Trivia quiz on Charles Dickens, “Bleak House” (part two, from Chap. 29 to end)

Trivia Quiz for Bleak House (part two)by Charles Dickens (1853)

For West Seattle “Classic Novels (and Movies)” book club, 2/20/22

A. The Complicated Unfolding: Characters and Relationships.

1. Secrets revealed. People’s secrets come to light in many ways—gradual and abrupt—in the second half of Bleak House. Which of the following is not a secret revealed?

a. Mrs. Rouncewell is actually George’s mother.

b. Lady Dedlock is actually Esther’s mother.

c. The will found by Mr. Smallweed in Krook’s shop actually does provide a fortune for the Jarndyce wards.

d. Mrs. Jellyby’s efforts actually do help the people of Borrioboola-Gha.

2. Mysteries remain. Despite the many dénouements in the second half, significant doubts nag at the reader. Which of the following enigmas is unresolved?

a. Why did Hortense kill the lawyer, Mr. Tulkinghorn?

b. How does Skimpole get away with sponging off of other people?

c. How did Jo get the dread virus and transmit it to Esther?

d. Whose footsteps are heard on the Ghost’s Walk at Chesney Wold?

e. All of the above remain tinged by mystery, in one way or another

Insider references: a clue to emotion. Several characters revert to stock phrases to express their feelings. Match the character to the phrase.  The characters include:  a. Mr. Bagnet; b. Mr. Jarndyce; c. Richard in the middle of the novel; d. Mr. Jellyby

3. “Never have a Mission, my dear child.”

4. “It’s rather jog-trotty and humdrum. But it’ll do as well as any thing else!”

5. “Discipline must be maintained.”                         

6. “An East wind is blowing.”

B. Social critique? Institutions and professions are skewered but reform is ridiculed too, and family is not necessarily a haven.

7. Which of the following social institutions is not condemned in Bleak House?

a. medicine                            

b. the law                               

c. charitable organizations (church, philanthropy)

d. Parliament and local governments

8. Family and broken homes. Who among the following is not an orphan, or missing one parent?

a. Ada                                     

b. Allan Woodcourt               

c. Richard      

d. George

e. Esther                                 

f. Caddy Jellyby        

g. Jo                                                   

9. At the end, Mrs. Jellyby gives up her efforts in Africa to focus on an English concern that is portrayed as equally ludicrous. What is it?

a. women’s rights                  

b. the abolition of slavery                  

c. Socialism

C. Oddities and Loose Ends

10. True or False? The heroine’s real name is not Esther Summerson, but Esther Hawdon.  T / F

11. In a novel where much of the action takes place in the fog, the weirdest meteorological phenomenon actually comes from human sources. Which one of the following passages does not describe the death of Mr. Krook by spontaneous combustion?

a. “See how the soot’s falling. Confound the stuff, it won’t blow off—smears, like black fat!”

b. “Smoke lowering down from chimney-pots, making a soft black drizzle, with flakes of soot in it as big as full-grown snow-flakes—gone into mourning, one might imagine, for the death of the sun.”

c. “’Don’t you observe,’ says Mr. Snagsby, pausing to sniff and taste the air a little, ‘don’t you observe, Mr. Weevle, that you’re—not to put too fine a point upon it—that you’re rather greasy here, sir?’”

d. “’What, in the Devil’s name is this?’ … A thick, yellow liquor defiles them, which is offensive to the touch and sight, and more offensive to the smell. A stagnant, sickening oil, with some natural repulsion in it that makes them both shudder.”

12. Why is Lady Dedlock startled to see Esther in church one day? Choose the correct reply.

a. Esther bears a striking resemblance to her, as much as a daughter might (but Lady D. thinks her own secret child died in infancy).

b. Lady D. mistakes Esther for Hortense, the French maid she has fired, and who has vowed to bring her down in revenge.

c. Lady D. is surprised because Esther, a prominent atheist, is not known to frequent places of worship.

13. True or False? At one point, Lord Leicester is described as “a magnificent freezer.”   T/F

14. True or False? The last scene portrays the adult Esther on a moonlit porch with a loving husband who asks her, “Don’t you know that you are prettier than you ever were?”     T/F

ANSWERS

1. d. 

