Better the Devil You Know Trivia Quiz

Answer: Dante Alighieri

'Inferno' is the first part of Dante's 'Divina Commedia' (originally titled simply 'Comedia'), considered one of the great works of all literature, and one of the prime forces behind standardisation of its language (Tuscan) as what we now call Italian. Its three books ('Inferno', 'Purgatorio' and 'Paradiso') give us one of our best pictures of the medieval European understanding of the afterlife.

In 'Inferno' Dante is escorted by the spirit of Virgil (an ancient Roman poet) through the nine circles of Hell, to each of which a particular class of sinner is consigned, to suffer eternal punishment suited to their sins. The further they progress, the more heinous the sins - the Devil (referred to as Lucifer) is found in the very centre, trapped in ice that reaches to his waist. He is surrounded by traitors, the worst sin of them all according to Dante, and has earned his place there because of his rebellion against God. He has three heads, each of which holds one of the great traitors of all time in its mouth: Cassius and Brutus, responsible for killing Julius Caesar (symbolically destroying the unification of Italy) and Judas Iscariot.

Answer: Christopher Marlowe

The story of Faust, a scholar who sells his soul to the Devil in exchange for unlimited knowledge (and in some versions worldly goods), was a popular figure in Germanic legends during the 16th century, and has been used by many authors (not to mention plays, operas, puppet shows, and more recently movies), but I chose the version that made him familiar in the English language. The full title of Marlowe's play, first published eleven years after his death, was 'The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus'. Faustus develops some skill in magic, and summons the demon Mephistopheles, through whom he promises his soul to the Devil for eternity in exchange for having Mephistopheles as his personal servant for 24 years. Marlowe's version emphasises the role of hubris in leading to the protagonist's downfall, and the futility of it all, as Faustus wastes the power he has been given in trifles and practical jokes.

This play is the source of a quotation that may be familiar to many who have not read it: "Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships, / And burnt the topless towers of Ilium", delivered to the ghost of Helen of Troy near the start of Act V.

Answer: John Milton

Milton's epic poem (ten or twelve books, depending on which version you use, consisting of over 10,000 lines) has two major storylines. It starts with Satan, formerly the angel Lucifer, and recounts the history of his rebellion against God and subsequent expulsion from Heaven, along with the angels who had supported him.

It was following this epic battle that God created the world, and we join the events of the biblical book of Genesis. The second storyline follows Adam and Eve, and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden after Satan (in serpent form) succeeds in getting them to disobey God. Milton was blind by the time he completed this work, all of which was dictated to his assistants. Near the start, he states that his purpose is to "justifie the wayes of God to men."

Answer: The Brothers Grimm

Technically, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm collected, rather than wrote, this fairy tale which they included in their collection of short stories, 'Children's and Household Tales' (although it was removed from some later editions). A smith sells his soul to the Devil (or, in other versions, Death or a demon) in order to become a master-smith with amazing powers of working with metal, then uses the power to trick the Devil so that the compact does not need to be fulfilled. According to George Monbiot (in an article published in 1994), the powerful but evil smith, with the almost-magical power to forge metal, is one of the oldest mythological figures in European culture, and the smith's fire is associated with the medieval image of Hell, full of fire.

Answer: Nathaniel Hawthorne

While this is not one of Hawthorne's best-known works, it is imbued with the Puritan society which was common in his work. Set during the time of the Salem witch trials (at which his great-great-grandfather had been a presiding judge), it tells the story of a young man who meets a stranger in the woods as he is travelling on a nighttime errand, and is carried off to a gathering where he discovers that he and his wife (Faith - these names tell you something of the characters) are the only two people in town who are not part of the devil-worshiping society in town. Or maybe it was just a dream, but it shaped the rest of his life, leaving him to die lonely and bitter, having lost faith in humanity.

Answer: Stephen Vincent Benét

This story is an American take on the Faust story, recounting the tale of Jabez Stone, a New Hampshire farmer who, fed up with the difficulty of farming his rocky ground, says he will sell his soul in exchange for seven years of prosperity, an offer which is taken up by Mr. Scratch, who happens to be passing by. When Mr. Scratch comes to claim his soul, Jabez Stone engages a fictionalised version of the renowned lawyer and orator Daniel Webster to defend him, and a trial is arranged to decide whether or not he must surrender his soul. The 'jury of the damned' consists of some of the most infamous citizens of American history (at least, in some eyes), the judge is John Hathorne, ancestor of Nathaniel Hawthorne and one of the presiding judges at the Salem witch trials, and things look grim, but Webster persuades them to find in favor of his client.

If you're a fan of 'The Simpsons', you probably recognised how this story was referenced in the segment of 'Treehouse of Horror IV' called 'The Devil and Homer Simpson', in which Homer sells his soul for a doughnut. He is about to lose the case due to the utter incompetence of his attorney, Lionel Hutz, when it is revealed that he had long ago written on a wedding photo that he promised his soul to Marge. Much funnier than the original!

Answer: C. S. Lewis

This epistolary novel (composed of a series of letters written by a senior demon named Screwtape to his young nephew, Wormwood) does not actually have the Devil as an active character, but he is constantly referenced (as 'Our Father Below') as Screwtape tries to help Wormwood develop his skills at leading a human referred to as 'the patient' to damnation.

The letters provide an outline of Lewis's own theological understandings on the nature of temptation and resisting it. They are both perceptive about the human experience, and wonderfully entertaining because of the author's witty style.

Answer: Douglass Wallop

And once again we have the Faust theme, this time set in the world of Major League Baseball. In an era dominated by the New York Yankeees, a fan of the Washington Senators accepts an offer to be transformed into a champion baseball player who will be able to lead his team to victory. the story is probably more familiar to most from its adaptation as a musical, 'Damn Yankees', which opened on Broadway in 1955 featuring Ray Walston (as the mysterious Mr. Applegate) and Gwen Verdon (as Lola, the seductive beauty who is supposed to keep our hero Joe Boyd/Joe Hardy in line).

The 1958 movie used the same cast as the musical, with the exception of casting Tab Hunter as Joe Hardy.

Answer: William Peter Blatty

Here is another novel that is probably more familiar to many because of the movie (with a screenplay written by Blatty) that was released two years after the book, and infamous for a number of graphic scenes of possession. Based on a real incident from 1949, it describes the possession of a twelve-year-old girl named Regan (played by Linda Blair in the movie), and the efforts of two Roman Catholic priests to free her from the control of the demon. Father Merrin, played in the movie by Max von Sydow, is also an archaeologist who has recently realised that an ancient demon has returned to activity. Father Karras SJ (played by Jason Miller in the movie) is also a psychiatrist who had been called in to consult on the case after Regan's babysitter died in somewhat mysterious circumstances.

The exorcism is successful, but at a heavy price.

Answer: Stephen King

In this short story, originally published in the magazine 'The New Yorker' on Halloween of 1994, a nine-year-old boy falls asleep one day while fishing, and awakes to find himself confronting the Devil, in the form of a somewhat gruesome man dressed in a three-piece black suit. The boy, Gary, is horrified by the 'man' and his statements about how things are going wrong with Gary's life, but he manages to run away and gets home to discover that it was all lies. Nevertheless, Gary remains haunted by the incident, and, as an old man approaching death, fears that he will not be able to escape the Devil a second time.

If this sounds a bit familiar, King has said that the story is in part an homage to Nathaniel Hawthorne's story 'Young Goodman Brown'.