Literature Trivia Questions
Total Questions: 409
Who is the author of the 1932 novel 'Save Me The Waltz,' which is based on her life with F. Scott Fitzgerald?
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zelda fitzgerald
Who was the most famous nineteenth-century poet laureate born in the Lake District of England?
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william wordsworth
In 1978, which author followed up his decade-old book 'Soul on Ice' with another called 'Soul on Fire'?
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eldridge cleaver
In Shakespeare's Othello, who does Othello refer to when he says, 'The worms were hallow'd that did breed the silk' that made her handkerchief?
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desdemona
Which author had 7 of his hardboiled titles in the top 25 in a 1968 survey of 70 years of best sellers?
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mickey spillane
Which private eye created by Raymond Chandler was introduced in the 1939 novel 'The Big Sleep'?
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philip marlowe
Which author had his poems from the Scots Observer collected in 'Barrack-Room Ballads and Other Verses'?
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rudyard kipling
Who is the author of the book 'Winesburg, Ohio'?
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sherwood anderson
In which novel does the character Griffin become an unseen guest at the Coach & Horses Inn?
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invisible man
Which author began writing short stories while working for the W.P.A. in Mississippi?
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eudora welty
What word completes the title of the play: 'Inherit...'?
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wind
Which author created the character of Hercule Poirot, who retired from the Belgian police in 1904 to become an amateur sleuth?
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agatha christie
Who was the author whose friends called him 'Goldy' and who wrote 'The Vicar of Wakefield'?
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oliver goldsmith
Which author wrote 'The Age of Reason', a work often referred to as the 'Atheist's Bible' that states, 'I believe in one God'?
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thomas paine
In which Willa Cather novel does the heroine eventually marry a farmer named Anton Cuzak?
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my Ántonia
Who is the detective featured in Dannay & Lee's first book written to win a magazine contest?
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ellery queen
Who is the author of 'Private Lives' who remarked, 'Everyone but S. Maugham said I was a second S. Maugham'?
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noël coward
Who is the author of the 1927 collection of short stories 'Men Without Women' that includes 'The Killer' and 'The Undefeated'?
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ernest hemingway
Which famous hometown author caused a controversy in Oxford, Mississippi, when a magnolia tree was cut down to erect his statue?
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william faulkner
Which Chekhov play ends with the butler lying dying as the sound of an axe felling trees is heard offstage?
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cherry orchard
What Irish playwright used the name Sebastian Melmoth while in exile?
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oscar wilde
What one-word title is the 1983 bestseller by Dr. Noguchi?
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coroner
Which poet based the character Lucinda Matlock from 'Spoon River Anthology' on his grandmother, Lucinda Masters?
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edgar lee masters
What is the name of Anna Sewell's only book, published just months before her death?
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black beauty
Which English poet is believed to have based the character of Childe Harold on himself?
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lord byron
Which author wrote the 1981 novel where Mrs. Berry and Egg die in a plane crash on their way to Vienna?
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john irving
Which seagoing San Francisco author is the subject of Irving Stone's novel 'Sailor on Horseback'?
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jack london
Who wrote the largely autobiographical novel 'The Human Comedy' in 1943?
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william saroyan
What concept did Thomas Paine address in his book titled 'The Age Of'?
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reason
In the novels by Baroness Orczy, who is the hero that is actually Sir Percy Blakeney?
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scarlet pimpernel
Which author had one of his last collections of tales, 'Uncle Remus and the Little Boy,' published posthumously in 1910?
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joel chandler harris
Who is the author of the book 'Princess Daisy'?
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judith krantz
Who is the author known for writing 'Dazzle' and 'I'll Take Manhattan'?
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judith krantz
Who is the author of the book 'Dubliners', which includes the story 'Ivy Day in the Committee Room'?
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james joyce
In which country are Nevil Shute's novels 'A Town Like Alice' and 'On the Beach' largely set?
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australia
Who is the Czech-born author of the 1915 work 'The Metamorphosis'?
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franz kafka
What is the title of John Milton's sequel epic poem that deals with the temptation of Christ in the wilderness?
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paradise regained
Which 19th-century American author wrote, 'I went to the woods because I wished...to front only the essential facts of life'?
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henry david thoreau
Who is the anti-hero in Joseph Heller's satire of military bureaucracy, 'Catch-22'?
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yossarian
Who is the Welsh poet known for writing 'A Child's Christmas in Wales' and began his literary career at a young age?
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dylan thomas
Who is the onetime Supreme Court candidate who critiques America in 'Slouching Towards Gomorrah'?
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robert bork
Which woman novelist hoped to conclude her alphabet mysteries with 'Z' around the year 2015?
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sue grafton
Who published his third novel, "A Cool Million", in 1934, a year after "Miss Lonelyhearts"?
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nathanael west
Who is the author of 'BUtterfield 8' and also wrote 'Appointment in Samarra' as his first novel?
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john o'hara
Who is the author of 'The Wept of Wish-Ton-Wish' and 'The Last of the Mohicans'?
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james fenimore cooper
Which Greek writer continued the story of Ulysses in his 1938 poem, 'The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel'?
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nikos kazantzakis
Which American author won her only Pulitzer Prize for fiction for the novel 'One of Ours'?
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willa cather
Which author wrote the novels 'Tai-Pan' and 'Gai-Jin' as part of his Asian saga?
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james clavell
In which country were the Governor-General's Literary Awards established in 1936?
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canada
Who is the author who based the title character of his 1914 novel 'Penrod' in part on his nephews?
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booth tarkington
In which Ernest Hemingway novel does Lady Brett Ashley elope with a bullfighter?
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sun also rises
In which Kafka work did Mikhail Baryshnikov perform as Gregor Samsa in an adaptation where his performance was described as 'insectifying'?
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metamorphosis
In which novel does Jake end by telling Lady Brett, 'Isn't it pretty to think so?'?
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sun also rises
What is the name of the work whose general prologue describes the meeting of 30 pilgrims at the Tabard Inn?
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canterbury tales
Which author described war as 'the blood-swollen god' in 'The Red Badge of Courage'?
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stephen crane
What is the name of the Machiavelli novel that is often referred to as a manual for tyrants?
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prince
Who is the author of the book 'The Deer Park'?
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norman mailer
Which Bombay-born poet and novelist was a first cousin of British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin?
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rudyard kipling
Which author wrote the fairy tales 'The Metal Pig', 'Aunty Toothache', 'The Rags', and 'The Fir Tree'?
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hans christian andersen
Which Chekhov play is set on Madame Ranevsky's estate and is named for its blossoming fruit trees?
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cherry orchard