Confessions of an English Opium-Eater - Quiz
Confessions of an English Opium Eater
  • 1. What is the literary form of Confessions of an English Opium-Eater?
A) Novel
B) Epic poetry
C) Biography
D) Memoir
  • 2. Who is the author of Confessions of an English Opium-Eater?
A) The London Magazine editor
B) An anonymous writer
C) Margaret Simpson
D) Thomas De Quincey
  • 3. What specific substance is the author addicted to in the memoir?
A) Morphine
B) Laudanum
C) Heroin
D) Alcohol
  • 4. In what year was Thomas De Quincey born?
A) 1804
B) 1785
C) 1821
D) 1793
  • 5. In what year did Thomas De Quincey's father die?
A) 1817
B) 1802
C) 1785
D) 1793
  • 6. In what year did De Quincey's opium years begin?
A) 1804
B) 1802
C) 1793
D) 1821
  • 7. What is the name of the farmer's daughter De Quincey married?
A) Elizabeth Bennet
B) Mary Shelley
C) Margaret Simpson
D) Jane Austen
  • 8. In what year did De Quincey marry Margaret Simpson?
A) 1821
B) 1804
C) 1856
D) 1817
  • 9. When was the first edition of Confessions completed and published?
A) 1856
B) 1821
C) 1817
D) 1822
  • 10. In which periodical were the Confessions originally published?
A) The London Magazine
B) The Spectator
C) Blackwood's Magazine
D) The Oxford Review
  • 11. How many parts did the original magazine publication have?
A) One
B) Three
C) Four
D) Two
  • 12. In which months did the original parts appear in the magazine?
A) November and December
B) January and February
C) September and October
D) June and July
  • 13. When was the book edition with a new appendix published?
A) 1817
B) 1856
C) 1822
D) 1821
  • 14. In what year was a greatly expanded and revised edition published?
A) 1856
B) 1821
C) 1822
D) 1804
  • 15. How was the work initially published in terms of authorship?
A) Under a pseudonym
B) Co-authored
C) Under his real name
D) Anonymously
  • 16. What effect did the disclosure of authorship have on De Quincey?
A) Legal prosecution
B) Immediate poverty
C) Immediate fame
D) Total obscurity
  • 17. Aside from Confessions, what else was De Quincey known for being?
A) A prolific essayist and translator
B) A famous poet and playwright
C) A professional painter
D) A practicing physician
  • 18. For which work is De Quincey primarily renowned?
A) His translations
B) His political essays
C) Confessions of an English Opium-Eater
D) His poetry
  • 19. What is the title of the section that follows the initial notice in Part I?
A) The Pleasures of Opium
B) The Pains of Opium
C) Introduction to the Pains
D) Preliminary Confessions
  • 20. What is the focus of Preliminary Confessions?
A) His marriage to Margaret Simpson
B) His career as a translator
C) His later years in 1856
D) Childhood, youth, and emotional/psychological factors
  • 21. Where did De Quincey spend time as a homeless runaway in his late teens?
A) Oxford Street in London
B) Cambridge University
C) Edinburgh streets
D) Piccadilly Circus
  • 22. During which years was De Quincey a homeless runaway in London?
A) 1802 and 1803
B) 1816 and 1817
C) 1804 and 1805
D) 1793 and 1794
  • 23. Which section discusses the early and largely positive phase of the author's experience with opium?
A) Preliminary Confessions
B) The Pains of Opium
C) Notice to the Reader
D) The Pleasures of Opium
  • 24. During what years does 'The Pleasures of Opium' cover the author's experience?
A) 1821 until 1856
B) 1802 until 1803
C) 1793 until 1817
D) 1804 until 1812
  • 25. What does the 'Introduction to the Pains of Opium' deliver?
A) A medical analysis of laudanum
B) A critique of other essayists
C) An apology to his wife Margaret
D) A second installment of autobiography taking him from youth to maturity
  • 26. What does 'The Pains of Opium' recount?
A) His wedding in 1817
B) His peaceful childhood in 1793
C) Insomnia, nightmares, frightening visions, and physical symptoms
D) His travels through Oxford Street
  • 27. What did critics later fault De Quincey for regarding the balance of his book?
A) Focusing too heavily on his marriage
B) Ignoring his time in London entirely
C) Giving too much attention to the pleasure of opium and not enough to negatives
D) Giving too much attention to his childhood
  • 28. Which is significantly longer: The Pleasures of Opium or The Pains of Opium?
A) They are equal in length
B) The Pains of Opium
C) The Pleasures of Opium
D) Preliminary Confessions
  • 29. Which two human perceptions were powerfully affected by opium according to the text?
A) Space and time
B) Sight and sound
C) Taste and touch
D) Hunger and fatigue
  • 30. How did buildings and landscapes appear to De Quincey under the influence?
A) Completely invisible
B) Shrunken and microscopic
C) In proportions so vast as the bodily eye is not fitted to conceive
D) Normal and unchanged
  • 31. What happened to the perception of time while on opium?
A) Time seemed to move twice as fast
B) Time stood completely still without dreams
C) Vast expansion, living for 70 or 100 years in one night
D) He forgot all memories of the past
  • 32. Whose work did De Quincey model his apostrophe to opium on?
A) Sir Thomas Browne
B) John Dryden
C) Alexander Pope
D) Sir Walter Raleigh
  • 33. What activity does De Quincey describe taking under the influence of opium in London?
