Literature Trivia Questions
Total Questions: 413
Which epic novel, published in 1957, tells the story of a physician's love for the wife of a Russian revolutionary?
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doctor zhivago
Which author wrote the book 'Heart of Darkness,' which served as the basis for the film 'Apocalypse Now'?
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joseph conrad
Which companion of Gertrude Stein authored the memoir 'What is Remembered' published in 1963?
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alice b. toklas
Which contemporary author is known for several suspense novels, including 'Let Me Call You Sweetheart,' that derive their titles from old songs?
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mary higgins clark
Which poet's unfinished dramatic work 'The Deformed Transformed' was left incomplete upon his death as a hero in Greece in 1824?
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lord byron
Who is the subject of 'The Far Side of Paradise'?
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f. scott fitzgerald
Which king in a Shakespeare play has a fool who represents truth and speaks in rhymes and songs?
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king lear
Who is the Southern author known for his third novel 'Sartoris', which was originally titled 'Flags in the Dust'?
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william faulkner
Which author wrote the spy novels 'Eye of the Needle' and 'The Key to Rebecca'?
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ken follett
Which famous author's father received an obituary written by Winston Churchill after dying in WWI?
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ian fleming
Which author originally wrote the novel 'The Third Man' as a screenplay?
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graham greene
In the poem 'Harlem', which poet asked, 'What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?'
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langston hughes
Which Richard Adams work features characters named Hazel, Fiver, and Blackberry?
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watership down
Which author wrote the short story 'The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber,' which is set on an African safari?
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ernest hemingway
Who is the author of 'The Day Christ Died', 'The Day Lincoln Was Shot', and 'The Day Kennedy Was Shot'?
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jim bishop
Which author, famous for 'Requiem for a Nun,' passed away on July 6, 1962?
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william faulkner
Which poet, known for his work on 'The Cantos,' used the pseudonym Alfred Venison?
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ezra pound
Who was the elder daughter of the Grand Vizier tasked with executing the Sultan's wives in 'The Arabian Knights'?
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scheherazade
Which language must you know to read the Mahabharata in its original form?
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sanskrit
Who is the author of the book 'Cimarron'?
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edna ferber
Which famous woman died just a few months after her only book, 'Black Beauty', was published?
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anna sewell
Who is the Russian playwright who wrote short stories under the pseudonym Antosha Chekhonte?
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anton chekhov
What is the title of the John Knowles novel set during WWII where Gene and Finny become friends at a prep school?
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separate peace
Emily Dickinson described this as 'the thing with feathers that perches in the soul.'
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hope
What is the name of the Ibsen title character who declares, 'I'm not going to make any more noise' before committing suicide?
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hedda gabler
Which author, as a child, said a 'long goodbye' to the U.S. and moved to England with his Irish mother?
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raymond chandler
In which city does George Eliot's novel 'Romola', featuring characters Savonarola and Machiavelli, take place during the 1490s?
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florence
Which American author wrote the 1853 short story 'Bartleby the Scrivener,' subtitled 'A Story of Wall Street'?
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herman melville
In which country does the majority of the events occur after Act II in Shakespeare's 'Henry V'?
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france
Who was honored as 'Caledonia's Bard' by the Masonic Grand Lodge of Scotland in 1786?
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robert burns
Who is the author of the book titled 'Looking Backward'?
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edward bellamy
Who is always credited as the author of the Nancy Drew novels, regardless of who actually writes them?
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carolyn keene
Which Shakespearean character exclaimed, 'My only love sprung from my only hate! Too early seen unknown, and known too late'?
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juliet
Which 1906 Upton Sinclair novel focuses on the life of Jurgis Rudkus, a worker in the Chicago stockyards?
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jungle
In which Shakespeare play does the renouncing of magic symbolize the bard's farewell to the stage?
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tempest
Who is the Swedish playwright known as a forerunner of expressionist drama?
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august strindberg
Who did Jimmy Carter refer to as 'the best poet I know' and wrote 'Deliverance'?
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james dickey
Which 1936 Daphne du Maurier novel is one of her Cornish tales?
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jamaica inn
Which Dickens novel is narrated by Philip Pirrip?
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great expectations
Which Virginia-born Nebraska author published her first novel, 'Alexander's Bridge', in 1912?
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willa cather
Who is the author of the book 'Green Mansions'?
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william henry hudson
In which 1950 Ray Bradbury classic does the story begin in 1999 with men blasting off for another planet?
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martian chronicles
Which Shakespearean heroine lends her name to a decorative skullcap sometimes worn by brides?
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juliet
Which author, nicknamed 'Dr. Love', wrote bestselling books including 1972's 'Love' and 1984's 'Loving Each Other'?
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leo buscaglia
Who is the author of the novel featuring Dr. Tertius Lydgate and Rosamund Vinci, titled 'Middlemarch'?
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george eliot
Who was banished from Verona for killing Tybalt?
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romeo
What literary form includes Juvenalian and Horatian as its two main types and employs irony and sarcasm?
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satire
Who is the Canadian author whose first book of poetry was 'Double Persephone' and also wrote 'The Handmaid's Tale'?
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margaret atwood
What is the title of an Alvin Toffler book that refers to the anxiety caused by swift technological change?
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future shock
Which play features the characters Larry Slade, Harry Hope, and Theodore 'Hickey' Hickman?
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iceman cometh
Which 20th-century writer is known for their 'merry pranks' as detailed in Tom Wolfe's 'The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test'?
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ken kesey
In Shakespeare's 'Measure for Measure,' Vincentio is the duke of which Austrian city?
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vienna
Which Philip Roth book starts with the line, 'The first time I saw Brenda she asked me to hold her glasses'?
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goodbye, columbus
Which author wrote the line 'Writers are always selling somebody out' in 'Slouching Towards Bethlehem'?
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joan didion
What is the title of Michael Ende's story about a boy who enters a fantasy world by reading a book?
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neverending story
Which author wrote 'By the North Gate', 'A Garden of Earthly Delights', and 'Bellefleur'?
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joyce carol oates
Which Chinese-American detective is featured in the 6 novels by Earl Derr Biggers that were first serialized in The Saturday Evening Post?
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charlie chan
Which author of 'Little Lord Fauntleroy' revealed 'The Way to the House of Santa Claus' in a 1916 story?
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frances hodgson burnett
Which famous poet's grave and home, the 'Boathouse,' can you visit in Laugharne?
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dylan thomas
Which author of 'The Bell Jar' had two posthumous poetry collections titled 'Crossing the Water' and 'Winter Trees'?
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sylvia plath