Literature Trivia Questions
Total Questions: 2000
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
Which Sir Walter Scott novel features a 12th century Saxon knight who is in love with Rowena?
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ivanhoe
Which humorist wrote a collection of essays called 'In Cyberspace' that is formatted like a computer manual?
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dave barry
In which Salman Rushdie novel do the characters Gibreel Farishta and Saladin Chamcha fall from an exploded jet at the beginning?
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satanic verses
Which Scotsman, who died in Samoa in 1894, left behind the unfinished book 'Weir of Hermiston'?
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robert louis stevenson
In which novel would you find the characters Jurgis Rudkus, Ona Rudkus, and Antanas Rudkus?
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jungle
What lengthy T.S. Eliot poem was featured in Fiona Shaw's N.Y. theatrical debut in 1996?
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waste land
Which novelist won a Pulitzer Prize in 1988 for the book 'Beloved'?
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toni morrison
Which author was writing a sequel to 'Every Night, Josephine!' at the time of her death in 1974?
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jacqueline susann
Who was mortally wounded while slaying a dragon, decades after he beheaded Grendel?
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beowulf
Who is the author whose book, 'The Power of Myth,' is based on conversations with Joseph Campbell on PBS?
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bill moyers
What is the title of Judith Rossner's book about the time when psychoanalysts go on vacation and patients have to manage on their own?
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august
Which animal title is associated with Giuseppe Tomasi, Prince of Lampedusa's only novel?
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leopard
What is the name of the husband of poet Elizabeth who wrote 'O' to be in England, now that April's there'?
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robert browning
Who wrote the novel in which blackmailer Arthur Geiger is murdered?
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raymond chandler
Which poet's work titled 'I Heard a Fly Buzz' may have been inspired by a chapter in 'The House of the Seven Gables'?
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emily dickinson
In the 1857 novel by Gustave Flaubert, what is the name of the title character better known as Emma Rouault?
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madame bovary
Which author features the young woman Miranda in several of her works, including 'Pale Horse, Pale Rider'?
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katherine anne porter
Who is the author of 'The Odessa File,' 'The Fourth Protocol,' and 'The Day of the Jackal'?
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frederick forsyth
Who is the head nurse in the novel 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'?
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nurse ratched
In which 1944 novel by Kathleen Winsor is Amber St. Clare the title character?
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forever amber
What did Nathaniel Hawthorne call his 1846 collection of tales 'Mosses from an Old'?
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manse
In which Shakespearean play does the magician Prospero have the power to create storms?
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tempest