Tarot in literature quiz: from Eliot to King
A quiz on tarot in books: Eliot's The Waste Land, Calvino's novel built from spreads, the Trumps of Amber, King's Dark Tower and a myth about Pushkin.
- 3 questions
- ≈ 1 min
- +3 bronze keys for a flawless run
Where does tarot appear in literature?
This quiz checks whether you remember how tarot cards made their way into well-known books. In the twentieth century writers saw the deck as a ready-made language of images: the Hanged Man, the Tower or the Wheel of Fortune each carry a story inside them. Tarot became a device for modernist poets, fantasy writers and authors of puzzle novels alike.
One of the best-known examples is T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land of 1922. In it the clairvoyante Madame Sosostris lays out a wicked pack of cards, and in his notes the poet admits that he is not familiar with the exact constitution of the tarot pack and departs from it to suit his own purposes. Even with that freedom, the poem made tarot part of great literature.
Books built on the cards
Italo Calvino went furthest. In The Castle of Crossed Destinies travelers who have lost their voices tell their stories by laying out cards: the Visconti-Sforza deck in the first part and the Tarot de Marseille in the second. Charles Williams, a friend of Tolkien and Lewis, wrote The Greater Trumps about a deck with a mysterious power. In Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber the Trumps are used to communicate and travel between worlds, and in Stephen King's Dark Tower the Man in Black lays out cards for the Gunslinger.
Sometimes it works the other way round: tarot gets credited to books that do not contain it. In Pushkin's The Queen of Spades the three, the seven and the ace are cards in a gambling game, not a reading.
How the quiz works
Each run draws three questions from a pool of eight: authors, plots and one common misconception. Every answer comes with an explanation, and the run ends with a full review. Finish a run without a mistake and Tayna awards you keys. And if one of the books here is new to you, take it as a reason to read it: tarot in it works as a mirror for the characters, just as it does in a real reading.
All questions and answers
Open after you play: the full question set with right answers and explanations.
1. In which T. S. Eliot poem does a clairvoyante read tarot?
Right answer: The Waste Land
In The Waste Land of 1922, Madame Sosostris reads her wicked pack and draws the drowned sailor.
2. Italo Calvino designed his own tarot deck for his novel.
Right answer: Myth
He used existing decks: Visconti-Sforza in the first part and the Tarot de Marseille in the second.
3. What is Charles Williams's 1932 novel about a tarot deck called?
Right answer: The Greater Trumps
Charles Williams, an Inkling alongside Tolkien and Lewis, wrote The Greater Trumps about a deck with a hidden power.
4. Which real tarot arcanum does Eliot name in The Waste Land?
Right answer: The Hanged Man
Eliot tied the Hanged Man to the Hanged God of Frazer's Golden Bough. The Wheel appears too.
5. What are the Trumps used for in Roger Zelazny's Amber books?
Right answer: Contact and travel
By gazing at a Trump, a prince of Amber can speak to the relative shown and even step through.
6. In Pushkin's The Queen of Spades, Hermann reads tarot cards.
Right answer: Myth
The three, seven and ace are cards in the gambling game faro. There is no tarot in the story.
7. Who reads tarot for Roland in Stephen King's The Dark Tower?
Right answer: The Man in Black
In the first book the Man in Black reads for the Gunslinger, drawing the Sailor, the Prisoner and the Lady of Shadows.
8. In a novel, mute travelers tell their tales by laying out tarot. Who wrote it?
Right answer: Italo Calvino
It is Italo Calvino's The Castle of Crossed Destinies: each tale is built from a row of cards.