2. e.

3. d.

4. c.

5. a.

6. b.

7. a.

8. f.

9. a.

10.  True

11. b.

12. a.

13. False.  He is described as “a magnificent refrigerator”!

14. True

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Trivia Quiz on “Bleak House” by Charles Dickens (part one, up to Chap. 29)

Trivia Quiz on Bleak House (1853)by Charles Dickens

For West Seattle “Classic Novels (and Movies)” book club, 1/16/22

A. Bleak House Essentials I: Characters galore!

1. … and they have such funny names! Odd and humorous names abound in Dickens’s prose, and they provide a good laugh to readers. Which of the following is not a character in Bleak House?

a. An unwelcome cousin, Volumnia              b. A wicked money-lender named Uriah Heep

c. Lord Boodle, the Duke of Foodle, and the Noodle, Sir Leicester             

d. A nasty old man called Grandfather Smallweed                e. A dirty boy named Peepy       

2. … but they’re confusing. Which people are important? Bleak House is crammed with people of all sorts who bump shoulders in apparently accidental ways, on crowded city streets among other places. Yet some encounters are significant. Which one of the following encounters among characters is followed by a significant message or foreshadowing?

a. Miss Flite’s meeting with the three orphans outside Lincoln’s Inn

b. Lady Dedlock’s meeting with Lord Boodle at her home in town

c. Lady Jane’s meeting with the three orphans at Krook’s store

d. The visit to Mrs. Jellyby of some natives of Borrioboola-Gha

B. Bleak House Essentials II: The World of London

3. Compared to other London novels such as Mrs. Dalloway, there are few tourist locations named in Bleak House. Which one of the following places is named?

a. The Shard                           

b. The Victoria and Albert Museum              

c. The Tate Modern

d. Temple Bar                        

e. The Princess Diana Memorial Fountain    

f. All of the above      

C. Bleak House Essentials III: Fog

4. Many scenes take place in dark, shady neighborhoods or deep in a cold wintry fog. The fog often portends confusion, as if the characters are entering into a particularly disorganized, unruly, murky place. Which of the following places in Bleak House does not match that description?

a. The home of the Jellyby family                                         

b. Tom-All-Alone’s

c. The Court of Chancery                                                      

d. Krook’s store

e. None of the above: they all match that description

5. The House Itself: Not so bleak!  Which of the following does not describe Bleak House?

a. “delightfully irregular”                  

b. “a bountiful profusion of little halls and passages”

c. “It was the completest and most desirable bedroom ever seen—in the stern of the vessel; with a little window, and a little looking-glass, just the right height for me, framed with oyster shells.”

d. “shining out upon the star-light night; with its light, and warmth, and comfort”

6. Strange Pronouncements and Legacies. Some of the most vivid passages touch on the power of words to form a destiny or conjure up the past. Which of the following is not in the novel?

a. “It would have been far better, little Esther, that you had had no birthday; that you had never been born!”

b. “Take care how you cut yourself. It is more dangerous than you think in this country.”

c. “Some melancholy influence is upon her; or why should so proud a lady close the doors, and sit alone upon the hearth so desolate?”

d. “Blest! If I can ever have seen her. Yet I know her! Has the picture been engraved, miss?”

e. “The only other lodger is a law-writer. The children in the lanes here, say he has sold himself to the devil.”

D. Style and Wisdom. Charles Dickens shows great talent for describing human frailties, yet the depth of the characters’ psychology may disappoint: people often resemble their exterior and names. Name the person associated with the following quotes, from this list: a. Mr. Snagsby; b. Esther Summerson; c. Harold Skimpole

7. “It sounds—somehow it sounds, like a small sum?” 

8. “But so from rough outsides (I hope I have learnt) serene and gentle influences often proceed.”

9. “X appears: greasy, warm, herbaceous, and chewing.”

