Poets Who Were Novelists and vice versa Quiz

Answer: Wuthering Heights

'Wuthering Heights' was written by Emily Bronte in 1847; the poem I quoted from was written in 1836. A year after Bronte wrote 'Wuthering Heights' she died of tuberculosis. Unlike her sister Charlotte Bronte's 'Jane Eyre', 'Wuthering Heights' did not become famous immediately but has come to be considered one of the greatest novels in the English language.
'Pride and Prejudice' was written by Jane Austen in 1813; 'The Moonstone' by Wilkie Collins in 1868; and 'Ivanhoe' by Sir Walter Scott in 1819.

Answer: Lady Chatterley's Lover

D. H. [David Herbert] Lawrence's 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' was first printed in Florence, Italy, in 1928. It was banned as 'pornography' in both the UK and the USA for many years; not until 1960 was it published in the UK.
'The Picture of Dorian Gray' was written by Oscar Wilde in 1890.
'Middlemarch' was written by George Eliot in 1872; George Eliot was actually the pen name of Mary Ann Evans.
'Evelina' was an epistolary novel - a novel told through letters - and was written by Fanny Burney in 1778.

Answer: The Hobbit

'The Hobbit' was written by J.R.R. Tolkien, and was first published in 1937. It is the precursor of 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy, and has been translated into 41 languages. Peter Jackson, who made the glorious 'Lord of the Rings' films, plans to make a movie of 'The Hobbit', but does not intend to begin work on it until 2008 or 2009.
'The Vicar of Wakefield' is by the Irishman Oliver Goldsmith, and was written in 1766. 'The Horse and his Boy' is one of C.S. Lewis' 'The Chronicles of Narnia', the third in the series, and was first published in 1954.
'The Mysteries of Udolpho' was written by Anne Radcliffe, and first published in 1794. It is an archetypical 'Gothic' novel and features in Jane Austen's 'Northanger Abbey': the book's heroine, Catherine Norland, is reading it.
I found the poem by J.R.R. Tolkien at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lay_of_Aotrou_and_Itroun

Answer: On the Road

'On the Road' was written by Jack Kerouac in 1951. The manuscript was very long, and was finally published by Viking Press in 1957 after he had pared it down to one-third of its original size. Kerouac is thought to have ushered in the 'Beat' poets; his full potential was never realized as he died at age 47 of a hemorrhage in his esophagus caused by his chronic alcoholism.

In 2007, Viking Press is due to release a 50th anniversary edition of 'On the Road', including deleted prose from the original edition, which was thought too explicit for 1957 audiences. 'Slaughterhouse Five' is an amazing post-war novel written by Kurt Vonnegut, and 'The Midwich Cuckoos' was written by British science-fiction novelist John Wyndham, and published in 1957. 'Howl' is actually a poem written by Jack Kerouac's friend and fellow beat-poet Allan Ginsberg.

Answer: The Jungle Book

Rudyard Kipling wrote 'The Jungle Book', a tale of a boy raised in the Indian jungle, in 1894. He is also the author of such famous works as 'Kim', 'Captains Courageous', and 'The Man who Would be King'. Kipling won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907.
'Alice in Wonderland' was written by Lewis Carroll, whose real name was Charles Dodgson, in 1865. There is a much less popular sequel, written in 1872, entitled 'Through the Looking Glass'.
'Wind in the Willows' was written by Kenneth Grahame in 1908. He based his character Toad of Toad Hall on his headstrong little son.
Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) wrote 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' in 1884. Amongst his many other books, he is also responsible for the immortal 'Tom Sawyer'.

Answer: The Man who was Thursday

G. K. Chesterton was the author of 'The Man who was Thursday', which was first published in 1907. It is a book heavy in Christian allegory, and was written so that Chesterton could assure himself that goodness and mercy were still active in the world.
'Right Ho, Jeeves', written by P.G. Wodehouse in 1934 [his name is pronounced Woodhouse], is one of the Jeeves and Wooster stories written by this comic genius and longtime personal favourite. It is impressive to note that Wodehouse published his first Jeeves and Wooster book in 1919 and his last in 1974 - that is a publishing history of 55 years for just two of his many characters.
Evelyn Waugh [Evelyn is a man's name here] wrote 'Brideshead Revisited' in 1945. It is a wonderful read, and it came out as a simply brilliant British mini-series that propelled actor Jeremy Irons to fame.
'A Prayer for Owen Meany' was written by American writer John Irving in 1989.

Answer: Tess of the d'Urbervilles

Thomas Hardy is well known for his poetry as well as his novels. 'Tess of the d'Urbervilles' was written in 1891, but was published in censored versions, yet still criticized for its sympathetic portrayal of a 'fallen woman'. It challenged Victorian sexual morality and was considered scandalous, as were other of Hardy's novels, particularly 'Jude the Obscure'.
'Treasure Island' was written by Scotsman Robert Louis Stevenson in 1883, and features piracy, buried treasure, and adventure.
Henry James is the author of 'Portrait of a Lady', which was published in 1881.
'Great Expectations' was written by Charles Dickens, and came out in weekly form, called serialization, from 1860-1861. Dickens preferred this method of publication as it made his works accessible to far more people.

Answer: The English Patient

'The English Patient' was written in 1992 by Michael Ondaatje, a Sri-Lankan born author whose home is Canada. 'The English Patient' was a success on all fronts. It won the Booker Prize, the Governor-General's award, which is Canada's highest literary honour, and the film version won the 1997 Academy Award for Best Picture.
'The Shipping News' was written by Annie Proulx in 1993. It won the Pulitzer Prize, which is America's highest literary honour, and the National Book Award. Film buffs may be interested to know that Annie Proulx wrote the short story 'Brokeback Mountain' that was made into a successful and Oscar-nominated film.
'The Fionavar Tapestry' is a trilogy, and is the work of Canadian fantasy writer Guy Gavriel Kay. It is one of the best books I have ever read. The trilogy was published between 1984 and 1987. Kay has written many other superb fantasy novels as well.
'Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell' was Susanna Clarke's first book, and came out in 2004. It was published to great critical acclaim, and topped bestseller lists around the world.

Answer: The Blind Assassin

There is a common thread running through these four novels. All four are written by Canadian women, and all four have won the Governor-General's award, which is Canada's highest literary honour.
Margaret Atwood wrote 'The Blind Assassin' in 2000. It also won the Booker prize.
'The Diviners' was written by Margaret Laurence in 1974, and was the last novel that she wrote. It is still being banned today by schools and schoolboards for being blasphemous and obscene.
Jane Urquhart's 'The Underpainter', written in 1997, is my favourite Canadian novel.
'A Complicated Kindness' was written by Miriam Toews in 2004, and is a beautiful book.

Answer: I, Claudius

'I, Claudius' was written by Robert Graves, novelist, poet, and historian, in 1934. Its sequel, 'Claudius the God', was written in 1935. Another successful and excellent British mini-series was made of 'I, Claudius', starring Derek Jacobi as Claudius.
'The Magus' was written by British novelist, historian, and philosopher John Fowles. It was first published in 1965, but Fowles later found himself unhappy with the book, and the revised edition was published in 1977.
'The Old Wives' Tale' was written by Arnold Bennett and published in 1908.
'A Room with a View' was written by E.M. Forster in 1908, and is intended as a light-hearted look at sexual repression in Edwardian England. As with so many novels in this quiz, an excellent film version was made of this book in 1986, which launched Helena Bonham-Carter's career.