Antimacassars and Liniment Trivia Quiz

Answer: Of Mice and Men

Crooks is so named because of his deformed back, and the novel refers to him using liniment to ease his pain. He works on the ranch owned by Curley's father and is isolated, because of his disability and also as he is black. He hopes to join the main characters, George and Lennie, in their dream of owning their own land, which is an aspiration doomed to failure.

The story was originally published in 1937 and is set during the Great Depression. It has been filmed for both the cinema and television, with the first adaptation coming out in 1939, only two years after the publication date.

The other novels listed are also by Steinbeck.

Answer: Morgan

'Howards End' was published by E.M. Forster in 1910 and contrasts the lives of three different families from varying social classes. Chapter thirteen describes the visit of a lower class woman to the home of the middle class family where she believed she might find her husband.

The sarcastic response of the mistress of the house advises her to 'hunt under the tables, poke up the chimney and shake out the antimacassars' in an attempt to locate the missing man. The novel was made into a film in 1992 starring Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins. Among Forster's other works are 'A Room with a View' from 1908 and 'A Passage to India', which was published in 1924.

Answer: Cake

In the story, Anne Shirley has been sent to live on a farm with an elderly brother and sister, Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert. They were hoping for a boy, who could help with the farm work and the book tells of Anne's efforts to fit in. Chapter twenty-one of the book describes Anne making a cake for a tea attended by the minister and his wife. Anne carefully bakes her cake, using the flavouring from a bottle labelled 'best vanilla'.

Unfortunately, she has a cold and is unable to smell the contents which are actually liniment, transferred from a broken bottle by Marilla Cuthbert.

The minister's wife is amused by the incident and manages to comfort the disconsolate Anne when the cake ends up being fed to the pigs.

Answer: Polish

Conrad learned to speak English only in his twenties, having arrived in England after escaping his homeland, which was then part of the Russian Empire. Among his best known books are 'Heart of Darkness', published in 1899, and 'Lord Jim' from 1900. 'The Shadow Line' came out in 1917 and tells the story of a young seaman who decides to leave the ship he is serving on while it is in an Eastern port.

He has to wait for a passage home, and rents a room in the local Officers' Sailors Home. The manager, referred to as the Chief Steward, has furnished his office as if it was a London parlour, with a horsehair sofa and armchairs 'with grimy antimacassars scattered over them' apparently in an attempt to make it seem more like home.

Answer: Terry Pratchett

'The Wee Free Men' was published in 2003 and was the second in a series aimed at children and written by Pratchett as part of his 'Discworld' series of books. He is fond of his 'grannies' and 'nannys' with Granny Aching, Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg being among the witches who appear in the novels. Granny Aching's 'Special Sheep Liniment' was used for various sheep ailments, and also drunk, on occasions, for medicinal purposes. Rincewind is a failed wizard who appears in several of the 'Discworld' novels, and 'The Last Continent' features him time travelling.

His brush with the antimacassar comes when an armchair is conjured up, complete with the protective article.

Answer: Dog

The title is completed, in brackets, by the words 'To Say Nothing of the Dog'. The book describes the humorous adventures of three men, based on Jerome himself and his two friends, during a boating trip on the river Thames. The dog accompanies them and is named Montmorency, although he was entirely fictional. Chapter nine has the narrator of the book, referred to only as 'J', describing his battle with the tow-lines on the boat and their ability to tie themselves into knots no matter how carefully they have been stored.

He says that there must be 'tow-lines that do not imagine they are crochet-work and try to knit themselves into antimacassars the instant they are left to themselves', although he has never come across them himself. The other three animals feature in another water based novel - Kenneth Grahame's 'The Wind in the Willows'.

Answer: Anna Sewell

The book was the only one written by Anna Sewell and published when she was already aged fifty-seven. Her aim was to improve the treatment of horses by telling the story from the point of view of the horse. In the book, due to the laziness of his groom, who fails to clean out the stables properly, Black Beauty's feet become infected with thrush.

His kind owner takes him to a farrier, who prescribes liniment to treat the horse's feet. Unfortunately, his owner's disillusion with the grooms leads him to sell the horse on as soon as he is fit enough, so Black Beauty has to find a new home. Enid Bagnold wrote 'National Velvet' which was made into a film starring Elizabeth Taylor. Ruby Ferguson wrote horse related stories featuring the character Jill Crewe and Mary O'Hara wrote 'My Friend Flicka'.

Answer: The Tale of Pigling Bland

Pigling Bland has been sent away from home by Aunt Pettitoes, who can no longer cope with him and his siblings. He starts his journey with his brother, Alexander, although they are separated when stopped by a policeman and Alexander cannot produce his licence. Pigling Bland finds himself on a farm where he discovers another pig, named Pig-wig, who has been stolen by the farmer.

The pair make plans to run away but have to wait for morning. Pig-wig falls asleep on the hearth rug and Pigling Bland covers her with the antimacassar to keep her warm.

The two of them make their escape the next day and live happily ever after.

Answer: In prison

The title of the collection comes from the population of New York at the beginning of the twentieth century. It contains twenty-five short stories, including 'The Gift of the Magi' and the reference to liniment comes from the story 'Memoirs of a Yellow Dog', where the canine narrator talks about 'flea liniment and a pink bow to tie on my tail'. The collection was published in 1906, five years after Henry had finished serving his prison sentence having been found guilty of embezzlement while working for a bank.

Answer: W. Somerset Maugham

In the book, which was published in 1915 and is semi-autobiographical, Maugham describes the young Philip Carey being sent to live with his aunt and uncle following the death of his parents. His uncle is a vicar, and chapter four of the novel describes Philip's arrival at the vicarage.

He describes the dining room, with two leather chairs by the fireplace, both with antimacassars, with the one with arms being called 'the husband' and the one without arms being 'the wife'. The novel is often described as Maugham's masterpiece, although he wrote many others, including 'The Moon and Sixpence', based on the life of Paul Gauguin, and 'Cakes and Ale', which was published in 1930.