WELD / CO Lit 2012: Beauty is Tlooth, Tlooth beauty
Packet 04
1. A sailor in this novel quips “Any port in a storm” after accidentally sticking his penis in the wrong hole
while having sex with the protagonist. Minor characters in this novel include a boy nicknamed “good-natured
Dick” and a Genoese merchant who is observed by the protagonist. The main character of this novel is
orphaned when her parents die of smallpox, and Esther Davis advises her to go to London. In this novel,
Charles’ father kidnaps him and sends him to the South Seas to make his fortune, and a shipwreck on the Irish coast
delays his reunion with his beloved. One scene in this novel sees Emily, Harriet and Louisa tell the title character the
stories of their sexual awakening, after which all four of them have sex on a couch in turn while the others watch.
For 10 points, name this famously obscene erotic novel by John Cleland.
ANSWER: Fanny Hill [or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure]
2. In one sequel to this novel, a former professor who is now a janitor discusses capitalism and socialism with
the protagonist. That sequel, written by Richard Michaelis, features a revolution led by the protagonist’s love
interest. Another sequel to this novel was written by Solomon Schindler, who also translated it into German.
A sequel to this novel by C. H. Stone purports to be written by Berrian, who is the greatest novelist of the era
in which this novel takes place. William Morris wrote News from Nowhere as a response to this novel. The only
sequel to this novel written by its own author contains the parable of the water-tank and is called Equality. In the
wake of its publication in 1887, over 160 Nationalist Clubs were formed to try to implement its ideals. For 10 points,
name this novel in which Julian West wakes up in a socialist utopia, by Edward Bellamy.
ANSWER: Looking Backward: 2000-1887
3. One poem in this collection advises the reader to grin no matter what adversity they are facing. Another
poem in this collection tells of a parson’s son who is devoured by his huskies after he passes out from cold in
his shack. Other poems in this collection include “Fighting Mac” and “The Call of the Wild.” In one poem in
this collection, the speaker says “my God! but that man could play!” about a stranger who enters a saloon and
plays the piano before killing the title character over the love of “the lady that’s known as Lou.” That poem is
followed by a poem whose title event takes place “on the marge of Lake Lebarge,” which begins “There are strange
things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.” Most of its poems take place in the Yukon,
including “The Shooting of Dan McGrew” and “The Cremation of Dan McGee.” For 10 points, name this poetry
collection by Robert Service.
ANSWER: Songs of a Sourdough [accept The Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses]
4. The speaker of a poem addressed to this author describes his own psychological maladies and says “If I am
sick, there is no proof whatsoever that man is a healthy creature.” One of this author’s novels is about
Suzanne Chantereux, a married woman who enchants the mathematician Sivarama Sastri. He wrote a
biography of Gandhi called Great Indian Way. His unpublished manuscripts include the 750-page The
Daughter of the Mountain, which is the second novel in a projected trilogy beginning with The Chessmaster and
His Moves. This author of Comrade Kirillov wrote about Govinda Nair’s mentorship of Ramakrishna Pai in The Cat
and Shakespeare, which he considers to be the conclusion to a semi-autobiographical work about Ramaswany’s
quest for salvation. For 10 points, name this author of The Serpent and the Rope.
ANSWER: Raja Rao
5. Morris Bishop wrote a book about the “life and adventures” of this writer. He wrote about his melancholic
temperament, claiming to only have laughed three or four times in the last three or four years, in his selfportrait which appeared in Madame de Montpensier’s Divers Portraits. His memoirs were published without
his permission by the Elzevir family. In one work, he wrote, “True love is like the appearance of ghosts:
everyone talks about it but few have seen it.” That work, his most famous, also claims that “quarrels would not last
long if the fault were only on one side” and calls self-love “the greatest of all flatterers,” and that work’s epigraph
states that “our virtues are most frequently but vices in disguise.” For 10 points, name this French writer best known
for his cynical Maxims.
