Can You Find Your Pot of Gold? Quiz

Answer: Stephen Crane

The hero is Henry Fleming who flees from the scene of battle. He is ashamed of his cowardice and longs for a wound - "the red badge of courage" - to counteract it. Later he becomes his regiment's standard bearer.

Crane's first novel was not very successful but "The Red Badge of Courage" was greatly acclaimed. He travelled to England where he became very friendly with Joseph Conrad and H.G.Wells. He died of tuberculosis in 1900.

Answer: The Old Testament of the Bible

Dinah was the daughter of Leah and Jacob and the sister of Joseph. The book differs in some ways from the original story, which can be found in the Old Testament book of Genesis, Chapter 34 (NIV).

Dinah was waylaid and raped by a ruler of Shechem, who then asked Jacob if he could marry her. Jacob and his sons wanted revenge but, ever shrewd, Jacob agreed on the understanding that the Shechemites should be circumcised. Then, while the Schechmites were still in pain, the Israelites attacked and devastated them.

Answer: Accrington, Lancashire

This novel is not strictly autobiographical, but is really an account of her growth to maturity in a somewhat alien setting.

The chapters of the book are named after the books of the Old Testament. It was praised by the critics for its unconventional subject matter and its riotous humour. It caused a rift between the author and her mother.

It won the Whitbread first novel award in 1995.

Answer: A Clockwork Orange

The book was banned in many American schools and only became more acceptable in the Stanley Kubrick film version. This seems rather ironic since it was the Kubrick version which caused Burgess to repudiate the book, saying that it had become too easy for the reader to misunderstand it.

Originally the book was divided into three sections of seven chapters each, the final chapter dealing with Alex's repudiation of his cult of violence and indicating a slow but complete turn around on his part. This last chapter was omitted from the US version, on which Kubrick based his film, leaving it with a much darker ending.

Answer: Thomas Love Peacock

The book prefigures, to some extent, Huxley's later novel, "Brave New World".
Thomas Love Peacock's novel "Nightmare Abbey" was written in this form as is "Crochet Castle" and "Headlong Hall". The book is a satire on the literary salon of one Lady Ottoline Morrell and contains recognizable caricatures of writers and artists of the day.

Answer: How Green was my Valley

The book tells the story of the large Morgan family and particularly of Huw, the youngest son whose ability enables him to move out of the mining trap his family is in. He stays in the town, however, and only moves away when everyone he knows is dead or has moved away, and the town has become semi-derelict.

Answer: green

"Anne of Green Gables" and its sequels tell the story of the highly imaginative orphan girl, Anne Shirley, adopted by the elderly Prince Edward Island couple, Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert. Anne is desperate to find "kindred spirits". She is teased by schoolmate Gilbert Bligh and it takes a while to recognize him as her true kindred spirit.

Many of the sequels tell of their long and happy marriage.

Answer: Blue Wednesday

The sentence quoted is the first line of the book "Daddy Long Legs" and it describes the Wednesday of each month when the John Grier Home for Orphans was inspected by the trustees. Jerusha, or Judy, as she calls herself later, is sent to college anonymously by one of the trustees and life takes a decided turn for the better.

This is a delightful book, both touching and funny and the ending is perfect. Please read it, if you haven't already!

Answer: The Color Purple

All the characters in this novel are to some extent victims of sexism and/or racism, and this makes them in their turn abusers as well as victims.
It is interesting to note that Alice Walker refuses to let her book be published in Israel, since she maintains that apartheid is practised there.

Published in 1982, the book won the Pulitzer Prize and was later made into a film by Steven Spielberg.

Answer: The Rainbow

"The Rainbow" is the only one of these books written by Lawrence. It tells the story of three generations of the farming Brangwen family, their various emotional relationships, and their attempts to adapt to an increasingly industrialized society. Its explicit sexual content resulted in an obscenity trial in 1915, and it was unavailable in Britain for eleven years.