Dungeons, Dungeons, Everywhere Quiz

Answer: Western

A dungeon is a prison cell, usually an underground one. They feature prominently in many works set in medieval times, and seem to have been a common feature in your average castle. Dungeons are also associated with torture chambers, and with prisoners being locked up to be forgotten about forever. Literary examples abound, as this quiz will remind you. Since many fantasy novels are set in quasi-medieval world settings, they often feature castles with dungeons.

The Western, however, is traditionally set in the western half of the United States, a region signally devoid of castles and dungeons.

Answer: Richard III

Shakespeare's play, written around 1591, is largely responsible for the public perception of Richard III as having a deformed body to match a twisted mind - an excellent job of character assassination, designed to curry favor with the nobility in power at the time.

The Tudors succeeded the House of York when Henry VII defeated Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485. After the death of Edward IV, his twelve-year-old son Edward V became king, with uncle Richard as Lord Protector. Before he could be crowned, however, he and his brother Richard were declared to be illegitimate, and their lodging in the Tower of London became an imprisonment.

They effectively disappeared, and rumors of their murder were widespread. Shakespeare showed their uncle Richard as having been responsible for the deaths of Henry VI, both princes, and the Duke of Clarence (his older brother); his death in battle after ruling for barely two years was clearly a well-deserved punishment.

Answer: Edgar Allan Poe

As is the case for many of Poe's stories, the plot is not as important as the psychology in this story that explores the impact of a prisoner's increasing fear as he sees the apparent inevitability of his impending death, whether from falling into a deep pit, or being carved up by a razor-sharp pendulum that is slowly descending from the ceiling, or by being crushed as the red-hot walls of his cell close in on him. He is saved at the last possible moment by a French soldier - the French have captured the city, and the Inquisition's reign of terror is over. This is somewhat anachronistic, as the French actually captured Toledo during the Peninsular Wars, in the 19th century, while the Inquisition flourished in the late 15th and 16th centuries.

The incorrect options are authors who wrote works that have been suggested as sources of inspiration for Poe's story. George Sale's translation of the 'Koran' included a reference to a pit of fire; Juan Antonio Llorente wrote 'History of the Spanish Inquisition' in 1817; William Mudford's book 'The Iron Shroud' described a torture device that crushes its victim by shrinking.

Answer: The Count of Monte Cristo

Just before his planned marriage, Dantes is imprisoned as being a supporter of Napoleon Bonaparte, charges that were trumped up for the political advantage of his accusers: Fernand (his former fiancee's cousin), Danglars (a jealous colleague of Dantes) and Caderousse (a neighbor of Dantes). During his fourteen years in prison, he learns the location of a vast treasure, which he locates after his escape and uses to finance his planned revenge on those responsible for his imprisonment, as well as helping some who had been kind to him. Posing as the Count of Monte Cristo (among other personae), he arranges the downfall of the conspirators, which involves a deal of bloodshed, poisoning, and the like, with a few innocent bystanders unfortunately also suffering in the whirlpool of revenge.

Answer: The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later

'Man in the Iron Mask', properly titled 'The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later (Part 3)', was part of the third volume of the d'Artagnan novels, which was originally published in serial form between 1847 and 1850. To further his quest for the papacy, Aramis, now a bishop, plots to replace Louis XIV with his twin brother Philippe.

He enlists the assistance of Porthos, and Athos and d'Artagnan also get embroiled in the goings on. This adventure story is based on the existence of a mysterious prisoner, arrested around 1670 and held in captivity with the same jailer as his only external contact for over 30 years.

The Man in the Iron Mask, held for much of his imprisonment in the Bastille (shown in the image for this question), was the subject of much speculation as to his real identity, and Voltaire suggested that it was the king's older brother in 1771. Dumas romanticized the situation to great effect in this final installment of the story of d'Artagnan which began in 'The Three Musketeers'.

Answer: Doctor Manette

Part One of 'A Tale of Two Cities' is subtitled 'Recalled to Life', and shows Lucie Manette retrieving her father from the care of Madame and Monsieur Defarge to take him home and care for him. I won't try to summarise the plot of this massive work, but it is set in the time of the French Revolution, so there is a lot of plotting and imprisonment going on.

At the end, Sydney Carton sacrifices his life to save that of Charles Darnay, because of his love for Lucie, who has become Charles's wife. The 1935 film ends with Ronald Coleman (as Sydney Carton) declaiming the famous line, "It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known."

Answer: London

Also called 'Lord Baker', 'Lord Bateman', and 'Young Bekie' in variants, this ballad tells the story of a young man who is taken prisoner (by the Moors in Spain, by the king of France, or in some other exotic location). He promises to marry any woman who sets him free; after the daughter of his jailer frees him, he departs, and is about to marry another woman when the wronged daughter arrives. In some versions he has been magically forced into this new marriage, in others he is just unfaithful to his pledge. In either case, the daughter's arrival leads to the fulfillment of his original vow.

The image used in this question, called 'Young Beckie in Prison', is by the Victorian book illustrator Arthur Rackham.

Answer: The Prisoner of Zenda

King Rudolf is drugged and imprisoned (in the town of Zenda) by his evil brother Michael; his identical cousin Rudolf Rassendyll (such a convenient plot device top be identical and have the same first name) is persuaded to impersonate him to ensure political stability in the kingdom.

After many machinations, Rassendyll rescues the king, in the process ensuring the happiness of Princess Flavia who is engaged to the king, even though he himself has fallen in love with her, and is making a noble sacrifice.

In the 1937 film, Ronald Colman played the parts of both Rudolfs - he seems to have made a career out of these noble self-sacrificing roles!

Answer: Forgotten Realms

There are over 60 series of books written with settings in the Forgotten Realms, with several hundred titles. The four books considered to form 'The Dungeons' are 'Depths of Madness' (Erik Scott de Bie), 'The Howling Delve' (Jaleigh Johnson), 'Stardeep' (Bruse R. Cordell) and 'Crypt of the Moaning Diamond' (Rosemary Jones).

These four books are loosely related by the fact that characters are trying to survive imprisonment in one or more dungeons.

Answer: Isaac Asimov

The 'Foundation Series' is a series of seven novels that explore a world in which the mathematical analysis of history (termed psychohistory) has led to a prediction that the Galactic Empire is about to collapse, and stimulated attempts to shorten the expected 'dark ages' that will follow. Asimov apparently got his basic premise from Edward Gibbon's 'History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire', and developed the concept of mathematical modeling of human behavior using statistics as an extension of the physical laws of gases, in which the behavior of individual particles cannot be accurately predicted, but the overall behavior of a large number of them can be predicted with great accuracy.