Disturbing Dreams Trivia Quiz

Answer: William Shakespeare's "The Tempest"

"The Tempest" is a Renaissance drama, written by William Shakespeare around 1610. The plot of the play revolves around Prospero and his daughter, Miranda, who had been pushed into a tiny boat and sent away to an isolated island, after the former's position as the Duke of Milan was usurped by his brother, Antonio.

While on the island, Prospero perfects the art of magic, and makes Caliban, one of the original inhabitants of the island, his slave, after he tries to rape Prospero's daughter, Miranda. Prospero also makes a spirit named Ariel his servant, forcing him to do his bidding, while promising him eventual freedom. During the course of the play, Prospero gets the opportunity to exact his revenge, and causes a tempest to shipwreck a ship carrying Antonio, and a number of other characters.

He torments these characters while they are on the island, but does eventually forgive them, and he and Miranda return to Naples with the rest of the ship's inhabitants.

Answer: Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales"

"The Canterbury Tales" is a collection of stories, (written mainly in verse), told by a variety of pilgrims, as they make their way to Canterbury, to visit the shrine of Thomas Becket. Written by Geoffrey Chaucer around the end of the fourteenth century, "The Canterbury Tales" is believed to be incomplete, due to the fact that the number of tales told are fewer than the number of pilgrims on the pilgrimage. "The Canterbury Tales" was one of Chaucer's last works, and similarly to Dickens and "The Mystery of Edwin Drood", (during the nineteenth-century), Chaucer seems to have died before he could finish it.

Answer: Elizabeth Kostova's "The Historian"

"The Historian" is a 2005 novel written by Elizabeth Kostova. A blend of history and folklore, the plot of "The Historian" revolves around the legend of Dracula, and various individuals' attempts to track down the Count himself. It also combines a variety of different genres, such as the Gothic and the adventure novel.

Moreover it is also, in part, an epistolary novel, and like classic novels such as Emily Brontė's "Wuthering Heights", moves between the past and the present, in order to explain its events.

Answer: Christopher Marlowe's "Doctor Faustus"

"Doctor Faustus" is a macabre Renaissance drama written by Christopher Marlowe in 1604. The plot of the play is based on the story of Faust, and revolves around Faustus himself, who is given wealth and knowledge in return for selling his soul to the devil. At the end of the play, the devil comes to collect his payment, and kills Faustus in a violent and grisly manner.

Answer: Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol"

"A Christmas Carol" is a nineteenth-century novel written by Charles Dickens. Published in 1843, the plot of the novel revolves around the avaricious Ebenezer Scrooge, whose miserly ways are transformed following a visit from three ghosts - the Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present, and Yet to Come. Well known around the world, this Dickens classic has been adapted to many different media, countless numbers of times.

Answer: Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Hound of the Baskervilles"

Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Hound of the Baskervilles" is a crime novel published at the turn of the twentieth-century. Originally published in the "Strand", the plot of the novel revolves around the Baskerville curse, which is claimed to exist solely in order to avenge a woman who was kidnapped by, and later died because of, the actions of Hugo Baskerville.

The monstrous image depicted above is that of the hound itself, whose appearance usually coincides with the death of a member of the Baskerville family.

Answer: Helen Fielding's "Bridget Jones's Diary"

"Bridget Jones's Diary" is a twentieth-century novel written by Helen Fielding. Written in the form of a diary, "Bridget Jones's Diary" revolves around Bridget herself, who is a single, thirty something woman looking for love. Her diary is often humorous, detailing her annoyance at "smug marrieds", who she feels look down on "singletons" like herself.

She is perpetually on a diet, or trying to cut down on the amount of cigarettes she smokes, while also hunting around for the love of her life.

Answer: Dylan Thomas' "Under Milk Wood"

"Under Milk Wood" is a twentieth-century radio play written by Welsh playwright and poet, Dylan Thomas. Subtitled, "a play for voices", the plot of "Under Milk Wood" revolves around one day in the fictional Welsh village of Llareggub. One of the most striking features of the play is its sheer number of characters, who all contribute something to the play's busy, gossipy community-oriented atmosphere and environment. Even though individual characters, (for the most part), seldom speak at length, readers and listeners build up a full picture of each one of them, by piecing together what other people have said about them.

Answer: Emily Brontė's "Wuthering Heights"

"Wuthering Heights" is a nineteenth-century Gothic novel written by Emily Brontė. The plot of the novel revolves around a love story between Catherine and Heathcliff, which although passionate, is sadly thwarted by the latter's low birth. When Catherine dies shortly after giving birth to another man's child, Heathcliff becomes vengeful and cruel, ruining everything and everyone around him.

The scene summarised above depicts one of the novel's narrators, Lockwood, dreaming about Catherine's ghost.

He imagines that it is her hand, and not a tree branch that is tapping against the window of his chamber.

Answer: Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart"

"The Tell-Tale Heart" is a nineteenth-century short story written by Edgar Allan Poe. Published in 1843, the plot of the story revolves around its mentally unstable narrator, who murders the old man he is living with, after developing an unhealthy obsession with one of his eyes. Hailed as a classic example of Gothic literature, "The Tell-Tale Heart" is one of Poe's most well-known short stories.