Quizology.Online

Tag: literature

  • If I’d a knowed what a trouble it was to make a book I wouldn’t a tackled it and aint’t agoing to no more

    Tom’s most well, now, and got his bullet around his neck on a watch-guard for a watch, and is always seeing what time it is, and so there ain’t nothing more to write about, and I am rotten glad of it, because if I’d a knowed what a trouble it was to make a book I wouldn’t a tackled it and aint’t agoing to no more. But I reckon I got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and sivilize me and I can’t stand it. I been there before.

    The above quote by the title character is the last paragraph of a book published in the US on 18 February 1885 (it had been published in the UK two months previously). 

    1. Who is the author of this work?
      • Charles Dickens
      • Rudyard Kipling
      • Mark Twain
    2. What is the title of the novel? (There is no multiple-choice this time)

    The answers will be posted later today.

  • Peter Pan Helping Children Grow Up—Answer

    JM Barrie

    …is the writer who created Peter Pan

    JM Barrie
    [Image from Wikipedia]

    Background

    In April 1929, J. M. Barrie granted the copyright of his Peter Pan works to the hospital, requesting that the income remain undisclosed. This decision allowed the hospital to control the rights and receive royalties from performances, publications, and adaptations of the play and novel. Over the years, numerous performances and adaptations have been produced under the hospital’s license. Additionally, the hospital’s trustees commissioned a sequel, Peter Pan in Scarlet, by Geraldine McCaughrean, which was published in 2006.

    After the copyright expired the hospital was granted a perpetual right to collect royalties by the UK government.

    Further information can be found at Great Ormond Street Hospital’s website.

  • Peter Pan Helping Children Grow Up

    Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park in the City of Westminster in London, Great Britain.
    [Image from Wikipedia]

    On February 14, 1852, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, the first in England to offer inpatient beds for children, opened its doors in London.

    In 1929, a writer generously donated all his rights to Peter Pan to the hospital, and they continue to receive royalties from the work to this day. Can you name the generous writer?

    The answer will be posted later today.

  • In a Fix—Answer

    Firstly: C. Jules Verne

    Secondly: Around the World in Eighty Days


    Frontispiece: Phileas Fogg. An ilustration from the novel Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne painted by Alphonse de Neuville and/or Léon Benett.
    [Image from Wikipedia]

    Phileas Fogg, a wealthy Englishman, embarks on a journey around the world to win a wager. Along the way, he rescues Aouda from sati (being burned on her late husband’s funeral pyre) and encounters Detective Fix, who believes Fogg is a bank robber. Despite facing numerous challenges and delays, Fogg returns to London just in time to win the wager and marry Aouda.

    The three authors were all born on February 8th: Dickens in 1812, Verne in 1828 and Lewis in 1885.

  • In a Fix

    Firstly, one of these authors, born on February 8th, penned a novel which included the characters Aouda, a beautiful Indian woman, and Mr. Fix, a detective. Which author?
    A. Charles Dickens
    B. Sinclair Lewis
    C. Jules Verne

    Secondly, what was the title of the novel referred to above? (No multiple-choice this time)

    The answers will follow later today.

  • Alexander Selkirk

    Statue of Alexander Selkirk at the site of his original house on Main Street, Lower Largo Fife, Scotland [Photo by SylviaStanley via Wikipedia]

    Scottish mariner Alexander Selkirk’s extraordinary ordeal as a castaway reached a turning point on 2 February 1709 when he was rescued after four solitary years by English captain Woodes Rogers and his crew aboard the Duke. Selkirk had been stranded on an uninhabited island in the Juan Fernández archipelago, an experience that would later inspire Daniel Defoe’s classic novel Robinson Crusoe. The statue commemorating Selkirk at his original home serves as a reminder of his resilience and the enduring fascination with tales of survival and adventure.