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Literature

163 questions in this category
Q: Whose treasure was buried in Treasure Island?
A: Captain Flint's
With thanks to David Keen for pointing out a typo
Q: What experimental novel by an Argentine author invited the reader to choose between a linear and a non-linear reading of the chapters?
A: 'Rayuela' (Hopscotch) by Julio Cortázar
Q: Which novel features the character Alec Leamas?
A: 'The Spy Who Came In from the Cold' by John Le Carré
Q: What was the name of the sequel to 'Angela's Ashes'?
A: 'Tis
With thanks to Keith Woodcock from Chippenham for pointing out a typo in the question
Q: Who is Patricia Reichardt better known as in the 'Peanuts' cartoon strip?
A: Peppermint Patty
With thanks to Keith Woodcock from Chippenham for correcting the question
Q: Who gave directions to his home as 'second to the right and straight on till morning'?
A: Peter Pan (The Disney version is slightly different)
With thanks to Yvonne Steyn from Somerset West, South Africa for fine-tuning the question
Q: Which writer established the three laws of robotics?
A: Isaac Asimov. The rules are introduced in his 1942 short story 'Runaround' although they were foreshadowed in a few earlier stories.
With thanks to Chris Wilkins for correcting this question
Q: Captain Yossarian is the main character in which twentieth century novel?
A: Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Q: What was the title of the first Harry Potter book?
A: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (the Sorcerer's Stone in the US market)
With thanks to Matt Jones for fine tuning the answer
Q: Which Shakespeare play has the subtitle 'Or what you will'?
A: Twelfth Night
Q: Which novel, published in 1949 and originally to be called 'The Last Man in Europe' has the opening line: 'It was bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen'?
A: Nineteen Eighty Four
Q: Which literary character has a landlady named Mrs Hudson?
A: Sherlock Holmes
Q: Which car did Commander Caractacus Potts drive?
A: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Q: From whom did Della Street take dictation?
A: Perry Mason
Q: Which books make up the Barrytown Trilogy by Roddy Doyle?
A: The Commitments, The Snapper, and The Van
Q: Which author used the pseudonyms Isaac Bickerstaffe and Lemuel Gulliver among others?
A: Jonathan Swift
Q: Which Dubliner wrote 'Dracula'?
A: Abraham 'Bram' Stoker
Q: Who was the first Irishman to receive a Nobel prize?
A: William Butler Yeats in 1923
Q: Which Irish Nobel Prize winning author wrote most of his work in French?
A: Samuel Beckett
Q: What day is June 16th in literary circles?
A: Bloomsday (the day in 1904 that the events in 'Ulysses' take place)
Q: What's the name of a collection of fifteen stories by James Joyce that depict Irish middle class life in and around Dublin at the beginning of the 20th century?
A: Dubliners
Q: Which famous playwright won an Oscar as well as a Nobel Prize?
A: 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)
Q: What is the name of the main hobbit character in "The Hobbit"?
A: Bilbo Baggins
Q: Who "simply hates society" in the Wind in the Willows?
A: Badger
Q: Who taught children to fly using "lovely thoughts" and fairy dust?
A: Peter Pan
Q: Which Nobel prize winner, born in Bombay, was named after a lake in Staffordshire where his parents had originally met?
A: John Rudyard Kipling named after Rudyard Lake
Q: What is the name of the French valet and the Indian Parsi princess who accompany Phileas Fogg on his trip around the world?
A: Jean Passepartout and Aouda
Q: Who is Kanga's son in the Winnie-the-Pooh stories?
A: Roo
Q: Which fictional doctor created by Hugh Lofting lived in Puddleby-by-the-Marsh?
A: Doctor Dolittle
Q: Who created Noddy?
A: Enid Blyton
Q: Which twentieth-century novel was set in the Year of Our Ford 632?
A: Brave New World
Q: How many circles of hell does Virgil guide the author through in Dante's Inferno?
A: Nine
Q: According to Edward Lear's poem, how long was the sailing trip undertaken by the Owl and the Pussycat?
A: A year and a day
Q: Which of the Musketeers' real identity is Comte de la Fère?
