Literature Trivia Questions
Total Questions: 409
Which author recalls a trip to Switzerland and a ghost story contest with Lord Byron in the foreword to her 1818 novel?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
mary shelley
Who is the author of 'The Breast' in addition to 'Goodbye, Columbus' and 'The Anatomy Lesson'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
philip roth
Who wrote the play 'The Cherry Orchard'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
anton chekhov
Which author, known for writing 'Vanity Fair', studied at Cambridge University but left without obtaining a degree?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
william makepeace thackeray
Which poet authored the 1976 memoir titled 'Singin' And Swingin' And Gettin' Merry Like Christmas'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
maya angelou
Which German-turned-Swiss author, known for writing 'Steppenwolf', was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
hermann hesse
In which month did James Russell Lowell ask, 'And what is so rare as a day in this month, then if ever, come perfect days'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
june
Which British romance novelist wrote the 1925 play 'Blood Money' while she was in her 20s?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
barbara cartland
Which author narrates the 1983 novel 'Ancient Evenings', where the narrator is reborn as a harem master and a grave robber?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
norman mailer
What pseudonym did Hector Hugh Munro use when writing the macabre story 'Sredni Vashtar'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
saki
Which author was honored by the Samoans with the title 'Tusitala', meaning 'Teller of Tales'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
robert louis stevenson
In which Shakespearean play do Rosencrantz and Guildenstern first appear in Act II, Scene II?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
hamlet
In which play by Thornton Wilder does the line 'Most everybody climbs into their grave married' appear in Act II?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
our town
What Shakespeare play last spoken word is 'Scone'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
macbeth
Which Shakespearean character tells his daughter Cordelia, 'I am a very foolish fond old man'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
king lear
Which author wrote the 1990 bestseller 'Four Past Midnight' that was published alongside Sidney Sheldon's 'Memories of Midnight'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
stephen king
Who is the author who wrote about the Indian characters Susquesus, Chingachgook, and Uncas?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
james fenimore cooper
What is the title of the story by Carlo Collodi that was first published in Giornale dei Bambini in 1880?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
pinocchio
Which playwright refused to accept the 1940 Pulitzer Prize for his work 'The Time of Your Life'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
william saroyan
Who authored the 1932 novel 'Little House in the Big Woods'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
laura ingalls wilder
Which author, known for the book 'Herzog,' was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1976?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
saul bellow
Who is the 20th century American critic and novelist known by the middle name Carol?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
joyce carol oates
Which poet wrote the poem 'I Heard a Fly Buzz' that was inspired by a chapter in 'The House of the Seven Gables'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
emily dickinson
Who is the miserly weaver who becomes the stepfather to Eppie Cass in a George Eliot novel?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
silas marner
Which country was author Selma Lagerlof, the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, from?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
sweden
Which poet concluded 'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard' with 'The Epitaph'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
thomas gray
Who is the author of the bestselling nonfiction book 'Aunt Erma's Cope Book' from 1979?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
erma bombeck
Which poet received Craigie House in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as a wedding gift from his father-in-law?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
henry wadsworth longfellow
Which author, known for his horse-racing themed mysteries, was also a jockey who competed in the Grand National?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
dick francis
Which short story writer, known for his unexpected endings, has a museum dedicated to him in Austin?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
o. henry
Which author gave readers a choice of alternate endings in 'The French Lieutenant's Woman'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
john fowles
Which Yiddish writer's short story "Gimpel the Fool" was translated into English by Saul Bellow?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
isaac bashevis singer
Which famous American wrote, 'I come to my solitary woodland walk as the homesick go home'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
henry david thoreau
Which author continued the saga of the Corleones in his novel 'The Sicilian'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
mario puzo
Which vampire novelist, who wrote 'Exit to Eden' under the pseudonym Anne Rampling, is known for her influential work in the genre?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
anne rice
What is the title of Lawrence Sander's first novel, published in 1970, that includes tapes in its name?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
anderson tapes
In T.S. Eliot's 'Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock', who do the women come and go talking of?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
michelangelo
What vessel, described by Jules Verne as 232 feet long, displacing 50,000 cubic feet and powered by electricity, appears in his literature?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
nautilus
Who is the author of the famous diary that contains the quote 'I still believe that people are really good at heart'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
anne frank
In which Aldous Huxley novel does Mustapha Mond discuss the dangers of Shakespeare?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
brave new world
Which villainous Spanish character is the central figure in one of Lord Byron's greatest, yet unfinished, epic poems?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
don juan
Which novelist published her second children's book, 'The Chinese Siamese Cat,' in 1994?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
amy tan
Which epigrammatic poet's grandfather was one of the founders of Amherst College?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
emily dickinson
Who is the creator of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle whose house is now maintained as a museum?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
beatrix potter
What is the fruity first name of the acclaimed Japanese author who wrote 'N.P.', 'Amrita', and 'Kitchen'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
banana
What ancient city's description in the prologue of 'Troilus and Cressida' includes the phrase 'Priam's six-gated city'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
troy
Which author wrote the novel 'Absalom, Absalom!' that is often considered essential reading?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
william faulkner
What phenomenon did Carl Sandburg describe as 'coming in on little cat feet'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
fog
According to Oscar Wilde, what can he resist everything except?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
temptation
Which author wrote in 1936's 'An American And France', 'America is my country and Paris is my hometown'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
gertrude stein
Which poet attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in South Hadley, Massachusetts, in 1847 and 1848?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
emily dickinson
In which enigmatic Shirley Jackson story does Tessie Hutchinson draw the unlucky ticket?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
lottery
Who became president of the Mystery Writers of America in 1959 and is known for writing 'Farewell My Lovely'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
raymond chandler
Who is the mystic that wrote 'The Garden of the Prophet' along with 'The Prophet'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
kahlil gibran
Who, in 'The Merchant of Venice,' tells his friend Tubal to meet him at their synagogue?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
shylock
Who is the author of the books 'Of Love and Shadows' and 'The House of the Spirits'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
isabel allende
What author wrote the story that begins with Gregor Samsa waking up to find himself transformed into a gigantic insect?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
franz kafka
Who is the woman for whom Antinous is the leader of the suitors in 'The Odyssey'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
penelope
What is the name of the C. McCullough book that was the all-time best-selling paperback by a woman as of 1989?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
thorn birds
What is a term for a section added at the end of a book to provide additional information?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
addendum
Page 1 of 7Next