Madrid Pub Quiz · Free Literature Questions

George Bernard Shaw (Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925 and an Oscar in 1938 for his contributions to literature and for his work on the film Pygmalion)

What is the name of the main hobbit character in ‘The Hobbit’?

Bilbo Baggins

Who “simply hates society” in the Wind in the Willows?

Badger

Who taught children to fly using ‘lovely thoughts’ and fairy dust?

Peter Pan

Which Nobel prize winner, born in Bombay, was named after a lake in Staffordshire where his parents had originally met?

John Rudyard Kipling named after Rudyard Lake in Staffordshire

What is the name of the French valet and the Indian Parsi princess who accompany Phileas Fogg on his trip around the world?

Jean Passepartout and Aouda

Who is Kanga’s son in the Winnie-the-Pooh stories?

Roo

Which fictional doctor created by Hugh Lofting lived in Puddleby-by-the-Marsh?

Doctor Dolittle

Who created Noddy?

Enid Blyton

Which twentieth-century novel was set in the Year of Our Ford 632?

Brave New World

How many circles of hell does Virgil guide the author through in Dante’s Inferno?

Nine

According to Edward Lear’s poem, how long was the sailing trip undertaken by the Owl and the Pussycat?

A year and a day

Which of the Musketeers’ real identity is Comte de la Fère?

Athos

Which epic poem by Homer is set in the Trojan War?

The Iliad

In which country is the home port of the fisherman in Hemingway’s ‘The Old Man and the Sea’?

Cuba

Who wrote Corelli’s Mandolin?

Louis de Bernières

What was the name of the ship sailed by Jason when he searched for the Golden Fleece?

The Argo

Which character was described as ‘faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound’?

Superman (created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster in 1932)

He’s known as Charlie in France, Walter in Germany, Willy in Norway, Waldo in the United States and Canada, and Effy in Israel. What’s his name in Spain (and in the UK)?

Wally (from the Where’s Wally books).

For what kind of stories is Louis L’Amour famous?

Westerns

Where or what is Laputa?

An imaginary flying island in Gulliver’s Travels, inhabited by unpractical scientists and philosophers who have attendants to flap them in the face with bladders to bring them down to consideration of mundane matters.

In P.G. Wodehouse’s series of books, what is Jeeves’ first name?

Reginald or Reggie.

Jeeves’s first name was not revealed until the penultimate novel, Much Obliged, Jeeves. Bertie Wooster learns Jeeves’s name when he hears another valet greet Jeeves with “Hullo, Reggie.”

The Brontë sisters had a brother who was a poet and painter. What was his name?

Branwell

Who created the fictional town of Middlemarch?

George Eliot

In the book by Henry Williamson, what kind of creature is Tarka?

An otter

The band Steely Dan was named after something in William Burrough’s novel ‘Naked Lunch’. What was the band named after?

A steam-powered sex toy.

According to the bible, who was the first Christian Martyr?

St Stephen

Which Shakespeare play concerns the two old friends Valentine and Proteus’ love for the beautiful Julia?

The Two Gentlemen of Verona

What is the name of the Eugene O’Neill play set in Harry Hope’s bar?

The Iceman Cometh

In which book would you find the exceedingly strong drink called the ‘Pan-galactic Gargle Blaster’?

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

For which organisation did Winston Smith work in 1984?

The Ministry of Truth

Which French poet born in 1821 was described by Rimbaud as ‘The first seer, king of poets, a true god’?

Charles Baudelaire

Whose first play is called ‘Catalina’?

Henrik Ibsen

In the New Testament, Zacharias was the father of whom?

John the Baptist

Mustardseed is a character from which Shakespeare play?

A Midsummer’s Night Dream

Who wrote the short novel ‘San Martín Bueno, mártir’?

Miguel de Unamuno

What is the name of the Harry Potter book first published in June 2005?

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

In which famous novel would you find the character ‘Dolores Haze’?

