Make Lovecraft, Not Waugh Trivia Quiz

Answer: Atlas Shrugged

The currency of South Africa is the rand, the same as the Russian-American novelist/philosopher Ayn Rand.

While she garnered some fame for her 1943 novel 'The Fountainhead', Rand is better remembered for her tome of a novel 'Atlas Shrugged', published in 1957. The book depicts a dystopian America in which many of the richest citizens give up the industry they are running in response to new regulations imposed by the state. As well as supporting the ideas of individualism and capitalism, Rand used the novel to develop her own philosophical system that she termed 'objectivism'.

Answer: The Red Badge of Courage

While there are many large pieces of machinery used in construction, Molly Excavator and Gareth Dumptruck didn't make it big after their first novels, so the one we were looking for was 'crane', namesake of American writer Stephen Crane.

Crane is best known for his 'The Red Badge of Courage', which describes the experiences of a young man caught up in the horrors of the American Civil War. Crane never experienced war himself, but read extensively in order to bring as much realism as possible to the narrative. You may disagree, but it certainly felt pretty real to me.

Unfortunately, Crane died of tuberculosis at the age of just 28. In the run-up to his death, he refused to be diminished by his illness and wrote prolifically whenever he was able.

Answer: The Dunciad

The head of the Catholic church is the Bishop of Rome, also known as the Pope. The author with which His Holiness shares his title is the 18th Century English poet and writer Alexander Pope.

Alexander Pope was both a poet and a critic, two elements that he managed to combine in his early work 'An Essay on Criticism' which is, in fact, a poem. In the 'essay' Pope made his mark on English-language poetry by developing the heroic couplet, a literary construct commonly used by Geoffrey Chaucer and John Dryden. 'The Dunciad' was a satirical mock-heroic poem about a goddess named Dulness and all of the terrible things she brought to Great Britain.

Alexander Pope is the second-most quoted author (after one William Shakespeare) in the 'Oxford Dictionary of Quotations'.

Answer: The Odyssey

He's round first...round second...round third...it's a HOMER!!! Homer (known to his friends as 'home run') is one of the biggest figures of classical literature, known for his epic poems 'The Iliad' and 'The Odyssey'.

While both 'The Iliad' and 'The Odyssey' are related to the lengthy Trojan War, they cover completely different aspects. 'The Iliad' is set during the war itself, and contains the story of many famous warriors, notably Hector and Achilles. 'The Odyssey' details the (equally lengthy) journey home to Ithaca for the Greek hero Odysseus and his men.

Neither 'The Iliad' nor 'The Odyssey' is the main source for perhaps the most famous action of the Trojan War - the sneaky Greeks and their Trojan Horse. Most of the detail of the Trojan Horse story comes from Virgil's 'Aeneid', written many centuries after Homer's works.

Answer: Through the Looking-Glass

Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without the Christmas carol, and children's literature wouldn't be children's literature without Lewis Carroll.

Born Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, Carroll is best known for 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' and the sequel 'Through the Looking Glass'. However, Carroll was something of a polymath, and had interests in mathematics and logic, photography and religion in addition to his literary ambitions.

While not as commonly adapted for the screen as its prequel, 'Through the Looking Glass' contains Carroll's poem 'Jabberwocky', one of the most famous nonsense poems of all time.

Answer: The Name of the Rose

When sound bounces off of a surface and arrives at your ear, it will typically be delayed from the point at which you heard the original sound. This phenomenon is known as an 'echo', but that spelling was way too mainstream for Italian author and critic Umberto Eco.

Eco is remembered for his novel 'The Name of the Rose', a detective story set in a 14th Century Italian monastery. Upon its release in 1980, the book managed to find both popular (thanks to its gripping plot) and critical (thanks to its study of medieval history and literary theory) success.

Umberto Eco died in 2016, leaving behind a legacy in both literary criticism and philosophy, as well as the fiction for which he is best known.

Answer: The Pilgrim's Progress

While there are plenty of authors with foot-ailment-related names (Edith WHARTon and Patrician CORNwell to name but a few), the specific toe problem required here was a 'bunion'. Let's take our mind off of podiatry and talk about English writer John Bunyan, the author of 'The Pilgrim's Progress'.

'The Pilgrim's Progress' is a Christian allegory in which the main character is called Christian (how confusing!). The longer first part of the book follows his journey from the "City of Destruction" to the "Celestial City", while the second part depicts his wife and children visiting many of the same places after he has already visited them.

In addition to his writing, Bunyan fought in the English Civil War, worked briefly as a tinker, and regularly preached Puritan sermons in Bedfordshire.

Answer: The BFG

The word 'dal', or 'daal' comes from the Sanskrit word meaning 'split', and is used in India to refer to both pulses themselves, and dishes in which they are a major component. Not known for his cooking prowess, Roald Dahl was an author of children's literature from the United Kingdom.

Dahl wrote many of the most enduring works of children's literature, including 'Matilda', 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory', 'Fantastic Mr. Fox', and 'James and the Giant Peach'. 'The BFG' tells the story of how a young girl named Sophie and a friendly giant (the BFG) work together to rid the world of the human-eating giants that live next door to the BFG.

Roald Dahl served briefly in the British Army at the beginning of the Second World War before transferring to the Royal Air Force where he spent the remainder of the conflict.

Answer: 'Salem's Lot

Thankfully many of the world's monarchies have now given up on male primogeniture, but despite the increasing number of queens in the world, the royal head of state required here was a 'king', specifically Stephen King.

King is one of the best-selling horror and thriller novelists in the world, as well as one of the most prolific. The first novel he published was 'Carrie' in 1974, followed swiftly by ''Salem's Lot' in 1975. ''Salem's Lot' tells the story of author Ben Mears who returns to his childhood town (the Jerusalem's Lot of the title) and discovers an outbreak of vampirism.

Many of Stephen King's works have been adapted into films, including 'Misery', 'The Shining', 'Stand by Me', 'The Green Mile' and 'The Shawshank Redemption'.

Answer: Lady Windermere's Fan

Not to be confused with 'less domesticated' (that would be 'Our Town' playwright Thornton WILDER), the definition here is for the word 'wild', the homophone namesake of the Irish author Oscar Wilde.

Now often remembered for his one-liners ("We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars" etc.), Wilde was best known in the 19th Century literary scene for his plays. While 'The Importance of Being Earnest' and 'A Woman of No Importance' may have garnered greater fame, his first major play was 'Lady Windermere's Fan' in 1892. It tells the story of a woman who suspects her husband of having an affair, and decides to have her own affair in retaliation. The above quote is spoken by the character Lord Darlington in 'Lady Windermere's Fan'.