Little Known Works Quiz | Authors and their Works

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. "At Fault" (about divorce in post-Civil War South)

Answer: Kate Chopin ("The Awakening")

"At Fault" was Chopin's first novel, about the divorce of a married couple in post-Civil War Louisiana. She is best known for her controversial "The Awakening", about a married woman's adulterous affair.

2. "Track of the Cat" (about a hunt for a panther in the West)

Answer: Walter Van Tilburg Clark ("The Ox-Bow Incident")

Clark is best renowned for his benchmark 1940 novel "The Ox-Bow Incident", about a frontier lynching; it led the way for more complex stories than the usual pulp oater. "Track of the Cat" is about the hunt for a panther in the Old West by a dysfunctional ranching family.

3. "Herland" (set in a satirical feminist Utopia)

Answer: Charlotte Perkins Gilman ("The Yellow Wallpaper")

Gilman's "Herland" is a gently satirical novel about all-female Utopia. She's best remembered for her horror story "The Yellow Wallpaper", where a married woman is confined for mental illness and is bedeviled by hallucinations or real phantoms.

4. "The Beautiful and Damned" (centered on a rich couple in the 1920s)

Answer: F. Scott Fitzgerald ("The Great Gatsby")

To many, Fitzgerald's classic third novel, "The Great Gatsby", which relates the efforts of a mysterious tycoon to claim a woman he once loved, IS the "Roaring Twenties". "The Beautiful and Damned", his second novel, tells of the ups and downs of a rich and glamorous married couple in the 20s.

5. "Salammbo" (about a pagan priestess in the Punic Wars)

Answer: Gustave Flaubert ("Madame Bovary")

Flaubert's "Madame Bovary" shocked 19th Century France with its depiction of a married woman's adulterous affairs. "Salammbo" is the tale of a pagan priestess in the time of the Punic Wars.

6. "The Purple Land" (about an Englishman in Uruguay)

Answer: W. H. Hudson (Green Mansions)

"The Purple Land", about an Englishman's adventures in Uruguay, is among Hudson's first works. "Green Mansions", a tropical romance with Rima the bird-girl, is Hudson's best remembered work.

7. "The Confidence-Man" (a con man operates on an antebellum steamboat)

Answer: Herman Melville ("Moby Dick")

Many readers know Melville only through "Moby Dick", no doubt the greatest book ever written on 19th Century whaling. "The Confidence Man", a farce about a con artist aboard a Mississippi steamboat, was his last published novel.

8. "The Defence" (a chess champion goes mad)

Answer: Vladimir Nabokov ("Lolita")

Nabokov's "The Defence" is about a chess champion whose obsession with the game steals his sanity. His best known novel, "Lolita", about a middle-aged man's lust for a preteen girl, is still controversial.

9. "Keep the Aspidistra Flying" (tale of a struggling writer in middle-class London)

Answer: George Orwell ("Animal Farm")

"Keep the Aspidistra Flying" is Orwell's satire of England's middle class, as well as a study of a pretentious would-be author. He is renowned for the anti-Communist fable "Animal Farm" and the classic dystopia of "1984".

10. "Franny and Zooey" (disaffected teens in the 1950s)

Answer: J.D. Salinger ("The Catcher in the Rye")

Noted for a hermitlike lifestyle, Salinger actually wrote little. His most famous novel, "The Catcher in The Rye", with its disaffected main character, Holden Caulfield, still speaks to teenagers. "Franny and Zooey" are two stories about a brother and sister living socially disconnected lives in the 1950s.

11. "The Last Man" (a deadly plague hits a post-apocalyptic Earth)

Answer: Mary Shelley ("Frankenstein")

Shelley's "Frankenstein", about a man-made being created from the dead, was written in her teens. It helped begin the Gothic novel and the science fiction genre. One of her last works, "The Last Man" tells of a bleak post-apocalyptic world ravaged by a deadly plague.

12. "The Lair of the White Worm" (about a secret monster cult)

Answer: Bram Stoker ("Dracula")

Nearly all of Stoker's other work is overshadowed by his vampire classic "Dracula", though he wrote prolifically. "Lair of the White Worm", his last full-length horror story, tells of a mutant monster and the cult springing up around it.

13. "The Death Ship" (sailor sails on doomed steamer)

Answer: B. Traven ("The Treasure of the Sierra Madre")

Probably the most mysterious author in history, Traven is best known for "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre", showing the effects of greed on a trio of prospectors in Mexico, and filmed by John Huston. "The Death Ship" is narrated by an anonymous sailor who recounts his experiences aboard a decaying tramp steamer.

14. "A Cool Million" (satire on Horatio Alger myth)

Answer: Nathaniel West ("The Day of the Locust")

West penned only four novels before his untimely death: "The Dream Life of Balso Snell", "A Cool Million", about a na�ve loser's attempts at success, and his two masterpieces, "Miss Lonelyhearts", about a male advice columnist, and "The Day of the Locust", a satirical take on late '30s Hollywood.

15. "Youngblood Hawke" (chronicling the rise and fall of Southern novelist)

Answer: Herman Wouk ("The Caine Mutiny")

The prolific Wouk's best known work remains his Pulitzer-Prize winning "The Caine Mutiny", based on his WW2 naval service. Captain Queeg is one of the most familiar character in modern literature. "Youngblood Hawke" traces the rise and fall of a Southern novelist patterned after Thomas Wolfe ("Look Homeward Angel").

Source: Author tjoebigham

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Little Known Works Trivia Quiz

My first match quiz concerns lesser-known novels and stories by these famous writers; you must match these works with authors.

Questions		Choices
1. "At Fault" (about divorce in post-Civil War South)		Mary Shelley ("Frankenstein")
2. "Track of the Cat" (about a hunt for a panther in the West)		Walter Van Tilburg Clark ("The Ox-Bow Incident")
3. "Herland" (set in a satirical feminist Utopia)		Herman Melville ("Moby Dick")
4. "The Beautiful and Damned" (centered on a rich couple in the 1920s)		Kate Chopin ("The Awakening")
5. "Salammbo" (about a pagan priestess in the Punic Wars)		Bram Stoker ("Dracula")
6. "The Purple Land" (about an Englishman in Uruguay)		B. Traven ("The Treasure of the Sierra Madre")
7. "The Confidence-Man" (a con man operates on an antebellum steamboat)		Vladimir Nabokov ("Lolita")
8. "The Defence" (a chess champion goes mad)		George Orwell ("Animal Farm")
9. "Keep the Aspidistra Flying" (tale of a struggling writer in middle-class London)		Gustave Flaubert ("Madame Bovary")
10. "Franny and Zooey" (disaffected teens in the 1950s)		Charlotte Perkins Gilman ("The Yellow Wallpaper")
11. "The Last Man" (a deadly plague hits a post-apocalyptic Earth)		W. H. Hudson (Green Mansions)
12. "The Lair of the White Worm" (about a secret monster cult)		Herman Wouk ("The Caine Mutiny")
13. "The Death Ship" (sailor sails on doomed steamer)		J.D. Salinger ("The Catcher in the Rye")
14. "A Cool Million" (satire on Horatio Alger myth)		F. Scott Fitzgerald ("The Great Gatsby")
15. "Youngblood Hawke" (chronicling the rise and fall of Southern novelist)		Nathaniel West ("The Day of the Locust")