Tuesday Trivia

1. How many words are in the longest sentence in Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables? 
2. Which well-known 20th century, British author was a member of the Inklings, a group associated with Oxford University, alongside other pertinent authors such as C.S. Lewis? 
3. Which English author, poet, essayist, literary critic, and playwright enjoyed taking off his clothes and climbing mulberry trees? 
4. What Alfred Hitchcock movie title is drawn from Shakespeare's Hamlet? In what year was the first English-language Encyclopaedia Britannica published? 

Last Week's Answers 

Which gothic writer was better known during his lifetime as the personal assistant of actor Henry Irving and business manager of the Lyceum Theatre in London? 

Bram Stoker 

The moons of Uranus are named after characters from the works of which two famous writers? 

Alexander Pope and William Shakespeare. 

Washington Irving got the idea for the story of Rip Van Winkle from which ancient poet? 

Washington Irving got his idea for Rip Van Winkle from the story of the Cretan poet Epimenides, who lived around 600 B.C. In the story, the main character takes a nap in a cave and awakes almost 60 years later. When he returns home, he finds his younger brother has become an old man. 

Which author’s genius work ignited a scientific revolution, but failed financially — going out of print for many years after its initial publishing in 1543? 

Copernicus' revolutionary book arguing that heavenly bodies move around the sun ignited a scientific revolution, but it was a financial flop. Published, finally, in 1543, it was overpriced and allowed to go out of print. A second edition was not printed until 1566, the third, not until 1617.