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