Lit Quiz Final April 26th'2015

Again, the rules ……..2 Written rounds of 5 questions each. 5 marks per Q, full house

30 marks.

48 questions, 2 rounds of 24 each, on bounce and full pounce, one clockwise and one anti-clockwise.

Pounce carry a golden strike of 3, which means if you get 3 negatives on your pouncing, then you are disqualified from

pouncing anymore.

In case of a tie, prelims score will prevail.

10 for bounce and +10/-10 for pounce. Half-points at the discretion of the QM.

BEST OF LUCK

First round. Identify the book covers.1. Which Feluda book?

2. Which famous book?

3. Which book?

4. Which famous Asterix book?

5. Which famous novel?

Answers Now. Exchange your papers please.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

1. He probably grew up in a village called Malka Hans where he resided in a small room adjacent to a historic masjid, which is now called the Masjid …….. ……... His

mausoleum (the architecture of which is a mix of Lahore and Tughlaq tradition) is a place of pilgrimage today,

especially for those in love.

A great artist of Sufi, he was believed to have composed his most famous piece of rendition of a folk lore, after

being influenced by his own unrequited love for a woman, and hence gave the story a tragic end which was

not the case originally. This work by him has become a treasure trove of literature now.

Who was he? What is the famous literary work?

And the answer is …………….

Waris Shah, Heer Ranjha

2. This fictional detective has appeared in more than 4000 stories written by around 200 different authors all

around. He has had several movie, TV and Radio adaptations. He has been often described as a poor man’s Sherlock Holmes. What is his name? (There is

also a rock band by the same name)

And the answer is…………….

Sexton Blake

3. This novel (2nd part of a trilogy) was written by Thomas Dixon Jr. and published in 1905. He

wrote it as a message to the Northerners of USA to maintain racial segregation, as Dixon

claimed that the Blacks if given freedom might turn into savages thereby committing crimes, rapes, murders etc. An extreme racist, he was denounced. However, this book was adapted

into a groundbreaking Hollywood movie. Which movie?

And the answer is ……………

4. By what name is the first Sunday after Easter generally called/ known, which is

also the name of an iconic literary character who falls in love with a girl called Esmeralda? (This character was

actually named after this Sunday)

And the answer is …………..

Quasimodo Sunday(The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, Victor Hugo)

5. The Sanskrit drama ‘Ratnavali’ is a very charmingplay about the romantic triangle between Udayanaand Princess Ratnavali and Udayana’s original wifeVasavadatta. Though the original story was believedto have been taken from ancient Buddhist and variousother Indian literatures, this play itself is very lucidlywritten and enjoys the distinction of being one of themost popular Sanskrit works of literature.

Which great Indian emperor has been attributed to beits author? (It is one of the 3/4 plays which has beenattributed to him)

And the answer is ………….

King Harshavardhan

6. Captain Charles Johnson was a British author who wrote the book ‘A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates’ in 1724, which was a collection of biographies of many contemporary well-known and unknown pirates. He was the person who actually made the pirates very famous in popular culture.

However, Captain Johnson’s identity is still unknown. In the 20th century, the American scholar John Moore derived that he is actually X writing under this pseudonym, as Moore compared both their writing styles and found similarities. Moore’s study and his reputation as an X scholar, was so convincing that most libraries recataloged this book under the name of X. Though this was later refuted by other scholars.

Who’s X?


Daniel Defoe

7. According to some stories, this author had created his suave private investigator but he was not finding a

suitable name for him.

So, when once, he was standing looking at the ‘Kanchenjunga’ in Darjeeling, it was all very cloudy and

the mountain was not properly visible. Suddenly, everything cleared and the golden sunshine came out on

the peak of the Kanchenjunga and it seemed that the mountain was wearing a golden crown, and there the

author got the name, the meaning of which is equivalent to somebody wearing a golden crown.

What is the name of this private investigator?

And the answer is ………..

Kiriti Roy

8. This first novel of this trilogy (the trilogy is named after a semi-autonomous city state during the inter-war period

which is now a city in modern day Poland) is a magic realism involving a protagonist called Oscar who keeps on

speaking to Jesus and satan throughout the book and calls his penis satan later in the book.

The initial response to this novel was severe as people called it pornographic and legal action was taken against its author, but now it has achieved a cult status. It was

adapted into a movie in 1979 which won the Palme d’Or together with ‘Apocalypse Now’ and also won the Best

foreign language film at the Oscars.What is the name of this novel? What is the name of the

Trilogy?


