Literature

Q1. India's former Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, brought action against this book in British Courts. The reason was that in one of the chapters, the book portrays her son, Sanjay Gandhi, of accusing her of having caused his father, Feroze Gandhi's death, due to neglect. It was eventually settled out of court when the author agreed to remove the offending sentence. Identify this book.

Ans. Midnight's Children (Salman Rushdie)

Q2. This is the pseudonym for William Sydney Porter. The story of coming up with this alias has been described by the author as follows: It was during these New Orleans days that I adopted my pen name of _______. I said to a friend: "I'm going to send out some stuff. I don't know if it amounts to much, so I want to get a literary alias. Help me pick out a good one." He suggested that we get a newspaper and pick a name from the first list of notables that we found in it ..... Now for a first name. I want something short. None of your three-syllable names for me." "Why don’t you use a plain initial letter, then?" asked my friend. "Good," said I, "___ is about the easiest letter written, and ___ it is." Identify the writer.

Ans. O Henry

Q3. Identify this author: One of this author's most popular characters is Noddy. J.K Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series, has been said to be influenced by this author's arguably most famous work (and this led her to introduce Harry's kissing scene) and said this of the protagonist "In book four, the hormones are going to kick in - I don't want him (Harry) stuck in a state of permanent pre-pubescence like Poor Julian in the ______ _____."

Ans. Enid Blyton (Famous Five)

Q4. This book was originally written in Portuguese and holds the Guinness Book of Records for the most translated book by a living author, having been translated into 67 languages. The book's author is also the most-selling Portuguese language writer of all times.A theatrical adaption of this book has been produced and performed by the Cornish Theater Collective and is their most successful production till date. Identify this best-selling novel, which was first published in 1988.

Ans. The Alchemist (by Paulo Coelho)

Q5. Being it's author's first, and till date only novel, the potential of this book was first identified by an editor at Harper Collins, who sent it to three British publishers, and the author of this book received an unprecedented half-a-million pounds as advance by the publisher, Harper Flamingo. Identify the book.

Ans. Arundhati Roy