A Miscellany of Literature Test | Literature

Answer: Beowulf

"Beowulf" exists in only one manuscript (the Nowell Codex) which survived both the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII and a disastrous fire. Written in Old English, it describes the adventures of a great Scandinavian warrior of the sixth century.

Answer: The Plumber

Chaucer (1342-1400) based his work around the tales of 24 people, all making a pilgrimage to the shrine of St Thomas à Beckett at Canterbury Cathedral. It's unknown whether he intended to stop the work at 24 tales, or else left it incomplete when he died on October 25, 1400.

Answer: Don Quixote

"Don Quixote" was published in two parts, ten years apart (1605 and 1615). The work has been described as the first true novel and is highly regarded, regularly appearing near the top of lists of the greatest works of fiction ever published.

Answer: It was the first Gothic novel

Set in the time of the crusades, "The Castle of Otranto" established the Gothic as a literary form in England. It tells the story of Conrad, heir to the house of Otranto, who is killed in mysterious circumstances before he's about to get married. Fearing the end of his dynasty his father, Manfred, determines to marry Conrad's betrothed, Isabella, until a series of supernatural events stands in his way.

Answer: He commits suicide

As well as Smerdyakov, there were 3 legitimate sons: Ivan, the intellectual (mind); Dmitri, the sensualist (body) and Alyosha, the novice monk (soul). Although Smerdyakov was the guilty party, it's Dmitri that is convicted of the murder. He's sentenced to twenty years hard labour in Siberia.

Answer: False

"Fathers and Sons" was published in 1862 and featured a young graduate, Yevgeny Vasilevich Bazarov, who acknowledged no authority and accepted no single principle upon faith. It was the first Russian work to gain prominence in the Western world.

Answer: Joseph Bell, a lecturer in medicine

Bell (1837-1911) was a lecturer at the medical school of the University of Edinburgh, which Doyle attended from 1876-81. He emphasized the importance of close observation (a major feature in the approach of Sherlock Holmes) in making a diagnosis, which impressed Doyle.

Answer: Advertising agent

Published in 1922 and using the "stream of consciousness" narrative approach, "Ulysses" has fascinated scholars and baffled readers for decades with its dense prose, obscure puns and allusions to the characters and events of Homer's "The Odyssey". It's a novel of eighteen "episodes," all set in Dublin, Ireland, between 8:00 a.m. and 3:00 am, June 16-17, 1904.

The three main characters are a young school teacher and aspiring writer named Stephen Dedalus, Leopold Bloom (the aforementioned middle-aged Jewish advertising agent), and Leopold's wife, Molly Bloom.

Answer: German resistance to the Nazis

The novel is based upon the true story of a working class husband and wife (the Hampels), who committed acts of civil disobedience in Berlin during WWII before being caught and executed in Plotzensee Prison. Fallada's book was one of the first anti-Nazi novels to be published by a German after WWII. Fallada himself had a painful life, grappling with mental illness, alcoholism and drug addiction.

He wrote the book in 24 days, in what he described as a "white heat", and died just weeks before its publication.

Answer: Pandora Braithwaite

Adrian, throughout his life, considered Pandora the love of his life. She was never quite so interested in him, though. Whilst he pined over their lost love, she carved a career for herself as a "Blair Babe" under New Labour.