Read Across America Trivia Quiz

Answer: New England

This novel, originally published in two volumes (with the second one bearing the title 'Good wives' in the UK) in 1868 and 1869 was based on the author's experiences growing up in Concord, Massachusetts. Many of the characters are easily recognised by those familiar with her family, but they are adapted for literary purposes to illustrate the author's point that the girls are growing up and learning to face the adult world with dignity and grace. The most changed family member was the father. Bronson Alcott, far from being an ideal absent servant in the Civil War like Robert March, was at home - and his inability to keep paid employment was the major reason for the Alcott family's poverty, rather than it being an unfortunate fall from security caused by an overgenerous loan to a friend.

Mr March's absence as a chaplain in the Union Army and the intellectual atmosphere of the Concord area at that time, as reflected in the speeches and actions of many characters, are both integral to the book.

Answer: New England

Those familiar with this author but not this book (why not?) will know that most of his work is set in Maine - and this is no exception, with most events taking place in the fictitious town of Derry. Set in two different times, it deals with the confrontation between a group of children (in 1957, adults in 1984) and an ancient evil entity which has taken control of the town. This entity, It, manifests in various forms - the most memorable being as Pennywise, a dancing clown that is featured prominently in the various screen adaptations of the book.

The novel gives us more insight than the various adaptations (which focus on the conflict and the humans) into It's nature, with an origin in The Macroverse - an empty region surrounding the Universe - where It's natural enemy, the Space Turtle that created the Universe. It arrived on Earth with an asteroid that landed where Derry was to be created millions of years later. After lengthy hibernation, humans arrived and It started a regular cycle of one year 'feeding' on fear, thirty-ish years sleeping. The central characters finish the novel unsure whether they have actually triumphed over It, or merely sent it away for another respite. This premise leaves plenty of room for sequels (and prequels).

Answer: New England

An orphanage in Maine is the central setting for this 1985 story of Homer Wells, who starts as an orphan under the care of Dr Wilbur Larch, and finishes as the replacement director of St. Cloud's Orphanage. Along the way, he spends some years working in an apple orchard (the source of the title), while maintaining contact with the benefactor of his youth. Both men, dedicated though they are to helping orphans to a good life, are also abortionists, feeling that this (at the time) illegal action is preferable to having young women butchered by backyard abortionists.

The close relationship between the two men is emphasized in the 1999 film starring Toby Maguire and Michael Caine by having each character, while director of the orphanage, send the boys to bed in the evening with the same exhortation: "Good night, you Princes of Maine! You Kings of New England!" As stated by John Irving, in the novel Dr Larch is being sarcastic when he says this, knowing that these youngsters are far from the privileged positions of royalty; when Homer says it, he really means it, referring to their inner nature rather than their life circumstances.

Answer: New England

Where else but in New England could this story of a woman's ostracism from the Puritan community in which she resides have been set? In the 1640s, Boston was part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, with religious leaders the chief political leaders, so when Hester Prynne has a child whose paternity she refuses to divulge, she is sentenced to wear a large letter A on her dress as a form of constant public humiliation. The husband she had thought long dead is thwarted from gaining vengeance on the man responsible for her degradation when the Reverend Dimmesdale dies in her arms, having suffered so from his guilt that both body and mind had deteriorated beyond repair.

Hawthorne used some traditional conventions about the relationship between spiritual and physical wellbeing. Aside form Dimmesdale's suffering, Hester's husband is severely deformed, a physical display of his inner rage. Hester, however, rose above the strictures of Puritan morality, recognising that there are laws of nature that bring one closer to God than do the rigid laws of the society in which she lived. This last contention, even two centuries later, caused some controversy among church leaders when the book was published.