10. Maxims. Dickens famously describes Victorian attitudes in his works, and Bleak House abounds with maxims such as all of the following but one. Which one doesn’t fit?

a. “Of all the soul’s impressions, shame is the most conventional and the one most capable of being falsely applied.”

b. “Submission, self-denial, diligent work, are the preparations for a life.”

c. “There were two classes of charitable people; one, the people who did a little and made a great deal of noise; the other, the people who did a great deal and made no noise at all.”

d. “It is a melancholy truth that even great men have their poor relations.”

11. True or False? An earlier name for Mr. Jarndyce’s home is “The Peaks”. T / F

ANSWERS

1. b. Readers of David Copperfield will find Uriah Heep there, but not in Bleak House.

2. a.

3. d.

4. e.

5. c. This quote is also from David Copperfield.

6. b. That warning is from Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

7. c.

8. b.

9. a.

10. a. That comment is from Karolina Pavlova’s novel, A Double Life.

11. True

Trivia Quiz for Oscar Wilde, “The Picture of Dorian Gray”

Trivia Quiz for Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891)

For West Seattle “Classic Novels (and Movies)” book club, 3/21/21

Dorian Gray is the perfect read for our stormy times, as it presents life as tense tug-of-war between stoicism and cynicism: an inevitable cycle of events or a bitter fight for survival.

1. The novel is divided into a Preface and 20 chapters that follow the arc of the tragedy. The mid-point of the book—chaps 10-11—present a crucial turning point in the plot, when Dorian does what? Choose the one correct answer.

a. puts the painting in the attic                      

b. seduces the 17-year-old actress Sibyl Vane

c. destroys the painting                                  

d. gives a copy of Huysmans’s book to Lord Henry

2. Chapter 8 has the one moment described as perfect contentment in this book, when Dorian engages in certain pleasures. Which of the following does not happen at this moment?

a. he smokes opium                                       

b. he sleeps in, past noon

c. he enjoys a light French breakfast             

d. a bee buzzes around a blue-dragon bowl filled with yellow roses

3. One of the themes in The Picture of Dorian Gray is the power of language to change reality. It includes several vows, some of which are self-fulfilling prophecies. Which vow does not come true in Dorian Gray?

a. Dorian Gray, “If the picture could change, and I could always be what I am now! … It will mock me some day—mock me horribly!”

b. James Vane, “If this man wrongs my sister, I will find out who he is, track him down, and kill him like a dog. I swear it.”

c. Basil Hallward, “As long as I live, the personality of Dorian Gray will dominate me.”

d.  They all come true, to a word.

4. Influence is another major theme of Wilde’s novel. Dorian Gray expresses apprehension over what one of the following as a dangerous influence in his life?

a. Rock ‘n roll music 

b. Huysmans’s book, À Rebours / Against the Grain

c. Lord Henry’s Puritan ideas

d. all of the above

5. As befits the creation of an award-winning student of literature, Wilde’s narration includes many intertextual allusions. Which of the following is not mentioned in Dorian Gray?

a. Abbé Prévost’s novel of a prostitute who runs away with a young soldier, Manon Lescaut

b. The randy, erotic 100 Stories or Cent Nouvelles by Margaret of Valois

c. The weird tale of a wealthy dandy who experiments with esoteric ideas, Huysmans’s À  Rebours / Against the Grain

d. Fitzgerald’s portrait of the rise and fall of a social phenomenon, The Great Gatsby

6. Bits of famous myths, legends, and works of art are found throughout the book and help motor the plot of The Picture of Dorian Gray, though their exact significance remains unclear. Which of the following is not mentioned in Dorian Gray?

a. Adonis, the beautiful young man beloved by Venus, who was killed in the prime of life

b. Pygmalion, the artist who created an ideal woman out of marble, then fell in love with her        

c. The Celtic myth of the Selkies or Silkies, the seal-women who lure sailors into loving them

d. All are mentioned in The Picture of Dorian Gray

7. Fears and secrets of sexuality run through The Picture of Dorian Gray. Which of the following quotes is not in the novel?

a. “’I feel sort of paralyzed about the whole business, I wish I was gay.’ Bellamy also wished that Harvey was gay.”

b. “You have gone from corruption to corruption, and now you have culminated in crime.”

c. “Sin is a thing that writes itself across a man’s face. It cannot be concealed.”

d. “For a moment he felt keenly the terrible pleasure of a double life.”