A: Athos
Q: Which epic poem by Homer is set in the Trojan War?
A: The Iliad
Q: In which country is the home port of the fisherman in Hemingway's 'The Old Man and the Sea'?
A: Cuba
Q: Who wrote Corelli's Mandolin?
A: Louis de Bernières
Q: What was the name of the ship sailed by Jason when he searched for the Golden Fleece?
A: The Argo
Q: 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'?
A: Superman (created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster in 1932)
Q: For which organisation did Winston Smith work in the novel Nineteen Eighty Four?
A: The Ministry of Truth
Q: 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)?
A: Wally (from the Where's Wally books)
Q: For what kind of stories is Louis L'Amour famous?
A: Westerns
Q: What is the name of Sherlock Holmes' housekeeper?
A: Mrs Hudson
Q: According to the bible, who was the first Christian Martyr?
A: St Stephen
Q: The band Steely Dan was named after something in William Burrough's novel 'Naked Lunch'. What?
A: A steam-powered sex toy
Q: In the book by Henry Williamson, what kind of creature is Tarka?
A: An otter
Q: Who created the fictional town of Middlemarch?
A: George Eliot
Q: In P.G. Wodehouse's series of books, what is Jeeves' first name?
A: Reginald
Q: The Brontë sisters had a brother who was a poet and painter. What was his name?
A: Branwell
Q: Which Shakespeare play concerns the two old friends Valentine and Proteus' love for the beautiful Julia?
A: The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Q: What is the name of the Eugene O'Neill play set in Harry Hope's bar?
A: The Iceman Cometh
Q: In which book would you find the exceedingly strong drink called the 'Pan-galactic Gargle Blaster'?
A: The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Q: For which Ministry did Winston Smith work in 1984?
A: The Ministry of Truth
Q: Which French poet born in 1821 was described by Rimbaud as 'The first seer, king of poets, a true god"?
A: Charles Baudelaire
Q: Whose first play is called 'Catalina'?
A: Henrik Ibsen
Q: In the New Testament, Zacharias was the father of whom?
A: John the Baptist
Q: Mustardseed is a character from which Shakespeare play?
A: A Midsummer's Night Dream
Q: This is a Spanish-based question Who wrote the short novel 'San Martín Bueno, mártir'?
A: Miguel de Unamuno
Q: What is the name of the Harry Potter book first published in June 2005?
A: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Q: In which famous novel would you find the character 'Dolores Haze'?
A: Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Q: Which book, later made into a classic 40s film, would you find the villain 'Casper Gutman'?
A: The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
Q: Greater love hath no man than this.... . Complete.
A: ...that a man lay down his life for his friends.
Q: Bob Kane died on November 3rd 1998. What was he best known for?
A: He created Batman
Q: 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?
A: Love's Labours Won
Q: Eye for eye, tooth for tooth. What follows?
A: Hand for hand, foot for foot. Exod. xxi, 24
Q: How many lines are there in a sonnet?
A: Fourteen
Q: How many syllables in Haiku?
A: Seventeen
Q: In which book would you find a Hefalump?
A: Winnie-the-Pooh
Q: Jane Austen had five brothers but only one sister. What was her name?
A: Cassandra
Q: This is a Spanish-based question Name one of the bullfighters Hemingway wrote about in "The Dangerous Summer".
A: Luis Miguel Dominguín and Antonio Ordoñez
Q: One of Shakespeare's tragedies is called "The Scottish Play" by superstitious actors. Which?
A: Macbeth
Q: Ruritania is an imaginary country which was invented as a setting for two novels. Now the name is used to describe any state where the intrigues of a reactionary court dominate politics. Name either of the two books in which it first appeared.
A: The Prisoner of Zenda (1894) and its sequel: Rupert of Hentzau (1898), by Anthony Hope (1863-1933).
Q: 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...".
A: ...Chuzzlewit
Q: What did Professor Challenger bring back from the "Lost World" to prove that it existed?
A: A small pterodactyl
Q: What is Sherlock Holmes' seven percent solution in "The Sign of Four"?
