Wednesday, November 14, 2007

The Thursday Quiz XII

Hail, Calliope! It's

The Thursday Quiz!

The Thursday Quiz is, as always, a "Is It or Isn't It" game. From the list of twelve items, your job is to determine whether each IS or ISN'T a true example of the week's category.

Remember always what makes us human:

No research, Googling, Wikiing, or use of reference books. The Thursday Quiz is a POP quiz. Violators will have their names erased by fire from the great Book of Days.
This Week's Category will start your Thursday off right!

Famous First Lines

The following are the opening lines of well-known novels. But, have I listed them with the correct novel? That's where you come in.


1. Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights

I have just returned from a visit to my landlord--the solitary neighbour that I shall be troubled with. This is certainly a beautiful country! In all England, I do not believe that I could have fixed on a situation so completely removed from the stir of society.


2. Umberto Eco, Name of the Rose

riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.


3. F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since. "Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone," he told me, "just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had.


4. Alex Haley, Roots

The drought had lasted now for ten million years, and the reign of the terrible lizards had long since ended. Here on the Equator, in the continent which would one day be known as Africa, the battle for existence had reached a new climax of ferocity, and the victor was not yet in sight.


5.Joseph Heller, Catch-22

You are about to begin reading Joseph Heller's new novel, Catch-22.


6. Franz Kafka, The Trial

Someone must have slandered Josef K., for one morning, without having done anything truly wrong, he was arrested.


7. Jack London, Call of the Wild

Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed.


8. Herman Melville, Moby-Dick

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.


9. George Orwell, 1984

Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.


10. Marcel Proust, Remembrance of Things Past (Swann's Way)

In an old house in Paris that was covered with vines lived twelve little girls in two straight lines.


11. Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy

I wish either my father or my mother, or indeed both of them, as they were in duty both equally bound to it, had minded what they were about when they begot me; had they duly considered how much depended upon what they were then doing; that not only the production of a rational Being was concerned in it, but that possibly the happy formation and temperature of his body, perhaps his genius and the very cast of his mind; and, for aught they knew to the contrary, even the fortunes of his whole house might take their turn from the humours and dispositions which were then uppermost: Had they duly weighed and considered all this, and proceeded accordingly, I am verily persuaded I should have made a quite different figure in the world, from that, in which the reader is likely to see me.


12. Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.



Submit your answers in the form of a comment. Then, have a fabulous Thursday.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

These quizzes are very good at exposing my ignorance. I am a terrible reader; I have not even read a SINGLE book referenced above (although I have seen Roots). So here's to some lucky guessing:

1. Yes
2. No
3. Yes
4. No
5. WTF? Is this a trick? Or is this a trick to make people like me THINK it's a trick. I'm going with No.
6. Yes
7. No
8. Yes
9. No
10. Yes
11. Yes
12. Yes

Bridget said...

Pathetically, I only know the answer to one of these for sure. But it is one that I am very certain of - and some people have built an entire presidency out of being sure of only one thing, so what do I have to lose?

1. yes
2. no
3. yes
4. yes
5. yes
6. yes
7. yes
8. no
9. NO, NO, NO
10. no
11. yes
12. yes

Rebel said...

Having only actually read a couple of these books, I'm going to have to go with best guesses.

1 is
2 isn't
3 is
4 isn't
5 is
6 isn't... I've only read about 5 chapters of Kafka, but in my experience that sentence is about 2 pages too short.
7. isn't
8 isn't
9. Isn't! That's the opening line of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
10. Isn't.... Madeline would be the very smallest girl at the very end of those two lines.
11. Isn't... that looks a lot more like Kafka to me!!
12 is.

Karin said...

I know absolutely nothing that will help me with this. So, here are my completely random, blind guesses. Can't hurt, 'cept my pride and that went out with Dorkfest '07.

IS: 1,3,7,9,11
ISN'T: 2,4,5,6,8,10,12

Rex Parker said...

