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Murder in Fiction Trivia Quiz

Be it bleak sociorealism or suggestive horror, works of fiction are flooded with murder. Test your knowledge of mortal crime on paper.

A multiple-choice quiz by gunstone. Estimated time: 6 mins.

Author
gunstone

Time
6 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
88,886

Updated
Dec 03 21

# Qns
10

Difficulty
Tough

Avg Score
5 / 10

Plays
1081

One at a Time - Single Page - Timed Game

Question 1 of 10

1. Two of the most (in)famous murders in literature were committed by a young Russian in Dostoyevsky's "Crime and Punishment"; the victims are two old ladies. In translation, this novel sometimes takes the name of its protagonist, which is: Hint

Potemkin

Rasputin

Raskolnikov

He is only referred to as "the idiot"

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Question 2 of 10

2. The swan song of Agatha Christie's hero Hercule Poirot is recorded in "Curtain: Poirot's last case". Before the great detective dies, he actually kills a man himself. Why? Hint

The victim was responsible for several murders for which he would never be found guilty

To fulfill an idea of life's "ultimate transgression"

In self- defense, as the victim was trying to strangle him

To revenge an old-times ladyfriend killed by the victim

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Question 3 of 10

3. In a notorious novel of the 1990's, Patrick Bateman embarks on an orgy of violence and murder that might or might not be the works of his own imagination. What is the title of this book?

Answer: (Two Words, one of them a well-known film title)

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Question 4 of 10

4. Which one of the following persons is killed by Humbert Humbert, the protagonist of Vladimir Nabokov's "Lolita"? Hint

Lolita

Playwright Clare Quilty

Mrs. Haze, Lolita's mother

Richard F. Schiller, Lolita's husband

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Question 5 of 10

5. Several Greek plays deal with the destiny of this woman, who together with cousin Aigisthos killed her husband Agamemnon. Hint

Iocaste

Medea

Clytaemnestra

Antigone

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Question 6 of 10

6. Name the famous Albert Camus novel in which the protagonist Meursault kills an Arab without apparent reason.

Answer: (Two Words (English title))

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Question 7 of 10

7. Murder, murder attempts and thoughts of murder abound in Shakespeare's "Hamlet". Who is stabbed to death by Hamlet while hiding behind a curtain (whereupon the Prince states that "I took thee for thy better")? Hint

Polonius, Ophelia's father

His mother Gertrude, Queen of Denmark

Claudius, King of Denmark

Reynaldo, Polonius' servant

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Question 8 of 10

8. "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" by Edgar Allan Poe is one of the first detective stories of modern literature. What villain committed these murders? Hint

Adolphe Le Bon

Arsene Dupin

An ape

A sailor

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Question 9 of 10

9. Canadian writer Michael Ondaatje is best known for his novel "The English Patient". Among his other works is a prose-poetry book dealing with the "collected works" of a famous outlaw and killer. Which one? Hint

Billy the Kid

Jesse James

Clyde Barrow

Ned Kelly

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Question 10 of 10

10. Who wrote the "Chronicle of a Death Foretold"? Hint

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Isabel Allende

Miguel Angel Asturias

Jorge Luis Borges

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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

Answer: Raskolnikov

Raskolnikov killed an elderly female pawnbroker and her sister. Rasputin was a real life monk who early in the century had considerable influence at the Czarist court. "The Idiot" is another Dostoyevsky novel. Potemkin was a real life 18th-century officer and politician.

2. The swan song of Agatha Christie's hero Hercule Poirot is recorded in "Curtain: Poirot's last case". Before the great detective dies, he actually kills a man himself. Why?

Answer: The victim was responsible for several murders for which he would never be found guilty

The victim - Stephen Norton - lured other people into committing murders by manipulating them psychologically in such a manner as could never be proven or hold up in a courtroom. Murder was Poirot's only way of stopping him.

3. In a notorious novel of the 1990's, Patrick Bateman embarks on an orgy of violence and murder that might or might not be the works of his own imagination. What is the title of this book?

Answer: American Psycho

The author's name is Bret Easton Ellis, a devil's messenger to some and a Dostoyevsky of our time to others.

4. Which one of the following persons is killed by Humbert Humbert, the protagonist of Vladimir Nabokov's "Lolita"?

Answer: Playwright Clare Quilty

Quilty "stole" Lolita away from Humbert and was her lover for some time. Humbert finds him at home and shoots him. Lolita's mother died in a car accident, although her rushing into the street was certainly prompted by her disclosure of husband Humbert's passion for little Lo.

5. Several Greek plays deal with the destiny of this woman, who together with cousin Aigisthos killed her husband Agamemnon.

Answer: Clytaemnestra

Antigone, daughter of Oedipus and Iocaste, was buried alive for refuting king Creon's demand that her brother be left unburied where he lay slain. Medea killed her own children in order to hurt her husband. The Agamemnon/Clytaemnestra story is part of plays by Aischylos ("Agamemnon"), Sophocles ("Elektra") and Euripides (also "Elektra").

6. Name the famous Albert Camus novel in which the protagonist Meursault kills an Arab without apparent reason.

Answer: The Stranger

Meursault is sentenced to death by a jury which is at first prepared to be lenient, but then appalled by his lack of grief - or rather, perhaps, unwillingness to fake emotion - in the wake of his mother's death.

Answer: Polonius, Ophelia's father

Although uttering "How now? A rat?" before stabbing, Prince Hamlet at first believes he has killed his father's murderer, King Claudius, as is reflected in his comments to his mother, who has witnessed the scene. In the end, hardly anyone survives in this play.

8. "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" by Edgar Allan Poe is one of the first detective stories of modern literature. What villain committed these murders?

Answer: An ape

The sailor brought the "Ourang-Outang" to France from Borneo. Dupin is the mastermind who solves the mystery. Le Bon is at one point a suspect.

Answer: Billy the Kid

"The Collected Works of Billy the Kid" could be called Ondaatje's breakthrough, as it won him the Governor General's Award of 1970. Using Australian outlaw Ned Kelly as subject matter earned another writer, Peter Carey, his second Booker Prize (for "True History of the Kelly Gang").

10. Who wrote the "Chronicle of a Death Foretold"?

Answer: Gabriel Garcia Marquez

A story about a murder that everybody knows is coming. Two men kill a man whom their sister has named as responsible for ending her virginity.

Source: Author gunstone

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor bullymom before going online.
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