Literary Skeletons Trivia Quiz

Answer: Frankenstein

Mary Shelley, the British author and wife of the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, published the novel "Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus" anonymously in 1818. She began writing the work when she was only nineteen!

Answer: Middlemarch

George Elliot was the pen name of the English writer Marian (Mary Ann) Evans, who published her novel "Middlemarch" in its entirety in 1874. From 1871 to 1872, the novel was published as a serial.

Answer: Kidnapped

Robert Louis Stevenson first published the historical fiction/adventure novel "Kidnapped" in 1886 in the magazine "Young Folks". Some scholars believe the book is based on the the true story of James Annesley, a child who was due to inherit five aristocratic titles when he was kidnapped at twelve years of age and shipped from Dublin to America in 1728.

Answer: Steppenwolf

Herman Hesse, the German-Swiss author, published his tenth novel "Steppenwolf" in 1927. The book is greately autobiographical in that it stems from Hesse's struggle with isolation, depression, and thoughts of suicide.

Answer: Dracula

The Irish writer Bram Stoker published his Gothic horror novel in 1897. However, to limit the novel to one genre is unfair, for it explores the role of women and men's attitude towards them in Victorian society.

Answer: Walden

The American transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau published his autobiographical and philosophical "Walden; or, Life in the Woods" in 1854. While Thoreau spent two years in the woods near a pond on Ralph Waldo Emerson's property, he condensed his experiences into one year for literary effect.

Answer: Rebecca

Daphne du Maurier, an English author, wrote most of her novel "Rebecca" while staying in Alexandria, Egypt, where her husband was stationed. She published the work in 1938.

Answer: Dubliners

James Joyce, the Irish writer, published "Dubliners", his book of fifteen short stories, in 1914. It contains such pieces as "Araby", "Counterparts", and "The Dead".

Answer: Candide

The French satirist Voltaire published his novella "Candide" in 1762. The book was initially banned for what many considered sedition and blasphemy. Today, Voltaire's work may be taught more than any other piece of French literature.

Answer: Babbitt

The American Nobel Prize-winning author Sinclair Lewis published his novel "Babbitt" in 1922. The book is a satire of American life and focuses on the shallowness of the middle class and the pressures on others to conform to such an empty lifestyle.

Answer: Ivanhoe

Sir Walter Scott, the Scottish author and poet, published his historical novel about twelfth-century England in 1820. Many scholars have credited this book with singlehandedly initiating a Western revival of interest in Romanticism and Medievalism.

Answer: Emma

The English author Jane Austen published her novel "Emma" in 1815. "Emma" marks Austen's fourth novel in the order of publication.

Answer: Kim

"Kim", the novel by Nobel Prize-winning writer Rudyard Kipling, was first published as a complete book in 1901. It first appeared as a serial publication in "McClure's" from 1900 to 1901. "Kim" holds the position of #78 on The Modern Library's list of "100 Best English Language Novels of the Twentieth Century".

Answer: Sula

Toni Morrison, a Nobel Prize-winning American author, published her second novel "Sula" in 1973. Other novels by Morrison are "The Bluest Eye", "Song of Solomon", and "Beloved".

Answer: Sanctuary

The novel "Sanctuary" was first published in 1931 by the American Nobel Prize-winning author William Faulkner. Faulkner is said to have written the novel purely for financial reasons since many of his earlier novels were too experimental to be well liked by a large reading audience. "Sanctuary" revolves around the abduction of a young woman, who is raped with a corn cob by an impotent man.

Note: In this situation 'y' is acting as a vowel.

Answer: Tartuffe

The French playwright Moliere wrote the comedy "Tartuffe, or The Imposter" in 1664. King Louis XIV censored the play because of the influence of the Archbishop of Paris, who happened also to be Louis' confessor.

Answer: Coriolanus

William Shakespeare wrote the tragedy "Coriolanus" sometime between 1605 and 1608. The play is based on the life of Caius Marcius Coriolanus, a legendary Roman leader. It is based on a 1579 English translation of "The Life of Coriolanus" from Plutarch's "Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans", which was published sometime in the first century.

Answer: McTeague

The American author and literary critic Frank Norris published his novel "McTeague" in 1899. The novel is the basis of the movie "Greed", which was produced in 1924.

Answer: Herzog

The Canadian-born American writer Saul Bellow, also a winner of the Nobel Prize for literature, published "Herzog" in 1964. Herzog is the main character of the novel and is loosely based on Bellow himself. "Time" magazine listed "Herzog" as one of the top 100 novels written in English of all time.

Answer: Antigone

The ancient playwright Sophocles wrote his tragedy "Antigone" some time around 441 BC. It is the third of the Theban plays, which portray the history of Thebes during and after the reign of Oedipus. The other two plays are "Oedipus the King" and "Oedipus at Colonus".

Answer: Scaramouche

The Italian/English writer Rafael Sabatini published his historical novel in 1921. It was made into films in 1923 and 1952. It begins with the one of the most interesting of lines, a line I use in my own profile: "He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad".

Answer: Utopia

The English author Sir Thomas More published his philosophical fictional novel in 1516. Its entire title, translated from the original Latin, is "A Truly Golden Little Book, No Less Beneficial Than Entertaining, of the Best State of a Republic, and of the New Island Utopia".

Answer: Metamorphoses

The Roman poet Ovid completed his poetical book "Metamorphoses" sometime around AD 8. Not to be confused with Kafka's "Metamorphosis", "Metamorphoses" is a narrative poem written in fifteen books, and it describes the mythic creation of the world to the foundation of Rome and the ascension of Julius Caesar.

Answer: Pamela

The English writer Samuel Richardson published his epistolary novel--a novel written as a series of letters--"Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded" in 1740. It is one of the earliest novels written in the English language. Richardson's original plan was to write an instruction book of proper conduct, but his project evolved into something else.

Answer: Omoo

Herman Melville, the American author, published his autobiographical adventure novel "Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas" in 1847. "Omoo" is a sequel to Melville's first novel "Typee". Throughout his life, Melville had commented that he would be remembered only for his first two books "Typee" and "Omoo"; after his death, his obituary did indeed mention only these two texts, completely overlooking "Moby Dick" and everything else that he had written.