Answer: New England

John Knowles's first novel, published in 1959, is also one of his best-known. Set in a New England boarding school (probably based on Phillips Exeter Academy, which Knowles attended at the same time as Gore Vidal, who was the basis for the character Brinker Hadley). Gene and Finny are roommates, best friends and also rivals seeking to outdo each other. This delicate balance is broken one day when they are balanced precariously on a tree, and Gene causes Finny to break his leg, depriving Finny of his athletic prowess. Was it intentional? Brinker sets up a mock trial, in the course of which the two friends come to terms again, before Finny falls down a flight of stairs, breaking the leg once again, this time with fatal consequence.

Since the novel is narrated by Gene, framed by his return to the old school and revisiting of the two critical sites (tree and stairs) where the events that transpired between the summers of 1942 and 1943 took place, we are never sure about the accuracy of his memories. This is, of course, augmented by his own personal self-doubt. He describes a relationship with Finny in which he is both deeply in need of closeness, and aware that his need exceeds that of Finny, whose extroverted nature, ready success and ability to get away with things is a source of envy.

The title refers to the illusion of normalcy that can be maintained by the boys despite the turmoil of World War II that rages around them. It may also be a reference to the military term, which describes two former enemies who agree to set aside past differences and establish a peaceful relationship that is separate from their previous hostility.

Answer: American South

The setting in the heart of the Confederacy during the American Civil War and the subsequent era of Reconstruction is central to the story of this work. Aside from the memorable burning of Atlanta, Scarlett and Rhett would never have met if he hadn't been involved with blockade running, and her struggle to keep hold of the family home would have been quite different. The theme of an entire civilization being swept away as if by a storm wind pervades the narrative. The author received the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1937, and the 1939 film adaptation is considered a cinema classic. Nevertheless, the romantic idealisation of the pre-War South, and the abundance of happy slaves serving their white plantation owners have made many later readers uncomfortable.

According to the author, 'Gone With the Wind' is essentially a story of survival, and Scarlett demonstrates the will power needed by a survivor. From another perspective, she can be seen as a spoiled, selfish woman determined to get her own way no matter what that means for others. Readers who focus on the romance aspect tend to recall her relationship with Rhett Butler, although she starts fanatically devoted to the uninterested Ashley Wilkes, and has a couple of opportunistic marriages along the way - each of which left her with a child, so that her daughter with Rhett makes it three marriages, three children. Scarlett's realisation at the end of the novel that she has actually loved Rhett, and was not just using him, comes after his love for her has been destroyed by years of neglect and abuse. The novel ends with her refusing to accept defeat in the relationship, despite his departure, because, after all, "tomorrow is another day."

Answer: American South

Here is another novel whose location in the American South (specifically, a small town in Alabama during the 1930s) is essential to provide the background against which the events occur. The tension of the unfair trial that is at the centre of events depends on its being set in a place and time when society in general accepted the innate superiority of even the most despicable white man to the most noble black man - and this makes it impossible for justice to be found in the courtroom. Less memorably, perhaps, Scout's narration of the events of this three-year period as she recalls them draws attention to such other aspects of life in the fictional town of Monroeville as the class distinctions and gender roles.

Harper Lee did not write directly about her childhood, but readers can see many parallels between characters and events in the novel and those of her own experience, albeit fictionalized to make a good read. Is there anyone as impossibly noble and loving as Atticus Finch? Possibly Amasa Coleman Lee, who never took another case after two black men he had unsuccessfully defended against murder charges were convicted, hanged and mutilated. Scout's friendship with her neighbour Dill was clearly based on the author's longtime friendship with the boy next door, Truman Capote.

Answer: American South

This 1997 novel starts near the end of the American Civil War in a confederate hospital in Raleigh NC, from which WP Inman (a fictionalised version of the author's great granduncle) escapes, leaving the army whose cause he never supported in order to return to his home on Cold Mountain NC, about 250 miles to the west. As he struggles to avoid capture and return, Ada (the woman he hopes to make his wife) struggles to survive on the farm she had inherited without knowing how to run it. The arrival of Ruby, equipped with the relevant skills and looking for a home, is a godsend - although her father, another deserter, is a definite liability. When the two lovers finally meet, they can barely recognise each other, but decide to plan on a life together; sadly, he is shot as a deserter before that can happen, but she does bear their daughter, raising her on the farm with Ruby (and her husband, sons and father).

