Orangutans Are Not the Only Fruit Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. In which classic comic novel by Jerome K. Jerome are three friends, George, Harris and J., not to mention J's dog Montmorency, eaten by a large snake while taking a river cruise on the Thames? (Please remove a letter from one of the original words in the novel's title to make a type of animal. There are clues in the question to help you work out the type of animal word you are looking for.)

Answer: Three Men in a Boa

'Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)' was first published in 1889, and remains Jerome's best-known work. It is a gently humorous tale of three friends taking a boating holiday together. Due to the evocative descriptions, subtle characterisation and the jokes which have dated surprisingly well, it has remained very popular ever since its initial publication.

Despite its many good points, 'Three Men In A Boat' can drag a bit in places and there are certainly moments when I feel that the appearance of a giant boa constrictor would have livened things up!

2. In which classic Charles Dickens novel do the Jarndyce family engage in a long and acrimonious legal battle over the ownership of a melancholy equine? (Please change a letter in one of the original words in the novel's title to make a type of animal. There are clues in the question to help you work out the type of animal word you are looking for.)

Answer: Bleak Horse

'Bleak House' was first published in serial form between 1852 and 1853. The depiction of the bitter court case at the centre of the novel, 'Jarndyce and Jarndyce', proved so powerful that it has been credited with bringing about British legal reform in 1870. 'Bleak House' is, in my opinion, one of Dickens' finest achievements; it has many intriguing characters and sub-plots and is a riveting read throughout.

It is the only Charles Dickens novel to feature a female narrator, in the form of the novel's heroine Esther Summerson. Though there are many fascinating characters in 'Bleak House', a sad horse is not one of them.

3. In which 1935 children's fantasy novel by John Masefield is a schoolboy, Kay Harker, inadvertently dragged into a battle for a magical vulpine which possesses mystical powers? (Please change a letter in one of the original words in the novel's title to make a type of animal. There are clues in the question to help you work out the type of animal word you are looking for.)

Answer: The Fox of Delights

'The Box of Delights' was first published in 1935 and is a sequel to Masefield's earlier novel 'The Midnight Folk'. Kay Harker is on his way home from boarding school for the Christmas holidays when he meets an elderly wizard who entrusts him with a magic box which he must keep safe from the sinister forces who are pursuing him with the intent of using the box's mystical powers for their own nefarious purposes.

There are many fantastical adventures and characters in 'The Box of Delights', but not, as far as I know, a delightful fox!

4. In which 1874 novel by Thomas Hardy is the farmer Bathsheba Everdene forced to deal with an infuriating bird while also trying to sort out her chaotic romantic life? (Please drop a letter from one of the original words in the novel's title to make a type of animal. There are clues in the question to help you work out the type of animal word you are looking for.)

Answer: Far From the Madding Crow

'Far From the Madding Crowd' takes its title from a line in Thomas Gray's famous poem 'Elegy in a Country Churchyard'. It is notable for being the first of Hardy's novels to be set in the fictional county of Wessex, a rural area in the south east of England, which would serve as the setting for many of Thomas Hardy's best-known works.

Although Bathsheba had her work cut out running her farm while dealing with her three suitors, Gabriel Oak, Sergeant Troy and William Boldwood, she thankfully was not beset by a madding crow!

5. In which seminal 1932 science fiction novel by Aldous Huxley do we encounter a dystopian future London which is controlled by highly-intelligent salamanders? (Please add a letter to one of the original words in the novel's title to make a type of animal. There are clues in the question to help you work out the type of animal word you are looking for.)

Answer: Brave Newt World

'Brave New World' presents a bleak dystopian future in which dire economic circumstances have led to a scientific takeover and a society in which human reproduction is handled entirely in laboratories. 'Brave New World' took its title from a line delivered by Miranda in Shakespeare's play 'The Tempest'.

Despite being written in 1932, 'Brave New World' is still considered a classic and is credited with having predicted several social and technological advances such as reproductive technology. Despite the terrible potential of the eugenic projects discussed in the novel, the book does not feature any highly evolved human newt hybrids.

6. In which classic 1957 beat novel do Sal Paradise and his friend Dean Moriarty embark on a series of journeys across America, travelling on a large amphibian? (Please change a letter in one of the original words in the novel's title to make a type of animal. There are clues in the question to help you work out the type of animal word you are looking for.)

Answer: On the Toad

Jack Kerouac's second novel is considered to be one of the seminal works of the 'Beat Generation'. Sal Paradise is partly based on Kerouac himself, while several of the other characters are based on fellow beat writers such as William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg. Sadly, Sal Paradise chooses to make his numerous journeys by more conventional means rather than travelling on board a giant toad, though this would have certainly broken new territory in the classic American road trip novel!

