1.

'A Farewell to Arms' is based on Hemingway's own experience as what in World

War I?

2.

What is a novel by Herman Melville and an opera by Benjamin Britten?

3.

In which Tennessee Williams play do you meet Big Daddy?

4.

Holden Caulfield appears in which, once controversial, novel?

5.

Where are most of Pearl S. Buck's novels set?

6.

What is the setting for Hemingway's 'The Old Man and the Sea'?

7.

Who wrote 'The Maltese Falcon'?

8.

In which Arthur Miller play do you meet Willy Loman?

9.

Who wrote,'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'?

10.

Where were Robert Frost's poems first published?

11.

Which dramatist wrote 'Long Day's Journey Into Night'?

12.

Which poet spent time in a US mental hospital after supporting Mussolini and the
Fascists in World War II?

13.

Who died at the age of 44 with his novel 'The Last Tycoon' unfinished?

14.

Who coined the phrase 'the lost generations'?

15.

Whose most famous novel is 'The Carpetbaggers'?

16.

Which US-born novelist lived much of his life in France and England and became
a British citizen in 1915?

17.

Who wrote the short story 'I Robot' in 1950?

18.

Who wrote the 'Leatherstocking' tales of frontier life with their hero Natty Bumpo?

19.

Whose novels are about social conditions in his native California?

20.

Who wrote plays with a political theme such as 'The Little Foxes'?

21.

Whose real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens?

22.

Which character appears in all nine of Raymond Chandler's novels?

23.

Against what is Hemingway's 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' set?

24.

Which US poet married Ted Hughes, later poet laureate?

25.

Which Norman Mailer novel is based on a protest march?

26.

Which Arthur Miller play is a comment on McCarthyism?

27.

Which screenplay did Miller write for his wife Marilyn Monroe?

28.

What is L. Frank Baum's most famous story?

29.

What type of writing is Paul Theroux associated with other than novels?

30.

Who wrote the story of Rip van Winkle?

ANSWERS

1.

Ambulance driver

2.

Billy Budd

3.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

4.

Catcher In The Rye

5.

China

6.

Cuba

7.

Dashiel Hammett

8.

Death of a Salesman

9.

Edward Albee

10.

England

11.

Eugene O'Neill

12.

Ezra Pound

13.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

14.

Gertrude Stein

15.

Harold Robbins

16.

Henry James

17.

Isaac Asimov

18.

James Fenimore Cooper

19.

John Steinbeck

20.

Lillian Hellman

21.

Mark Twain

22.

Philip Marlowe

23.

Spanish Civil War

24.

Sylvia Plath

25.

The Armies of the Night

26.

The Crucible

27.

The Misfits

28.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

29.

Travel

30.

Washington Irving
31. What word, extended from a more popular term, refers to a fictional book of between
20,000 and 50,000 words? Novella
32. Who wrote the famous 1855 poem The Charge of the Light Brigade? Lord Alfred
Tennyson(1809-92)
33. In 1960 the UK publishing ban was lifted on what 1928 book? Lady Chatterley's
Lover (by D H Lawrence)
34. In bookmaking how many times would an quarto sheet be folded? Twice (to create four
leaves)
35. Who wrote the seminal 1936 self-help book How to Win Friends and Influence
People? Dale Carnegie
36. Who in 1450 invented movable type, thus revolutionising printing? Johannes Gutenberg
37. Which Polish-born naturalised British novelist's real surname was Korzeniowski? Joseph
Conrad (1857-1924, full name Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski)
38. Which short-lived dramatist is regarded as the first great exponent of blank
verse? Christopher Marlowe (1564-93 - Blank verse traditionally is unrhymed,
comprising ten syllables per line, stressing every second syllable.)