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Which book, later made into a classic 40s film, would you find the villain ‘Casper Gutman’?

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

Greater love hath no man than this… Complete this line.

…that a man lay down his life for his friends.

New Testament (John 15)

Bob Kane died on November 3rd 1998. What was he best known for?

He created Batman

Robert Kane (born Robert Kahn; October 24, 1915 – November 3, 1998) was an American comic book writer, animator and artist who co-created Batman (with Bill Finger) and most early related characters for DC comics.

Evidence suggests that one of Shakespeare’s ‘lost’ plays was a comedy written as a companion piece to ‘Love’s Labours Lost’. What is the title of the lost play?

Love’s Labours Won

Love's Labour’s Won is a lost play attributed by contemporaries to William Shakespeare, written before 1598 and published by 1603, though no copies are known to have survived.

‘Eye for eye, tooth for tooth’. What follows?

Hand for hand, foot for foot.

Exodus 21:23–27

How many lines are there in a sonnet?

Fourteen

How many syllables in Haiku?

Seventeen

In which book would you find a Heffalump?

Winnie-the-Pooh

Heffalumps are mentioned, and only appear, in Pooh and Piglet’s dreams in Winnie-the-Pooh (1926), and seen again in The House at Pooh Corner (1928). Physically, they resemble elephants.

Jane Austen had five brothers but only one sister. What was her name?

Cassandra

Name one of the bullfighters Hemingway wrote about in ‘The Dangerous Summer’.

Luis Miguel Dominguín and Antonio Ordoñez

One of Shakespeare’s tragedies is called ‘The Scottish Play’ by superstitious actors. Which?

Macbeth

According to a theatrical superstition, called the Scottish curse, speaking the name Macbeth inside a theatre, other than as called for in the script while rehearsing or performing, will cause disaster.

Ruritania is an imaginary country which was invented as a setting for two novels. Name either of the two books in which it first appeared.

The Prisoner of Zenda (1894) and its sequel: Rupert of Hentzau (1898), by Anthony Hope (1863-1933).

Nowadays the term connotes a quaint minor European country, or is used as a placeholder name for an unspecified country in academic discussions.

Several of Dickens’ novels take their main character’s name as their title: ‘Oliver Twist’ or ‘David Copperfield’ for example. Name the missing surname in ‘Martin… ’.

Chuzzlewit

What did Professor Challenger bring back from the ‘Lost World’ to prove that it existed?

A small pterodactyl

What is Sherlock Holmes’ seven percent solution in ‘The Sign of Four’?

Cocaine

Holmes occasionally used morphine and cocaine, the latter of which he injects in a seven-percent solution; both drugs were legal in 19th-century England.

What is the last word in the New Testament?

Amen

Amen concludes the last book of the New Testament, at Rev. 22:21.

What is The Rosy Crucifixion?

Sexus, Plexus, and Nexus, three novels by Henry Miller

The title comes from a sentence near the end of Miller’s Tropic of Capricorn: “All my Calvaries were rosy crucifixions, pseudo-tragedies to keep the fires of hell burning brightly for the real sinners who are in danger of being forgotten.”

What new-born animal did Fern save from the hatchet?

A pig (in Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White)

What was the name of George Orwell’s book on his Spanish Civil War experience?

Homage to Catalonia

Which American author wrote ‘Tales of the Alhambra’?

Washington Irving

Which American poet was imprisoned in a cage by the US Army in Italy in 1945?

Ezra Pound

On 24 May 1945 Ezra Pound was transferred to the United States Army Disciplinary Training Center north of Pisa, where he was placed in one of the camp’s 6-by-6-foot (1.8 by 1.8 m) outdoor steel cages, with tar paper covers, lit up at night by floodlights. Engineers reinforced his cage the night before he arrived in case fascist sympathizers tried to break him out.

Which bi-lingual Spanish-French author was held in Buchenwald during the Second World War?