8. True / False. The nickname of Dorian Gray is: Prince Charming:    T     F

9. A rich interior monologue runs through The Picture of Dorian Gray, explaining the characters’ thoughts about their actions. Which quote is not from the book?

a. “It often happened that when we thought we were experimenting on others we were really experimenting on ourselves.”

b. “In his adoptive father, he observed mildness of temper… a love of labor and perseverance.”

10. Which of the following jobs or vocations occupies the protagonist of Wilde’s novel?

a. he does nothing; he has money thanks to inheriting a large fortune           

b. he is a stock broker

c. he is a lawyer                     

d. he is an actor

11. Humor!  Lord Henry Wotton articulates many clever sayings in this book. Which of the following is not one of his quips?

a. “You know you’re getting old when you stoop to tie your shoelaces and wonder what else you could do while you’re down there.”

b. “To get back one’s youth one has merely to repeat one’s follies.”

c.  “A man can be happy with any woman, as long as he does not love her.”

d. “Humanity takes itself too seriously. … If the caveman had known how to laugh, History would have been different.”

ANSWERS

1. a.

2. a.

3. b.  (This threat does not come to fruition; James Vane dies before he can retaliate.)

4. b.

5. d.  (The informed reader knows that Gatsby was not published until 1925, whereas Dorian Gray dates from 1891.)

6. c.

7. a. (This quote is from Iris Murdoch, The Green Knight.)

8. True

9. b. (This quote is from Charles Dickens, David Copperfield.)

10. a.

11. a. (This quote is from comedian George Burns, 1896-1996).

If you read only one book this year,

let it be this one: When Breath Becomes Air, by Paul Kalanithi.

It received all the accolades our society can give a book.*

As for me, I listened to the book while working on “Respect” quilt no. 4. I’m doing the tie-quilting now, a slow laborious task conducive to peaceful reflection. In listening to the words of When Breath Becomes Air, I felt like I was sitting next to a dear wise friend who, just like me, was searching in literature–ancient and less so–for guidance on living a good life. A life that means something in the big scheme of things, at least such as a human can do. Paul Kalanithi loved English literature deeply and studied Walt Whitman, T.S. Eliot and cites their beautiful words throughout this book. He also cites authors I’ve never heard anyone cite, but who are dear to me, like Osler, a famed doctor whose book (pub. 1919) I discovered during 2016-18, while mentally preparing myself to depart from the university, the only identity I’d ever known.

If you seek wisdom about how to live life with integrity, in poetic and philosophical prose, if you wonder how to face death, and don’t mind receiving technical knowledge about how lung cancer makes its way through the human body (useful, but not really a genre I’d seek out), read Paul Kalanithi’s book, When Breath Becomes Air.

Or listen to it, as I did. I think I’ll do so again some day. I bought the book too; it will likely arrive in a couple weeks. I look forward to the book arriving here in my home. When I see it, I will feel reassured, knowing he is there and I can visit his mind again, for times when I feel sad or alone or meaningless. He died at age 37, and I’m still here in my sixth decade. Pretty lucky.

In the meantime, I went back to Osler this morning and found this quote, my farewell for now to you, dear reader. Remember Osler was writing in 1919:

“Let us not be discouraged. … If survived, a terrible infection, such as confluent small-pox, seems to benefit the general health. Perhaps such an attack through which we have passed may benefit the body cosmic. … Plato concludes that ‘States are as the men are, they grow out of human characters’ (Rep. VIII), and then, as the dream-republic approached completion, he realized that after all the true State is within, of which each one of us is the founder, and patterned on an ideal the existence of which matters not a whit. Is not the need of this individual reconstruction the Greek message to modern democracy? and with it is blended the note of individual service to the community.”**

P.S. Thank you Seattle Public Library for the audiobooks service!