39. Who wrote the maxim 'Cogito, ergo sum' (I think, therefore I am)? Ren
Descartes (1596-1650, French philosopher and mathematician, in his work Discours de
la Mthode, 1637.)
40. Who was the youngest of the three Bront writing sisters? Anne Bront (1820-49 - other
sisters were Emily, 1818-48, and Charlotte, 1816-55, plus a brother, Branwell, 1817-48.
The two oldest sisters, Maria and Elizabeth died in childhood.)
41. What is the Old English heroic poem, surviving in a single copy dated around the year
1000, featuring its eponymous 6th century warrior from Geatland in Sweden? Beowulf
42. What relatively modern school of philosophy, popular in literature since the mid 1900s,
broadly embodies the notion of individual freedom of choice within a disorded and
inexplicable universe? Existentialism
43. What was the pen-name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson? Lewis Carroll (1832-98)
44. Who wrote Dr Zhivago? Boris Leonidovich Pasternak (1890-1960)
45. What term and type of comedy is derived from the French word for
stuffing? Farce or farcical(from the French farcir, to stuff, based on analogy between
stuffing in cookery and the insertion of frivolous material into medieval plays.)
46. What term originally meaning 'storehouse' referred, and still refers, to a periodical of
various content and imaginative writing? Magazine
47. Who wrote the significant scientific book Philosophi Naturalis Principia Mathematica,
published in 1687? Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
48. What 16th century establishment in London's Bread Street was a notable writers'
haunt? The Mermaid Tavern
49. Who wrote the 1845 poem The Pied Piper of Hamelin? Robert Browning (1812-89)
50. Which American poet and humanist wrote and continually revised a collection of poems
called Leaves of Grass? Walt Whitman (1819-92 - the title is apparently a self-effacing
pun, since grass was publishing slang for work of little value, and leaves are pages.)
51. The period between 1450 and 1600 in European development is known by what term,
initially used by Italian scholars to express the rediscovery of ancient Roman and Greek
culture? The Renaissance (literally meaning rebirth)

52. What is the main dog character called in Norton Juster's 1961 popular children's/adultcrossover book The Phantom Tollbooth? Tock
53. Who detailed his experiences before and during World War I in Memoirs of a Foxhunting
Man, and Memoirs of an Infantry Officer? Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967)
54. What significant law relating to literary and artistic works was first introduced in 1709?
Copyright (prior to which creators had no legal means of protecting their work from
being published or exploited by others)
55. Who wrote the 1891 book Also Sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spake Zarathustra)? Friedrich
Nietzsche (1844-1900)
56. What word, meaning 'measure' in Greek, refers to the rhythm of a line of
verse? Metre (or meter)
57. Cheap literature of the 16-18th centuries was known as 'what' books, based on the old
word for the travelling traders who sold them? Chapbooks (a chapman was a travelling
salesman, from the earlier term cheapman)
58. What was Samuel Langhorne Clemens' pen-name? Mark Twain (1835-1910)
59. Derived from Greek meaning summit or finishing touch, what word refers to the
publisher's logo and historically the publisher's details at the end of the book? Colophon
60. Japanese three-line verses called Haiku contain how many syllables? Seventeen
61. Stanley Kubrick successfully requested the UK ban of his own film based on what
Anthony Burgess book? A Clockwork Orange
62. The ISBN (International Standard Book Number) code was increased to how many digits
from 1 January 2007? Thirteen
63. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis asserts that people's perceptions and attitudes are affected
particularly by what: book covers, book price, or words and language? Words and
language(the theory applies to all media and language, in that the type of words and
language read and used affects how people react to the world)
64. What is the female term equating to a phallic symbol? Yonic symbol
65. James Carker is a villain in which Charles Dickens novel? Dombey and Son (serialised
1846-8)

66. What famous 1818 novel had the sub-title 'The Modern Prometheus'? Frankenstein (by
Mary Shelley)
67. Who wrote the 1947 book The Fountainhead? Ayn Rand
68. By what name is the writer Franois-Marie Arouet (1694-1778) better known? Voltaire
69. Which pioneering American poet and story-teller wrote The Fall of the House of
Usher? Edgar Allen Poe (1809-49)
70. According to Matthew 27 in the Bible what prisoner was released by Pontius Pilate
instead of Jesus? Barabbas
71. What was the 1920s arts group centred around Leonard and Virginia Woolf and the
district of London which provided the group's name? The Bloomsbury Group
72. What Japanese term (meaning 'fold' and 'book') refers to a book construction made
using concertina fold, with writing/printing on one side of the paper? Orihon
73. What were the respective family names of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet? Montague
and Capulet
74. Who wrote The Power of Positive Thinking in 1953? Norman Vincent Peale
75. Around 100AD what type of book construction began to replace scrolls? Codex (a series
of folios sewn together)
76. What name for a lyrical work, typically 50-200 lines long, which from the Greek word for
song?Ode
77. Who wrote the 1866 book Crime and Punishment? Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-81)
78. Who wrote the 1513 guide to leadership (titled in English) The Prince? Niccolo
Machiavelli
79. William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey are commonly
referred to as the 'what' Poets? Lake Poets (from around 1800 they lived close to each
other in the Lake District of England)
80. In bookmaking, a sheet folded three times is called by what name? Octavo (creating
eight leaves)

