Arts & Books Mixed Bag 10 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Eugene O'Neill

Eugene Gladstone O'Neill was born in New York City in 1888 and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1936. He also won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama four times, in 1920, 1922, 1928, and the final one four years after his death, in 1957.
He wrote 'The Iceman Cometh' in 1939 although it was not performed until 1946. 'Long Day's Journey into Night' was one of his last full-length plays, written in 1941. It was first performed in 1956, and it was for this that he earned his posthumous Pulitzer.
Of the alternatives, Edward Albee is best remembered for 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'. Neil Simon was responsible for such hits as 'The Sunshine Boys' and 'The Goodbye Girl'. Arthur Miller's most memorable works are 'Death of a Salesman' and 'The Crucible'.

Answer: St Michael's Church, Dumfries

Born in Alloway on January 25 1759, Burns is often referred to as 'The Bard of Ayrshire'. His birthplace and the adjacent museum attract many visitors to the village on the banks of the River Doon. His father, William, is buried in the Auld Kirk here. His birth date is widely celebrated in Scotland as 'Burns Night'.
In the late 1780s, Burns moved to Dumfries near to Scotland's southern border with England. It was here that he died aged just 37 on July 21 1796. His funeral was held four days later, on the same day that his son Maxwell was born. A statue to Burns dominates the town centre, and his Mausoleum is located in the churchyard of St Michael's.
Dunfermline Abbey, birthplace of the last British monarch born in Scotland, Charles I, is the burial site for many early Scottish kings. Here too is the tomb of Robert the Bruce, although it contains only his bones, his heart having been buried in Melrose.

Answer: 'Waiting for Godot'

Samuel Barclay Beckett was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1906. One literary publication voted 'Waiting for Godot' "the most significant English language play of the 20th century", which is strange when you consider that it was originally written in French. Beckett's own translation of the play into English was first performed in 1953.

He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969. He died in Paris aged 83 in 1989. Of the alternatives, the principal characters in Edward Albee's 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' are George and Martha. Jerome K Jerome's 'Three Men in a Boat' tells the reader in the opening line that there are, in fact, four main characters: George, Harris and J as well as Montmorency the dog.

There are also four principle characters in Edward Lear's 'The Owl and the Pussycat'.

They are the piggy-wig and the turkey in addition to the eponymous characters. Suffice it to say, though, that none of them is named Vladimir.

Answer: George II

Georg Friedrich Handel was born in Halle, Germany in 1685. He became a naturalized British subject in 1727 and remained in England until his death in 1759. His funeral was accorded full state honors and he is buried in Westminster Abbey.
'Music for the Royal Fireworks', commissioned by King George II, was specifically composed for a 1749 firework display in Green Park to celebrate the end of The War of Austrian Succession.

Answer: 'Christine'

Published in 1983, 'Christine' was Stephen King's eighth best-selling novel. The film adaptation of the book was released later the same year, directed by John Carpenter and starring Keith Gordon as Arnie.
Of the alternatives, the principal character in King's first published novel, 'Carrie', is the eponymous schoolgirl Carietta White. His 1989 novel 'The Dark Half' features author and recovering alcoholic Thad Beaumont. Barton George Dawes is the protagonist in the 1981 novel 'Roadwork', which was first published under the pseudonym of Richard Bachman.

Answer: Wimbledon

The quote in questions is, perhaps, the most widely-known line from Kipling's classic poem -- "If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two impostors just the same". It is carved into the wall at the players' entrance to Centre Court at the home of tennis, Wimbledon. The poem was written in 1895, at the height of Kipling's productive years.

He had written his other great contributions to poetry, 'Mandalay' and 'Gunga Din', five years earlier. He had published his collection of 'Jungle Book' short stories the year before, whilst 'Captain Courageous', 'Kim' and 'The Just So Stories' would follow within a few years.

Answer: Bizet's 'Carmen'

These are the best-known arias from Georges Bizet's 1875 opéra comique 'Carmen'.
The concept behind this opera began half a century earlier, with a narrative poem called 'The Gypsies', written in 1824 by Russia's national poet, Alexander Pushkin. In 1845, French dramatist and short-story writer Prosper Mérimée published a novella entitled 'Carmen' based on Pushkin's poem. It was from Mérimée's novella that Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy wrote the libretto that would eventually be set to music by Bizet in the form we know today.
One of the world's most popular operas for more than a century, 'Carmen' ranks as number four on the list of the most-performed operas in North America.

Answer: 'Howards End'

The 1910 novel 'Howards End', set in the Hertfordshire countryside in the first years of the 20th Century, is an examination of relationships between members of the different social classes of the era. James Ivory's 1992 film adaptation starred Emma Thompson (who won an Oscar, a BAFTA and a Golden Globe for 'Best Actress'), Sir Anthony Hopkins, Vanessa Redgrave, Helena Bonham Carter and Prunella Scales.

Answer: Richard III

Written around 1591, 'Richard III' is one of Shakespeare's earliest plays. It is also his second-longest, after 'Hamlet'. Telling the story of the rise to power and subsequent brief reign of the title character, 'Richard III' is sometimes classed as one of the author's histories and sometimes as one of his tragedies. The actual Battle of Bosworth Field took place in Leicestershire, England on August 22 1485.

It effectively marked the end of the 'Wars of the Roses', with Lancashire's Henry Tudor defeating Yorkist King Richard III. Thus ended the 330-year the Plantagenet dynasty on the English throne, and ushered in the Tudor period which would last until 1603.

This was the last significant Medieval battle in English history and effectively ended the period now known as 'The Middle Ages'. Richard III still remains the last English monarch to die in battle.

Answer: Canaletto

Born in Venice in 1697, Canaletto lived most of his life in and around his home town apart from a ten-year visit to England in the middle of the 18th Century. Today, he is one of the best-known artists from the Venetian School, with his huge body of work depicting landscapes in both Venice and London. The alternatives all pre-date Canaletto... Titian is another Venetian, born Tiziano Vecelli sometime around 1488, he is one of the most famous Renaissance artists of the 16th Century. Tintoretto, born Jacopo Comin in Venice in 1518, is one of the last great painters of the Italian Renaissance. Caravaggio, born Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio in Milan in 1571, is widely considered the first of the great Baroque artists.