What On Earth is Empedocles Reading? Quiz

Answer: Pearl S. Buck

"The Good Earth" (1931) is the first instalment of a trilogy titled "House of Earth". It describes the family life of a Chinese farmer named Wang Lung. The second instalment, "Sons" (1932), focuses on Wang Lung's children, and the third novel, "A House Divided", stars the third generation. Pearl S. Buck (1892-1973) was born in the USA to a family of missionaries in China. Until 1934 she spent most of her life in China, and closely observed traditional Chinese families.

The Chinese family life was a recurring theme in Pearl's books.

She debuted with "East Wind, West Wind" in 1930. In 1938 she won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Answer: Jules Verne

In "Journey to the Centre of the Earth" (first published in 1864 under the original title "Voyage au centre de la terre") we follow the scientist Otto Lidenbrock and his cousin Axel on an expedition into an Icelandic volcano (the Snaeflesjokull). After many adventures underground, including confrontations with animals that are long extinct on the earth's surface, they surface again - but no longer in Iceland. The underground journey has led them to the Italian volcano Stromboli on the eponymous island.
I used the English spelling of the English translation, while the American translation spells the word "Centre" as "Center". Indeed: this novel was several times translated both in the UK and in the US, and some translations diverge quite a lot from the original.
Jules Verne (1828-1905) was a prolific French author, best known for his series "Voyages extraordinaires": 54 novels, mostly stand-alone stories about fantastic journeys. "Journey to the Centre of the Earth" was the second of these novels, and the series also include "From the Earth to the Moon" (1865) and "20,000 Leagues under the Sea" (1869-1870). After Jules died, his son Michel published eight follow-up stories, based upon incomplete plots left by his father.

Answer: Ken Follett

"The Pillars of the Earth" (1989) is a historical novel set in the fictitious English town Kingsbridge in the Twelfth century. There are several stories intertwined in this novel. In the first plotline, we meet Tom Builder and his family. Tom desires to build a cathedral, and when the Kingsbridge church burns down, he takes his chance. The second plotline is the conflict between Prior Philip of Kingsbridge and Bishop Waleran, his superior. Philip supports Tom's efforts, for a cathedral in Kingsbridge would enhance Philip's position in the clerical hierarchy. And then there is the family Hamleigh (Percy and his son William), who conspire to depose the Earl of Shiring, Bartholomew. But William secretly falls for the charms of Bartholomew's daughter Aliena...
"The Pillars of the Earth" was followed by the sequels "World Without End" (2007, set in the Fourteenth Century, with descendants of the main characters from the first Kingsbridge novel) and "A Column of Fire" (2017, set in Elizabethan times and once again starring descendants form the main characters of the previous books), and by a prequel "The Evening and the Morning" (2020, about the founding of Kingsbridge during the Viking invasions).
Ken Follett (born 1949) started his writing career in 1974 with thrillers. His first grand success was "Eye of the Needle", an espionage novel set during World War II. He is also well known for the "Century" trilogy ("Fall of Giants", 2010; "Winter of the World", 2012; and "Edge of Eternity", 2014), in which the lives of several families from the USA, UK, Austria, Germany and Russia during the Twentieth Century get intertwined.

Answer: Robert Jordan

"The Eye of the World" (1990) is the first novel in the fantasy series "Wheel of Time", spanning 14 books (and a prequel). In a world where only some women have magical powers, it is prophesied that a mighty wizard will come, and his presence at the final battle between good and evil will be crucial. One of the Aes Sedai (women with magic powers) seeks the promised wizard, and she meets five young people in a hitherto isolated village: three boys who may be the greatest wizard ever, and two very talented girls.

But the evil forces are after them too... Robert Jordan (1948-2007) was born under the name James Oliver Rigney. After his military service and his studies of physics, he took up writing in 1977. "Wheel of Time" was completed after Jordan's death by his colleague Brandon Sanderson, based on incomplete annotations by Jordan.

