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1. A Victorian-era novel, with a word in its title suggested by the hue of the accompanying square, begins with this sentence: "The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden, there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn". Who is the author of this novel?

Answer: Oscar Wilde

The novel is "The Picture of Dorian Gray", which was written by Oscar Wilde and published in 1890. Upon the novel's initial release, many critics condemned the book as indecent and suggested that Wilde be prosecuted for subjecting the public to such material.

Interestingly, Wilde's editor had expected such an outcry from the public, so he cut around 500 words from the manuscript before its publication. Apparently, this was still not enough.

2. An early American novel, with a word in its title suggested by something in the accompanying picture, begins with these lines: "On the human imagination, events produce the effects of time. Thus, he who has traveled far and seen much is apt to fancy that he has lived long; and the history that most abounds in important incidents, soonest assumes the aspect of antiquity." Who is the author of this novel?

Answer: James Fenimore Cooper

The novel is "The Deerslayer", one of the five novels in Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales, and was published in 1841. While "The Deerslayer" is the last of the Leatherstocking Tales Cooper wrote, it represents the first story chronologically in the timeline of the life of Nathaniel Bumppo, the protagonist of the series.

It is what many today would refer to as a "prequel". If you read the novels in the order of Cooper's publication of them, they should be read in the following order: "The Pioneers", "The Last of the Mohicans", "The Prairie", "The Pathfinder", and "The Deerslayer".

However, if you wish to read them according to the timeline of the stories and Bumppo's life, then you should read them in the following order: "The Deerslayer", "The Last of the Mohicans", "The Pathfinder", "The Pioneers", and "The Prairie". Mark Twain, one of America's later authors, did not appreciate Cooper's writing style and ability.

In Twain's satirical essay "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offences", he wrote: "In one place in 'Deerslayer', and in the restricted space of two-thirds of a page, Cooper has scored 114 offenses against literary art out of a possible 115.

It breaks the record".

3. A famous French book, with a couple of words in its title suggested by the accompanying photograph, begins with these words: "Three hundred and forty-eight years, six months, and nineteen days ago today, the Parisians awoke to the sound of all the bells in the triple circuit of the city, the university, and the town ringing a full peal". Who is the author of this novel?

Answer: Victor Hugo

The romantic gothic novel is "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame", which was written by Victor Hugo and published in 1831. Originally, Hugo titled his novel "Notre-Dame of Paris". However, in 1833 an English translator of the book renamed it "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame" to encourage the sale of the book in England, where readers tended to prefer gothic tales; the translator, Frederic Shoberl, believed drawing attention to a hunchback would entice a larger British reading audience. Hugo's novel is greatly significant for a couple of reasons. One, the book marks the first use of a novel as epic theatre, meaning a novel encompassing a panorama of the lives of several significant characters moving through history. Hugo actively pursued the preservation of Gothic architecture, and his portrayal of Notre-Dame Cathedral as the center of a great number of people's lives and a representation of his society's culture went a long way toward the accomplishment of his goal. Second, his novel marks the first time an author used beggars as central characters for a novel.

This, again, contributes to the epic theatre; Hugo demonstrates the lives of all the people of Paris, from a king to the inhabitants of the sewers.

4. Think of another Victorian novel. This one contains a last name, half of which is represented by the accompanying picture. The book begins with this opening line: "Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show". Who is the author of this book?

Answer: Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens wrote "David Copperfield" and published it as a serial from 1849 to 1850 and then published it as a book in 1850. The novel's whole title is "The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield, the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery (Which He Never Meant to Publish on Any Account)". What a mouthful! Dickens considered the book his personal favorite, writing "like many fond parents, I have in my heart of hearts a favourite child. And his name is David Copperfield".

Many speculate that the book is somewhat autobiographical, which would no doubt contribute to Dickens' fondness for it. By 2016, the story had been adapted for eight films (two of them animated) and five television serials.

5. This American-born author, who later became a British citizen, wrote a great number of novels, short stories, and works of literary criticism. One of his novellas, with a word represented by any one of the items in the accompanying photograph, begins with this line: "I remember the whole beginning as a succession of flights and drops, a little seesaw of the right throbs and the wrong". Who is the writer of this ghost story?

Answer: Henry James

The novella is "The Turn of the Screw" by Henry James, who published this ghost story in 1898. Henry James was quite a prolific author, having written twenty novels, including "The American", "Washington Square", "The Portrait of a Lady", "The Bostonians", "The Wings of the Dove", "The Ambassadors", and "The Golden Bowl".

He also wrote more than one hundred and twenty short stories and novellas. James is considered one of the most important realist writers of the American canon; however, he was also a fan of romance gothic fiction.

In his ghost stories, he tends to combine his fascination with the supernatural and his dedication to realism. In "The Turn of the Screw", the reader is constantly having to question whether the ghosts truly exist or whether they are somehow a projection or fantasy of the main character's mind. Thus, James illustrates his mastery of psychological realism--what is reality is only what appears to be reality to the main character, whose mental processes are made apparent to the reader because the story is told from the first person point-of-view. James once explained that he did not appreciate the stereotypical ghost and horror stories that involved "screamers" and "slashers" but that he instead was attracted to a story that involved ghosts that were frightening, unexplainable extensions of everyday life--"the strange and sinister embroidered on the very type of the normal and easy".