ANSWER: François de La Rochefoucauld
6. N. A. Berdyaev wrote a review of this work referring to it as an “astral novel.” In the epilogue, one of the
main characters goes to Egypt and writes a monograph called Concerning the Letter of Dauphsekhrut. A
shoddily-built ceiling foils one character’s attempt to hang himself; that character, Sergey Sergeyevich, is
married to a woman nicknamed Angel Peri. In this novel, the Senator is pleased by the rectilinear nature of the
main street of the city where it takes place. Nikolai Apollonovich is instructed to assassinate his own father with a
time bomb in a sardine tin in this novel. Its chapters are introduced by quotes from Pushkin’s poem about the Bronze
Horseman, which symbolizes the title city. For 10 points, name this symbolist novel by Andrei Bely.
ANSWER: St. Petersburg [or Peterburg]
7. One of his last works was an adventure novel about George Cranleigh’s love for the title character, who is
a daughter of a prince from the Caucasus. This author of Dariel also created a character who becomes
famous for his unnatural ability to float around with the wind, Sir Thomas Upmore. His anonymously
published novel Clara Vaughan was mistakenly attributed to Mary Elizabeth Braddon. Most famously, he
wrote a novel set in Exmoor during the time of the Monmouth Rebellion. That novel features a family of robbers
who live in a valley, and the title character is believed to be a member of that family, until it is discovered she is
actually a member of the Dugal family. The narrator of that novel, John Ridd, meets Judge Jeffreys and falls in love
with the title character. For 10 points, name this author of sensation novels like Lorna Doone.
ANSWER: Richard Doddridge Blackmore
8. The title character of this short story describes himself as “driven off the face of the earth.” At one point,
the steward is startled that the narrator is not in his cabin, causing him to break a cup. The steward also
causes the narrator anxiety by hanging a coat in the bathroom. One ship in this story is saved from a violent
storm by a reefed foresail. The narrator of this story refers to the title character as “my second self,” and he
first encounters the title character when he thinks he sees a headless corpse clinging to a ladder. The title character
of this story, who was formerly the chief mate of the Sephora, tells the narrator about how he strangled one of his
crewmates during a storm, and how Captain Archbold is pursuing him because he jumped overboard to escape. For
10 points, name this story in which a nameless captain hides Leggatt in his cabin, by Joseph Conrad.
ANSWER: “The Secret Sharer”
9. In the second chapter of this novel, “The Gold Cure,” a character drinks coffee with gold flakes in it and
thinks about how much it costs. One character in this novel collects songs which make use of pauses and
graphs their duration and effectiveness. A chapter of this novel which parodies the footnote-heavy style of
David Foster Wallace contains an article written by Jules about his interview with Kitty Jackson, including a
description of his attempt to rape her in Central Park. In this novel, Dolly works as a PR agent for a murderous
dictator known as the General. Its title comes from a line spoken by Bosco about the cruelty of time. This novel’s
first chapter describes the kleptomania of Sasha, the assistant to the record company executive Bennie Salazar. Its
structural innovations include a chapter written as a PowerPoint presentation. For 10 points, name this Pulitzerwinning novel by Jennifer Egan.
ANSWER: A Visit from the Goon Squad
10. The protagonist of this work wins a game of wori against a king because he knows that the day before, an
evil queen mother had sent the king some gold. A hunter in this work defeats a buffalo who had been
ravaging a village, and as a reward he is allowed to marry any woman he wants, choosing an extremely ugly
hunchbacked woman. The protagonist of this work is born lame, but a blacksmith gives him an iron rod which
allows him to stand upright and walk, after which he pulls a baobab tree out of the ground by its roots. At the Battle
of Neguéboria, the protagonist of this work fights an enemy who can appear and disappear at will, an evil sorcererking who lives in a palace decorated with human skin and containing a magical balafon. This work, a prose version
of which was written D. T. Niane, was transmitted orally for centuries by griots. For 10 points, name this epic which
tells of a great king of Mali.
ANSWER: The Epic of Sundiata [or Sundiata Keita]
11. Johann Gottfried Herder wrote about a “discussion between a Rabbi and a Christian” on this poet’s
magnum opus, which was influenced by Bodmer’s translation of Paradise Lost; that magnum opus even
adopts Milton’s character of Abdiel and gives him a twin named Abbadona. His odes include “Ode to Lake
Zurich” and ones addressed to Cidli and Fanny, the first of whom was his wife Margareta and the second of
whom was his cousin, who he loved unrequitedly. His most popular ode was originally titled “To My Friends,” but
was revised and published under a different title twenty years later. His magnum opus, which took twenty-five years
to complete, was a religious epic about Christ. For 10 points, name this German poet of “Wingolf” and The Messiah.