The 2003 film adaptation (primarily filmed in Romania, where the lack of overhead power lines and other infrastructure such as paved roads made it easier to recreate the countryside of the 1860s) saw Renée Zellweger win multiple awards for Best supporting Actress for her portrayal of Ruby - Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe, Critics Choice and SAG. Jude Law and Nicole Kidman starred as Inman and Ada.

Answer: American South

As the nursery rhyme goes, "All the king's horses and all the king's men Couldn't put Humpty together again" following his fall from a precarious position atop a wall. Thus the title of this novel, winner of the 1947 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, predicts the fate of Willie Stark, a charismatic populist whose story was inspired by Huey Long, a real-life US Senator from Louisiana who was assassinated in 1935. The narrator, Jack Burden, is a reporter drawn into Stark's circle despite his intent to remain an observer of, rather than a participant in, the events he chronicles.

Willie Stark starts as a naïve and idealistic lawyer, whose political aspirations are essentially to enable him to improve life for everyone. In order to succeed, however, he finds himself accepting, indeed embracing, corruption on many levels, eventually becoming a demagogue who embodies the very principles he had originally opposed.

A 1949 film adaptation, which won an Oscar for Best Film, shifted the focus from Jack Burden and his relationship with the various characters whose lives are interconnected by their proximity to Willie Stark onto Stark. A 2006 adaptation, which attempted to be more faithful to the book, was a critical and popular failure.

Answer: American South

As is the case for many of Faulkner's novels, 'As I Lay Dying' is set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi - a fictional version of Lafayette County, where he spent most of his life. Written in stream-of-consciousness form, with 15 different narrators, the story shows the death of Addie Bundren and the efforts of her impoverished rural family to convey her body to her hometown of Jefferson for burial while dealing with their own personal issues. There is little sentimentality in the story, to put it mildly. After all, it is about a ten-day journey in the middle of the summer with an unembalmed body, and one of the narrators is dead.

About a third of the chapters are narrated by Darl, the second-oldest son, who we see steadily losing his hold on reality. Cash, the oldest son, is seen at the start building his mother's coffin as she watches; he reaches home riding on top of that coffin, sporting a broken leg in a concrete cast. Jewel is the third child, but Anse is not his father, a fact that nobody except (of course) Addie seems to know. The younger daughter, Dewey Dell, is 17 and pregnant, trying to get an abortion with the money she was given for that purpose. After several unsuccessful attempts to locate an abortionist, she finds herself compelled to give the money to her father, Anse, who who had previously showed his callous disregard for his children in a number of ways. Not only does he refuse to accept offers of charitable assistance, leaving his his family to go hungry and sleep in barns, he sells Jewel's beloved horse, and allows Darl to be imprisoned as the guilty party for setting a fire in a barn where they had spent one night. Barely have they buried Addie than he marries the woman from whom he had obtained the shovels necessary for the interment.

Answer: West Coast

As the Robert Burns poem 'To a Mouse, on Turning Her Up in Her Nest With the Plough, November, 1785' (which provides Steinbeck with his title) says: "The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft agley, / An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain, / For promis'd joy!" Sadly, this ominous suggestion about the plans that itinerant farmhands Lennie and George have to set themselves up on a small piece of land where Lennie will be able to cuddle rabbits to his heart's content proves accurate.

This novella is set, like several of Steinbeck's novels in the Salinas Valley during the 1930s Great Depression - specifically near the town of Soledad (whose name means solitude, a recurring theme). Both the era, with its economic hardship, and the location, with widespread agriculture creating a demand for labour and the migrant subculture that develops as a consequence, are active characters in the story. Most of the characters have aspirations of some sort, generally connected with alleviating the hardships of their current life and gaining both financial security and social acceptance.