Danzig Trilogy

9. This is a painting by William Holman Hunt based on a famous Lord Tennyson ballad, which itself is a recreation of a story of the Arthurian legend.

This lady lives in an island castle in a river and suffers from a mysterious curse where she has to weave images continuously looking at the world through her mirror, and not directly.

So, this painting shows that she has turned to see a famous Arthurian knight (and thereby brought on the curse to her) whose image on the mirror made her fall in love with him.Who was that famous knight? What is the name of this Tennyson ballad?

And the answer is …………

Sir Lancelot, The Lady of Shalott

10. This fast bowler was once hit by a Fanie de Villiers bouncer and got so angry that he was supposed to have said these

famous words to the slip cordon ‘you guys are history’ and went on to rip through

the South African batting order with figures of 9-57. Later on, he wrote a book with the same above title ‘You Guys Are

History’. Who was this bowler?


Devon Malcolm

11. This city of the Abbasid caliphate was said to be the centre of learning in the middle east

at that time. It had a Grand Library which contained numerous precious historical

documents and books on subjects ranging from medicine, astronomy etc. So, it is said that

when a grandson of Genghis Khan attacked and destroyed this city, its famous river became

absolutely black from the ink.

Which city? Who was the grandson?


Baghdad, Hulagu Khan

12. She was an 18th century women rights advocate, writer and philosopher. She wrote a very famous book on feministic

philosophy (out of many other books).

She married a philosopher and a writer who is famous as one of the forefathers of the ‘anarchist movement’ and also famous for

his book ‘Caleb Williams’.

Their daughter went on to write one of the most popular novels of all time.

The daughter married one of the best English romantic poets of all time.

Who was she? Her husband? Her daughter? Daughter’s husband?


Mary Wollstonecraft , William Godwin, Mary Shelley and PB Shelley

13. The medieval Latin work of ‘Opus Majus’ is the best work ofRoger Bacon as per many experts. It deals with all aspects ofnatural sciences, philosophy, logic, alchemy and a lot of other

things.

In one part of the book, Roger Bacon describes the process ofmanufacturing of something (he has described the same in hisother works as well), for which he has been ascribed thedistinction of being the first European to do so. It is believedthough, that Bacon got the idea from William of Rubruck whovisited the court of Mongols at that time.

What does ‘Opus Majus’ describe which is believed to have beeninvented when some alchemists were searching for an elixir ofimmortality?


Gun Powder

14. Which famous detective duo who have made their debut in the story ‘The

Secret Adversary’, have the surname ‘Beresford’?

And the answer is ………

Tommy and Tuppence (Agatha Christie)

15. This popular rock band from Boston whose lead vocalist is also the father of a famous

actress, was believed to have named their band after the famous 1925 Sinclair Lewis novel,

though this is not true.

The band members though were required to read this book in school, but they repeatedly

and adamantly deny any connection. The spelling also differs.

What is the name?

And the answer is ……..

16. This is a Lord Alfred Tennyson poem about a lady called Kapiolani and her brave display of dispelling the local myth of the

fear of the Goddess of volcanoes:‘Great and greater, and greatest of women, island heroine,

KapiolaniClimb the mountain, and flung the berries, and dared the Goddess,

and freed the peopleOf …………….!

A people believing that …………the Goddess would wallow in fiery riot and revelOn Kilaue-ä,

Dance in a fountain of flame with her devils, or shake with tier thunders and shatter her island’,

Which place did Kapiolani belong? What is the name of this Goddess of Volcanoes who has a similar sounding name with the

nickname of a great footballer?

And the answer is ……….

Hawaii and Pele

17. This novel starts with the narrator saying that he is something because of people’s refusal to

see him.

Published in 1952, this novel is unique not only in the literature world for its improvisational

jazz-inspired style, but also in the political world for adding a new voice to the discussion about

blacks in America.

This novel also shares its name with an iconic novel of 1897. Which novel?


18. This is the English translation of a poem called ‘Kabul’ by the 17th-century Iranian poet Saib

Tabrizi:

‘Every street of Kabul is enthralling to the eye,Through the bazaars, caravans of Egypt pass,

One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs,

And the …………. ………… …….. that hide behind her walls.’

Fill in the blanks.


