The Art of Darkness

Trivia Tuesday

May 6th, 2014 by Cobwebs

  1. This famous monster is specifically depicted as being vegetarian, saying, “I do not destroy the lamb and the kid to glut my appetite; acorns and berries afford me sufficient nourishment.”
  2. J. Sheridan Le Fanu is perhaps best known for his gothic vampire tale Carmilla, but he also wrote this early example of the “locked room” mystery.
    A) Wylder’s Hand
    B) The House by the Churchyard
    C) Uncle Silas
    D) The Rose and the Key
    E) All in the Dark
  3. The short story “Under the Pyramids” is a fictionalized account of an alleged real-life experience which Harry Houdini claimed to have had in 1910: Kidnapped by a tour guide resembling an ancient Pharaoh and thrown down a pit near the Great Sphinx of Giza, he stumbled upon a gigantic ceremonial cavern and encountered the terrifying deity which had inspired the building of the Sphinx. Although the story’s authorship was attributed to Houdini it was actually ghost-written by this author, who went on to write many other tales of gods and cosmic horrors.
  4. Oscar Wilde’s The Canterville Ghost tells the story of a ghost desperately trying to frighten his house’s residents, who remain unfazed. For what crime is the ghost doomed to haunt the house?
    A) Closing down an orphanage
    B) Murdering his wife
    C) Stealing money from an alms box
    D) Cheating a widow
    E) Insulting a witch
  5. In Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle, sisters Merricat and Constance live an isolated life after most of their family were murdered six years previously. How were they killed?
  6. The beautiful Gypsy Esmeralda in The Hunchback of Notre Dame had a different birth name. What was it?
    A) Sophie
    B) Adèle
    C) Marie
    D) Agnes
    E) Lucrèce
  7. This novel by Valerie Martin tells the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde from the perspective of a maid working in Jekyll’s home. Julia Roberts starred in a 1996 movie based on the book.
  8. Presented as a collection of journal entries by a woman confined to a bedroom for health reasons, an influential short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman details the narrator’s descent into psychosis and her obsession with the room’s wallpaper. What color is the wallpaper?
    A) Orange
    B) Blue
    C) Black
    D) Scarlet
    E) Yellow
  9. Charles Dickens died before finishing this, his final novel, forever leaving the murderer’s identity open to conjecture.
  10. In Jules Verne’s Mysterious Island, Captain Nemo’s true identity is revealed. What was his name before he took to sea?
    A) Tom Ayrton
    B) Lord Glenarvan
    C) Bonadventure Pencroff
    D) Prince Dakkar
    E) Phileas Fogg

(Answers below the fold)

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