive from the border of Texas to unsettled lands in Montana. The book shows McMurtry's vast skills with both descriptive prose and narrative. His characters are fully fleshed out, ready to walk, slouch or ride off the page.

Answer: David Copperfield

I had to resist the temptation to include "Oliver Twist" among the possible titles but I couldn't resist having fun with the question. The real title is "David Copperfield" by Charles Dickens. He said of this book that it was his favorite child, possibly because it was very much taken from his own life.

The other three books also are by Dickens and include estranged families. "Oliver Twist" has too many of the same elements as "David Copperfield" to be used as an alternative answer.

Answer: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Douglas Adams' "The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy" is the story of Arthur Dent, a man on a mission to save his home from destruction by Vogons who are adding a bypass to the inter-space highway. On his adventures with Zaphod Beeblebrox, Marvin the depressed robot and Trillian, Arthur comes across a master computer named Deep Thought. Deep Thought's response to the question, "What is the ultimate answer to life, the universe and everything?" is 42. There is much more to this story, including exterrestrial dolphins who, as they leave Earth, tell us "Goodbye and thanks for all the fish." Eventually, Arthur recognizes that it is the mice of the universe that are really running things.

The film "Galaxy Quest" was a send up of "Star Trek" (the original).

"Don't Panic!" is another in the " Hitchhiker series.

The Draco Tavern" is a hilarious look at a "real" alien watering hole on the edge of a space port.