First in Line Trivia Quiz

Answer: George Eliot, "Middlemarch"

Dorothea Brooke is one of the main characters of George Eliot's "Middlemarch" (1871-72) - a beautiful, intelligent young woman with great intellectual ambitions who makes a disastrous marriage to a much older man. The novel, widely considered Eliot's masterpiece, is set between 1829 and 1832 in the titular, fictitious town of the English Midlands, and follows the lives of its residents - hence its subtitle of "A Study in Provincial Life".

The novel's two main plots are centred on Dorothea's life and the career of young physician Tertius Lydgate.

Answer: Alice Walker, "The Color Purple"

"The Color Purple" is an epistolary novel by American author Alice Walker. It was published in 1982, and the following year won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The story focuses on the plight of African-American women in the South of the US in the 1930s - seen through the eyes of Celie, a poor, 14-year-old girl who writes letters to God because she is being beaten and raped by her own father.

The story emphasizes the bond of sisterhood between the novel's women characters, a bond that helps Celie to become stronger and make her way through life in spite of her terrible childhood experiences.

In 1985, "The Color Purple" was made into a successful film, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Whoopi Goldberg in her film debut.

Answer: Miguel de Cervantes, "Don Quixote"

The first lines of Miguel de Cervantes' "Don Quixote" are one of literature's most famous openings. Published in two volumes, in 1605 and 1615, the novel is considered one of the founding works of modern Western literature. It relates the story of Don Alonso Quixano, a "hidalgo" (a nobleman without a hereditary title) who loses his mind after reading too many chivalric romances, and sets out to revive chivalry and bring justice to the world - often with hilarious results. "Don Quixote" has been a major influence on the work of many later authors: the common idiom "tilting at windmills" has its origin in one of the best-known episodes of the novel.

Answer: James Joyce, "Ulysses"

Published in its entirety in 1922, "Ulysses" is considered one of the seminal works of modernist literature, and one of the most important novels in the English language. It is not, however, an easy read: besides its length (about 265,000 words), Joyce's stream-of-consciousness technique and experimental prose are not for the faint of heart. Set in Dublin during a single day - 16 June 1904 - the novel is divided in 18 chapters, paralleling the structure of Homer's "Odyssey", and comparing the mundane episodes of a day in the life of advertising agent Leopold Bloom with the heroic adventures and peregrinations of Ulysses (Odysseus) in Homer's epic poem.

Answer: Franz Kafka, "The Trial"

Published in 1925, Franz Kafka's "The Trial" tells the story of bank cashier Josef K., who on his 30th birthday is arrested and imprisoned by an unspecified authority for a crime whose nature is never revealed. The novel - influenced by Fedor Dostoyevsky's "Crime and Punishment" and "The Brothers Karamazov" - was never completed, like Kafka's other works. "The Trial" was published the year after Kafka's death thanks to the intervention of the writer's friend and literary executor, Max Brod, who refused to burn Kafka's work as the author had instructed him to do.

Answer: Charles Dickens, "David Copperfield"

"David Copperfield", published in book format in 1850, is Dickens' eighth novel, inspired for the most part by real events in the author's life. Its rather lengthy full title is "The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery (Which He Never Meant to Publish on Any Account)".

It follows the life of the titular character from childhood to maturity, introducing a number of characters that have become very popular with readers. In the preface to the novel's second edition (1867), Dickens stated that "David Copperfield" held a special place in his heart, like a favourite child.

The novel has had numerous film and TV adaptations.

Answer: Sylvia Plath, "The Bell Jar"

First published in January 1963, about one month before the author committed suicide, "The Bell Jar" is Sylvia Plath's only novel, based on her own experiences with mental illness and therapy. The protagonist, Esther Greenwood, suffers from clinical depression and is hospitalized after a failed suicide attempt. Esther's story is told in the first person through a series of flashbacks that show parts of her past. "The Bell Jar" was originally written under the pseudonym "Victoria Lucas"; it was published for the first time under Plath's name in 1967.

Answer: Virginia Woolf, "To the Lighthouse"

Virginia Woolf's "To the Lighthouse" (published in 1927), one of the great works of modernist literature, hinges on the technique of multiple focalization, presenting the narrative through different points of view. The novel, inspired by Woolf's own childhood experiences, is set in the ten-year period between 1910 and 1920, and centres on the Ramsays and their visits to the isle of Skye in Scotland, where the family have a summer home. "To the Lighthouse" consists of three parts, occurring at different points in time; it involves very little dialogue and almost no action, and is instead written in the form of thoughts or observation, reflecting on topics such as loss, subjectivity and the nature of art.

Answer: Stephen Crane, "The Red Badge of Courage"

Stephen Crane's best-known work, published in 1895 (when the author was 24 years old), is a war novel set during the American Civil War. Though Crane was born after the end of the conflict, he managed to inject a strong realistic feel in its novel, whose protagonist is an 18-year-old Union soldier, Henry Fleming.

Henry's romantic idealism shatters after he is confronted with the reality of war; the novel's title refer to Henry's wish to be wounded in battle, proving he is a worthy soldier and not a coward.

Answer: Daniel Defoe, "Robinson Crusoe"

Defoe's best-known work, "Robinson Crusoe" (first published in 1719), is presented as an autobiography of the titular character - a sailor who is shipwrecked on a desert island near Trinidad, where he spends 27 years. At the time of publishing, the novel was believed to be a true story, as the protagonist was credited as the author.

The story is said to have been inspired by the life of Scottish privateer Alexander Selkirk, who spent more than four years as a castaway on a South Pacific island. "Robinson Crusoe" was one of the very first instances of realistic literary fiction, and inspired many later works.