ANSWERS

QUIZ WHIZ

1. C

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”

That is the first line of A Tale of Two Cities (1859), a historical novel by English writer Charles Dickens (1812 - 1870), one of the most acclaimed writers of the Victorian era.

2. A or B

While precise sales figure don’t exist, it is estimated that the works of both English mystery writer Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976) and English playwright and poet William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616) have sold between 2 billion and 4 billion copies.

English romance novelist Barbara Cartland (1901 - 2000) is estimated to have sold 500 million to 1 billion copies, while American romance novelist Danielle Steel’s sales figures are thought to be between 500 million to 800 million.

3. D

The popular English children’s writer Enid Blyton (1897 - 1968), who published her first book, Child Whispers, in 1922 went on to write hundreds of children’s novels plus poetry and short story collections. Blyton is estimated to have written more than 700 books.

4. B

There is disagreement over the order in which Shakespeare wrote his plays (and whether he wrote them at all) but The Two Gentlemen of Verona is believed to be the English writer’s first play. Thought to have been written between 1589 and 1593, Verona isn’t regarded as one of his stronger works.

While there can’t be a precise chronology because of lack of definitive evidence, the plays Henry VI (in three parts), Richard III, Titus Andronicus, and The Comedy of Errors may also belong to Shakespeare’s earliest period.

5. C

The line appears in American writer Jerome David Salinger’s (1919 - 2010) acclaimed The Catcher in the Rye (1951), the only full-length novel he published in his lifetime before retreating into seclusion.

6. A

Harper Lee’s (1926 - 2016) To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) - the only book she published till its “sequel” Go Set a Watchman (2015) - was centred on the story of a lawyer who compassionately takes on the unpopular case of a black man falsely accused of raping a white girl, but despite evidence proving his innocence, the defendant is still found guilty by a prejudiced system.

7. C

The South African-born English writer John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892 - 1973) created an enchanting mythical world in his magnum opus The Lord of the Rings (1954 - 1956) - an epic trilogy consisting of The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King - as well as its companions The Hobbit (1937) and The Silmarillion (1977), and is regarded as the father of modern fantasy literature.

8. B

U.S. poet Sylvia Plath (1932 - 1963) committed suicide at the age of 30. She died a few months after she had separated from her husband, British poet Ted Hughes (1930 - 1998) - whom she had married in 1956 - after finding out about his infidelity. Her poetry volumes as well as a semiautobiographical novel, The Bell Jar (1963), gained popularity after her death.

9. A

A large disc resting on the backs of four huge elephants which are in turn standing on the back of an enormous turtle ... that’s the setting of fantasy writer Terence David John Pratchett’s (1948 - 2015) Discworld novels.

10. D

According to Guinness World Records, Valentin Louis Georges Eugene Marcel Proust’s (1871-1922) novel A la recherche du temps perdu (Remembrance of Things Past or In Search of Lost Time), published in seven parts between 1913 and 1927, is considered the longest book ever written. The novel is over 3000 pages long and contains an estimated 9,609,000 characters.

11. B

Written while she was living on state benefits and completed in 1995, British novelist Joanne Rowling’s (born in 1965) manuscript for her first novel Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (1997) was submitted to 12 publishing houses - all of them rejected it. A year later, it was accepted by publishing house Bloomsbury, after the eight-year-old daughter of their chairman showed an interest in the book.

12. D

Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra’s (1547 - 1616) Don Quixote (1605) is thought to be the best-selling book of all time, having sold an estimated 500 million copies.

Other best-selling titles include Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities (1859) (which has sold an estimated 200 million copies) and J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings (1954 - 1956) (150 million).

- S.A.