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Quiz about Boo  Literary Monsters
Quiz about Boo  Literary Monsters

Boo! Literary Monsters Trivia Quiz


Descriptions of some classic monsters in literature. You name the book or author!

A multiple-choice quiz by john_sunseri. Estimated time: 6 mins.
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Author
john_sunseri
Time
6 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
318,470
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Average
Avg Score
8 / 10
Plays
2516
Awards
Top 10% Quiz
Last 3 plays: scottm (10/10), konamomholly (9/10), ziggythepooh (8/10).
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Question 1 of 10
1. "It was already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open . . ."

This book was published in 1818. What is it?
Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. "When it "walked" it moved rather like a man on crutches. Two of the blunt "legs" slid forward, then the whole thing lurched as the rear one drew almost level with them, then the two in front slid forward again. At each "step" the long stem whipped violently back and forth; it gave one a kind of seasick feeling to watch it. As a method of progress it looked both strenuous and clumsy-faintly reminiscent of young elephants at play. One felt that if it were to go on lurching for long in that fashion it would be bound to strip all its leaves if it did not actually break its stem. Nevertheless, ungainly though it looked, it was contriving to cover the round at something like an average walking pace."

This book was published in 1951. What is it?
Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. "Every nail, claw-scale and spur, every spike
and welt on the hand of that heathen brute
was like barbed steel. Everybody said
there was no honed iron hard enough
to pierce him through, no time proofed blade
that could cut his brutal blood caked claw"

This work's date of publication is unknown, but it's an important part of the Western cultural tradition. What work is this?
Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. "The mouth, so far as I could see it under the heavy moustache, was fixed and rather cruel-looking, with peculiarly sharp white teeth. These protruded over the lips, whose remarkable ruddiness showed astonishing vitality in a man of his years. For the rest, his ears were pale, and at the tops extremely pointed. The chin was broad and strong, and the cheeks firm though thin. The general effect was one of extraordinary pallor."

Which classic vampire novel is this excerpt from?
Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. "No, nor did he believe it even now. Though he looked the phantom through and through, and saw it standing before him; though he felt the chilling influence of its death-cold eyes; and marked the very texture of the folded kerchief bound about its head and chin, which wrapper he had not observed before; he was still incredulous, and fought against his senses."

Which great ghost story is this description from?
Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. "It was a terrible, indescribable thing vaster than any subway train - a shapeless congeries of protoplasmic bubbles, faintly self-luminous, and with myriads of temporary eyes forming and un-forming as pustules of greenish light all over the tunnel-filling front that bore down upon us, crushing the frantic penguins and slithering over the glistening floor that it and its kind had swept so evilly free of all litter."

Which work, set in Antarctica, is this description from?
Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. "There he lay, a vast red-golden dragon, fast asleep; a
thrumming came from his jaws and nostrils, and wisps
of smoke, but his fires were low in slumber. Beneath
him, under all his limbs and his huge coiled tail, and
about him on all sides stretching away across the
unseen floors, lay countless piles of precious things,
gold wrought and un-wrought, gems and jewels, and
silver red-stained in the ruddy light."

Which work of fantasy does this monster appear in?
Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. "They all agreed that it was a huge creature, luminous, ghastly, and spectral. I have cross-examined these men, one of them a hard-headed countryman, one a farrier, and one a moorland farmer, who all tell the same story of this dreadful apparition, exactly corresponding to the hell-hound of the legend. I assure you that there is a reign of terror in the district, and that it is a hardy man who will cross the moor at night."

Which work is about this horrible creature and those who must face it?
Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. "And I beheld another 'BEAST' coming up out of the EARTH; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a DRAGON. And he exerciseth all the power of the 'First Beast' before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the 'First Beast,' whose deadly wound was healed."

Which famous work is this description from?
Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. "ONCE UPON A TIME, not so long ago, a monster came to the small town of Castle Rock, Maine..."

Which 1981 work begins with these words?
Hint



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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. "It was already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open . . ." This book was published in 1818. What is it?

Answer: Mary Shelley, "Frankenstein"

Frankenstein's monster is never given a name in the novel, though it does call itself "the Adam of your labours". The subtitle of the book is "The Modern Prometheus", referring to the Titan who stole fire from the gods and gave it to humans. In the same way, Victor Frankenstein steals the power of life from the gods.
2. "When it "walked" it moved rather like a man on crutches. Two of the blunt "legs" slid forward, then the whole thing lurched as the rear one drew almost level with them, then the two in front slid forward again. At each "step" the long stem whipped violently back and forth; it gave one a kind of seasick feeling to watch it. As a method of progress it looked both strenuous and clumsy-faintly reminiscent of young elephants at play. One felt that if it were to go on lurching for long in that fashion it would be bound to strip all its leaves if it did not actually break its stem. Nevertheless, ungainly though it looked, it was contriving to cover the round at something like an average walking pace." This book was published in 1951. What is it?

Answer: John Wyndham, "Day of the Triffids"

Triffids are ambulatory plants with bad attitudes. CARNIVOROUS ambulatory plants. Wyndham was known for his dark, apocalyptic fiction, which includes "The Midwich Cuckoos" (filmed as "Village of the Damned") and "The Kraken Wakes".
3. "Every nail, claw-scale and spur, every spike and welt on the hand of that heathen brute was like barbed steel. Everybody said there was no honed iron hard enough to pierce him through, no time proofed blade that could cut his brutal blood caked claw" This work's date of publication is unknown, but it's an important part of the Western cultural tradition. What work is this?