ANSWER: Friedrich Klopstock
12. This author wrote about a man who installs tape recorders in a tunnel linking West and East Berlin. In
another novel by this author, Stephen’s face appears in a window while his mother is pregnant with him,
causing her decision not to get an abortion. In another of his novels, Edward prematurely ejaculates before
he can consummate his marriage with Florence, who is uncomfortable with sex. In one novel, he wrote about
a neurosurgeon who notices that Baxter is in the early stages of Huntington’s disease after a minor car accident. He
won the Booker Prize for a novel about a euthanasia pact between Clive Linley and Vernon Halliday. This author of
The Child in Time and On Chesil Beach is best known for a novel in which Robbie is falsely accused of rape by
Cecilia’s sister, Briony Tallis. For 10 points, name this author of Amsterdam and Atonement.
ANSWER: Ian McEwan
13. In The Poetics of Mind, R. W. Gibbs says that this poem is an embellishment of the conceptual metaphor
of love as a nutrient, quoting a version of this poem whose last line is “from manzanilla come.” The second
stanza of this poem describes the sky as “molten” and mentions “reeling through endless summer days.” The
final stanza of this poem describes “seraphs swing[ing] their snowy hats” and saints running to windows to
see the speaker “leaning against the Sun.” It also describes how the speaker will not be dissuaded “when landlords
turn the drunken bee out of the foxglove’s door” or “when butterflies renounce their drams.” The speaker of this
poem describes herself as an “inebriate of air” and “debauchee of dew,” and claims that “not all the vats upon the
Rhine yield such an alcohol.” For 10 points, name this Emily Dickinson poem about a spiritual intoxication.
ANSWER: “I taste a liquor never brewed” [accept 214]
14. Swinburne’s paraphrase of this poem from Songs of the Spring-Tides describes the title figure as “subtlesouled.” This poem’s title figure asks who is treating the speaker badly and says that the speaker’s beloved
will soon reciprocate her love. The title figure of this poem is addressed as a “weaver of wiles.” It is unclear
whether this poem’s first word is poikilophron or poikilothron, meaning “with a many-colored mind” or “on a
many-colored throne,” respectively. The speaker of this poem describes how the title figure arrived from the
heavens on a chariot drawn by a flock of sparrows, and asks her to be her ally and release her from “cruel cares.” Its
text appears in the writings of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who praised its style. For 10 points, name this poem, the
only completely surviving poem by Sappho.
ANSWER: “Hymn to Aphrodite”
15. An early short story by this author is about Philip Latak, who steals an idol from his grandfather. He
wrote a novel in which James Wack adopts an orphan whose name means “savior of the race” in Spanish,
and several characters from his magnum opus make appearances in that novel, Viajero. This author of “The
God Stealer” wrote about the relationship of the half-brothers Victor and Luis Asperri in one novel from a
series whose chronologically first novel, about Istak Samson, has been published under the titles Dusk and Poon. That five-novel series also includes Tree, Mass, and My Brother, My Executioner. For 10 points, name this
Filipino author of the Rosales Saga whose last name is the same as the first name of the author of El Filibusterismo
and Noli Mi Tangere.
ANSWER: Francisco Sionil José
16. The protagonist of this play delivers a soliloquy in which he says life is but a “lively form of death” and
the world is but a “mass of public wrongs.” The protagonist also says “Thou art the lively image of my grief”
to an old man who seeks justice for his murdered son. A lover in this play says “Give me a kiss, I’ll
countercheck thy kiss,” as part of an extended metaphor comparing love to war. In this play, a messengerboy disobeys his orders by looking in a box and discovering that it is empty, instead of carrying a pardon for
Pedrignano. This play’s frame story features the ghost of Andrea, who was killed in a battle with the Portuguese,
and desires to know what his lover Bellimperia did after his death. In this play’s final act, Lorenzo and Balthazar
play Erasto and Soliman in a play staged by Hieronimo as part of a plot to avenge the death of his son Horatio. For
10 points, name this revenge tragedy by Thomas Kyd.
