Thursday, November 23, 2006

A quiz on the great American novel

While they may be consuming more Marmite than turkey in Britain today, the Guardian neverthless has seen fit to honor (honour?) Thanksgiving with a quiz about the great American novel.

Of course, I failed miserably--6 correct out of a possible 11--but I'm well pleased (chuffed?) that only one of my six correct answers was a blind guess. And I had no doubt about this answer:
The first sentence of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick is "Call me Ishmael." What's the second?

__ Come now with me to your insular city of the Manhattoes, belted round by wharves as Indian isles by coral reefs - commerce surrounds it with her surf.

__ The name will do as well as any other for a tale the like of mine.

__ Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world.

__ Call me anything you like, just call me.
Click here to take the quiz.

--Marshal Zeringue