7. Which extraordinary 1937 novel by Zora Neale Hurston tells the tale of Janie Crawford's tumultuous life and her interest in observing a particular type of tasty fish? (Please change a letter in one of the original words in the novel's title to make a type of animal. There are clues in the question to help you work out the type of animal word you are looking for.)

Answer: Their Eyes Were Watching Cod

'Their Eyes Were Watching God' is a beautifully written novel and is by far Zora Neale Hurston's best known work. The novel tells the story of Janie Crawford's life from her coming of age experience to her three troubled marriages and her eventual emancipation from male oppression. 'Their Eyes Were Watching God' is a powerful account of the life of an African-American woman in the early part of the twentieth century and the misogyny and racism she must face, and is considered a seminal work of both African-American and feminist literature. No visit to the aquarium to observe cod is featured in this novel, though a rabid dog does play a pivotal role.

8. In which classic fantasy novel by L. Frank Baum do Dorothy and her friends set out to visit the titular reptile who they hope will grant their wishes? (Please change a letter in one of the original words in the novel's title to make a type of animal. There are clues in the question to help you work out the type of animal word you are looking for.)

Answer: The Wonderful Lizard of Oz

'The Wonderful Wizard of OZ' was first published in 1900 and was the first of fourteen books which Baum set in the magical land of Oz. In 1902 the book was turned into the stage musical 'The Wizard of Oz', which in turn became the extremely successful 1939 film of the same name starring Judy Garland. 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz' tells the story of Dorothy, a young girl from Kansas, who, along with her pet dog, Toto, finds herself transported by a cyclone to the magical land of Oz.

In Oz she meets a magical cast of characters and learns that, in order to return home, she will need to visit the titular wizard. 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz' and its film adaptation have made it one of the most familiar and well-loved children's stories in the world.

While the wizard may not turn out to be all he seems, he at least does not seem to be a lizard!

9. In which 1987 Bret Easton Ellis novel do students at a donkey and horse college become involved in a love triangle? (Please change a letter in one of the original words in the novel's title to make a type of animal. There are clues in the question to help you work out the type of animal word you are looking for.)

Answer: The Mules of Attraction

'The Rules of Attraction' is told from the first-person perspectives of a number of the novel's characters, most of them students at Camden College, a fictional liberal arts school. The narrative mainly deals with the complicated romantic and sexual encounters of a number of promiscuous students, but the focus of the book is the complicated love triangle between Lauren, who is pining for her former boyfriend Victor, Sean, who embarks on a relationship with Lauren which he believes to be true love, and Paul, who is very attracted to Sean.

The unreliability of many of the narrators brings the veracity of some of the events that are recounted into question. This is particularly prevalent in the descriptions of Paul and Sean's relationship with Paul describing their romantic encounters in detail while Sean never mentions them at all, leaving it up to the reader to decide whether their relationship is wishful thinking on Paul's part or whether Sean is in denial. Sean's surname is Bateman and he is the brother of Patrick Bateman from Ellis' later novel, 'American Psycho'.

While Camden College is filled with impossibly beautiful students, there don't seem to be any mules! Mules are the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse.

10. In which charming 1948 coming-of-age novel does Cassandra Mortmain recount her experiences growing up with her eccentric family and attempting to herd their unruly cows? (Please change a letter in one of the original words in the novel's title to make a type of animal. There are clues in the question to help you work out the type of animal word you are looking for.)

Answer: I Capture the Cattle

While Dodie Smith is probably best known for the children's novel 'The Hundred and One Dalmatians', her debut novel, 'I Capture the Castle', is still considered a classic of young adult literature, charming generations of readers since it was published in 1948. Cassandra lives with her delightfully eccentric family in an old castle which is slowly crumbling around them.

The family are struggling financially as her father, a novelist whose debut novel, 'Jacob Wrestling' was successful and critically lauded, is suffering from writer's block while working on his second novel. Cassandra is also an aspiring writer and captures many of the events in the lives of herself and her family and friends in her diary.

However, while there is romance and intrigue, there is no cattle-herding to be done, though a friend of Cassandra's does dream of becoming a rancher.

Source: Author candy-pop

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor looney_tunes before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

In this quiz I will ask you to identify the titles of ten novels in which one of the words in the title has been altered, by changing, dropping or adding one letter, to form an animal-themed word. Beast of duck!

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