ANSWER: The Spanish Tragedy
17. This character faints after asking a girl out on a date and being rejected. He makes a speech about
wanting to be aligned with “the axial lines of life.” He gets kicked in the head by a horse named Bizcocho in
Mexico, where he also names an eagle Caligula because he mishears the Spanish phrase el águila. He gets
caught in a revolving door by a store detective after he starts stealing books, and he gets arrested on the
suspicion of being part of a gang of car thieves after falling in with Joe Gorman. Mrs. Renling tries to adopt this
character into her family, without success. He works for and idolizes the Commissioner’s son, a cripple named
Einhorn. His love interests include Sophie Geratis and Thea Fenchel, but not Mimi Villars. For 10 points, name this
“American, Chicago born” whose adventures are described in a Saul Bellow novel.
ANSWER: Augie March [accept either name]
18. One practitioner of this genre described himself as “a pathetic man whose goal is to read poetry in order
to get women to fall in love with him” in a poem which ends “all I’m saying is someone love me.” Another
practitioner of this genre wrote “the greatest Americans have not been born yet” in the poem “Bloodletting.”
Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz wrote a history of this genre which discussed the work of Maggie Estep and Bob
Holman, among others. The two aforementioned poets, both of whom are associated with the Nuyorican Poets
Café, are Beau Sia and Saul Williams, respectively. In performances of this genre of poetry, props are forbidden,
and performers are generally limited to three minutes. For 10 points, name this genre of poetry in which
performances of original poems are judged by the audience on a scale of 1 to 10.
ANSWER: slam poetry [prompt on performance poetry or spoken word]
19. The protagonist of this novel recalls the story of how Eratosthenes starved himself to death upon realizing
that he was going blind. During an interrogation scene in this novel, the protagonist looks at himself in a fulllength mirror and realizes that he's not wearing any pants. One character in this novel repeats the phrase "I
make so bold" and wears a starched skirt which is compared to a mussel shell. The protagonist gives a speech
rousing his books to battle, but the books on Buddha protest that they are pacifists. At the Stars of Heaven cafe, the
protagonist meets a hunchbacked dwarf who dreams of becoming the world chess champion, Fischerle. Other
characters include the villainous caretaker Benedikt Pfaff and the protagonist’s wife Theresa. Ultimately, the
protagonist commits the title action by setting fire to his library. For 10 points, name this novel about the sinologist
Peter Kien by Elias Canetti.
ANSWER: Auto-da-Fé [or Die Blendung; accept The Blinding]
20. This country is home to a location called Laku, which means “I don’t know” in the local tongue, because
that’s what a native responded when asked what the name of a hill was. A tax collector and general named
Gollancz belongs to the Jackson family, which dominated this country’s politics in its early history. Its fascist
movement is led by Smiles Soum, and the fascists in this country like to be called Whites after the White
Russians, though the ongoing civil war here is said to be between the Reds and the Blacks, or more commonly the
Patriots and the Traitors. People who the protagonist meets in this country include Kätchen and a man who calls
himself Mr. Baldwin, and he is sent to this country by Mr. Salter under orders from Lord Copper of the Daily Beast.
For 10 points, name this African country to which William Boot is accidentally sent as a war correspondent in
Evelyn Waugh’s Scoop, named after the narrator of Moby-Dick.
ANSWER: Ishmaelia
TB. The short story “Miss Grief” is sometimes thought to be about the author’s relationship with this man.
That story was written by a woman whose relationship with this author is the subject of Emma Tennant’s
novel Felony, and it is also treated in David Lodge’s novel Author, Author. Nick Guest, the protagonist of
Alan Hollinghurst’s The Line of Beauty, is writing a thesis on this author. Another fictionalization of this
author’s life is The Master by Colm Tóibín, which includes an account of the disastrous failure of his play Guy
Domville. This author’s relationship with Constance Fenimore Woolson is dealt with in a five-volume biography of
him by Leon Edel. This author of the essay “The Art of Fiction” is best known for his novels, including ones about
Verena Tarrant and Isabel Archer. For 10 points, name this author of novels like The Bostonians and The Portrait of
a Lady.
ANSWER: Henry James