3
4
6
11
12

rp

Anonymous said...

Oh, I'd better get at least a couple of these...

1. is
2. is not
3. is?
4. is?
5. can't be? can it? I'll say is not.
6. is
7. is?
8. is most definitely not
9. is not
10. is unequivocally not
11. is
12. is not

d said...

god. i always feel retarded when i try to do these.

yes = 1,2,3,4,6,7,11,12

no = 5,8,9,10

the only one i'm absolutely certain about is 8.

Rhetorical Twist said...

A lot of these are guesses:

1. Yes.
2. Hmm. Yes?
3. Yes.
4. No?
5. I'm guessing no.
6. Yes
7. No?
8. Oh no, not even close.
9. No way.
10. Ha! No!
11. Yes
12. I don't remember. Yes?

Anonymous said...

1 Wuthering Heights--yes, very plausibly anyway
2 Name of the Rose--no, I don't think so
3 Great Gatsby--yes
4 Roots--yes
5 Catch-22--no! Because Calvino opens If On A Winter's Night a Traveler with this sentence. You must have changed the title. Tricksy.
6 The Trial--yes
7 Call of the Wild--no! Ulysses
8 Moby-Dick--no, Pride and Prejudice, I'm pretty sure. Though it would add an interesting twist to the quest for the White Whale, if it referred to Ahab.
9 1984--no, no clocks striking thirteen
10 Swann's Way--no, Madeline's not a cookie in this one
11 Tristram Shandy--yes
12 Anna Karenina--no, I believe that's War and Peace. . .

Anonymous said...

1. Yes
2. No
3. Yes?
4. No?
5. no
6. no
7. Yes?
9. no
10. no
11. yes
12. yes

Now do I have to add all these to my reading list? Mr5000, didn't you have a reading list once? How's that working for you?

Anonymous said...

How did I not even see #8?
8. No - Austen.

fingerstothebone said...

OK, these are my official guesses:

1. no
2. no
3. yes
4. no
5. yes
6. yes
7. yes
8. no
9. no
10. yes
11. yes
12. yes

Rebel said...

#5 was tricksy. If you'd listed the first line of Catch 22 I could have identified the book... but not the other way around. That's a fantastic book btw.

Jessica said...

1. Yes
2. No, Finnigan's Wake.
3. Yes
4. Yes?
5. No
6. Yes?
7. No
8. No. Austen!
9. No
10. Yes?
11. Sure...?
12. Yes

Michael5000 said...

1. Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights, "I have just returned from a visit..." -- YES!

2. Umberto Eco, Name of the Rose, "riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay..." -- NO! That's "Finnigan's Wake."

3. F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, "In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice..." -- YES!

4. Alex Haley, Roots, "The drought had lasted now for ten million years, and the reign of the terrible lizards had long since ended." -- NO! It's "2001, A Space Odyssy."

5.Joseph Heller, Catch-22, "You are about to begin reading Joseph Heller's new novel, Catch-22." -- NO! With the requisite changes, that's "If On A Winter's Night A Traveller."

6. Franz Kafka, The Trial, "Someone must have slandered Josef K...." -- YES!

7. Jack London, Call of the Wild, "Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead...." -- NO! That's "Ulysses."

8. Herman Melville, Moby-Dick, "It is a truth universally acknowledged..." -- NO! That's "Pride and Prejudice."

9. George Orwell, 1984, "Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy...."
-- NO! That's "Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy."

10. Marcel Proust, Remembrance of Things Past (Swann's Way), "In an old house in Paris that was covered with vines...." -- No! "Madeline."

11. Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy, "I wish either my father or my mother, or indeed both of them, as they were in duty both equally bound to it...." -- YES! And may I add, that if you can fight through the verbiage a bit, this is the funniest book ever.

12. Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." -- YES!

Michael5000 said...

Winners on the subsequent post....

Mr. Shain said...

this is for people who read...