19. Ardhendu Sekhar Mustafi was a great actor in 19th century Bengal. According to some stories,

while acting for an iconic Bengali work (where he alone played four roles), the role of Mr. Wood

who was a villain was so overpowering that Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, who was in the

audience at that time, was so taken in by the realism of the performance that he threw a shoe

at Mustafi, who ofcourse took it as a compliment.

Which Bengali work was this?


20. This is one of the two most popular stories of ‘The Sketch Book’ which made the author a household name (the other story

being the one which the author felt after writing it that he has woken up from a long sleep).

The protagonist of this story is a thin, lanky, unattractive schoolmaster who shows high morality in the classrooms but

outside it has little of it. He only wants his own gratification and self-advancement. He attempts to further his cause by

impressing the daughters of rich families with his learning. He is extremely superstitious and believes in ghosts etc.

In one of the famous adaptations, he was played by Johnny Deppbut in a much positive light.

What is the name of this character? What is the name of this story?


Ichabod Crane, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (Washington Irving)

21. According to ‘Srimad Bhagavatam’ and also many other ancient literature, this

demon was created to kill Indra. He came out of the sacrificial fire as a fearful

personality who looked like the destroyer of the entire creation, and he grew so big and fierce that he seemed to cover the entire

planetary system. Hence, he has been named something which means ‘one who covers everything’. What was the name?


The demon,Vritra.

22. This novel written in the form of an autobiography, by an English author is

considered to be one of the best novels of the 20th century. The author claimed that he got

the inspiration of the novel after the Emperor came to his dream one night and demanded

that his true story be told. Which novel?


23. He was an English knight who fought against ‘Joan of Arc’ and lost but there is no documentary evidence that he was a coward. Infact, many historians believe

that he ought to be famous in his own rights as he was a patron of literature, a writer of strategy and an early

industrialist.

But the loss in the war made him a scapegoat and he was believed to be the person behind the naming of a

world famous literary character, who was created maybe as a ridicule and hence shown as a coward and buffoon, by probably the greatest writer in the English

language. Which famous character?


Falstaff (Shakespeare. Sir John Fastolf was the knight.)

24. The famous siege of this city lasted from September 1854 until September 1855, during the Crimean War. The

allies of French, Ottoman, and British landed at Eupatoria on 14 September 1854, intending to make a

triumphal march to this city with their army.

A Russian great in order to record his experience of this siege wrote a collection of three short stories.

What is the name of that collection? Who was the Russian great?

(The famous Balaklava of Lord Tennyson is now a part of this city. Battle of Balaclava was part of this siege)


Second written round: Nom de plumes.1. Which popular writer whose sons are also authors now,

once wrote novels under the name ‘Richard Bachman’?

2. What pen name did Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum use for her ‘Objectivism’?

3. Who wrote under a pen name which means ‘the wild flower’ in Bengali?

4. How is Dhanpat Rai Srivastav better known to us?

5. Which writer published works under numerouspseudonyms, including A.A. Fair, Kyle Corning, Charles M.Green, Carleton Kendrake, Charles J. Kenny, Les Tillray andRobert Parr?

And the answers are ……..

1. Stephen King.

2. Ayn rand.

3. Balai Chand Mukhopadhyay.

4. Munshi Premchand.

5. Erle Stanley Gardner.

25. This renaissance work is a pentalogy of novels about two giants, the father and his son. The

novels present the comic and satiric story of the giant and his son, whose travels and adventures

are a vehicle for ridicule of the follies and superstitions of the times. This work has also

introduced hundred of words to everyday French which the writer being an expert in ancient Greek, invented the words from the Greek. Treated with

suspicion and contempt at that time, this work has now become one of the pillars of literature.

What is the name of this famous father-son duo?

A Gustave Dore painting of them

And the answer is …………..

Gargantua and Pantagruel(by François Rabelais)

26. Gyles Brandreth writes a series of historical murder mysteries. Which 19th

century real life Irish author is the protagonist investigator of that series?


27. Whose memoir (a 20th century icon) ends with these lines:

“I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds

me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom come responsibilities, and I

dare not linger, for my ……….. ………. is not yet ended.”?


Nelson Mandela (Long Walk to Freedom)

28. This best selling novel of early 2000 decade, chronicles the impact of a mutated gene on three generations of a Greek family, causing momentous changes in the protagonist's life, who cannot be distinctly identified as male or

female.