A: Cocaine
Q: What is the last word in the New Testament?
A: Amen
Q: What is the Rosy Crucifixion?
A: Sexus, Plexus, and Nexus, by Henry Miller
Q: What new-born animal did Fern save from the hatchet?
A: A pig (in Charlotte's Web by E.B. White)
Q: This is a Spanish-based question What was the name of George Orwell's book on his Spanish Civil War experience?
A: Homage to Catalonia
Q: What were the "golden apples" of Greek mythology?
A: Apricots
Q: This is a Spanish-based question Which American author wrote "Tales of the Alhambra"?
A: Washington Irving
Q: Which American poet was brought back from Italy to the US in a cage in 1945?
A: Ezra Pound
Q: This is a Spanish-based question Which bi-lingual Spanish-French author was held in Buchenwald during the Second World War?
A: Jorge Semprún
Q: Which British Prime Minister makes an appearance in "The London Embassy" by Paul Theroux?
A: Margaret Thatcher
Q: Which French writer who later won the Goncourt Prize twice, fought as an RAF pilot in the Battle of Britain?
A: Romain Gary
Q: Which Henry James novel was recently filmed by Jane Campion (of "The Piano" fame)?
A: The Portrait of a Lady
Q: 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".
A: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Q: 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
A: Mary had a little lamb
Q: Who is David John Cornwell better known as?
A: John Le Carré
Q: Who is Karen Blixen better known as?
A: Isaak Dinesen
Q: Who was the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize for Literature?
A: Rabindranath Tagore in 1913
Q: This is a Spanish-based question Who was the first Spanish author to win the Nobel Prize for literature?
A: José Echegaray (in 1904; Benavente was in 1922)
Q: Who writes the "Discworld" novels?
A: Terry Pratchett
Q: Who wrote The Threepenny Opera?
A: Bertolt Brecht (Die Dreigroschenoper, with music by Kurt Weill)
Q: 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.
A: Omar Khayyam (1048-1122)
Q: The depiction of the Mad Hatter in "Alice in Wonderland" reflected a poisoning of 19th century hatmakers from what?
A: Mercury
Q: In Washington Irving's story published in 1819, which war did Rip van Winkle sleep through?
A: The American War of Independence (the American Revolution)
Q: Who is the Lord of the Rings in J.R.R. Tolkien's book of the same name?
A: Sauron (the Great)
Q: In the Old Testament, whose wife was Zipporah?
A: Moses
Q: What were Vladimir and Estragon doing in famous twentieth century play?
A: Waiting for Godot
Q: In E.M. Forster's 'Room With A View', which city could they not view?
A: Florence
Q: 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?
A: They are unfinished
Q: Which trilogy of five books has Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect as their main characters?
A: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Q: In George Orwell's novel '1984', what is 'Airstrip One'?
A: Britain
Q: Who wrote the poem that ends with the line: 'You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din!'?
A: Rudyard Kipling
Q: Who owns Winnie-the-Pooh?
A: Christopher Robin
Q: 'Workers of the world, unite!' is the last line of which work?
A: The Communist Manifesto
Q: Which book, subtitled 'Life Among the Lowly', was the best selling novel of the 19th century?
A: Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Q: Mma Precious Ramotswe is a fictional private detective based where?
A: Gaborone, Botswana
Q: Edmond Dantès is the protagonist and title character of which Alexandre Dumas (père) novel?
A: The Count of Montecristo
Q: Alfred E. Neuman is the fictional mascot for which magazine?
A: Mad magazine
Q: Who lived the last few years of his life in Paris under the pseudonym 'Sebastian Melmoth'?
A: Oscar Wilde
Q: After whom is the term 'Masochism' named, and what is his most famous work?
A: Leopold von Sacher-Masoch wrote 'Venus in Furs'
Q: Which French writer and philosopher, author of 'Nausea' among many others, declined the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1964?
A: Jean-Paul Sartre
Q: Who was the first English language Nobel Prize winner in Literature and also (to 2008) the youngest of any nationality?
A: Rudyard Kipling in 1907 at age 41
Q: 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.'?