Answer: Seamus Heaney translation, "Beowulf"

This is a description of Grendel. Or, rather, Grendel's arm after Beowulf manages to separate it from the creature's body. Many who study this epic poem have noted the creature's descent from Cain, the first murderer. Beowulf ends up facing an even worse monster at the end--a dragon.
4. "The mouth, so far as I could see it under the heavy moustache, was fixed and rather cruel-looking, with peculiarly sharp white teeth. These protruded over the lips, whose remarkable ruddiness showed astonishing vitality in a man of his years. For the rest, his ears were pale, and at the tops extremely pointed. The chin was broad and strong, and the cheeks firm though thin. The general effect was one of extraordinary pallor." Which classic vampire novel is this excerpt from?

Answer: Bram Stoker, "Dracula"

The granddaddy of all vampire novels (though Dr. Polidori may have gotten there first, Stoker did it best), this is Jonathan Harker describing the sanguinary nobleman and bloodsucker. Dracula is supposedly the most-filmed fictional character in the history of movies, and there are dozens of books that use him as a character as well.
5. "No, nor did he believe it even now. Though he looked the phantom through and through, and saw it standing before him; though he felt the chilling influence of its death-cold eyes; and marked the very texture of the folded kerchief bound about its head and chin, which wrapper he had not observed before; he was still incredulous, and fought against his senses." Which great ghost story is this description from?

Answer: Charles Dickens, "A Christmas Carol"

This is Scrooge getting his first glimpse of Marley's ghost. It was a tradition in England to tell ghost stories around Christmastime, and this is the most famous example. It came out in 1843, and did much to return Christmas to a joyful, happy holiday rather than a businesslike, somber occasion.
6. "It was a terrible, indescribable thing vaster than any subway train - a shapeless congeries of protoplasmic bubbles, faintly self-luminous, and with myriads of temporary eyes forming and un-forming as pustules of greenish light all over the tunnel-filling front that bore down upon us, crushing the frantic penguins and slithering over the glistening floor that it and its kind had swept so evilly free of all litter." Which work, set in Antarctica, is this description from?

Answer: H.P. Lovecraft, "At the Mountains of Madness"

My favorite monster, the shoggoth, makes its appearance in this chilling novella set in Antarctica. Get it? 'Chilling'? Antarctica?

Never mind.

Lovecraft has influenced practically every writer of horror to come after him, even though in his own lifetime he had but little financial success. He was the creator of "The Cthulhu Mythos" and gave us such creations as Nyarlathotep, Yog-Sothoth, and Shub-Niggurath, the Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young.
7. "There he lay, a vast red-golden dragon, fast asleep; a thrumming came from his jaws and nostrils, and wisps of smoke, but his fires were low in slumber. Beneath him, under all his limbs and his huge coiled tail, and about him on all sides stretching away across the unseen floors, lay countless piles of precious things, gold wrought and un-wrought, gems and jewels, and silver red-stained in the ruddy light." Which work of fantasy does this monster appear in?

Answer: J.R.R. Tolkien, "The Hobbit"

Ah, Smaug. How you terrified me when I was a child! (not as much as General Woundwort did, but pretty much all cartoon monsters became my own personal boogeymen. Don't even ask me about "Fantasia" and that demon on top of Bald Mountain...)

Tolkien's Smaug gave us the template for many of the fictional dragons since, including those of the Dungeons & Dragons game.
8. "They all agreed that it was a huge creature, luminous, ghastly, and spectral. I have cross-examined these men, one of them a hard-headed countryman, one a farrier, and one a moorland farmer, who all tell the same story of this dreadful apparition, exactly corresponding to the hell-hound of the legend. I assure you that there is a reign of terror in the district, and that it is a hardy man who will cross the moor at night." Which work is about this horrible creature and those who must face it?

Answer: Arthur Conan Doyle, "The Hound of the Baskervilles"

The scariest of all horror-story dogs, and the one that glows in the dark (thanks to the human villain's coating the thing with phosphorus before sending it out on its terrifying missions). For much of this story, Holmes and Watson work separately to unravel the mystery. Perhaps the best-known line from this story (and perhaps in all of the Holmesian canon) is "Mr. Holmes, they were the footprints of a gigantic hound!"
9. "And I beheld another 'BEAST' coming up out of the EARTH; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a DRAGON. And he exerciseth all the power of the 'First Beast' before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the 'First Beast,' whose deadly wound was healed." Which famous work is this description from?

Answer: John of Patmos, "Revelation"

Okay, the Beast of Revelation is pretty scary. The whole BOOK is pretty scary, which I guess is the point. Revelation (not 'Revelations', as many think) is all about the Apocalypse, and is filled with horrible, wondrous images, creatures and events. The last word of the book (and the Bible) is 'Amen'.
10. "ONCE UPON A TIME, not so long ago, a monster came to the small town of Castle Rock, Maine..." Which 1981 work begins with these words?

Answer: Stephen King, "Cujo"

It's "Cujo", but the 'monster' that King references in the first line of the novel is Frank Dodd, the serial killer from "The Dead Zone". Knowing Castle Rock, King could have been talking about any number of monsters, murderers or aliens. All the choices listed above are set in Castle Rock.
Source: Author john_sunseri

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