Ten Trivia Quiz

Answer: Agatha Christie

First published in 1939, this mystery tells of ten people who have been brought to a small island off the English coast who die in different ways one by one. A common factor for all ten is that each is responsible in some way for another person's death but each has escaped responsibility for it--up until now.

This novel alone has sold millions of copies and it is estimated that the collected works of Agatha Christie (1890-1976) have been outsold only by the works of Shakespeare and the Bible.

Answer: They are avoiding the plague.

Boccaccio (1313-1375) created this framework of a story. In the villa, each of the seven women and three men take turns telling a story for each of ten days. (10 X 10 = 100) The stories cover a large variety of types and create a variety of moods--humorous, erotic, and tragic.

The Bubonic Plague or Black Death of the late 1340s is estimated to have killed about 25 million people in Europe alone (about 1/3 of the population at the time).

Answer: Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) wrote many other novels and short stories including "The Sun Also Rises", "A Farewell to Arms", and "To Have and Have Not". He lived for extended periods of time in Paris and Cuba. The work was published privately in a limited edition.

The ten poems of the title are "Mitraigliatrice", "Oklahoma", "Only Weather", Rinarto d'Assalto", "Montparnasse", "Along with Youth", "Roosevelt", "Captives", "Champs d'Honneur", and "Chapter Heading". The three stories are "Up in Michigan", "My Old Man", and "Out of Season".

The last story is significant for an early use of Hemingway's "Iceberg Theory" where only the surface events are described and the underlying issues are only implied.

Answer: The Three Musketeers

While all four of these choices of Dumas (1802-1870), it is actually the second sequel to "The Three Musketeers," with "Twenty Years After" set in between the two. At 268 chapters long, this lengthy novel is usually subdivided when it is translated into English. One of the volumes is "The Man in the Iron Mask", which features Porthos, Aramis, and d'Artagnan.

Answer: With a Circus

The full title of the novel is "Toby Tyler, or Ten Weeks with a Circus". James Otis is the pen name of James Otis Kaley (1848-1912). The novel contrasts the glamour the circus has for outside visitors with the sometimes gritty reality for those who live and travel with it. A favorite character in the story is Mr. Stubbs, the chimpanzee.

Answer: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) described the world of Narnia from creation to destruction over the course of seven novels. "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" is set 1,000 years farther back in the Narnian past than the others. Caspian gains his throne from his wicked uncle Miraz in "Prince Caspian".

In the next book he leads the crew of the "Dawn Treader" in exploring the eastern ocean. In "The Silver Chair" the reader sees Caspian at the beginning and the end of the novel as an old man and a rejuvenated young man.

Answer: Profundo

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) wrote one of the first great works in Italian. It's a long one at 14,233 lines. Dante journeys through Hell (Inferno), Purgatory and Paradise in the days around Easter Sunday 1300 accompanied first by the poet Virgil and next by the angelic Beatrice. Tens appear everywhere in the poem.

Hell has nine circles plus Lucifer at the bottom (10). The mountain of purgatory has nine levels plus the Garden of Eden at the top (10). There are nine celestial bodies in Heaven plus God (10).

Answer: The Hardy Boys

The Hardy Boys books were the brainchild of Edward Stratemeyer and his syndicate. He would provide an author with an story outline and a list of characters. The author would create the book for a set fee. The original version of "What Happened at Midnight" was written by longtime syndicate write Leslie McFarlane. The book was revised in 1967 by Tom Mulvey.

Answer: a bear

The bear chases the other animals with a broom. When the group crashes into an apple cart, all of the animals have ten apples up on top. The book was written in 1961by Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel, 1904-1991) under another alias, Theo LeSieg.

Answer: Exodus and Deuteronomy

The two relevant passages are Exodus 21:1-17. and Deuteronomy 5:4-21. In Exodus, the stone tablets containing the commandments are described. They are said to have been written with "the finger of God".