A: In Xanadu did Kubla Khan, a stately pleasure-dome decree:
Q: 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?
A: Zorro (or Señor Zorro originally)
Q: In which novel were the Eloi living above ground and the Moorlocks below?
A: 'The Time Machine' by HG Wells
Q: What is Winnie short for in Winnie-the-Pooh?
A: Winnipeg
Q: Graham Greene's 'The Human Factor' is about a British MI6 officer who thinks he is leaking secrets to which country?
A: South Africa
With thanks to Damian Considine for correcting this question
Q: What real-life Soviet organisation is James Bond's nemesis in the early novels?
A: SMERSH
Q: Where does the Third Man die?
A: The sewers of Vienna
Q: Who wrote around 500 BC: 'There are five sorts of spies: native, internal, double, doomed and surviving'.
A: Sun Tzu
Q: This is a Spanish-based question 'Biscuter' is the inseparable partner of which fictional detective?
A: Pepe Carvalho
Q: Which novel features the character Jim Wormold?
A: 'Our Man In Havana' by Graham Greene
Q: What novel, and by whom, is based on a conspiracy to blow up the Greenwich Observatory?
A: 'Secret Agent' by Joseph Conrad
Q: According to the bible, Adam and Eve had three named sons: Cain, Abel and?
A: Seth
Q: Which book tells the story of the Joad family going to California during the Depression?
A: The Grapes of Wrath
Q: Four Irishmen have won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Who?
A: George Bernard Shaw, William Butler Yeats, Samuel Beckett and Seamus Heaney
Q: According to the bible, Cain was banished to the Land of Nod. Where was it located?
A: East of Eden
Q: Which character describes his wife as 'She who must be obeyed'?
A: Rumpole of the Bailey
Q: In which fictional city would you find the Unseen University?
A: Ankh Morpork
Q: Which twentieth century Welsh poet wrote 'A Child's Christmas in Wales'?
A: Dylan Thomas in 1955
Q: What was Scrooge's first name?
A: Ebenezer
Q: 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?
A: Waiting for Godot
Q: Which controversial novel's main characters are Gibreel Farishta and Saladin Chamcha? The novel was the 1988 Whitbread Award winner and Booker Prize finalist.
A: The Satanic Verses
Q: Which famous children's book character was created by Michael Bond?
A: Paddington Bear
Q: Which famous book title translated means "no place" or "place that does not exist"?
A: Utopia
Q: William of Baskerville is the main character of which famous novel, later filmed?
A: 'The Name of the Rose' (Il Nome Della Rosa) by Umberto Eco
Q: In which novel, first published in 1912, are the main characters called John Clayton and Jane Porter who, eventually, have a son called Jack?
A: 'Tarzan of the Apes' by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Q: Who wrote Pinocchio?
A: Carlo Collodi
Q: 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?
A: 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.
Q: "Lyrical Ballads" 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?
A: William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Q: In the poem "The Song of Hiawatha", what is the name of the river?
A: Gitche Gumee
Q: This is a Spanish-based question Which novelist wrote "Miau", "Fortunata y Jacinta", "Torquemada en el purgatorio", and "El amigo manso"?
A: Benito Pérez Galdós
Q: In "The Taming of the Shrew", what was the name of the girl known as the shrew?
A: Kate (Katherine)
Q: "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?
A: The Merchant of Venice
Q: Where was Casanova from?
A: Venice
Q: Which author's first names were John Ronald Reuel?
A: J.R.R. Tolkien
Q: At what age do Adrian Mole's diaries start?
A: 13 3/4 years old
Q: In which novel does the character Major Major Major Major appear?
A: Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Q: Which book, published in 1816, was subtitled 'The Modern Prometheus'?
A: Frankenstein
Q: Becky Sharp is a character in which famous novel?
A: Vanity Fair
Q: Which 1940s novel was originally titled 'The Last Man in Europe'?
A: 1984 by George Orwell
Q: Who wrote the novel 'The Brothers Karamazov'?
A: Fedor Dostoievski
Q: In Milton's 'Paradise Lost', the word 'Pandemonium' is used for the first time. What does he refer to?
