Literature of the 1940s Trivia Quiz

Answer: I Capture the Castle

Dodie Smith was offered money to change the book's bittersweet ending for the United States, but refused. The narrator, Cassandra, lives in a dilapidated castle in the 1930s and wants to be a writer; her father had great success with his first book but has written nothing since. This 1948 book was made into a film in 2003.

Answer: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

The book is about Francie Nolan, a girl growing up in Brooklyn in the 1910s. A film version came out two years after the book; James Dunn won an Academy Award for playing Francie's father.

The book was printed in a special size to be easily carried in the soldiers' rucksacks. This paperback version is seen briefly in one episode of the WWII miniseries "Band of Brothers".

Answer: The Hero with a Thousand Faces

Campbell's book discusses the hero's journey and how the stages are similar across myths and legends from different cultures. The stages, divided into the sections Departure, Initiation, and Return, include The Call to Adventure, The Belly of the Whale, and Master of the Two Worlds. George Lucas took inspiration from it in writing "Star Wars" and its sequels.

Answer: American Revolution

Johnny is a silversmith apprentice in Boston in the 1770s. After an accident ruins his hand, he starts working for a newspaper whose members are against British rule. Esther Forbes's book, subtitled "A Novel for Old & Young", was adapted to film in 1957 and is often read in schools.

Answer: The Razor's Edge

20th Century Fox certainly didn't waste any time adapting it, as only two years separate the book's publication in 1944 and the movie. A WWI veteran returns from war, traumatized and disillusioned, and seeks meaning in his life. After trying a bohemian lifestyle, working in a coal mine, and living with Benedictines, he finds enlightenment in India through Advaita philosophy, and returns home to share this wisdom.

Answer: Thor Heyerdahl

The full name of his book is "The Kon-Tiki Expedition: By Raft Across the South Seas". He set out to prove that the islands of French Polynesia could have been populated by people sailing from South America on rafts. His experiences were the subject of an Oscar-winning documentary film a few years later, as well as a feature film in 2012.

Answer: Forever Amber

Having read Kathleen Winsor's book, I can say that the reports of graphic sexual content are exaggerated. Amber certainly gets around, but the details of the encounters are implied and alluded to rather than made explicit. Amber has many lovers and marries several times, but loves a man she believes she can never have. A film version was released in 1947.

Answer: The Lottery

In writing the story, Jackson wanted to address the folly of blindly following traditions, as well as showing how people can act cruelly if they're part of a group. It has been adapted for television multiple times, including 1996, and also for radio.

Answer: Gormenghast

"Gormenghast" is the name of the second book as well as the whole series. Though called a fantasy series, the first two books contain minimal fantasy elements. Titus Groan is only a baby in the first book, which shows how a kitchen boy named Steerpike rises to power. A miniseries was made of the first two books in 2000; the series has also been adapted for radio and the stage.

Peake wrote only three books and a novella for this series before he died. Notes about a fourth book were later discovered; it was completed and published in 2009.

Answer: Waiting for Godot

Although Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot" was written in the late 1940s, it premiered in France in 1953 and in London in 1955. The play about two men standing around waiting for someone who never arrives inspired the Christopher Guest film "Waiting for Guffman" in which a small town puts on a musical about their small town.

"Harvey", "No Exit", and "The Glass Menagerie" all came out in 1944.