Do you know your Dickens from your Dostoevsky? Pit your wits against the editors of the Macmillan Classics Library, a handpicked series of covetable hardback classics.
1. Ian Fleming wrote his short story Quantum of Solace in tribute to which author's writing style?
2. The Hogarth press was co-founded by which two authors?
3. Which author was said to have had a profound influence on Mahatma Gandhi in establishing his attitude to overthrowing British rule in India?
4. Which famous 19th-century novelist and poet coined the term “cliffhanger” in a novel where the protagonist literally hangs from a cliff?
5. After Soren Kierkegaard wrote the texts that formed the basis of existential philosophy, who wrote what many consider to be the first existentialist novel?
6. What was Gulliver’s first name?
7. How many years does Robinson Crusoe spend on the island?
8. Named after Scrooge's catchphrase in A Christmas Carol, Ba humbugi is a species of what?
9. Gaston Leroux is the author of which novel created into a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber?
10. Which author of detective fiction coined the phrase “Licensed to Kill”, which went on to become the tag line for James Bond?
Answers: 1. Somerset Maugham; 2. Leonard and Virginia Woolf; 3. Leo Tolstoy; 4. Thomas Hardy (the novel is A Pair of Blue Eyes); 5. Fyodor Dostoevsky (Notes from Underground, 1864); 6. Lemuel; 7. 27 years; 8. Snail ; 9. The Phantom of the Opera; 10. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (when he obtained his Bachelor of Medicine and Master of Surgery degree, he drew a sketch of himself receiving his diploma, with the caption Licensed to Kill)