A: The dwelling place of all demons, the capital of Hell
Q: In Mary Shelley's novel, what is Dr Frankenstein's first name?
A: Victor
Q: Boccaccio's tales of the Decameron take place in the vicinity of which city?
A: Florence
Q: Who said: 'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all'?
A: Alfred Lord Tennyson
Q: Which 1971 novel written by William Peter Blatty was turned into a classic horror film?
A: The Exorcist
Q: Which Italian author wrote the classic 'The Leopard' (Il Gattopardo)?
A: Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
Q: General Lew Wallace wrote which book about the Roman Empire (which was later made into a Hollywood classic)?
A: Ben Hur
Q: Which Pulitzer prize-winning American author wrote the Rabbit series of books?
A: John Updike

Acknowledgements

Questions compiled by Luis de Avendaño. Additional questions provided by Alex Carter, Antony Reid, Antonio Vázquez, Declan Forde, Peter Moore, Steve Owen, John Wirnsberger, Clive Mendes, and Jennifer Riggins.

Thanks also to Alan; Alan Boxall; Alan Chapple; Andy Corder and Mick Watts; Andy Henderson at the Breeze Beer Garden in Thailand; Anthony Anchors; Barbara Ridgely; Bob Clarke; Bren Murphy of The Irish Rover; Brian Holt; Carter Young; Chris; Chris Goode and Nic Crequer; Chris O'Byrne; Chris Wilkins; Claire Ambler, Billy Painter and Richard Painter; Colin Dinnie; Colin Hurst; Damian Considine; Dan Hall; Dave Cohen, ex-teammate; Dave Harrop; Dave Love and Andy Bell; David Heslop; David Keen; David Regal; Diane Peake; Esther Ford; Fithi Garza; Geoff Swaine; George Holdstock; George Pitchley and Colin Hurst; Gerry O'Sullivan of Killarney; Godfrey Donaldson of Jeffreys Bay, South Africa; Graham Jones; Harry Winfield, question master of the Marina Alta Pensionisters Association in Benitachell, Alicante, Spain; Ian; Ian Gerrard; Jake Whiteman; Jeff Hicks; Jim Welsh; Jimmy Rafferty; Joe Bicarregui; John Polias; Jonathan Burt; Jurgen Lobert; Karim Nanji, Entertainments Officer, Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London; Keith Woodcock from Chippenham; Ken G. Fisher of Toronto; Kevin Magill of the Cayman Islands; Kirsty Taylor; Lesley Melvin; Lucy Boulding; Luke Williams in Switzerland; Lynda Finn in New Zeland; Lynne and Thierry in Paris, and Steve Hall in Angola; Matt Jones; Mike Healy and Carol Balster; Mike Jones; Mike Mooney from Leeds; Mike O'Shea; Mr Lucky; Neil Robinson in New Zealand; Nick Dadds; Nick Dodd; Nick Wilde; Nicola Wood; Oscar Nolan from Dublin; Remo Anniyan; RKN; Rolland Willa; Ross Stewart of Auckland, New Zealand; Russ Hall; Sam Jones PhD, South Wales; Sebastien D. Fortas; Shelley; Sinead Fisher; Steve Rose; Steven Malan; Susanne; Suzy Fewtrell of New Zealand; Ted Bollard from Dublin; Terry Denham; Tim Sharples; Tony Newman; Yvonne Steyn from Somerset West, South Africa; and many others for correcting, amending and fine tuning the questions and answers.

Please send corrections and amendments to These questions have all been used at the Moore's Irish Pub quiz (formerly O'Donnell's) and at Triskel. New questions are added at irregular intervals. However, if 163 literature questions are not enough, we recommend you check TriviaBug.

Sources: Encyclopedia Britannica, The World Almanac and Book of Facts, Whitaker's Almanac, The Compact Edition of The Oxford English Dictionary, Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, Collins Gem Fact File, Diccionario Enciclopédico Espasa 1 and Wikipedia.. This page layout was last updated on Saturday, November 9th, 2019 @ 7:01pm CET (Europe/Madrid).

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