Jorge Semprún

Semprún deals with the experience in two books: Le grand voyage (1963) treats the journey to Buchenwald, and Quel beau dimanche! (1980) his camp experiences.

Which British Prime Minister makes an appearance in ‘The London Embassy’ by Paul Theroux?

Margaret Thatcher

Which French writer who later won the Goncourt Prize twice, fought as an RAF pilot in the Battle of Britain?

Romain Gary

Which Henry James novel was recently filmed by Jane Campion (of ‘The Piano’ fame)?

The Portrait of a Lady

Which novel opens with this sentence “You don’t know about me, without you have read a book by the name of ‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer’, but that ain’t no matter”.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Which poem ends: And you each gentle animal to you for life may bind and make it follow at your call if you are always kind

Mary had a little lamb

Who is David John Cornwell better known as?

John Le Carré

Who is Karen Blixen better known as?

Isaak Dinesen

Who was the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize for Literature?

Rabindranath Tagore in 1913

Who was the first Spanish author to win the Nobel Prize for literature?

José Echegaray (in 1904; Benavente was in 1922)

Who wrote the ‘Discworld’ novels?

Terry Pratchett

Who wrote The Threepenny Opera?

Bertolt Brecht

Die Dreigroschenoper is a “play with music” adapted from a translation by Elisabeth Hauptmann of John Gay’s 18th-century English ballad opera, The Beggar’s Opera, and four ballads by François Villon, with music by Kurt Weill.

Who wrote:
The moving finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all your piety nor wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a line,
Nor all your tears wash out a word of it.

Omar Khayyam, 1048–1131.

The depiction of the Mad Hatter in ‘Alice in Wonderland’ reflected a poisoning of 19th century hatmakers from what?

Mercury

Erethism also known as erethismus mercurialis, mad hatter disease, or mad hatter syndrome, is a neurological disorder characterized by behavioral changes such as irritability, low self-confidence, depression, apathy, shyness and timidity, and in some extreme cases with prolonged exposure to mercury vapors, by delirium, personality changes and memory loss.

In Washington Irving’s story published in 1819, which war did Rip van Winkle sleep through?

The American War of Independence (the American Revolution)

Who is the Lord of the Rings in J.R.R. Tolkien’s book of the same name?

Sauron (the Great)

In the Old Testament, whose wife was Zipporah?

Moses

What were Vladimir and Estragon doing in famous twentieth century play?

Waiting for Godot

In E.M. Forster’s ‘Room With A View’, which city could they not view?

Florence

What do ‘The Mystery of Edwin Drood’ by Dickens, ‘The Silmarillion’ by J.R.R. Tolkien, and ‘The Love of The Last Tycoon’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald have in common?

They are unfinished

Which trilogy of six books has Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect as their main characters?

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

In George Orwell’s novel ‘1984’, what is ‘Airstrip One’?

Britain

Who wrote the poem that ends with the line: “You’re a better man than I am, Gunga Din!”?

Rudyard Kipling

Who owns Winnie-the-Pooh?

Christopher Robin

“Workers of the world, unite!” is the last line of which work?

The Communist Manifesto

Which book, subtitled ‘Life Among the Lowly’, was the best selling novel of the 19th century?

‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ by Harriet Beecher Stowe

Mma Precious Ramotswe is a fictional private detective based where?

Botswana, in the "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" series by Alexander McCall Smith

Edmond Dantès is the protagonist and title character of which Alexandre Dumas (père) novel?

The Count of Montecristo

Alfred E. Neuman is the fictional mascot for which magazine?

Mad magazine

Who lived the last few years of his life in Paris under the pseudonym ‘Sebastian Melmoth’?

Oscar Wilde

After whom is the term ‘Masochism’ named, and what is his most famous work?

Leopold von Sacher-Masoch wrote ‘Venus in Furs’.

Which French writer and philosopher, author of ‘Nausea’ among many others, declined the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1964?

Jean-Paul Sartre

Who was the first English language Nobel Prize winner in Literature and also (to 2024) the youngest of any nationality?

