Literature Trivia Questions
Total Questions: 409
Who is the Hawthorne heroine with a beautiful, mischievous daughter named Pearl?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
hester prynne
On which island does Othello commit suicide in Shakespeare's play?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
cyprus
What is the numerical title of the Shakespearean comedy subtitled 'Or What You Will'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
twelfth night
In which Shakespeare play does the character Emilia describe jealousy as 'a monster begot upon itself, born on itself'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
othello
What is the Shirley Jackson short story about a stoning that is subtitled 'The Adventures of James Harris'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
lottery
Which author, known for 'The Last of the Mohicans,' was born in Burlington, New Jersey in 1789 and moved to Cooperstown, New York as a child?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
james fenimore cooper
Who is the author of both the novel on which the controversial film 'The Last Temptation of Christ' is based and 'Zorba the Greek'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
nikos kazantzakis
Which 1953 Arthur Miller play was inspired by the atmosphere of McCarthyism in the early 1950s?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
crucible
Which author describes a walking tour through the Alps and the Black Forest in the book 'A Tramp Abroad'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
mark twain
Who is the main character in the novel narrated by Humbert Humbert?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
lolita
Who is the poet that asked, 'What men or gods are these?' in 'Ode on a Grecian Urn'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
john keats
Who wrote the epigram to 'Kubla Khan' that includes the line, 'Every fool is not a poet'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
samuel taylor coleridge
What shipwreck did Longfellow write a poem about, titled 'The Wreck of the ___'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
hesperus
From the Latin for 'difficult word', what is a list of words and their definitions that is usually found at the back of the book?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
glossary
Which author reflects on life in Minnesota in some of the stories and poems in 'We Are Still Married'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
garrison keillor
Which British author created the characters Little Nell and Little Dorrit?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
charles dickens
Which Chekhov play is adapted into Joshua Logan's 'The Wisteria Trees', set on a southern plantation?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
cherry orchard
Who is the poet whose lines from 'The New Colossus' are inscribed on the Statue of Liberty's pedestal?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
emma lazarus
Which author mentioned that his 1994 novel 'A Son of the Circus' is not about India, as he had only visited the country once?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
john irving
Who wrote that Willy Loman's tragedy is 'that he gave his life, or sold it, in order to justify the waste of it'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
arthur miller
Which Eugene O'Neill play is based on the 'Oresteia' by Aeschylus?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
mourning becomes electra
Which female detective did Agatha Christie describe as someone who always expected the worst of everyone, and was usually right?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
miss marple
Who is the father of Hester Prynne's daughter Pearl in 'The Scarlet Letter'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
arthur dimmesdale
Who was the author of 'The Cardinal Sins' and was ordained a Catholic priest in 1954?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
andrew greeley
Which author's work titled 'Madame Bovary' loosely inspired Stephen Crane's 'Maggie: A Girl of the Streets'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
gustave flaubert
Who is the author of 'Humboldt's Gift' who won both the Pulitzer and Nobel Prizes in 1976?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
saul bellow
Which author based the character Judge Temple on his father William in the 1823 book "The Pioneers"?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
james fenimore cooper
What is the title of Ray Bradbury's 1950 collection of stories about the colonization of Mars?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
martian chronicles
Which poet's series 'Bells and Pomegranates' included the works 'Pippa Passes' and 'My Last Duchess'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
robert browning
Who was serving as Chile's ambassador to France when he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
pablo neruda
Which authors plans to study biology at Eton School were thwarted by an eye ailment?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
aldous huxley
From which country does the romantic tale 'The Pursuit of Diarmait and Grania' in the Fenian Cycle originate?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
ireland
What color did Alice see the queen's gardeners paint the white roses in Wonderland?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
red
Which author set her 1931 novel 'Shadows on the Rock' in Quebec rather than Nebraska?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
willa cather
Which comedienne authored the autobiographical book titled 'It's Always Something'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
gilda radner
Who is the rejected lover in Shakespeare's play who says 'If thou be merciful, open the tomb, lay me with Juliet' as his last words?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
paris
What valuable object does the fisherman Kino find in a short novel by John Steinbeck?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
pearl
Which author died while writing the book 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood,' leaving its ending unknown?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
charles dickens
What is the title of the 1861 George Eliot novel that is subtitled 'The Weaver of Raveloe'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
silas marner
What is the name of the main character whose mother Clara marries Mr. Murdstone in a novel by Charles Dickens?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
david copperfield
Which midwestern American poet gained new fame in 1990 with the book 'Iron John: A Book About Men'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
robert bly
Who wrote the libretto for Dessau's 'The Trial of Lucullus' and Weill's 'The Threepenny Opera'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
bertolt brecht
Which author created the character Montague Tigg, who uses the alias Tigg Montague, in the novel 'Martin Chuzzlewit'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
charles dickens
Who wrote in his 1755 dictionary, 'To make dictionaries is dull work'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
samuel johnson
Which playwright wrote the offbeat play 'The Skin of our Teeth' that features a talking baby dinosaur?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
thornton wilder
Who wrote the short story 'Ms. Found in a Bottle,' which won a Baltimore short story contest in 1833?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
edgar allan poe
Who is the character whose wife is Aunt Chloe and whose master is Arthur Shelby in Kentucky?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
uncle tom
Which French author wrote both 'Salammbo' and 'Madame Bovary'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
gustave flaubert
Which author created the characters Nick Charles and Sam Spade?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
dashiell hammett
Who authored the first volume of poetry titled 'Into the Stone and other Poems' and the novel 'Deliverance'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
james dickey
What is the name of the Shaw play in which Act II opens at a Salvation Army shelter?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
major barbara
Who is the prolific author that published 'Star' and 'Daddy' in 1989?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
danielle steel
Who parodied Samuel Richardson's novel 'Pamela' in his satirical book 'Joseph Andrews'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
henry fielding
Who is the author known for writing 1958's first full-length play 'The Birthday Party' and 'The Homecoming'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
harold pinter
Who authored the 1878 novel 'The Return of the Native', which was initially published as a serial in Belgravia Magazine?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
thomas hardy
Which Ayn Rand novel features a character named Howard Roark, who was based on Frank Lloyd Wright?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
fountainhead
Who is the father of Miranda in Shakespeare's play 'The Tempest'?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
prospero
Who is the daughter of King Priam blessed with the gift of prophecy but cursed by Apollo to never be believed?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
cassandra
Which eccentric old lady in 'Great Expectations' dies after her wedding gown catches fire?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
miss havisham
Who knighted the two swindlers and gave each the title of 'Gentleman Weaver' in the fairy tale?
Hard
Click to reveal answer
emperor