* It was a New York Times bestseller, spending 68 weeks on the non-fiction bestseller list at publication in 2016. Matt McCarthy of USA Today gave it 4 out of 4 stars and said, “It’s a story so remarkable, so stunning, and so affecting that I had to take dozens of breaks just to compose myself enough to get through it.” Nick Romeo of The Boston Globe wrote that it, “possesses the gravity and wisdom of an ancient Greek tragedy.” Melissa Maerz of Entertainment Weekly stated that the book was “so original—and so devastating. . . . Its only fault is that the book, like his life, ends much too early.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_Breath_Becomes_Air

** Sir William Osler, “Old Humanities and New Science,” pp. 96-97. see “Favorite Books” on this blog.

Three weeks to go: advice on moving and a word from our sponsor

With three weeks to go, here’s some useful advice on moving and a word from our sponsor, “Honey Girl Books and Gifts”

1. Plan at least two months ahead. Follow this advice on moving

Jen A. Miller, “How to Avoid Stress When You’re Moving,” New York Times (March 31, 2017).

Ayn-Monique Klahre, “How to Hire Inter-State Movers Without Getting Scammed,” New York Times (May 8, 2018).

2. Go analog for long-distance planning

If you’re driving a long way, buy a large-scale Rand McNally Road Atlas and chart out your route and motel stops. Do not rely on Mapquest, which may lead you astray (as it did to us. All we need to do is head due West on I-90 which ends at a spot on I-5 about ten minutes from our new house in West Seattle. Why mess around with I-94 etc.?). Plus it shows where the pretty stuff is–it’s green!

3. If you’re traveling with a dog, find lodgings easily via Bring Fido:  https://www.bringfido.com/

However, I recommend making the reservation in person on the phone, just to make sure that the motel really will welcome you and your big dog when you arrive after driving all day.

And now, some news from Honey Girl Books and Gifts  https://www.honeygirlbooks.com/

1. Good news!

a) revenue just passed $1,000 since the “soft launch” in December 2017 (L.L.C. registration coming in one month in WA state, if you are from govt.org), and

b) I recently fulfilled orders for people unknown to me personally. That is a milestone according to Guy Kawasaki, The Art of the Start.

2. That has led to adding new components as follows for “Tranquility Pillows” (the most popular item):

a) Since every Tranquility Pillow is designed to make meaning, I’ve added this component to the Shopping page:

It helps to know something about you or the person for whom you’re ordering. Please submit a few lines on things such as a favorite book, a long-held dream, or a major life event that you, or your loved one, are encountering right now. This makes each pillow’s mood distinct. For example, the serene-looking “Magnificent Glide” (no. 8) was created to soothe a high school classroom, while “Stormy Waters” (no. 16), with its two waterfalls, honors the ongoing struggles and conflicts of its new owner.

b) New feature! Beginning summer 2018, every Tranquility Pillow will be accompanied by a few lines of verse chosen especially for the pillow’s “story of you.” Poets featured to date include Robert Louis Stevenson, Maya Angelou, and Emily Brontë.

c) Supplies limited. Alas, the light green organic cotton featured in the Spring pillow is no longer available. So when my stock is exhausted this pillow line will end.

3. Coming soon: “Hometown Heroes” a new design of Original Honey Girl Pillows. Features a back made of denim with a jeans pocket and an outdoorsy scene in flannel, and our adorable logo on the front.

4. Coming in July: Second series in the “Limited Edition Literary Pillows” line! Just like the first series inspired by Zola’s department store novel, these pillows will be made of vintage satin and flannel. They will feature a satin woman’s torso, lying down odalisque-style, inspired by Charles Baudelaire’s poem (in Richard Howard’s translation), “The Giantess” / “La géante.”

(I particularly love the last stanza:

… when the fetid summers made her stretch

herself across the countryside, to sleep
untroubled in the shadow of her breasts
like a peaceful village at the mountain’s base.

Et parfois en été, quand les soleils malsains,

Lasse, la font s’étendre à travers la campagne,
Dormir nonchalamment à l’ombre de ses seins,
Comme un hameau paisible au pied d’une montagne.

 

And a personal note of joy: today Rich and I celebrate our 32^nd anniversary! (It rained that day in New Jersey, but as they say, “mariage pluvieux, mariage heureux”).

Thanks for reading,

jdv

p.s. Moving sale this Saturday!  11:00am — 4:00pm, 1207 Riverside Drive, South Bend, IN.