81. What is the parrot's name in Enid Blyton's 'Adventure' series of books? Kiki
82. Who wrote The French Lieutenant's Woman? John Fowles (1969)
83. What word, which in Greek means 'with' or 'after', prefixes many literary and language
terms to denote something in a different position? Meta
84. "Reader, I married him," appears in the conclusion of what novel? Jane Eyre (by
Charlotte Bronte, 1847)
85. Philosopher and writer Jeremy Bentham, 1748-1832, is associated with what school of
thought? Utilitarianism (broadly Utilitarianism argues that society should be organised
to produce the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people)
86. What influential American philosopher and author wrote the book 'Walden, or Life in the
Woods'? Henry David Thoreau (1817-62)
87. The ancient Greek concept of the 'three unities' advocated that a literary work should
use a single plotline, single location, and what other single aspect? Time (or real time)
88. Which statesman won the 1953 Nobel Prize for Literature? Sir Winston Churchill
89. Who is the second oldest of the Pevensie children in C S Lewis's The Lion, the Witch
and the Wardrobe? Susan (bonus points: Peter is the oldest, Edmund is third and Lucy
is youngest. The lion is Aslan. The first edition was published in 1950.)
90. Who wrote the plays Three Sisters, and The Cherry Orchard? Anton Pavlovich
Chekhov(1860-1904)
91. What technical word is given usually to the left-side even-numbered page of a
book? Verso
92. Which two writers fought a huge unsuccessful legal action in 2006-7 claiming that Dan
Brown's The Da Vinci Code had plaguarised their work? Michael Baigent and Richard
Leigh
93. What is the pen-name of novelist Mary Ann Evans (1819-80)? George Eliot
94. What technical word is given usually to the right-side odd-numbered page of a
book? Recto
95. In what decade was the Oxford English Dictionary first published? 1920s (1928)

96. What simple term, alternatively called Anglo-Saxon, refers to the English language which
was used from the 5th century Germanic invasions, until (loosely) its fusion with
Norman-French around 12-13th centuries? Old English
97. Who wrote Brighton Rock (1938) and Our Man in Havana (1958)? Graham Greene
98. Laurens van der Post's prisoner of war experiences, described in his books The Seed
and the Sower (1963) and The Night of the New Moon (1970) inspired what film? Merry
Christmas, Mr. Lawrence
99. With which troubled son are parents Laius and Jocasta associated? Oedipus (The
mythical Greek character unknowingly killed his father King Laius and married his mother
Jocasta. Sigmund Freud's term Oedipus Complex refers to similar feelings supposedly
arising in male infant development.)
100.
Which Russian writer was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in
1970? Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008)
101.
The book Eunoia, by Christian Bok, suggests in its title, and features exclusively
what, in turn, in its first five chapters? The vowels a, e, i, o, u. (Each chapter contains
words using only one vowel type. Bok says Eunoia means 'beautiful thinking'. Eunioa is
otherwise a medical term based on the Greek meaning 'well mind'.)
102.
Which great thinker collaborated with Sigmund Freud to write the 1933 book Why
War? Albert Einstein
103.
Legal action by J K Rowling and Warner Brothers commenced in 2007 against
which company for its plans to publish a Harry Potter Lexicon? RDR Books
104.

Who wrote the 1939 book The Big Sleep? Raymond Chandler

105.
"In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice which
I've been turning over in my mind ever since," is the start of which novel? The Great
Gatsby (F Scott Fitzgerald, 1925)
106.
In the early 1900s a thriller was instead more commonly referred to as what sort
of book?Shocker (or shilling shocker)
107.
Who wrote the books Les Miserables and The Hunchback of NotreDame? Victor Hugo
108.

In what decade were ISBN numbers introduced to the UK? 1960s (1966)

109.
In 1969, P H Newby's book Something to Answer For was the first winner of what
prize?Booker Prize (the Man Booker Prize from 2002)
110.

Who established Britain's first printing press in 1476? William Caxton

111.
The word 'book' is suggested by some etymologists to derive from the ancient
practice of writing on tablets made of what wood? Beech (Boc was an Old English word
for beech wood)
112.
What is the name of the first digital library founded by Michael Hart in
1971? Project Gutenberg
113.
French writer Sully Prudhomme was the first winner of what prize in 1901? Nobel
Prize for Literature
114.
Who wrote Naked Lunch, (also titled The Naked Lunch)? William
Burroughs (1959)
115.
In Shakespeare's King Lear, which two daughters benefit initially from their
father's rejection of the third daughter Cordelia? Goneril and Regan
116.

