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Classic Novels From 50s Trivia Quiz

You have read them, heard about them.- But do you also remember the details of the plot, who fell in love with who,etc ..Or do you just remember the plot but not the title , nor the author. Test your memory.

A multiple-choice quiz by flem-ish. Estimated time: 6 mins.

Author
flem-ish

Time
6 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
36,815

Updated
Dec 03 21

# Qns
10

Difficulty
Difficult

Avg Score
4 / 10

Plays
862

One at a Time - Single Page - Timed Game

Question 1 of 10

1. Muriel Spark 's 'Memento Mori' is about a set of ageing 'progressives', who in a special way are reminded of their mortality.What way? Hint

They get anonymous letters.

They get mysterious phonecalls.

Every Sunday morning one of them dies.

They hear strange knocks at night.

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Question 2 of 10

2. What is the surprising outcome of Alan Sillitoe's novella 'The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner'? Hint

Somebody in the grandstand offers the boy a scholarship for a better school.

The hero refuses to win a race.

Borstal boy savours revenge when he defeats his rivals from a posher school than his.

The hero refuses to go on to the winner's platform

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Question 3 of 10

3. What do the parents of the boy in 'The Old Man and the Sea' mean when they say the Old Man is 'salao'? Hint

Too old to be any good

The worst form of crazy

The worst form of unlucky

An incompetent loser

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Question 4 of 10

4. What was the title of Keith Waterhouse's 're-write' of James Thurber's ' Secret Life of Walter Mitty '? Hint

The Ginger Man

Billy Liar

The Fantasy Man

The Dream Kid

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Question 5 of 10

5. Who wrote the poem that J.D.Salinger alluded to in the title of his 'Catcher in the Rye'? Hint

Robert Frost

Robert Burns

Robert Graves

Robby Mc Dowell

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Question 6 of 10

6. Who published a novel in 1953 in which the hero gets in succession the following jobs: a.window cleaner b.drugs-runner c. chauffeur d.chucker out? Hint

John Wain

Kingsley Amis

John Braine

John Osborne

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Question 7 of 10

7. Which of the following initials could refer to the author of a book that ,in an ironical way, echoes R.M. Ballantyne's 'boys-on-an-island book' 'Coral Island'? Hint

W.G.

C.S.L.

R.D.

R.L.S.

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Question 8 of 10

8. In what Ray Bradbury novel has book-reading become illegal , and does wall-to-wall television entertainment successfully replace it? Hint

USA 2000

Brave New World Revisited

The Book Burners

Fahrenheit 451

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Question 9 of 10

9. Which of these 4 characters is NOT from Kingsley Amis' 'Lucky Jim'? Hint

Bertrand Welch

June Veeber

Christine Callaghan

Margaret Peel

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Question 10 of 10

10. Which of these novelists brought down his own publishing house because of a breach of contract, and later bought his publisher's firm at an auction? Hint

the author of the Quiet American

the author of the Recognitions

the author of Pnin

the author of the Ginger Man

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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Muriel Spark 's 'Memento Mori' is about a set of ageing 'progressives', who in a special way are reminded of their mortality.What way?

Answer: They get mysterious phonecalls.

Memento Mori was published in 1959 , and has been called a ruthless black comedy.

2. What is the surprising outcome of Alan Sillitoe's novella 'The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner'?

Answer: The hero refuses to win a race.

Published in 1959.Made into a celebrated film by Tony Richardson .(1962)

3. What do the parents of the boy in 'The Old Man and the Sea' mean when they say the Old Man is 'salao'?

Answer: The worst form of unlucky

This story won Hemingway the Nobel Prize.1952.

4. What was the title of Keith Waterhouse's 're-write' of James Thurber's ' Secret Life of Walter Mitty '?

Answer: Billy Liar

The scene is no longer America, but Stradhoughton, a small town in Yorkshire.Published in 1959.

5. Who wrote the poem that J.D.Salinger alluded to in the title of his 'Catcher in the Rye'?

Answer: Robert Burns

'Comin' through the Rye' is the title of Burns' poem.-Salinger published his book in 1951.

6. Who published a novel in 1953 in which the hero gets in succession the following jobs: a.window cleaner b.drugs-runner c. chauffeur d.chucker out?

Answer: John Wain

Braine wrote 'Room at the Top'. The Top being the affluent part of the town of Warley. 1957 Lucky Jim was published in 1954.Osborne was not a novelist. Wain's book dates back to 1953.

7. Which of the following initials could refer to the author of a book that ,in an ironical way, echoes R.M. Ballantyne's 'boys-on-an-island book' 'Coral Island'?

Answer: W.G.

William Golding.- Robert Louis Stevenson wrote Treasure Island.Roald Dahl is the author of a whole batch of children's stories and of course also his Tales of the Unexpected. - C.S.L.=C.S.Lewis

8. In what Ray Bradbury novel has book-reading become illegal , and does wall-to-wall television entertainment successfully replace it?

Answer: Fahrenheit 451

451 Fahrenheit is the temperature at which paper starts burning.- 'Brave New World Revisited' was a follow-up book by Aldous Huxley to his more famous 'Brave New World'.

9. Which of these 4 characters is NOT from Kingsley Amis' 'Lucky Jim'?

Answer: June Veeber

June Veeber is from 'Hurry On Down' (John Wain)

10. Which of these novelists brought down his own publishing house because of a breach of contract, and later bought his publisher's firm at an auction?

Answer: the author of the Ginger Man

J.P.Donleavy wrote the Ginger Man.It was published in Paris at the Olympia Press by Maurice Girodias. -Donleavy creates a hero, Sebastian Dangerfield , who sees it as his mission to counteract the tragic fact that '67 percent of the Irish population have never been completely naked'. Pnin was written by Nabokov. William Gaddis published the Recognitions in 1955. Greene's 'Quiet American'dates back to same year.

Source: Author flem-ish

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