Literature Trivia Questions
Total Questions: 383
What is the name of the series of novels that began with John Galsworthy's 1906 work 'The Man of Property'?
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forsyte saga
Which marine biologist, known for her book Silent Spring, also authored The Sea Around Us?
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rachel carson
Betty Edwards' 1979 bestseller on creativity was titled 'Drawing on the Right Side of' what?
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brain
In which author's novel 'Tess of the d'Urbervilles' does the word 'fairlings' mean presents bought at a fair?
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thomas hardy
Which Asian American author wrote corporate reports before becoming a bestselling novelist?
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amy tan
In A. E. Housman's poetry, what does he say he will go to see the cherry hung with during his woodland walk?
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snow
Which author, known for 'The World According to Garp', was inspired to become a novelist after reading Charles Dickens' books?
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john irving
Which famous author once said, 'Give me a decent bottle of poison and I'll construct the perfect crime'?
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agatha christie
Which author, known for novels set in the Orient, wrote 'King Rat' as his first novel?
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james clavell
In the play 'Tru', Robert Morse portrays which famous author over the course of two nights?
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truman capote
Which literary character begins a novel with the line, 'In a certain village in La Mancha, which I do not wish to name, there lived not long ago a gentleman'?
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don quixote
Which author, who died of tuberculosis 7 months after the publication of '1984' in 1949, wrote the novel?
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george orwell
What nickname is Evangeline St. Clair better known by in the book 'Uncle Tom's Cabin'?
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little eva
Who is the author of 'The Lady Of The Shroud', 'The Mystery Of The Sea', and 'Dracula'?
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bram stoker
In the 1800s, Eleonora Duse starred in the title role in the play 'Denise' by which famous French playwright whose surname is 'fils'?
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alexandre dumas
What city is just across the bridge from Southwark where 'The Canterbury Tales' open?
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london
Which B. Pasternak novel had excerpts published in a Soviet magazine in 1987, 29 years after it was banned?
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doctor zhivago
Who is the character that says, 'The raven himself is hoarse who croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan under my battlements' in a Shakespeare play?
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lady macbeth
Who became the first American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature the year after his book 'Dodsworth' was published?
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sinclair lewis
Which American author had his story 'The Cask of Amontillado' originally published in Godey's Lady's Book?
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edgar allan poe
Which attorney lost the case in Erle Stanley Gardner's 'The Case of the Terrified Typist'?
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perry mason
Which author wrote the 1993 bestseller 'Gai-Jin', the sixth novel in his Asian saga?
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james clavell
What flower is described in Wordsworth's phrase, 'The rainbow comes and goes, and lovely is'?
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rose
Who wrote the novel titled 'Sons and Lovers'?
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d. h. lawrence
Which author wrote a 6-volume work called 'Aunt Jo's Scrap Bag' several years before penning 'Jo's Boys'?
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louisa may alcott
Which author is known for the famous line 'I'll make him an offer he can't refuse'?
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mario puzo
In 'Shakespeare in Love,' when Will compared 'thee to a summer's day,' he wrote, 'Rough winds do shake the darling buds of' which month?
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may
Who is the Voltaire title character taught by Dr. Pangloss in metaphysico-theologo-cosmolonigology?
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candide
Which author created the characters Arthur Gordon Pym, Madeline, and Roderick Usher?
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edgar allan poe
In Goethe's epic poem, Reineke, or Reynard, is which type of animal?
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fox
What city in Wisconsin has the largest public library system with more than 1.5 million books?
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milwaukee
In which country was Ding Ling, an author known for writing about independent, brave women, one of the most popular authors?
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china
Which country is associated with the original Picaresque fiction about rogues called Picaros?
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spain
Which Scottish poet is known for writing the songs 'Comin' Thro' The Rye' and 'The Banks O' Doon'?
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robert burns
What literary form does Marianne Moore ironically refer to in her poem that begins with 'I, Too, Dislike It'?
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poetry
What is the title of H.G. Wells' first novel, published in 1895 and set in the future?
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time machine
Which queen of Egypt dies soon after receiving a basket of figs from a simple countryman in a Shakespeare play?
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cleopatra
Which author wrote 'Little House in the Big Woods,' which begins in Wisconsin?
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laura ingalls wilder
Who wrote 'Sketches by Boz'?
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charles dickens
What is the missing word in the William Congreve proverb, 'Music has charms to soothe a savage _____'?
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breast
What word completes the quote from Hamlet, 'To be or not to be: that is _____'?
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question
In 1994, Dell Magazines launched a 'Western Magazine' named for which author?
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louis l'amour
Who wrote 'The Glass Menagerie,' which is narrated by Tom Wingfield and described as a 'memory play'?
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tennessee williams
What tragedy did Shakespeare write to appeal to James I's fascination with witchcraft?
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macbeth
Who is the author of 'The Andromeda Strain' and 'Jurassic Park'?
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michael crichton
What genre is the focus of a magazine founded in 1912 that has published works by Wallace Stevens and T.S. Eliot?
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poetry
Who is the author of the famous story 'The Tell-Tale Heart' which includes the line, 'It was not the old man who vexed me, but his evil eye'?
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edgar allan poe
Who wrote a sonnet published in 1609 that begins with the line 'Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?'
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william shakespeare
Which British author published 'The Clockwork Testament' in 1974?
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anthony burgess
Who is the juvenile pickpocket described as 'as roystering and swaggering a young gentleman as ever stood four feet six'?
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oliver twist
Which author adapted his initial major work 'Stephen Hero' into the novel 'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'?
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james joyce
Which author's home in Key West, Florida, where he wrote 'To Have And Have Not,' is now a national landmark?
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ernest hemingway
Which English poet wrote the line, 'She walks in beauty, like the night of cloudless climes and starry skies'?
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lord byron
Which 1844 novel features Charles de Batz, Sieur d'Artagnan, a soldier in the service of Louis XIV?
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three musketeers
Who is the playwright of the drama 'Caesar and Cleopatra', which was first performed in 1901 and is considered his first great play?
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george bernard shaw
According to Emily Dickinson, which genre 'Makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me'?
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poetry
In which Shakespearean tragedy does Edgar disguise himself as a mad beggar?
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king lear
Which author, known for writing 'Pride and Prejudice,' had several suitors but never married?
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jane austen
Who is the 17-year-old character kidnapped from his village of Juffure in 1767 in Alex Haley's 'Roots'?
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kunta kinte
What word can be found in the titles of plays when it stands alone or follows 'The Shoemaker's' and 'Death Takes A'?
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holiday