Quiz | Easy like Sunday morning: True stories behind books
When Harper submitted her manuscript, publishers said she was new and needed guidance. She started writing another book inspired by her father, Amasa Lee.
START THE QUIZ
1 / 10 |
On February 1, 1709, Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish sailor, was finally rescued by William Dampier. He had been marooned on an uninhabited island in the South Pacific for four years and four months, surviving by making his own tools. This inspired an English writer, Daniel Defoe to write which book that is considered to be the first English ‘novel’?
2 / 10 |
Joseph Heller had been a pilot in the US Army who took part in bombing raids on Italy during World War II. He initially felt heroic, but later showed symptoms that we now know are PTSD. He started writing his experiences down, and it led to a satirical war novel, which led to a term meaning ‘a dilemma from which there is no escape’. What book did he write?
3 / 10 |
Richard Cabell was a man in Dartmoor who had an evil reputation among the locals. On the night he died and was buried, legend has it that a pack of large black dogs ran across the moor howling. A journalist shared this story with his friend Dr. AC Doyle, who was inspired to write a novel. What novel which brought back to life a famous detective?
Answer : The Hound of the Baskervilles
DID YOU KNOW THE ANSWER?
YES
NO
SHOW ANSWER
4 / 10 |
Charles Dodgson was a mathematician who made up silly stories for his friend’s daughters. Ten-year-old Alice Liddell loved it and asked him to write it all down. He named it after her and called it her ‘adventures under ground’. What book did this eventually become?
Answer : Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
DID YOU KNOW THE ANSWER?
YES
NO
SHOW ANSWER
5 / 10 |
When Harper submitted her manuscript, publishers said she was new and needed guidance. She started writing another book inspired by her father, Amasa Lee. He was an attorney who was unsuccessful in defending an African-American father and son on charges of murder. What book did she write, the only one she published in her lifetime?
6 / 10 |
Herman started work on a whaling ship at the age of 19, where he met William Chase. He gave Herman a book by his father about a terrifying ordeal at sea. In 1839, there was a news article about Mocha Dick, a white whale which swam near Chile. Bringing all this together, what iconic book did Herman write?
7 / 10 |
This mystery writer was on the way home to London from Iraq after accompanying her husband to an excavation. She observed all her fellow travellers and their activities. She also read the news of the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh’s son. Who was the author and what popular book did she write bringing all these together?
Answer : Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express
DID YOU KNOW THE ANSWER?
YES
NO
SHOW ANSWER
8 / 10 |
From the age of 11, Louisa kept a journal of what she and her sister were up to at home. As an adult, she worked in a hospital during the American Civil War, where she entertained patients with skits. She eventually brought together all these experiences into a book, which became an immediate success?
9 / 10 |
R.L. Stevenson had a good friend, Eugene Chantrelle who he enjoyed the company for many years. In May 1878, Eugene was accused and found guilty of poisoning his wife after taking out an insurance policy on her. A few years later, wanting to bring out the duality of man’s personality, what novel did he write?
Answer : The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
DID YOU KNOW THE ANSWER?
YES
NO
SHOW ANSWER
10 / 10 |
At the age of 19, Mary Godwin was spending a stormy summer in Geneva with her husband, Percy Shelley. Their friend Lord Byron shared ghost stories in the evening, and she learn about Volta’s experiments with electricity. That night, she had a dream of a man using galvanism to bring a corpse to life. This led to her founding the science fiction genre with which novel?