According to experts, the novel explores themes like gender identity, differing

experiences between men and women etc. Hence the name of the novel. (This name was

also an English county).What’s the name of the novel?


29. In the poem ‘Requiem for the

Croppies’, Seamus Heaney gives a

voice to the numerous voiceless Irish

peasants who were massacred in the

1798 rebellion against the

British. These rebel peasants were

nicknamed Croppies because of their

fashion of keeping closely cropped

hair, which they copied from the

French revolutionaries of that time.

Why did these rebels kept such

hairstyle/ fashion?


Cropped hairstyle (thus keeping short hair) was a symbol of being anti-wig and thus anti-

aristocrats. Hence, the style and nickname.

30. This book won the Pulitzer Prize

for fiction in the early 80’s. After it

was adapted into a movie, there was

controversy that inspite of many

critics considering it the best movie

of the year, it did not win a single

Oscar.

Some critics also felt that the

director (who was then famous due to

his popular movies) was a bad choice

for handling such a complex subject.

What book are we talking about?


31. According to mythology, the source of this Indian literary work goes like this:

Malyavan after getting a curse from Parvati for overhearing the part of the tales narrated by Shiva had to release these tales to the world to come out from the curse. So he was born and became a minister to a

king. He went to the forest and got the tales from the Pisacha and wrote it in his blood in the now lost Paisachi dialect of Prakrit.

He took the work to the king who refused to acknowledge it. Malyavanthen took the work to the forest, set a fire and after reading, started

dropping one by one to the fire. His reading enthralled all the animals of the forest who gathered near the fire, and the king who was on hunting in the forest at that time and unable to find any animal came to the fire

and after hearing the tales, just managed to stop Malyavan from dropping the last chapter.

This last chapter remains and is believed to be the basis of many later Sanskrit works like ‘Panchatantra’ etc. What is the name of this Indian

epic now lost?


Brihatkatha

32. Writer A wrote the famous play ‘Sarojini’. Once, while working to stage this play, the writer B who was then a student used to study next to the room where the preparation of this play was going on. ‘Sarojini’ is about the Rajput daughter who committed ‘jauhar’.

So, after hearing about the preparation, writer B suggested that the scene where the Rajput women

were to enter fire to commit ‘jauhar’ cannot be expressed and portrayed properly in prose form and it

can only be presented in the form of a song which writer B composed for that part and writer A included

it in the play.

Who are writers A and B here?


Jyotirindranath Tagore and RabindranathTagore

33. This book also known as ‘The Long Parliament’

was written as a follow-up book of an earlier

scandalous political work (both the books are named

after creatures from the Hebrew Bible). This book

(written in 1668) too created controversy and King

Charles II did not allow it to be published.

This book is a discourse between two speakers where

one is an witness and insider of the English civil war

and the other is a student who is trying to

understand the reason for the breakdown of the then

English govt.

The writer was a famous philosopher whose name has

been used by Bill Watterson in one of his most

famous creations in modern times.

Who was the writer? What is the popular name of the

aforementioned book?


34. This Biblical name has been taken by John Dryden in his famous satirical poem ‘…………… and Achitophel’.

William Faulkner’s famous Southern gothic novel which has also helped him to win a Nobel has used the same

name.

This name in Bible is the son of King David of the ‘Kingdom of Israel’ who revolted against his father and was killed by the general Joab against the instructions

of David who told Joab to deal with him gently.

What name are we talking about? (ironically, the name means ‘father of peace’ in Hebrew)


35. This is called the Zamzama Gun installed during the Ahmed Shah Durrani reign and now placed

outside the Lahore Museum. This gun is also named after a famous fictional boy who earns his living in the novel (which is a masterpiece) in the streets of Lahore

by begging and running small errands. What?


Kim’s Gun (Kim by Rudyard Kipling)

36. This famous children’s novel of the late 19th century by Frances Hodgson

Burnett was very popular and gave rise to a very popular children’s fashion. The

description of the clothing is as follows: ‘A velvet cut-away jacket and matching

knee pants worn with a fancy blouse with a large lace or ruffled collar.’

What was/is this clothing called?


The Fauntleroy suit (named after ‘Little Lord Fauntleroy’)

37. Priscus of Panium was a 5th century historian. In his ‘History of Byzantium’

(probably the name of the work), he gave a possible description of somebody as follows:

‘Short stature, broad chest, large head, small eyes, thin beard which is a bit grey, flat nose

and tanned skin.’

