And Now, The Answers:

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Tintin&Snowy.pngOne: What intrepid Belgian boy reporter, accompanied by his sea-faring best friend and yappy little dog, perpetually finds himself in the middle of international intrigue (sometimes of his own instigation)?

That would be international man of mystery Tintin.

Two: What theme do Heart of Darkness and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn have in common?

They’re both about trips up a river, with various metaphorical meanings being attached to both the river and the trip itself.

Three: What county, located roughly halfway between Sacramento and Yosemite, is celebrated for leaping amphibians?

Calaveras County, which is the setting for “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” by one M. Twain. That’s two Twain questions in a row.

Four: The student Raskolnikov murders a greedy pawnbroker but is eventually driven to confess by guilt in what philosophical novel?

OK, so this probably should have been the first question. That’d be Crime and Punishment. Incidentally, check out this unique adaptation.

Five: What brave hero named his horse Rocinante? That was Don Quixote, who was to become the subject of a tone poem by Richard Strauss and a failed movie by Terry Gilliam.

Six: Oliver Mellors is the title character of what controversial English novel?.

Mr. Mellors is better known as Lady Chatterley’s Lover.

Seven: What road novel, which drew heavily from pre-existing Taoist and Buddhist myth and legend, features as its protagonists the Monkey King and a Buddhist monk on a mission to India? One of the great classic novels of China, Journey To The West has also been a popular subject for adaptation on television, despite the f/x needed. Perhaps the most memorable adaptation I can remember I saw in Hanoi in the early 1990s; it was a no-budget version that was probably filmed for mainland Chinese television during the 1980s and had been re-dubbed in Vietnamese by the simple expedient of having someone in the control room turn down the volume of the original recording and having live actors read over that.

Eight: Which warrior-king of antiquity traveled with his wild-man best friend to Lebanon in search of cedar trees to bring back to Uruk? Gilgamesh, and his best pal was Enkidu. Incidentally, Gilgamesh was supposed to be 2/3 god and 1/3 human; I’m no geneticist, but I’m not sure how the math works out on that one….

Nine: What anti-hero has been immortalized by artists as diverse as Mozart, Lord Byron, and Richard Strauss? Don Juan, in Don Giovanni, Don Juan, and Don Juan, respectively.

Ten: What song by the band The Cure was inspired by an seminal work of existential literature? That would be “Killing an Arab”, which was inspired by Camus’ The Stranger.

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Darn it, I've read Lady Chatterly and I couldn't remember. I also had good hunches on some of those as well but was not confident enough to answer. Good quiz!

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