Literature Trivia Questions
Total Questions: 413
What is the name of the kingdom in 'The Prisoner of Zenda' that became synonymous with a fanciful, romantic place?
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ruritania
Who was the contemporary of Shakespeare who wrote 'Tamburlaine' and 'The Jew of Malta'?
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christopher marlowe
Which 'Beloved' author set her novel 'Paradise' in the fictional all-black town of Ruby, Oklahoma?
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toni morrison
What word completes the title of Olive Ann Burns' novel 'Cold Sassy ___'?
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tree
Who authored 'Finnegans Wake' during the final years of his life?
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james joyce
Which author wrote the 1946 novel 'All the King's Men' narrated by Jack Burden?
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robert penn warren
Which Lloyd C. Douglas novel about the crucifixion was a best seller in both 1943 and 1953, coinciding with the movie release?
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robe
What is the full name of the author whose middle name is Flannery and wrote 'Wise Blood'?
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flannery o'connor
In which novel can you find the character Jonathan Harker, who is a lawyer?
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dracula
Which author wrote the novels that were adapted into the films featuring Alan Bates in 'The Fixer' and Robert Redford in 'The Natural'?
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bernard malamud
Who wrote the last three verses of 'Mary Had a Little Lamb'?
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sarah josepha hale
Who is widely known as the 'Hoosier Poet' and wrote 'The frost is on the punkin'?
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james whitcomb riley
Who is the humorist whose newspaper columns are collected in the book 'While Reagan Slept'?
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art buchwald
What is the title of the Edith Wharton novel that involves a New England farmer who is caught between his nagging wife and a sweet young love interest?
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ethan frome
Which Shaw title character resigns from the Salvation Army after 'tainted money' is donated?
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major barbara
Who is the French author best remembered for writing 'A la recherche du temps perdu'?
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marcel proust
Who is the writer whose Yiddish short story, 'Gimpel The Fool,' was translated into English by Saul Bellow?
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isaac bashevis singer
In which Shakespearean comedy does the character Touchstone say, 'Ay, now am I in Arden, the more fool I'?
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as you like it
In which Welsh poet's work, 'Under Milk Wood,' can Mr. Waldo be found?
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dylan thomas
Which author known for writing novels about horse racing, such as 'The Edge' and 'Hot Money,' has frequently appeared on best seller lists?
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dick francis
In the poem by Milton, who laments, 'O loss of sight, of thee I most complain!'?
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samson
What is the hometown of the famous author Jorge Luis Borges?
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buenos aires
Which female expatriate author wrote, 'Chicken, alas a dirty word, alas a dirty third... alas a dirty bird'?
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gertrude stein
Which playwright wrote her first book of memoirs titled 'An Unfinished Woman' and her last 'Maybe'?
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lillian hellman
Which author gave up architecture to pursue writing after the success of 'Far from the Madding Crowd'?
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thomas hardy
Which Russian novel, first published in 1958 in Italian and later in English, contributed to its author's Nobel Prize win?
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doctor zhivago
Who is the author of 'Candide' who writes about being in the 'best of all possible worlds'?
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voltaire
Which Swedish playwright married actress Siri von Essen after her divorce from Baron Wrangel in 1877?
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august strindberg
In which country is Colleen McCullough's novel 'The Ladies of Missalonghi' set in the Blue Mountains?
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australia
Who is the Norwegian playwright who wrote the play 'Peer Gynt' in 1867?
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henrik ibsen
Which dialogue by Plato, consisting of 10 books, starts with a discussion on the nature of justice?
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republic
Which author had excerpts of her book 'Pilgrim at Tinker Creek' appear as essays in The Atlantic and Harper's?
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annie dillard
In Shakespeare's work, what herb does Ophelia associate with remembrance?
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rosemary
Who wrote 'Northanger Abbey'?
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jane austen
Who wrote the 1996 verse collection 'Falling Up' and is also known for 'The Giving Tree'?
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shel silverstein
In what U.S. state does Willa Cather's 'O Pioneers!' begin on a January day in the little town of Hanover?
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nebraska
Which Mississippi-born author was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1973 for the novel 'The Optimist's Daughter'?
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eudora welty
Which 4-act comedy by Langdon Mitchell is based on William Makepeace Thackeray's 'Vanity Fair'?
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becky sharp
Which author of 'Hondo' and other Westerns was born in Jamestown, North Dakota?
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louis l'amour
Which play by Shakespeare begins with the line 'I learn in this letter that Don Pedro of Arragon comes this night in Messina'?
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much ado about nothing
Which black American author won a 1988 Pulitzer Prize for the novel 'Beloved,' set in the Reconstruction era?
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toni morrison
Which Chilean poet's reputation was established in 1924 with the publication of 'Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair'?
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pablo neruda
Who is the poet that wrote, 'I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference'?
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robert frost
Which author said it took him "Five years to write 'In Cold Blood', and a year to recover"?
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truman capote
What is the title of the Jerzy Kozinski novel that begins with the sentence 'It was Sunday. Chance was in the garden'?
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being there
What is the only Sir Walter Scott novel in which Robin Hood appears?
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ivanhoe
Which poet compared Lincoln to Venus in the poem 'When Lilacs Last in the Door-Yard Bloom'd'?
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walt whitman
Which author of 'The Moonstone' was named after his father's friend Sir David Wilkie?
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wilkie collins
Which Harlem poet wrote 'Rest at pale evening... a tall slim tree... night coming tenderly black like me'?
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langston hughes
Who is the author of the 1958 novel 'Our Man in Havana' set in pre-Castro Cuba?
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graham greene
Who is the German author of the 1943 novel 'Magister Ludi', also known as 'The Glass Bead Game'?
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hermann hesse
Who is the author of the 1930 novel 'Cimarron', which is set during the Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889?
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edna ferber
Who is the English poet known for writing 'Queen Mab', 'Ozymandias', and 'To A Skylark'?
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percy bysshe shelley
What is the name of the legendary Spanish rake in a mock-epic poem by Byron that rhymes with 'new one'?
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don juan
Which author of 'Anne of Green Gables' was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1935?
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lucy maud montgomery
Which playwright wrote 'Back to Methuselah,' in which Edith Evans played the serpent in the 1923 cast?
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george bernard shaw
What was the name of James Thurber's 1945 collection, including the word 'Thurber'?
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carnival
Which poet, known for writing 'Kubla Khan,' considered 'Tom Jones' to have one of the three best plots in all literature?
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samuel taylor coleridge
Who is the author of the novel 'A Death in the Family', which was adapted for the stage as 'All The Way Home'?
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james agee
Which author wrote the novel 'Cancer Ward' that was originally banned in the Soviet Union?
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aleksandr solzhenitsyn