Answer: Edgar Allan Poe

"The Murders in the Rue Morgue" (1841) is a short story, perhaps the first to qualify as a literary work in the category detective stories. When the French police are baffled by two murders in a room locked from the inside, it is C. Auguste Dupin (a man not involved in police procedures) who unravels the event.
The Rue Morgue is a fictional street in Paris. The word "rue" ("street") makes the title qualify for what I would call "dry geography" (geographical features not on the water), and what Empedocles could qualify as something cold and dry - thus being "earth" as opposed to water, air or fire.
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) has left us several short stories that deal with unusual deaths: from "The Black Cat" and "The Cask of Amontillado" through "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" to "The Pit and the Pendulum" and "The Tell-Tale Heart". He is also known for poetry such as "The Raven" and "Annabel Lee". A very short poem of his that also could fit into the theme of this quiz is "Deep in Earth" which goes as follows: "Deep in earth my loved one is lying // and I must weep alone."

Answer: Robert Heinlein

"Stranger in a Strange Land" (1961) is a sci-fi novel about Michael Valentine Smith, a human raised by Martians. When he returns to earth as a young man, he views the terrestrial culture as something hard to grasp (or to "grok", as he says). Later on he is the founder of a new spiritual congregation, which introduces terrestrials to Martian social practices (including free love) and psychic abilities (such as psychokinesis and teleporting). Robert Heinlein (1907-1988) was one of the most influential sci-fi authors.

He was credited with being the first author to include invented words without lengthy explanation of the meaning, leaving the reader to decipher the meaning of these words from the context. As he would write paraphrasing "Stranger in a Strange Land": do you grok it?

Answer: Nora Roberts

"Heaven and Earth" (2001) is the second instalment of a trilogy set on Three Sisters Island (after "Dance Upon the Air" from 2001 and before "Face the Fire", published in 2002). I bet Empedocles would heartily approve of these titles.
The trilogy starts with the premise that the island was named after three witches who have left a curse, which only three strong women (and descendants of those siblings) working together can break. In "Heaven and Earth" we meet the second woman of the trio: Ripley Todd, the deputy sheriff, who is attracted to an investigator of paranormal activities, named Mac Allister Booke.
Nora Roberts (born 1950 as Eleanor Robson) is the prolific author who left us these romances. She took up writing in 1981, and over the next forty years she published more than 200 books - more than five per year on average. She also used the pen names J.D. Robb, Jill March and Sarah Hardesty.

Answer: Frank Herbert

As Empedocles would say, a dune is dry and cold (at least in comparison to fire) and thus has to be qualified as earth. Hence the inclusion in this quiz.
"Dune" (1965) is the first instalment of a sci-fi series set on the planet Arrakis - a desert only good enough to produce the spice named melange that eases the life of the inhabitants of the galaxy. Leto Atreides is appointed governor of Arrakis and moves there with his concubine Jessica and their son Paul. The family Harkonen, supervisors of the mining of melange, want to destroy the family Arrakis. But then Paul discovers he has superhuman powers...
Frank Herbert (1920-1986) attained great fame with his series "Dune". After the first novel was published in 1965, Herbert wrote five sequels. And after Frank Herbert died, his son Brian with the aid of Kevin J. Anderson distilled many supplementary books out of the unfinished notes of Fank Herbert.

Answer: Thomas Mann

"The Magic Mountain" (1924, original title "Der Zauberberg") is a novel that describes a sanatorium in the Alps where various guests from all over Europe hope to heal their tuberculosis. And when one of them (Castorp, the main character) is sufficiently healed to leave, he enlists in the army to enter the Great War...
Thomas Mann (1875-1955) started his authoring career in 1894. His best known works, besides "Der Zauberberg", are the novel "Buddenbrooks" (1901) and the novella "Tod in Venedig" (1912, "Death in Venice").

Answer: H.G. Wells

"War of the Worlds" (1898) is an early sci-fi novel about an alien invasion of the earth. Martians have almost depleted their natural resources, and thus they invade southern England in search of necessary ores. The British army does not welcome them, but is no match for the sophisticated Martian weapons.

But then something happens that neither the Martians nor the terrestrials could foresee... Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) started his writing career in 1887. His major novels were "The Time Machine" (1894), "The Island of Dr.

Moreau" (1896), "The Invisible Man" (1897) and the aforesaid "War of the Worlds".