Book excerpt: Can you name: All five movements of Beethoven's Missa solemnis. Check. The films that Kurosawa based on Western works. Check. Dante's Nine Circles of Hell. Check. If so, you're off to an edifying start--but that's just round one in this hard-hitting match of wits and wisdom. Take the formidable plunge--and find out if you are truly well versed enough to call yourself an aspiring pundit, poet, and philosopher. Either way, you'll be worthy of the esteemed moniker intellectual by the time you've gone the distance with this book. (As Thoreau is our witness.) Whether you are just beginning to suspect you're the possessor of superior acumen or you'd bet your Homeric Greek translation of The Iliad on it, this book is an essential addition to any personal library.