Classic novels, great authors and literary vocabulary. 10 questions to dust off your classics without opening a single book.
10 questions on literature: the essential authors, the novels that shaped history, and the vocabulary every reader should know.
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Since the dawn of time, humans have told stories. Literature, whether novel, drama, poetry or fairy tale, has crossed eras and borders to become a shared heritage for all of humanity. From Shakespeare's tragedies to Dickens' London and Tolkien's Middle-earth, certain works have shaped our collective imagination so deeply that they have entered everyday language.
Knowing the great authors and their masterpieces gives you a key to understanding the world, other people and yourself. This quiz covers the classics everyone has met, whether at school or in a library, along with a few useful pieces of literary vocabulary to talk about books with confidence.
All ten easy level questions, with the answer and the reasoning behind it.
Correct answer: Mark Twain
Mark Twain, the pen name of Samuel Clemens, drawing on his Mississippi childhood.
Correct answer: Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle, a doctor with time on his hands.
Correct answer: Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley, who started it as a teenager during a ghost story contest by Lake Geneva.
Correct answer: F. Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald, in 1925. It sold rather poorly in his lifetime.
Correct answer: Peter Pan
Peter Pan, created by J.M. Barrie.
Correct answer: C.S. Lewis
C.S. Lewis, an Oxford friend of a certain Tolkien.
Correct answer: The protagonist
The protagonist, from the Greek for first actor.
Correct answer: Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl, who once tasted chocolate for Cadbury as a schoolboy.
Correct answer: Bram Stoker
Bram Stoker, in 1897, using letters and diary entries to tell the story.
Correct answer: Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson, who started it from a map drawn with his stepson.
Want to warm up before playing or double-check something? Open any question to reveal the correct answer and a short explanation.
Correct answer: William Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet was written by William Shakespeare in the late 16th century. The doomed love story between two feuding families of Verona has become the universal symbol of star-crossed romance.
Correct answer: Jane Austen
Jane Austen published Pride and Prejudice in 1813. Its heroine Elizabeth Bennet and the proud Mr Darcy remain among the most beloved characters in English literature, endlessly adapted for film and television.
Correct answer: Miguel de Cervantes
Spain's Miguel de Cervantes published Don Quixote in the early 17th century. The gentleman who mistakes windmills for giants became the symbol of the idealistic dreamer, and the phrase 'tilting at windmills' comes from it.
Correct answer: J.K. Rowling
British author J.K. Rowling wrote the seven Harry Potter books, published between 1997 and 2007. Rejected by several publishers at first, the series went on to become one of the best-selling in publishing history.
Correct answer: J.R.R. Tolkien
J.R.R. Tolkien, an Oxford professor of language, created Middle-earth in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. His richly detailed world, complete with invented languages, laid the foundations of modern fantasy.
Correct answer: A fable
A fable is a short tale, often using animals, that illustrates a moral lesson. Aesop's fables, such as The Tortoise and the Hare, are the most famous examples and have been retold for over two thousand years.
Correct answer: Moby-Dick
Moby-Dick, published in 1851, follows the obsessive Captain Ahab as he hunts the white whale that maimed him. Its opening line, 'Call me Ishmael', is one of the most famous in all of literature.
Correct answer: George Orwell
George Orwell wrote Animal Farm (1945) and 1984 (1949). Both works attack totalitarianism and gave everyday language ideas such as 'Big Brother' and 'doublethink'.
Correct answer: A sonnet
A sonnet is a poem of fourteen lines following a set rhyme scheme. Shakespeare was a master of the form, writing 154 sonnets, while the haiku is a much shorter Japanese poem of just three lines.
Correct answer: Oliver Twist
Oliver Twist, published in 1838, follows a workhouse orphan drawn into a gang of young thieves in London. Dickens used the story to expose the harsh treatment of the poor in Victorian England.
Stuck on one, or just curious how nasty it gets? Every hard mode question is here with its answer and the reasoning behind it.
Correct answer: Nick Carraway
Nick Carraway, Daisy's cousin and Gatsby's neighbour.
Correct answer: A Tale of Two Cities
A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris.
Correct answer: Pemberley
Pemberley, which does a good deal to change Elizabeth's opinion.
Correct answer: Emily
Emily, publishing as Ellis Bell. Charlotte wrote Jane Eyre, and Anne The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.
Correct answer: T.S. Eliot
T.S. Eliot, with heavy editing from his friend Ezra Pound.
Correct answer: Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf, a leading figure of the Bloomsbury Group.
Correct answer: Mikhail Bulgakov
Mikhail Bulgakov. It only appeared in print long after his death in 1940.
Correct answer: Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison, the first Black woman to receive it.
Correct answer: Ithaca
Ithaca, a ten-year trip home, with Penelope waiting at the end of it.
Correct answer: Holden Caulfield
Holden Caulfield, who finds nearly everyone rather phony.