Oh dear, it's another night when I'm feeling too sleepy to write out my planned book review (and it's a Virago Modern Classic... there, that's whetted your appetite).
Instead, I'm going to break all sorts of BBC confidentiality thingummies, and offer a quiz question which I heard whilst seeing Radio 4 programme 'The Write Stuff' being recorded on Sunday. It won't be broadcast for a few weeks, I don't think, so when it's on you can pretend you always knew the answer...
It's an odd-one-out question. They gave characters from these books, and people had to work out what the book was, but I can't remember the character names and I'm skipping that bit. Seeing The Write Stuff made me realise how little I really know about books... but, once they'd got as far as the book titles, I cottoned on to this one. And it's rather nice.
So, without further ado - which is the Odd One Out from this list? And why, of course...
The Canterbury Tales - Geoffrey Chaucer
The Return of the Native - Thomas Hardy
The Waste Land - T S Eliot
Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell
Bonne chance! (And no cheating, now)
1984 as the odd one out, because Chaucer, Hardy and Eliot were all poets and Orwell was not?
ReplyDeleteNice try, but wrong! It's these books in particular...
ReplyDeleteWhat about this - all of those except the WasteLand feature or include characters who don't have actual names (ie we don't find them out).
ReplyDeleteThat is to say - Canterbury Tales has the Knight, the Pardoner etc, 1984 has Big Brother and the Hardy book has a character called Grandfer.
How about... 1984 because the others were not originally published as a book? i.e. i think Return of the Native was printed as a magazine serial, I imagine that the Canterbury Tales was only collected into a 'book' later, and the Waste Land I seem to remember was also in a magazine first?
ReplyDeleteThese are some great answers, but not the one I was looking for... which will seem obvious once you know!
ReplyDeleteI have an idea now, but I've already given it my shot! Drat. And it's very obvious, if I'm correct.
ReplyDeleteHmm just woke up, but is Return of the Native the odd one out because the other books have famous April quotes? (At least I can't remember any quote from Return of the Native!)
ReplyDeleteUgh, this is killing me. It's times like this when I realise I know nothing. I'm sure I'll have a *palmface* moment when the truth is revealed.
ReplyDeleteOoh, I do want to hear about the VMC Simon.
ReplyDeleteHmmm...all but the T.S. Eliot are usually included in the list of "Great Books"?
ReplyDeleteIs it Nineteen Eighty Four because all the others have 'the' in the title? Well you did say it was obvious!
ReplyDelete1984 is the odd one. All the other books are firmly located in specific geographical areas.
ReplyDeleteWaste Land doesn't belong because Eliot is the odd man out not being English
ReplyDelete1984 is the only title in numerals; the other three all contain the definite article?
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if this counts as cheating, since I confirmed my answer on Google. I also stole the crux of the idea from someone who's already commented.
ReplyDeleteWell, I don't want to spoil other people's fun, so I won't say it. I'll just let you know on Facebook.
Simon, you're killing us!!!! Has anyone gotten it yet? Someone gave the answer I thought must be right, after my first wrong answer... Won't tell which!
ReplyDeleteHaha, I'll update tonight - but I will say that someone has got more or less the right answer...!
ReplyDeleteMy first guess was that Canterbury Tales is the only one frequently read by English readers in translation, rather than the original Middle English.
ReplyDeleteBut now I see that someone has indeed got it. I had to peek at the text of the odd one out to see what its corresponding element was. But I'll keep mum for now.
Nineteen Eighty Four as it is the only title made up of numbers.
ReplyDelete