Literature Trivia Questions
Total Questions: 2000
Which author was inspired by her hometown of Red Cloud, Nebraska to write the novels 'A Lost Lady' and 'O Pioneers!'?
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willa cather
What word completes the title of O. Henry's first book 'Cabbages and ___', which shares its name with a character referenced by the walrus and the carpenter?
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kings
Who is the poet known for writing 'The New Colossus' and for translating works by Victor Hugo and Goethe?
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emma lazarus
What Shakespearean play, set in Scotland, concludes with the demise of its title character?
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macbeth
Who published their first novel 'Jocelyn' under the pen name John Sinjohn and is also known for writing 'The Forsyte Saga'?
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john galsworthy
In Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem 'Crossing the Bar', what does crossing the bar symbolize?
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death
Who is the poet that wrote Poem No. 1333, which includes the line: 'A little madness in the spring is wholesome even for the king'?
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emily dickinson
Who is the author of 'Our Man in Havana' who published a volume of his letters to the editor in 1990?
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graham greene
What is the title of the poem that features the line 'Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses'?
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new colossus
Smetana never completed his opera 'Viola', based on which comedy written by Shakespeare?
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twelfth night
Who wrote the 1918 poem 'Prairie' that includes the line, 'I tell you the past is a bucket of ashes'?
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carl sandburg
What 10-letter word describes literature distributed by advocates of a specific doctrine?
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propaganda
Which author published a series of essays in 1841 that included 'Self-Reliance'?
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ralph waldo emerson
Which British author left his heart and the remains of his two wives at Stinsford Church near Dorchester, a place mentioned in 'Far From the Madding Crowd'?
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thomas hardy
Who wrote the play that features Captain Shotover as the eccentric owner of Heartbreak House?
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george bernard shaw
Which author wrote the quote 'We hand folks over to God's mercy, and show none ourselves' in their novel 'Adam Bede'?
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george eliot
Which German author wrote in 'The Tin Drum,' 'Even bad books are books and therefore sacred'?
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günter grass
Which Shakespearean comedy begins with the line 'If music be the food of love, play on'?
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twelfth night
What name is shared by the prince who held the masque in Edgar Allan Poe's story and Miranda's father in 'The Tempest'?
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prospero
What word completes the title of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's bestseller about Simon Bolivar, 'The General in His ____'?
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labyrinth
Which reclusive poetess from Massachusetts wrote over 1,000 poems but only titled a few of them?
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emily dickinson
How many syllables are in a line of standard iambic pentameter?
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10
In which classical language were the fables known as the Panchatantra originally written?
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sanskrit
What play by George Bernard Shaw opens in the library of Lady Britomart Undershaft's house?
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major barbara
In which Natalie Babbitt book does the Tuck family try to convince Winnie that living forever is a curse?
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tuck everlasting
Which woman authored 'The Awakening' that gained recognition in 1899?
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kate chopin
Who authored 'Hard Times,' an oral history of the Great Depression, published in 1970?
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studs terkel
What is the title of Richard Wright's novel about Bigger Thomas, a black youth raised in a Chicago slum?
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native son
Which poet dedicated 'The Rape of the Lock' to Mrs. Arabella Fremor?
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alexander pope
Who is the author behind the trial drama 'Night of January 16th', where the audience acts as the jury?
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ayn rand
Which author wrote 'One Hundred Years of Solitude,' a novel that spans several generations of the Buendia family?
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gabriel garcía márquez
What is the title of the 1996 comic novel by David Foster Wallace known for its vast length?
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infinite jest
What is the name of the family marooned in Johann Wyss's novel?
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swiss family robinson
Who is the author of the poem 'Andrea Del Sarto' that contains the line, 'Ah but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?'?
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robert browning
Which New Yorker, after moving to Europe, wrote the 1890 novel 'The Tragic Muse' about the art world of Europe?
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henry james
Which author published 'Electronic Life: How to Think About Computers' between his novels 'Congo' and 'Sphere'?
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michael crichton
Which Civil War historian won a Pulitzer Prize in 1954 for his book "A Stillness At Appomattox"?
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bruce catton
Who is the German author known for writing the tetralogy of novels 'Joseph and His Brothers' and the novella 'Death in Venice'?
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thomas mann
Which author, known for his book 'Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less', was also a member of the House of Commons?
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jeffrey archer
What did Wordsworth say 'is too much with us; late and soon, getting and spending, we lay waste our powers'?
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world
Which playwright wrote 'The Matchmaker,' a play that was based on his earlier work 'The Merchant of Yonkers'?
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thornton wilder
Who wrote the 1848 novel 'Dombey and Son' while residing in Switzerland?
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charles dickens
Who is the renowned author born Chloe Anthony Wofford in 1931, known for writing 'Beloved'?
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toni morrison
Which author, known for writing 'The Red and the Black,' has a museum dedicated to him in his birthplace, Grenoble?
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stendhal
What is the title of the Camus novel known in French as 'La Peste'?
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plague
What is the name of the Joseph Heller hero who is also called Yo-Yo?
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yossarian
Which novelist, known for 'I, Claudius,' wrote the memoir 'Good-Bye to All That,' which vividly depicts World War I?
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robert graves
In which famous novel did Sam Waterston play the character Nick Carraway in its 1974 film adaptation?
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great gatsby
Which J.K. Rowling hero has encountered 'The Sorcerer's Stone' and 'The Chamber of Secrets'?
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harry potter
Who is the author of the books 'The Stranger' and 'The Plague'?
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albert camus
In the lines by Kipling, what three-letter word completes the phrase, 'Till the devil whispered behind the leaves, 'it's pretty, but is it'?'
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art
What is the title of the 1872 Samuel Butler satire that has the alternate title 'Over The Range'?
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erewhon
Who is the queen of the Amazons that Theseus, Duke of Athens, is engaged to in Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'?
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hippolyta
In which poignant novel by Solzhenitsyn do the characters Oleg Kostoglotov and Pavel Rusanov appear as patients?
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cancer ward
What is the name of the ship Longfellow wrote about that 'sailed the wintry sea; and the skipper had taken his little daughter'?
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hesperus
Who is the author of 'Black Beauty' who required a horse-drawn carriage for mobility due to being an invalid?
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anna sewell
What is the title of the 1946 John Hersey book about WWII that begins with 'At exactly fifteen minutes past eight in the morning...'?
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hiroshima
Which author of 'My Antonia' worked as an editor at McClure's magazine before becoming a full-time writer?
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willa cather
Which French author, formerly a music-hall dancer and actress, wrote the book 'Gigi'?
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colette
What is the name of the woman who tells the tales of the Arabian Nights to the king?
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scheherazade