According to some scholars, that somebody’s name might also mean ‘universal ruler’. Who

are we talking about?


Atilla the Hun

38. This superhero is the founding member of a group. His first name is Benjamin and being trapped for the most part in a body he loathes (he was mutated in the cosmic

ray storm), he can be prone to bouts of depression in a nod to classic stories like

Frankenstein and Beauty and the Beast (his blind girlfriend, Alicia Masters, providing

the beauty). How do we know him better?


The Thing

39. It is said that at an early age, he learnt and memorized something by heart just by listening

to its recitation by his father.

He is the most popular poet of a certain Asian country where his works are found in almost

every household and where a day is also celebrated in his name.

A lot of people from Goethe to Sir Conan Doyle were highly influenced by him (Holmes even

quotes him in one of the stories). Who?

And the answer is …….

Hafez (Khwāja Shams-ud-Dīn Muhammad Hāfez-e

Shīrāzī)

40. This creek known as …………….... …………… is the place of the infamous native American massacre of 1890 in South Dakota, US. Now the place (an 870 acre area ) has been designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark.

This place is also mentioned in a poem called ‘American Names’ as:

"I shall not be thereI shall rise and pass

Bury my heart at ………………. …………..“.

The last line above is also the name of a path breaking book which tells the real story about the barbarous

treatment of the native Americans in the American West. What is the name of this place?


41. Richard Flanagan, wrote his famous Man Booker Prize winner book in tribute

to his late father, who survived the horrors of “The Line”. But thousands more did not. Beaten and starved, riddled with cholera, ulcers, beriberi and many other

horrors they died.What is ‘The Line’ which is also the

subject of another novel and an award winning movie?


Burma Death Railway

(The Burma–Siam Railway, the Thailand–Burma Railway and similar names, was a 415 kilometres railway between Ban Pong,

Thailand, and Thanbyuzayat, Burma, built by the Empire of Japan in 1943, to support its forces in the Burma

campaign of World War II. This railway completed the railroad link between Bangkok, Thailand and Rangoon, Burma . The line was closed in 1947, but the section between Nong Pla Duk and Nam

Tok was reopened ten years later in 1957).

42. Dr. S.N. Pandey was a prolific writer and he wrote many books on many things in life like medical books, books on sexual

problems, agriculture etc. and even got famous under the pen name ‘Srivrigu’ for his astrology books. However, how is he

better known to us?


43. What name connects a fictional super-villain who later becomes an ally of

Spiderman, another comic book series by an English author, a mythical character in

European folklore who brings good dreams by sprinkling something onto the eyes of people while they sleep at night, and a famous number by a metal band?


Sandman

44. It is the first science fiction novel to have appeared on the reading lists of three of the five United States

military branches like Navy, Marine Corps etc.

Many people have criticized this novel that it glorifies war and military and some have criticized it to be even

racist, fascist etc.

There is a 1997 movie of the same name (though the plot differs) which has Denise Richards, Neil Patrick

Harris etc. Which famous novel?


45. Which famous novel’s title has been taken from the story of the last Muslim king

of Granada, Boabdil’s last reaction while looking back at Granada (after he has

surrendered it) from a spot called ‘Puerto del Suspiro del Moro’?


The Moor's Last Sigh (Salman Rushdie). Puerto del Suspiro del Moro means ‘Pass of the Moor's

Sigh’.

46. Which famous fictional continent consists of seven kingdoms namely the

North, the Iron Islands, the Vale, the Westerlands, the Stormlands, the Reach, and Dorne, and a largely unmapped area to the north, separated by a massive wall

of ice and old magic?


Westeros

47. This prolific Hindi writer was the brother of a great actor. He has written many wonderful novels, short stories,

plays and even the biography of his brother, but his most famous novel was made into a cult television movie in the late 80’s. The name of this novel when

translated into English is ‘Darkness’. What is the name of this novel and the writer?


Tamas, Bhisham Sahni

48. Which famous novel was reportedly started by this Indian author at the age of

eighty-three and finished at the age of eighty-five and he said his intention of

writing it in this words that as a man gets older, his sex instincts travel from his

middle to his head?


The Company of Women (by Khushwant Singh)

Entertainment & Humor

Lit Quiz Final April 26th'2015