What was Christopher Latham Scholes' significant invention of 1868? Typewriter

117.
Which novel begins "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in
possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife..."? Pride and Prejudice (by
Jane Austen, 1813)
118.
Japanese author and playwrite Yukio Mishima committed what extreme act in
1970 while campaigning for Japan to restore its nationalistic principles? Suicide
119.
Which American philosopher, and often-quoted advocate of individualism,
published essays on Self-Reliance, Love, Heroism, Character and Manners in his
Collections of 1841 and 1844?Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-82)
120.
Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye, printed in Bruges around 1475 is regarded as
the first book to have been what? Printed in the English language (Caxton later printed
Canterbury Tales in Westminster in 1476, which is regarded as the first book printed in
the English language in England.)
121.
In what city does Leo Tolstoy's novel War and Peace begin? Saint
Petersburg (Petrograd and Leningrad are recent alternative and now obsolete names of
this city - the quizmaster/mistress can decide if these answers are correct..)

122.
Which French writer declined the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1964? Jean-Paul
Sartre (1905-1980 - apparently he declined because he had an aversion to being
'institutionalised', although the real facts of the matter are elusive.)
123.
What controversial novel begins: "[a person's name], light of my life, fire of my
loins. My sin, My soul," ? Lolita (by Vladimir Nabokov, 1955)
124.
Jonathan Harker's Journal and Dr Seward's Diary feature in what famous 1897
novel? Dracula(by Bram Stoker)
125.
What is the technical name for a fourteen-lined poem in rhymed iambic
pentameters? Sonnet
126.
"Make then laugh; make them cry; make them wait..." was a personal maxim of
which novelist?Charles Dickens
127.

What is the land of giants called in Gulliver's Travels? Brobdingnag

128.
What prolific and highly regarded American author, who became a British subject
a year before his death, wrote The Wings of the Dove; Washington Square, and the
Golden Bowl? Henry James (1843-1916)
129.
What term for a short, usually witty, poem or saying derives from the Greek words
'write' and 'on'? Epigram (epi = on, grapheine = write, which evolved into Latin and
French to the modern English word)
130.
What was the original title of the book on which the film Schindler's List was
based?Schindler's Ark (by Thomas Keneally, which won the 1982 Booker Prize)

Source
2012 by Aurelio Locsin.
The following multiple-choice quiz tests your knowledge of British and American
literature. Choose the correct answer for each question. Since this is a test of your
knowledge, please do not consult the Internet or books for your answers.
Youll find the answers at the end of the quiz. Please put your scores in the Poll and in
Comments. You can also put suggestions for improvement in Comments.

Thanks to daisymariposa for coming up with the idea with her hub So You Think You
Know European Geography?

William Shakespeare

Charles Dickens

Tennessee Williams
1. Who wrote the Sun Also Rises about an American expatriate journalist who
travels from Paris to Pamplona, Spain, to observe the running of the bulls.
A) F. Scott Fitzgerald
B) Ernest Hemingway
C) Tennessee Williams
D) Jake Barnes
2. What Shakespeare play is about a prince who contemplates suicide after the
murder of his father, the king?
A) Hamlet
B) Othello
C) Macbeth
D) Henry IV
3. What kind of literary form is this?

There was an Old Man with a beard,

Who said, 'It is just as I feared!
Two Owls and a Hen,
Four Larks and a Wren,
Have all built their nests in my beard!'
A) Limerick
B) Sonnet
C) Stanza
D) Sestina
4. What was the name of the slave whom Huck helps to escape in Mark
Twains Adventures of Huckleberry Finn?
A) Tom
B) Isiah
C) Remus
D) Jim
5. Who wrote the phrase Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose?
A) William Shakespeare
B) Gertrude Stein
C) Emily Dickinson
D) William Wordsworth
6. Which of these women is not a poet?
A) Jane Austen
B) Emily Dickinson
C) Elizabeth Barret Browning
D) Maya Angelou
7. In what state is Tennessee Williams Cat on a Hot Tin Roof set?
A) Louisiana
B) Georgia

C) Tennessee
D) Mississippi
8. What do you call the main character of a literary narrative?
A) antagonist
B) protagonist
C) tritagonist
D) foil
9. In Charles Dickens Tale of Two Cities, which two words belong in the asterisks
of the following opening line It was the * of times, it was the * of times?
A) best worst
B) longest shortest
C) highest lowest
D) least most
10. Which of the following works has not won a Pulitzer Prize?
A) Harvey by Mary Chase
B) The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
C) To Kill a Mockinbird by Harper Lee
D) A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner
Answers
1-B, 2-A, 3-A, 4-D, 5-B, 6-A, 7-D, 8-B, 9-A, 10-D