Literature Trivia Questions
Total Questions: 2000
In which Alice Walker novel is the character Celie reunited with her children and her sister Nettie at the end?
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color purple
Which author, known for 'The Bells,' was described by Collier's Encyclopedia as 'a great swimmer' and 'did not write while drunk'?
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edgar allan poe
Who is the author known for horror novels such as 'The Door to December' and 'Demon Seed'?
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dean koontz
According to playwright William Congreve, you must not do what and tell?
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kiss
Which contemporary author wrote 'Heartburn' and is the child of Henry and Phoebe Ephron, the screenwriters of 'Carousel'?
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nora ephron
In which country did Strindberg set 'Miss Julie' in the kitchen of a manor house?
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sweden
Who is the author of 'The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade', a novel set on a Mississippi riverboat?
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herman melville
Which fictional character, who began sleuthing in 1930, solved her 100th mystery in 1991?
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nancy drew
Which author dedicated 'O Pioneers!' to her fellow novelist Sarah Orne Jewett?
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willa cather
Who is the poet that wrote the lines 'Ah, Tam! Ah, tam! Thou'll get thy fairin! In hell they'll roast thee like a herrin!'?
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robert burns
Who is the author of the novel 'Song of Solomon' that features the protagonist Macon Dead III, also known as Milkman?
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toni morrison
Who is the British poet that wrote the lines, 'If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you'?
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rudyard kipling
What sport does Joe Bonaparte choose over playing the violin in Clifford Odets' 'Golden Boy'?
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boxing
Which title character is helped by Nancy in the novel where Bill Sikes kills her?
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oliver twist
Who wrote the play featuring the Antrobuses of Excelsior, New Jersey, an 'ice age' family, titled 'The Skin of Our Teeth'?
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thornton wilder
Which American author had his book 'Tropic of Capricorn' first published in France in 1939, with its U.S. release coming 23 years later?
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henry miller
Which author had his novel 'Look Homeward, Angel' accepted by editor Maxwell Perkins when others thought it unpublishable?
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thomas wolfe
Which author wrote 'Mansfield Park,' where Fanny Price falls in love with her cousin Edmund?
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jane austen
Which Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Pearl Buck is the first book in the trilogy that concludes with 'A House Divided'?
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good earth
In the novels by Rex Stout, who is the obese sleuth that employs Archie Goodwin as his office assistant?
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nero wolfe
What is the title of Emily Bronte's only novel, which was first published in 1847, the year before she died?
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wuthering heights
Which Roman poet's work 'Metamorphoses' partially inspired Shakespeare's narrative poem 'Venus and Adonis'?
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ovid
Who wrote the play 'Summer And Smoke'?
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tennessee williams
Which poet's work 'Starting from Paumanok' first appeared in 'Leaves of Grass' under the title 'Proto-Leaf'?
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walt whitman
Which author, known for writing 'Dracula', was encouraged early in his career by Henry Morton Stanley?
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bram stoker
Which poet refers to 'the fatal gift of beauty' in 'Childe Harold'?
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lord byron
Which author of 'Kidnapped' wrote the whimsical collection of essays 'Virginibus Puerisque'?
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robert louis stevenson
Who is the creator of Oz that used the pen name Floyd Akers for the 'Boy Fortune Hunters' books?
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l. frank baum
Who farmed and wrote magazine stories to support his family in the 1850s, with a whale tale that didn't sell well?
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herman melville
Which character in Shakespeare's play is described as having light by her continually and sleepwalks carrying a taper?
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lady macbeth
Which author gave her share of the film rights to 'Witness For The Prosecution' to her daughter Rosalind?
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agatha christie
What name does Alonso Quijano adopt after becoming enamored with chivalric romances in Cervantes' novel?
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don quixote
Which playwright claimed his comic masterpiece 'Pygmalion' was a didactic play about phonetics?
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george bernard shaw
Who wrote the play 'Saint Joan,' which opened in 1923, three years after the canonization of Joan of Arc?
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george bernard shaw
Which 1854 book by Thoreau, subtitled 'Or, Life in the Woods', is one of only two books he published in his lifetime?
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walden
What is the name of the deadly dog in a 1981 novel by Stephen King?
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cujo
Which Norwegian author wrote the play 'When We Dead Awaken', known for its significant self-analysis?
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henrik ibsen
Who is the author that wrote a play titled 'Clevinger's Trial', which is based on Chapter 8 of his novel 'Catch-22'?
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joseph heller
Which poet's poem 'Mending Wall' first appeared in the collection 'North of Boston' that he wrote while in England?
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robert frost
What is the title of the 1880 story by Johanna Spyri about a young girl who lives in the Alps?
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heidi
Which author did Thomas Wolfe praise by saying, 'Tender is the Night had in it the best work you have ever done'?
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f. scott fitzgerald
In 1979, which author's 'Aunt Erma's Cope Book' became her third consecutive best seller?
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erma bombeck
Which title character is warned not to go into Mr. McGregor's garden in an audiobook?
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peter rabbit
Who is the author known for writing many short stories with surprise endings, including 'The Gift of the Magi'?
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o. henry
What title character did Charles Dickens consider naming Spankle or Copperboy?
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david copperfield
Who is the British author of 'Vanity Fair' who, like Dickens, left his last novel, 'Denis Duval', unfinished?
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william makepeace thackeray
Who was known as 'The Nun of Amherst' due to her seclusion?
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emily dickinson
Who is the lawless and idle friend of Tom Sawyer known for never having to wash or wear clean clothes and who could swear wonderfully in 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer'?
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huckleberry finn
Which fictional character was inspired by the marooned Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk?
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robinson crusoe
Which 19th-century British author is credited with popularizing the turkey as a Christmas dinner choice?
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charles dickens
What book begins with the line 'Marley was dead: to begin with'?
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christmas carol
Who is the author of the fable that teaches the moral, 'A hero is brave in deeds as well as words'?
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aesop
On which plateau of central Spain did Don Quixote roam?
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la mancha
Which author wrote two '60s bestsellers, including 'You Only Live Twice' in 1964 and 'The Man With The Golden Gun' in 1965?
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ian fleming
In the first scene of which Shakespearean play does Bernardo say, 'Tis' now struck twelve,' followed by the appearance of a ghost?
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hamlet
Who is the author whose first book of stories appeared in 1904, three years after he finished serving time for embezzling?
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o. henry
What color does Robert Frost describe as 'Nature's first green' in his poetry?
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gold
Who is the author of 'How to Win Friends & Influence People'?
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dale carnegie
Who wrote the 1993 novel 'Gai-Jin' set in 19th century Japan?
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james clavell
What is the most famous adventure novel written by Swiss author Johann Wyss?
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swiss family robinson