E: 07/05 win £100 of Vintage Classics (you might have to take your pick with Q6))

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http://www.wbqonline.com/feature.do?featureid=588

With help from paulspx, Gilla, Yuki60, AlfieBlue, The Plush Doormat, Lakshmi7, mp3duck & Vladivar we have answers to 8 questions.
I am fairly confident in the answer to Q8. Any comments gratefully rceived though
Q6 is proving quite hard. If you can help please do, if not then in a few days you might just have to take your pick

Questions
1. The Spanish Tragedy, an example of the type of play satirised in Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49, was written by which playwright?
a) Christopher Marlowe
b) Cyril de Tourneur
c) Thomas Kyd

2. Which 19th Century novelist had their characters adapted in the 20th Century by Jean Rhys in Wide Sargasso Sea?
a) Jane Austen
b) Charlotte Bronte
c) George Eliot

3. Which of these American novelists of the late 20th Century won the National Book Award with their first publication?
a) John Updike
b) Philip Roth thanks paulspx
c) Jonathan Franzen

4. Kurt Vonnegut famously dismissed the semi-colon as punctuation for what?
a) Europeans
b) Girls
c) The Old Fashioned thanks for confirming paulspx [STRIKE] my best guess - speech HERE[/STRIKE]

5. Who, according to T. S. Eliot, was the author of 'the first and greatest of English detective novels'?
a) Arthur Conan Doyle
b) Wilkie Collins thanks paulspx
c) Edgar Allan Poe

6. Who is the odd-man-out? PLEASE HELP IF YOU CAN (this has got v confusing - have put everyones logic in until we can agree an answer or so you can make your own decision)
a) Gustav Flaubert :huh: possible - the other 2 have spiritualist links (thanks AlfieBlue)
b) Noah :huh: possible - Noah is the only one of Julian Barnes' books that has not been shortlisted for a Booker Prize. Flaubert (1984) Arthur (2005) (thanks The Plush Doormat). Also Could it be Noah, because in that story, Noah is being critiqued, whilst in the other two, Julian Barnes is exploring the lives of the two characters? (thanks Lakshmi7) (much better than my best guess - the other 2 are both writers but could be wrong... )
c) Arthur Conan Doyle :huh: possible - he is the only one featured in first person in one of the books [in Julian Barnes novels] (thanks vladivar) . Also one of Flauberts books is about Noahs Ark in part (thanks mp3duck)

7. Frank Bascombe is the protagonist of a trilogy of novels by which American writer?
a) Richard Yates
b) Richard Ford
c) Christopher Isherwood

8. Of these three authors, which has written the novel with the greatest historical scope?
a) Julian Barnes :huh: my best guess - wrote a history of the world in 10 1/2 chapters
b) A. S. Byatt
c) Mikhael Bulgakov

9. Peter Ackroyd, author of Shakespeare – The Biography and The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde, has NOT written a biography of which historical figure?
a) Sir Thomas More
b) Charles Dickens
c) Oscar Wilde thanks gilla & Yuki60

10. Which of these Graham Greene novels was NOT conceived as a novel?
a) Brighton Rock
b) The Quiet American
c) The Third Man thanks paulspx

paulspx

answer to number 10 is c) The Third Man
answer to number 5 is b) Wilkie Collins
answer to number 3 is b) Philip Roth

Gilla_2

I think the answer to 9 is c) Oscar Wilde

Yuki60

Answer to 9) Oscar Wilde


Also, Kurt Vonnegut called the semi colon "transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing" so don't know how that fits into any of the 3 choices lol

Gilla_2

I've just found this reference on the semi-colon from KV:

He says: “Don’t use semi-colons. They stand for nothing … they only show you’ve been to college.”

which doesn't help

paulspx

agree with question 4 confirmed HERE

AlfieBlue

My goodness - you are a brainy lot!! Thank you for the answers so far!

Re this question:

6. Who is the odd-man-out?
a) Gustav Flaubert
b) Noah :huh: my best guess - the other 2 are both writers but could be wrong...
c) Arthur Conan Doyle

I have been googling til I'm all googled out!! I keep coming up with spiritualism connections?? Re Arthur and Noah. Anyone else found anything?? Could it be a bit of a wee trick question?? Any ideas all you brainy lot out there??

xx

AlfieBlue

Hellooooooooi! Anyone there?? xx

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Hello Alfie. I was a bit worried it may be a trick question too. Could be either really.

Vladivar

Re: Question 6 - all 3 have featured in Julian Barnes novels, but I can't work out why 1 is odd 1 out??

Not helping much am I

AlfieBlue

ooooo err - this is hard!! Me thinks its a trick question - will carry on googling. I'm all goggled eyed from googling :eek: but ..... something must come up eventually!!!! xx