Literary "LXG" Trivia Quiz

Answer: Hawley Griffin

"The Invisible Man" has seen many incarnations over the years, in written form as well as in movies and television. The silver screen has seen versions of H.G. Wells' classic in early films such as 1933's "The Invisible Man" (starring Claude Rains), 1940's "The Invisible Man Returns" (starring Vincent Price), 1944's "The Invisible Man's Revenge" (starring John Hall), and more recently in 1992's "Memoirs of an Invisible Man" (starring Chevy Chase) and "Hollow Man" (starring Kevin Bacon).

Answer: 65

Haggard's novel, "King Solomon's Mines," was inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island," which was originally published in 1883. The story goes that when Stevenson's book came out, Haggard didn't think much of it, and bet his brother 5 shillings that he could write a better one. Six weeks later, "King Solomon's Mines" was completed.

Answer: Basil Hallward

In the preface to Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray" Wilde states, "All art is quite useless."

Answer: False

The name is Professor Van Helsing. Bram Stoker's first novel was also in the same vein (if you'll pardon the pun) as his later work "Dracula." It was a collection of eight eerie fairy tales for children. There is speculation that Stoker's early childhood may have contributed to his penchant for writing horror, as he spent almost all of the first seven years of his life virtually bedridden due to an undetermined illness.

Answer: 48 hours

"I estimate that the Nautilus covered a track of some 600 leagues under the waves of this sea, and this voyage was accomplished in just twenty-four hours times two. Departing from the waterways of Greece on the morning of February 16, we cleared the Strait of Gibraltar by sunrise on the 18th."

Answer: False

Interestingly, Hyde is actually smaller than Jekyll in the novel, as can be attested to in the following passage: "The evil side of my nature, to which I had now transferred the stamping efficacy, was less robust and less developed than the good which I had just deposed. Again, in the course of my life, which had been, after all, nine tenths a life of effort, virtue and control, it had been much less exercised and much less exhausted. And hence, as I think, it came about that Edward Hyde was so much smaller, slighter and younger than Henry Jekyll. Even as good shone upon the countenance of the one, evil was written broadly and plainly on the face of the other."

Answer: 1911

Although written as a novel in 1911, Roxburgh's work received its fame primarily through its adaptation to the stage by Andrew Lloyd Webber, whose musical rendition of "The Phantom of the Opera" has entertained theatre enthusiasts since it first opened in London's West End at Her Majesty's Theatre in 1986. It opened on Broadway in 1988.

Answer: Mathematics

Sherlock Holmes first appeared in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "A Study in Scarlet", published in 1887. James Moriarty, however, did not make his first appearance in that novel. Rather, he was not seen until 1893's "The Final Problem." Moriarty received the reputation as being Holmes' most notable opponent despite having made appearances in only two novels, the other being 1915's "The Valley of Fear." Sherlock described him as the "Napoleon of crime."

Answer: Soldier

Judge Thatcher intended to see that Sawyer would attend the National Military Academy, and afterwards, Law School, to give him the best chance to do either. Twain, in his wisdom, left it there, citing that the story, "being strictly a history of a boy, it must stop here; the story could not go much further without becoming the history of a man.

When one writes a novel about grown people, he knows exactly where to stop - that is, with a marriage; but when he writes of juveniles, he must stop where he best can."

Answer: Moby Dick

"Moby Dick" was written in 1851 by Herman Melville, and chronicles Captain Ahab's obsessive pursuit of the white whale that cost him his leg.