6. A Russian novella, with a word in its title suggested by the accompanying photograph, begins with these words: "I am a sick man. . . . I am a spiteful man." Who is the author of this story, which is considered by many to be one of the first existentialist stories?

Answer: Fyodor Dostoevsky

The referenced novella is "Notes from Underground" (aka "Notes from the Underground" and "Letters from the Underworld"). It was written by Dostoevsky and published in 1864. The book is groundbreaking for its existentialist leanings as well as its reliance on an unreliable narrator. An un-named, bitter character, who is withdrawn from society, relates his thoughts in a rambling and perplexing manner.

The result is a criticism of Europe's enlightened and idealistic view that society is capable of creating and maintaining a utopian society when society is by its nature composed of irrational individuals. Dostoevsky's works were usually quite philosophical in their scope, as readers will no doubt understand if they have read his masterpiece, "Crime and Punishment".

7. The accompanying photograph suggests a word that is part of a name within the title of yet one more Victorian novel. The story begins thusly: "One evening of late summer, before the nineteenth century had reached one-third of its span, a young man and woman, the latter carrying a child, were approaching the large village of Weydon-Priors, in Upper Wessex, on foot". Who is the author and poet responsible for writing this novel?

Answer: Thomas Hardy

The novel is "The Mayor of Casterbridge", which was written by Thomas Hardy and published in 1886. It is one of several of the novels Hardy wrote that were set in Wessex, a fictional rural area he used for a setting. Hardy's Wessex is named for the medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom that existed before the Normans conquered the British Isles. It covers parts of the south and southwest sections of England and would consist of the following true English counties: Berkshire, Devon, Dorset, Hampshire, Somerset, and Wiltshire.

"The Mayor of Casterbridge" has one of the most memorable opening chapters in English literature. The main character, Michael Henchard, auctions off his wife and daughter for five guineas while he is drunk and is horrified the next morning when he understands what he has done. However, the man who purchased them is long gone by now. Eighteen years later, he is a successful merchant and the Mayor of Casterbridge; however, he still struggles with his guilt as well as the morality of marrying another while he is legally still married to someone else.

8. An American novel, with a word in its title represented by the image in the accompanying photograph, opens with the following: "The cold passed reluctantly from the earth, and the retiring fogs revealed an army stretched out on the hills, resting". Who is the author of this book?

Answer: Stephen Crane

The novel "The Red Badge of Courage", which is set during the American Civil War, was written by Stephen Crane and published in 1895. Crane himself was born after the Civil War; nevertheless, the novel is frequently praised for its realism. Crane relied upon accounts from both living and historical records to gather accurate information for his novel, and the central battle of the story is believed to represent the historical battle of Chancellorsville.

The novel was also praised for its psychological realism as the narrator explores the principal character Henry Fleming's psyche while he struggles with finding courage to enter into battle.

This inner conflict occurs within a larger context of a society and the natural world, which are entirely indifferent to his plight.

However, not all were appreciative of Crane's work. In fact, another popular American writer who had written several stories about the American Civil War, Ambrose Bierce, claimed that Crane was a plagiarist and expressed his disdain for not only the book but the writer as well, referring to him as "the Crane freak".

9. This 1864 French novel, with a word in its title suggested by the accompanying image, opens with these words: "Looking back to all that has occurred to me since that eventful day, I am scarcely able to believe in the reality of my adventures". Who is this book's author?

Answer: Jules Verne

The novel beginning with the line from the question is "Journey to the Center of the Earth", written by Jules Verne. You may have also thought of "From Earth to the Moon", "Around the World in Eighty Days", or "Master of the World", all of which would have led you to Jules Verne, as he was the author of all four. However, only "Journey to the Center of the Earth" was published in 1864 and begins with the quotation from the question. Verne was influenced by Charles Lyell's 1863 book "Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man", which represented the growing scientific view of that time that the Biblical explanation for the existence of the earth and human beings was no longer a valid one.

Interestingly, the Franco-Prussian War, which occurred from 1870 to 1871, greatly turned Verne against the German people; however, "Journey to the Center of the Earth", which was published a few years before that war, relies on central characters who are German.

10. An American novel, with a word in its title suggested by the accompanying image, starts with the following line: "It was in Warwick Castle that I came across the curious stranger whom I am going to talk about". What is the name of the author of this work?

Answer: Mark Twain

The novel being referred to is "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court", which was written by Mark Twain and published in 1889. Twain was inspired to write the book after waking from a dream in which he himself was a knight but was hindered from performing actions because of the burden of heavy armor he was wearing.

The story is concerned with a Yankee engineer who somehow manages to be ushered backwards into the past and finds himself in Camelot during the reign of King Arthur. Despite all of his modern education and technical skills, he finds himself unable to stop the social forces that culminate in the death of Arthur. The book is meant to be an indictment of society and other people's ideals concerning the achievement of a better world through chivalry or romantic notions of morality. Twain despised the romantic views people had of earlier societies; in particular, he despised the novels and poems of Sir Walter Scott. In fact, he blamed Scott's adventure books for poisoning the culture and minds of the American South, whose people were led into a foolish war because of their romantic view of battle.

Source: Author alaspooryoric

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor looney_tunes before going online.
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A Gallery of Literature Trivia Quiz

I'll give you the first line of a book written before 1900 and a picture to suggest a word or two from the book's title. You tell me the author's name.

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