Literature Trivia Questions
- Which wizard guides Bilbo in 'The Hobbit' and later helps the Fellowship in 'The Lord of the Rings'?
- What is the name of the protagonist in George Orwell's '1984'?
- What is the name of the protagonist in Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice'?
- What is the name of the protagonist in 'The Hunger Games'?
- What is the name of the protagonist in 'The Metamorphosis'?
- What is the name of the whale that Captain Ahab hunts in Herman Melville's classic novel?
- What is the oldest surviving epic poem in Old English?
- What is the original UK title of the first Harry Potter book?
- What is the pen name of Daniel Handler, the author and fictional narrator of 'A Series of Unfortunate Events'?
- What is the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens?
- What is the term for a 14-line poem with a specific rhyme scheme?
- What is the term for a long narrative poem about heroic deeds?
- What is the term for a story where animals or inanimate objects are given human qualities to teach a moral lesson?
- What is the title of the 1921 play by Luigi Pirandello that features six figures who arrive at a rehearsal demanding that their unfinished story be told?
- What is the title of the 1934 Robert Graves novel written as a fictional autobiography of a stuttering Roman emperor who survived the purges of his family?
- What is the title of the famous work by Thomas More describing an ideal island society?
- What is the title of the first book in the Earth's Children series, which focuses on a Neanderthal clan adopting a Cro-Magnon girl named Ayla?
- What is the title of the first published Sherlock Holmes novel?
- What is the title of the world's first recorded epic poem?
- What is the title of Virginia Woolf's novel that takes place over a single day in London?
- What traditional Japanese poetic form consists of 17 syllables arranged in a 5-7-5 pattern and typically focuses on nature?
- What Latin phrase, meaning 'in the midst of things,' describes the literary technique of starting a story in the middle of the action rather than at the beginning?
- What literary structure features an outer narrative that contains one or more inner stories?
- What literary term describes the archetype of a moody, cynical, and rebellious loner popularized by the works of Lord Byron?
- What literary term means a reference to another work or event?
- What novel follows the March sisters during the American Civil War?
- What novel is set largely aboard a ship called the Hispaniola?
- What portmanteau term is used to describe a popular literary subgenre that blends high fantasy settings with prominent romantic plotlines?
- What semi-fictional region in South and Southwest England serves as the primary setting for Thomas Hardy novels such as "Tess of the d'Urbervilles"?
- What Shakespeare play centers on ambition and regicide in Scotland?
- What Shakespeare play features the characters Rosencrantz and Guildenstern?
- What term for a narrative distraction or false clue is said to originate from the practice of using smoked fish to throw hunting dogs off a scent?
- What term refers to the main character in a story?
- What was the first book published in 'The Chronicles of Narnia' series?
- What was the name of A.A. Milne's son, who served as the inspiration for the human companion of Winnie-the-Pooh?
- What was the real name of the author George Orwell?
- Which 14th-century Italian author wrote The Decameron, a collection of 100 stories told by youths sheltering from the Black Death outside Florence?
- Which 16th-century Chinese classic follows the adventures of the Monkey King as he protects a monk traveling to India to retrieve Buddhist scriptures?
- Which 17th-century naval administrator is famous for a private diary that provides a detailed eyewitness account of the Great Fire of London?
- Which 1819 poem by John Keats concludes with the philosophical assertion, "Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all / Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know"?
- Which 1841 essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson argues that individuals should avoid social conformity and instead trust their own instincts and ideas?
- Which 1850 poetry collection by Elizabeth Barrett Browning includes the famous Sonnet 43, which begins with the line, "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways"?
- Which 1854 narrative poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson commemorates a disastrous British cavalry charge during the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War?
- Which 1886 Robert Louis Stevenson novella explores the duality of human nature through a lawyer's investigation into the link between a respectable doctor and a violent criminal?
- Which 1934 children's novel by P.L. Travers features a magical nanny who arrives by umbrella to care for the Banks family?
- Which 1953 J.D. Salinger collection includes the story "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" and introduced the recurring Glass family?
- Which 1998 novel follows a missionary family and their four daughters in the Belgian Congo?
- Which 19th-century American essayist wrote the influential work 'Nature' and led the Transcendentalist movement?
- Which 19th-century author wrote 'Great Expectations'?
- Which 19th-century author wrote under the pen name George Eliot?