Answer: West Coast

San Francisco is well known to having a large Chinese-American community, making it an ideal setting for this story of four women who immigrated from China to San Francisco and their four American-born daughters. The women meet to play mahjong while they share memories and experiences, calling their group the Joy Luck Club. The sixteen stories that comprise the novel, told in the voices of various characters, are interwoven to create a tapestry exploring the development of the characters as they struggle to maintain contact with their cultural heritage while being part of the culture around them. The focus of each section is on one of the four groups: the mothers' as children, the daughters as children, the daughters as adults, and the mothers as adults.

Amy Tan struggled to find a publisher for her first novel, and a number of the tales were first published as short stories. Once published in 1989, the book was a runaway success, and led to a film adaptation in 1993 for which she co-wrote the screenplay. Her second novel, 'The Kitchen God's Wife' (1991) focused on a single mother-daughter pair, and she has said that it explored her own personal experiences with that relationship, while the first one was more genuinely a work of fiction.

Answer: West Coast

Dashiell Hammett drew on his own experiences working in San Francisco for the Pinkerton Detective Agency to create the iconic character of Sam Spade, the hardboiled detective who (according to the author) is not based on any individual, but was what every private investigator aspired to (or imagined themselves to be). In other words, he is dispassionate, with a keen eye for detail and a cynical attitude while he relentlessly pursues justice (which may or may not be quite what legal authorities mean by that term).

The novel was first serialized in the magazine 'Black Mask' in 1929, before being edited and published as a book in 1930. The convoluted plot involves much double-crossing and sexual intrigue, and quite a few deaths, as he engages in a job that entails locating a black statuette of unknown (but presumed immense) value. It has been adapted for film several times, most notably in a 1949 version starring Humphrey Bogart that is often cited as the quintessential 'film noir'.

Answer: West Coast

A hardboiled crime novel really needs a big city to provide the necessary gritty environment, and Raymond Chandler chose Los Angeles for the first of his novels to feature Philip Marlowe, as hardboiled as a 10-minute egg. By 1939, the era of Prohibition and gangster lawlessness in the streets was pretty much just a social memory, but the rapid inter-war growth of cities that was accelerated by the Great Depression was continuing, and Chandler drew on these tensions to rework earlier stories into his novels. 'The Big Sleep' was primarily a reworking of two stories originally published in 'Black Mask' - 'Killer in the Rain' (1935) and 'The Curtain' (1936) - with a few bits from other stories thrown in. Squashing them into a single narrative produced a novel full of plot and atmosphere, if sometimes short on neat tidying up of the questions raised along the way.

The plot is full of twists and turns, but the events are ultimately not as important as the characters, and hardly worth even trying to explain. Suffice it to say that Marlowe discovers that the blackmail case he was hired to investigate is not what it seems. Not is the missing husband. The 1946 film adaptation starred Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in their second film together.

Answer: West Coast

This 1962 book from one of the leading members of the Beat Generation is classed as a novel because he has changed all the names - but the individual characters remain totally identifiable as members of his intimate circle. Jack Duluoz is a successful writer struggling with mental health issues. The novel covers three separate sessions spent living in a friend's cabin in Big Sur (on the central coast of California) during which he finds solace in the wilderness, but also loneliness that sends him back each time to his life in the city/suburbs of San Francisco and a resumption of the destructive drinking he is trying to control.

This novel is in several ways reflective of Kerouac's typical writing - it is free flowing, with almost a jazz beat if read aloud, concentrating on incidents rather than on any linear plot, and on character exploration rather than development. He liked to write in intense sessions, writing almost continuously for as many days as needed. When writing his first novel, the iconic 'On the Road', he started by cutting out pieces of paper the right width to fit into the typewriter and pasting them together to form one long (nearly 40 meters) roll so that he could type steadily, without having to stop and change the paper after each page. For 'Big Sur', he used a teletype roll, on which he typed the novel over a period of ten days.