@luckydeadfish If you know he was born Eric Blair then you know the answer is George Orwell. If anyone tried Eric Blair before George Orwell then that's pure pretentiousness and frankly just ridiculous.
You shouldn't accept Eric Blair for Orwell. There's a reason he wrote the novel under a psuedonym. Obviously he didn't want to be known as Eric Blair when he put the novel out. And I agree, if you know that much about him, obviously you know he went by Orwell.
It's not the quiz maker's fault fewer women than men become noteworthy authors or that some countries have produced less noteworthy literature in the 20th century than they have in all the preceding centuries combined, is it? (nor are either of these facts really at all surprising or in dispute)
That's assuming that there's an objective definition of "noteworthy" that's not just a result of centuries-long cultural biases. Honestly having Golding and Flaubert lumped in with the rest of these good writers irritates me, and there are plenty of female writers whose work is being re-examined and elevated. George Eliot's story alone shows that being a woman made your book less popular with critics before any actual objective assessment of quality.
If no one makes an effort to give more visibility to women (to try and make up for the centuries of ignoring them), then how can they become noteworthy? One has first to be noted before they can be deemed worthy.
Indeed, although I'm sure it's almost impossible to avoid some kind of bias in this kind of quiz. I'd not heard of "on the road", "gravity's rainbow" or "slaughterhouse five" despite having a literature degree.
I would say that to have none of Jane Austen, George Eliot, George Sand, Charlotte Bronte, Agatha Christie or - dare I say it - Beatrix Potter or J. K. Rowling (just for example) is a curious omission though. And when you consider that the three best-selling novelists of all time are women - which is surely "noteworthy" if anything is - it's very curious. But it's not my quiz.
This misses the point though. Danielle Steel and Barbara Cartland are garbage. Comparing them with the names on this list is like comparing Nsync to Beethoven.
This is an assumption of modern scholars based on the study of oral traditions still surviving in the present day, and is no more reliable than the assumption that everything ancient history recorded about the life of Homer is accurate
While it's true that many of these books might be read by US high schoolers, are you actually kidding or are you really this obnoxiously petulant? Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Nabokov, Flaubert, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Homer, Hugo, Dickens, Cervantes... and you can still complain about this being Amerocentric? You must save a lot of money on colonoscopies.
Nabokov actually became an American citizen and most of his best-known works--most notably Lolita--were originally written in English. This doesn't affect your point, which is still valid, but I just think it's an interesting point that most people don't know because we're so used to hearing about the Russian literary masters that it's weird to think that one of them wrote in English.
It is true that a greater diversity of English-language authors is present on this site while only a handful of non-English language authors are mentioned again and again (which makes sense given the site's demographics). But all the authors on this quiz are respected internationally. When I read the literary sections of my (non-Anglo) newspaper there's a good chance I'll encounter any of them sooner rather than later.
Probably because there are lots of translators working from English into other languages, but because of the state of modern languages education in the UK and USA, there are very few working into English, especially in literature. The popularity of Russian literature in English, for example, is pretty much down to a single woman (Constance Garnett).
Well I've read 13 of them and I managed to get 19. 'Gravity's Rainbow' and 'Slaughterhouse 5' are among only a handful of books I've bothered to read more than once
Maybe add a little more leeway on the spelling for Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky? Knew them both but in French, we write them Tolstoi and Dostoievksi... Good quiz nevertheless!
This will probably sound incredibly nitpicky, but would you be willing to accept Eric Blair for George Orwell? I had a massive brainfart while taking this and had a hell of a time remembering his pen name, but for some reason, I was able to remember his real name from history class.
This may seem pedantic, but could you add the diaeresis on the e of the final answer? This is one of the only examples known in English language where it's required because if you omit it, the letter would not be pronounced because of the rules of the language.
I would say that to have none of Jane Austen, George Eliot, George Sand, Charlotte Bronte, Agatha Christie or - dare I say it - Beatrix Potter or J. K. Rowling (just for example) is a curious omission though. And when you consider that the three best-selling novelists of all time are women - which is surely "noteworthy" if anything is - it's very curious. But it's not my quiz.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_fiction_authors
Turns out Jane Austen is in quiz no. 2, along with the also obvious Virginia Woolf. Bonzer.
Leeway on what is accepted, sure. But noone gains from the answers being displayed as something else.
Scoring
You scored 4/24 = 17%
This beats or equals 12.1% of test takers
The average score is 13
Your high score is 4
Sorry if that comes across as nitpicking.