Rudyard Kipling in 1907 at age 41

What are the first two lines of the famous poem whose next lines are “Where Alph, the sacred river, ran; Through caverns measureless to man; Down to a sunless sea.”?

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan, a stately pleasure-dome decree:

Don Diego de la Vega is a fictional character in books, TV series, cartoons, and over forty films. He is the secret identity of which hero?

Zorro (or Señor Zorro originally)

In which novel were the Eloi living above ground and the Moorlocks below?

‘The Time Machine’ by H.G. Wells

What is Winnie short for in Winnie-the-Pooh?

Winnipeg

Graham Greene’s ‘The Human Factor’ is about a British MI6 officer who thinks he is leaking secrets to which country?

South Africa

With thanks to Damian Considine for correcting this question

Where does the Third Man die?

The sewers of Vienna

What real-life Soviet organisation is James Bond’s nemesis in the early novels?

SMERSH

Who wrote around 500 BCE: ‘There are five sorts of spies: native, internal, double, doomed and surviving’.

Sun Tzu

Which novel features the character Jim Wormold?

‘Our Man In Havana’ by Graham Greene

‘Biscuter’ is the inseparable partner of which fictional detective?

Pepe Carvalho

What novel, and by whom, is based on a conspiracy to blow up the Greenwich Observatory?

‘Secret Agent’ by Joseph Conrad

Which book tells the story of the Joad family going to California during the Depression?

The Grapes of Wrath

Four Irishmen have won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Who?

George Bernard Shaw, William Butler Yeats, Samuel Beckett and Seamus Heaney

According to the bible, Cain was banished to the Land of Nod. Where was it located?

East of Eden

Which character describes his wife as ‘She who must be obeyed’?

Horace Rumpole (of the Bailey)

In which fictional city would you find the Unseen University?

Ankh Morpork

Which twentieth century Welsh poet wrote ‘A Child’s Christmas in Wales’?

Dylan Thomas in 1955

What was Scrooge’s first name?

Ebenezer

Estragon and Vladimir are the two main characters of which play, voted in a Royal National Theatre poll as the most significant English language play of the 20th century?

Waiting for Godot

Which controversial novel’s main characters are Gibreel Farishta and Saladin Chamcha? The novel was the 1988 Whitbread Award winner and Booker Prize finalist.

The Satanic Verses

Which famous children’s book character was created by Michael Bond?

Paddington Bear

Which famous book title translated means ‘no place’ or ‘place that does not exist’?

Utopia

William of Baskerville is the main character of which famous novel, later filmed?

‘The Name of the Rose’ (Il Nome Della Rosa) by Umberto Eco

In which novel, first published in 1912, are the main characters called John Clayton and Jane Porter who, eventually, have a son called Jack?

‘Tarzan of the Apes’ by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Who wrote Pinocchio?

Carlo Collodi

Miguel de Cervantes died on the 23rd of April 1616 and William Shakespeare died on the 23rd of April 1616. However, they did not die on the same day. Why not?

Cervantes died on the 23rd of April in the Gregorian calendar and Shakespeare died on the 23rd of April in the Julian calendar which is the 3rd of May in the Gregorian calendar.

‘Lyrical Ballad’ is a collection of poems which first appeared in the year 1798. It was a joint effort by two of England’s most famous poets. Which two?

William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge

In the poem ‘The Song of Hiawatha’, what is the name of the river?

Gitche Gumee

Which novelist wrote ‘Miau’, ‘Fortunata y Jacinta’, ‘Torquemada en el purgatorio’, and ‘El amigo manso’?

Benito Pérez Galdós

In ‘The Taming of the Shrew’, what was the name of the girl known as the shrew?

Kate (Katherine)

“In truth I know not why I am so sad; it wearies me; you say it wearies you.” The opening lines of which Shakespeare play?

The Merchant of Venice

Where was Casanova from?

Venice