A) Writing poetry
B) Boat racing
C) Long walks
D) Horseback riding
  • 34. How did De Quincey attempt to steer homewards during his walks?
A) By using a modern compass
B) By asking street vendors
C) Upon nautical principles
D) By following a stray dog
  • 35. What celestial body did De Quincey fix his eye upon to steer homewards?
A) The moon
B) Mars
C) Venus
D) The pole-star
  • 36. Whose audacity would be baffled by the London streets according to De Quincey?
A) Sailors
B) Farmers
C) Soldiers
D) Porters
  • 37. Whose intellects would be confounded by the enigmatic entries?
A) Mathematicians
B) Hackney-coachmen
C) Astronomers
D) Philosophers
  • 38. What term does De Quincey use to describe his initial effort in writing the Confessions?
A) Critical essay
B) Gothic fiction
C) Impassioned prose
D) Romantic poetry
  • 39. What kind of wounds does opium provide a balm for?
A) Minor cuts and bruises
B) Broken bones
C) Physical battle scars
D) Wounds that will never heal
  • 40. What does opium do to the purposes of wrath with its potent rhetoric?
A) Records them for history
B) Stealeth them away
C) Amplifies them greatly
D) Transforms them into joy
  • 41. When did De Quincey prepare the first collected edition of his works?
A) Early 1850s
B) Early 1820s
C) Late 1820s
D) Mid 1890s
  • 42. Who was the publisher for the first collected edition of De Quincey's works?
A) Albert Zugsmith
B) Charles Baudelaire
C) Andrew Dallmeyer
D) James Hogg
  • 43. What did De Quincey do to the length of the Confessions in the 1856 revision?
A) More than doubled it
B) Reduced it by a third
C) Cut it in half
D) Kept it exactly the same
  • 44. Which section was expanded the most in the 1856 revision?
A) The appendix on the withdrawal process
B) The section on the medical aspects of opium
C) The concluding chapter on dreams
D) The opening section on his personal background
  • 45. What proportion of the revised work was consumed by the expanded opening section?
A) More than two-thirds
B) Less than one-quarter
C) Exactly one-half
D) About ten percent
  • 46. How did critics describe the prosiness of the revised version?
A) Energetic
B) Vibrant
C) Brilliant
D) Tired
  • 47. Which English writer was NOT explicitly mentioned as being led to opium use by De Quincey's example?
A) Francis Thompson
B) James Thomson
C) Charles Baudelaire
D) William Blair
  • 48. In which Sherlock Holmes story is an opium addict inspired by reading the Confessions as a student?
A) The Sign of the Four
B) The Man with the Twisted Lip
C) A Scandal in Bohemia
D) The Hound of the Baskervilles
  • 49. When was the Sherlock Holmes story featuring an opium addict inspired by the Confessions published?
A) 1856
B) 1821
C) 1902
D) 1891
  • 50. What type of material did De Quincey insert into his 1856 revision regarding opium?
A) Significant material on the medical aspects
B) Political commentary on foreign trade
C) Legal arguments against drug prohibition
D) Fictional stories about smugglers
  • 51. Whose praise highlighted the Confessions for having "glorious imagination—deep philosophy—acute speculation"?
A) James Hogg
B) Edgar Allan Poe
C) Charles Baudelaire
D) Albert Zugsmith
  • 52. Who wrote the play The Opium Eater based on De Quincey's work?
A) Jack Kerouac
B) Ken Kesey
C) Andrew Dallmeyer
D) Malcolm McLaren
  • 53. Which publishing company published the play The Opium Eater?
A) Capercaillie Books
B) James Hogg Publishers
C) Penguin Classics
D) Oxford University Press
  • 54. Who starred in the 1962 full-length film Confessions of an Opium Eater?
A) Francis Thompson
B) Vincent Price
C) Sherlock Holmes
D) Andrew Dallmeyer
  • 55. Who was the Hollywood producer behind the 1962 film reimagining of De Quincey's Confessions?
A) Albert Zugsmith
B) James Hogg
C) Malcolm McLaren
D) Ken Kesey
  • 56. In which 1999 documentary is De Quincey's book referred to as an influence for the Beat Generation?
A) On the Road
B) Tripping
C) The Opium Eater
D) The Man with the Twisted Lip
  • 57. Whose bus and its influence are recounted in the 1999 documentary Tripping?
A) Malcolm McLaren's tour bus
B) Ken Kesey's Furthur bus
C) Jack Kerouac's cross-country bus
D) De Quincey's personal carriage
  • 58. Who referred to De Quincey's book as the influence for the Beat Generation in the documentary Tripping?
A) Malcolm McLaren
B) Edgar Allan Poe
C) Albert Zugsmith
D) Jack Kerouac
  • 59. Which Beat Generation book is mentioned as coming after De Quincey's influence in the documentary Tripping?
A) On the Road
B) Confessions of an English Opium-Eater
C) Les paradis artificiels
D) Advice to Opium Eaters
  • 60. Who wrote the book On the Road?
A) Jack Kerouac
B) Malcolm McLaren
C) Thomas De Quincey
D) Ken Kesey
  • 61. In which 2002 video game is De Quincey's book parodied?
A) The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
B) Tripping
C) The Man with the Twisted Lip
D) Les paradis artificiels
  • 62. What is the name of the fictional drug featured in the parodied book in The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind?
A) Laudanum
B) Skooma
C) Opium
D) Heroin
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