Literature and Authors

15 Points Per Correct Answer - No time limit  

1. Who wrote 'The Canterbury Tales'? William Faulkner William Shakespeare Geoffrey Chaucer Christopher Marlowe

2. Who won a Nobel Prize for his novel 'Dr. Zhivago', but was forced by the Soviet government to turn it down? Answer: (First and or last name accepted)

3. Which of the following was written by Nobel prizewinning Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz? Palace Walk I, Rigoberta Menchu Riki-Tiki-Tavi Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret

4. What German author won a Nobel Prize for literature in the 1990s? Goethe Helmut Kohl Guenter Grass Thomas Mann

5. Which of Homer's works deals DIRECTLY with the Trojan War (not just its aftermath)? Answer: (one or two words (the _____))

6. What play, starring a character named Viola, is William Shakespeare depicted as beginning at the END of the movie 'Shakespeare in Love' (NOT during the rest of the movie)? Romeo and Juliet Richard III Hamlet Twelfth Night

7. Under what king's direction was the King James translation of the Bible developed? King James II of England The Tsar-Liberator of Russia King James III of Scotland King James I of England

8. Who wrote the play 'A Doll's House', featuring Nora Helmer and her husband Torvald? Arthur Miller Henrik Ibsen Lope de Vega Christopher Marlowe

9. In what language did Lope de Vega, one of the most prolific playwrights of all time, write his plays? Answer: (One Word)

10. About whom did Abraham Lincoln say, 'So this is the little lady who started the big war'? Anne Sullivan Harriet Beecher Stowe Harriet Tubman Mary Surratt

11. Who wrote 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner'? Herman Melville T.S. Eliot William Blake Samuel Coleridge

12. What famous children's book did L. Frank Baum write -- a book that would become the first of a series of fourteen? Answer: (Four Words -- don't forget 'the'!)

13. What member of the Quiche people in Guatemala won the Nobel Peace Prize in part for her autobiography? Mother Teresa Rigoberta Menchu Agnes Gonxhiu Diana Spenser

14. Who wrote the mock heroic poem 'Ode on the Death of a Favorite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Goldfishes'? Jonathan Swift Thomas Gray Alexander Pope Homer

15. What Shakespearean play is parodied in a scene in the Arnold Schwarzenegger flop 'Last Action Hero', widely criticized as rotten? Twelfth Night Romeo and Juliet As You Like It Hamlet

16. What is Dr. Seuss's real name? Theodor Seuss Geisel Seuss Truman Capote James Seuss Thurber Jack Kerouac Seuss

17. Who wrote the classic children's novel 'Matilda' and entitled his autobiography 'Boy'? George Sands Roald Dahl Rudyard Kipling A. A. Milne

18. Whose 'On the Origin of Species' began a debate between science and religion that is still going on today? John Scopes Charles Darwin Clarence Darrow Adam Smith

19. In a similar vein, the play 'Inherit the Wind' deals with what famous trial? Plessy v. Ferguson Sweet trial Scopes monkey trial Brown v. Board

20. You're almost done! So pat yourself on the back and answer one last question: what was the name of the man who wrote the 'Divine Comedy' which included the famous 'Inferno'? Shakespeare Marlowe Bacon Dante