10 Questions: A Miscellany of Literature Multiple Choice Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Some people have thought that Inuit languages have more words for snow than other languages. In "Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow" the lead character from Greenland has a great understanding of different types of snow which proves to be important in helping to investigate a mysterious death. Which Danish author wrote this crime novel?

Answer: Peter Hoeg

Before becoming a writer Peter Hoeg had experience as a sailor, a ballet dancer, an actor, and in fencing and mountaineering. This book is an example of "Scandinavian Noir" (also called "Nordic Noir"). The story follows the heroine, Smilla Qaaviqaaq Jaspersen, who is half Inuit and half Danish, as she investigates the death of a neighbour's child.

The novel won the Crime Writers' Silver Dagger award in 1994 and was also made into a film called "Smilla's Sense of Snow". The other authors are also popular Nordic crime writers. Nesbo is Norwegian, Mankell and Larsson are Swedish.

2. Who was the Scottish author of "A Study in Scarlet" - one of only four full-length novels in a series of stories featuring the same characters?

Answer: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Conan Doyle was a prolific author who wrote many types of books including science fiction, romances and historical novels but he is best remembered for his Sherlock Holmes stories. "A Study in Scarlet" was the first book by Conan Doyle to feature Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson.

The title comes from Holmes's reference to the "scarlet thread of murder" in life which he sees as his duty to "unravel". Wrong answers: Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote "The Scarlet Letter". Stendhal wrote "The Scarlet and the Black" and Margaret Mitchell created Scarlett O'Hara in her novel "Gone with the Wind".

3. With this next novel you might be forgiven for thinking Sherlock Holmes has wandered into medieval Italy and joined a monastery. "The Name of the Rose" was a novel made into a film starring Sean Connery. Who wrote it?

Answer: Umberto Eco

The author, Umberto Eco, is also known as a semiotician, philosopher, essayist and literary critic. "The Name of the Rose" works on several levels both intellectual and as a detective novel. Set in medieval Italy at the time of the Inquisition, the investigator in this book is an English monk called William of Baskerville, with characteristics and detecting methods reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes and an assistant called Adso.

There are medieval philosophies, superstitions, ignorance, squalor and "The Inquisition" for William to contend with as he tries to solve the mystery of a series of murders.

The chapter headings of the book follow the canonical hours of the day e.g Matins, Lauds, Terce, Sext, Vespers, Compline.

4. Who is the Sri Lankan-born Canadian writer who won The Booker Prize for his novel "The English Patient" which was made into a film starring Ralph Fiennes?

Answer: Michael Ondaatje

Creative talent runs in the family it seems. Michael Ondaatje has a brother Christopher who is also an author and a nephew who David who is a film director and screen writer.

5. Which book by George Orwell was written about a war?

Answer: Homage to Catalonia

"Homage to Catalonia" was written about the Spanish Civil War. Orwell fought in that war on the Republican side. The other books by Orwell cover aspects of poverty in the 1930s before the welfare state was created. In "Down and Out in Paris and London" Orwell wrote about his life undercover as a tramp in both cities, engaging in low paid casual work to experience the lives of the poor at first hand. "The Road to Wigan Pier" and "Keep the Aspidistra Flying" concern aspects of poverty in England.

6. This man is known for writing the first authoritative "Dictionary of the English Language" and for his literary criticism and his wit. He had a "fan" who became his friend and biographer. Name him.

Answer: Samuel Johnson

It took Johnson nine years to complete his "Dictionary". It is thought that he probably suffered from Tourette's syndrome as well as periodic depression which he referred to as his "black dog". We know much about Johnson because his friend, James Boswell, wrote a biography about him. Johnson's London house still exists and is now a visitor attraction. Ben Jonson and John Webster were playwrights contemporary with Shakespeare.

7. Which Irish author, who wrote in a style of absurdist humour, produced books entitled "The Third Policeman","The Poor Mouth", "The Dalkey Archive" and "At Swim Two Birds"? He also wrote a column for the Irish Times under the pen name Myles na Gopaleen.

Answer: Flann O'Brien

Flann O'Brien spoke only Irish until he was six. He was not allowed to speak English at home and was not allowed to speak Irish at school. This situation may have influenced his sense of the absurd. "The Third Policeman" is a very surreal novel often quoting a fictitious scientist called "De Selby" who has odd notions - for instance that atoms are exchanged with things a person comes into contact with.

For example a cyclist would eventually become part bike, and their bike would become part human.

8. Which classical Roman poet famously wrote a series of "Odes" that inspired or were admired by English writers William Shakespeare, John Dryden, Andrew Marvell, and Samuel Johnson among others?

Answer: Horace

Horace was the name by which Quintus Horatius Flaccus was known. He was the leading poet in the time of Emperor Augustus. A critic of his time thought his poems were "lofty", full of "charm and grace", "versatile" and "daring". He also wrote "Satires". His "Odes" became quite fashionable again in 16th and 17th century England.

9. Set in the Napoleonic era, "The Count of Monte Cristo" is an epic tale of the betrayal, imprisonment and elaborate revenge of Edmond Dantes. Who wrote this book?

Answer: Alexandre Dumas

Dumas is perhaps better known for his books featuring D'Artagnan and the three musketeers. He had a great gift for storytelling and was a prolific writer of books. In "The Count of Monte Cristo", Danton, an honest, able and trusting man, encounters powerful enemies, who strip him of liberty, prospects and the love of his life.

They are confident that he will never emerge from the secure and dreadful prison of the Chateau D'If. After many years of suffering a surprising event, and a stroke of luck combined with his own ingenuity, enable him to escape and find his way (unrecognised) back to the highest society, to plot sweet revenge at his leisure.

10. It's been more or less the norm for a medieval monarch to have "rubbed out" some inconvenient or problematic person in their way. Most historians accept that the following Kings were murderous in their time. Which one featured in the title of a play by Shakespeare?

Answer: King John

Shakespeare's play "King John" features John's elimination of his nephew Arthur, who as the son of his deceased elder brother Geoffrey, was a rival claimant for the throne. John was also notorious for betraying his father Henry II, losing the crown jewels in "The Wash" (a place near the coast of Essex) and for being excommunicated by the Pope.

His name was "mud" after that. On the plus side he was the King who signed the "Magna Carta".

Source: Author Mixamatosis

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10 Questions: A Miscellany of Literature Multiple Choice Quiz | Literature

Here is some literature from various countries for your enjoyment and to test "the little grey cells".

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