FunTrivia Literature Mix: Vol 17 Quiz

Answer: Isaac Asimov

A science fiction mystery, 'The Naked Sun' was preceded by 'The Caves of Steel', and followed by 'The Robots of Dawn'. In addition to writing nearly 500 books, Isaac Asimov also taught biochemistry at Boston University.

Question by player DCW2

Answer: A train

'Murder on the Orient Express' was largely set onboard a train. Ratchett, an American man, was killed in his room while travelling across Europe on the Orient Express. The train became stuck in a snowdrift, and Poirot (also a passenger) was asked to find the murderer. From a passenger train, Rachel Watson observed the street she used to live on before her divorce in 'The Girl on the Train'. She believed that she could help when Megan Hipwell went missing, but her reliability as a witness was called into question for a number of reasons. The Hogwarts Express was the train that took Harry to Hogwarts in his first year in 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'.

The novels are also similar in that they were all written by women, and they have all been adapted into films.

Question by player AcrylicInk

Answer: Dr. Seuss

Dr. Seuss's father, Theodore Robert Geisel, worked as a superintendent at Springfield Zoo in Massachusetts, and contributed to Dr. Seuss's lifelong interest in fascinating animals. The hardship-overcoming elephant Horton appears in Dr. Seuss's 1940 book "Horton Hatches the Egg" as well as "Horton Hears a Who!" (1954). Max is the pet dog of The Grinch, the protagonist in "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!" (1957). Pop the Bear is the unfortunate victim of children hopping on his belly in Dr. Seuss's "Hop on Pop" (1963).

Question by player Rizeeve

Answer: A cake with 'EAT ME' written on it

On her way to the magic land, she realised that she was much too large to get through a door, until she noticed a bottle marked 'DRINK ME'. When she did, she shrunk to only ten inches tall. When she ate the cake that had 'EAT ME' spelled out in raisins, she was restored to her normal height.
An Everlasting Gobstopper is one of the many delicious lollies made by Willie Wonka, and Frank Zappa warned us about eating yellow snow.

Question by player ozzz2002

Answer: E. E. Cummings

This Irish alehouse in New York was immortalized by ee cummings (his preferred style of writing his name at the time) in the 1920s. We can be sure that Cummings did not enjoy his drinks with women at the bar since this establishment did not allow any females in its doors until after 1970! The bar still stands by its motto, which states, "Be good or be gone".

Question by player stephgm67

Answer: Vietnam

It is acknowledged that, at the time of publication, Vietnam was known as French Indochina. Vu's satirical novel follows a similar path to Jerzy Kosinski's 1970 masterpiece "Being There". The story follows the journey of Xuan, a red-haired drifter, trying to scratch out a living on the dingy streets of Hanoi. Mistaken for a genius, he rises rapidly up the social ladder to a life filled with extravagant mansions and shallow souls.

The book was banned by the Vietnamese Communist Party from 1960 through to 1975 and then by the Socialist Republic of Vietnam until 1986. Whether this ban was a result of the book's indictment of the country's social classes or the explicit sexual content therein (or perhaps a combination of both) is uncertain. Since then, an abridged version of the novel has been added to the curriculum of Vietnamese high schools.

Question by player pollucci19

Answer: Giving

It first came out in 1964. It's one of Shel Silverstein's best known titles and has been translated into over 30 languages.

Question by player simplyashez

Answer: woolly mammoth

Even though the woolly mammoth has been generally extinct for 10,000 years, scientists are hoping to bring the hairy beast back to life through cloning. Several specimens of well preserved mammoth have been discovered in the frozen wastes of Siberia.

Question by player ToeKneeK

Answer: Desire Street

The Pulitzer Prize winning play by Tennessee Williams, "A Streetcar Named Desire" opened on Broadway in 1947. The Desire streetcar line ran from 1920 to 1948, running down Bourbon, through the French Quarter to Desire Street in the Bywater district, and terminating at Canal Street. The names Blanche, Stella, and Stanley are all characters in the play.


Question by player JaneofGaunt

Answer: Charles Dickens

A vicious, ill-tempered and grotesque dwarf, Daniel Quilp is the villain in Charles Dickens' 1840 novel, "The Old Curiosity Shop". Anthony Newley and Patrick Troughton have both played Quilp in film adaptations.

Question by player EnglishJedi