Madrid Pub Quiz

Copyleft: feel free to use these questions in your quizzes. This is not a game, there’s no scoring, and questions are provided as a service only. Some answers are a little lengthy as players requested clarification. “NEW” means less than a month old. Spanish flags denote Spanish-based questions.

Literature

160 questions in this category

Who was prepared to off his kingdom in exchange for a horse?
Richard III (in Shakespeare's play of the same name)
Whose treasure was buried in Treasure Island?
Captain Flint’s.
With thanks to David Keen for pointing out a typo
What experimental novel by an Argentine author invited the reader to choose between a linear and a non-linear reading of the chapters?
‘Rayuela’ (Hopscotch) by Julio Cortázar.
Which novel features the character Alec Leamas?
‘The Spy Who Came In from the Cold’ by John Le Carré
What was the name of the sequel to ‘Angela’s Ashes’?
’Tis
With thanks to Keith Woodcock from Chippenham for pointing out a typo in the question
Who is Patricia Reichardt better known as in the ‘Peanuts’ cartoon strip?
Peppermint Patty
With thanks to Keith Woodcock from Chippenham for correcting the question
Who gave directions to his home as ‘second to the right and straight on till morning’?
Peter Pan
The Disney version is slightly different: ‘second star to the right…
With thanks to Yvonne Steyn from Somerset West, South Africa for fine-tuning the question
Which writer established the three laws of robotics?
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
Captain Yossarian is the main character in which twentieth century novel?
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
What was the title of the first Harry Potter book?
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
Published as The Sorcerer’s Stone in the US market.
With thanks to Matt Jones for fine tuning the answer
Which Shakespeare play has the subtitle ‘Or what you will’?
Twelfth Night
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’?
Nineteen Eighty Four
Which literary character has a landlady named Mrs Hudson?
Sherlock Holmes
Which car did Commander Caractacus Potts drive?
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
From whom did Della Street take dictation?
Perry Mason
Which books make up the Barrytown Trilogy by Roddy Doyle?
The Commitments, The Snapper, and The Van
Which author used the pseudonyms Isaac Bickerstaffe and Lemuel Gulliver among others?
Jonathan Swift
Which Dubliner wrote ‘Dracula’?
Abraham ‘Bram’ Stoker
Who was the first Irishman to receive a Nobel prize?
William Butler Yeats in 1923
Which Irish Nobel Prize winning author wrote most of his work in French?
Samuel Beckett
What day is June 16th in literary circles?
Bloomsday (the day in 1904 that the events in ‘Ulysses’ take place)
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?
Dubliners
Which famous playwright won an Oscar as well as a Nobel Prize?
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
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 organistation 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
This is a Spanish-based question 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
This is a Spanish-based question 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)
This is a Spanish-based question What was the name of George Orwell’s book on his Spanish Civil War experience?
Homage to Catalonia
This is a Spanish-based question 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.
This is a Spanish-based question 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
This is a Spanish-based question 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
This is a Spanish-based question ‘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
This is a Spanish-based question 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
Which author’s first names were John Ronald Reuel?
J.R.R. Tolkien
At what age do Adrian Mole’s diaries start?
13 ¾ years old
In which novel does the character Major Major Major Major appear?
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Which book, published in 1816, was subtitled ‘The Modern Prometheus’?
Frankenstein
Becky Sharp is a character in which famous novel?
Vanity Fair
Which 1940s novel was originally titled ‘The Last Man in Europe’?
1984 by George Orwell
Who wrote the novel ‘The Brothers Karamazov’?
Fedor Dostoievski
In Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’, the word ‘Pandemonium’ is used for the first time. What does he refer to?
The dwelling place of all demons, the capital of Hell.
In Mary Shelley’s novel, what is Dr Frankenstein’s first name?
Victor
Boccaccio’s tales of the Decameron take place in the vicinity of which city?
Florence
Who said: “’Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all”?
Alfred Lord Tennyson, in ‘In Memoriam A.H.H.’, 1850
Which 1971 novel written by William Peter Blatty was turned into a classic horror film?
The Exorcist
Which Italian author wrote the classic ‘The Leopard’ (Il Gattopardo)?
Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
General Lew Wallace wrote which book about the Roman Empire (which was later made into a Hollywood classic)?
Ben Hur
Which Pulitzer prize-winning American author wrote the Rabbit series of books?
John Updike

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. 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.

Madrid Pub Quiz is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Feel free to use these questions in your quizzes. 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. These questions have all been used at the Moore’s Irish Pub quiz (formerly O’Donnell’s) and at Triskel Pub, in Madrid.

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.

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