FREE! Click here to Join FunTrivia. Thousands of games, quizzes, and lots more!
Quiz about Shelf Life
Quiz about Shelf Life

Shelf Life Trivia Quiz


These are some of the books that for one reason or another I've hung on to over the years, despite numerous house - and even country - moves.

A multiple-choice quiz by wajo. Estimated time: 6 mins.
  1. Home
  2. »
  3. Quizzes
  4. »
  5. Literature Trivia
  6. »
  7. Mixed Literature
  8. »
  9. Tougher Mixed Literature

Author
wajo
Time
6 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
104,408
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Difficult
Avg Score
4 / 10
Plays
813
- -
Question 1 of 10
1. I like to hold on to 'classics' like these in case the kids want to read them when they're older. Which of these famous 20th century titles was published first? Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. The author of "Haroun and the Sea of Stories", which is in our kids' bookcase, is also represented on the grown-ups' side (often an arbitrary distinction!). Which of these novels did s/he also write? Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. I'm not sure why I've kept this Dickens novel - I didn't enjoy it at all! The opening lines are "Now, what I want is, Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else." Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. "The Makioka Sisters" is the story of a merchant family in decline in pre-war Osaka and deals with issues of pride, duty, and tradition as the family attempts to arrange a suitable marriage for the stubborn Yukiko. Who wrote it? Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. Umberto Eco's best known work, "The Name of the Rose" was made into a movie starring Sean Connery. That novel's on my shelf, as are the following works of fiction and non-fiction . Which one was not written by Eco? Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. I still have my old high school and university poetry anthologies. One of my favourites, of the poems we studied, begins:
"Had we but world enough, and time,
This coyness, Lady, were no crime."
Who's the poet?
Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. The following authors are all represented on my shelves. Which of one of them has not won the Nobel Prize for Literature? Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. Returning to my schooldays...I've still got lots of texts from my Speech and Drama lessons, including the following four. Which of them was written by Spanish playwright Federico Garcia Lorca? Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. I have a book of short stories by writers such as Steel Rudd, Hal Porter and Peter Carey. Complete the title of this collection: "The Penguin Book of _________Short Stories". Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. We started the quiz, with 'which was published first?' We'll end by moving forward a few decades and asking 'which of the following novels was published last?' Hint



(Optional) Create a Free FunTrivia ID to save the points you are about to earn:

arrow Select a User ID:
arrow Choose a Password:
arrow Your Email:




Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. I like to hold on to 'classics' like these in case the kids want to read them when they're older. Which of these famous 20th century titles was published first?

Answer: " As I lay Dying" William Faulkner

It was close! The dates are Faulkner - 1930,Buck - 1931, Greene - 1940, and Orwell - 1949.
2. The author of "Haroun and the Sea of Stories", which is in our kids' bookcase, is also represented on the grown-ups' side (often an arbitrary distinction!). Which of these novels did s/he also write?

Answer: Midnight's Children

The author in question is Salman Rushdie. The other authors, in case they're not all familiar, are Milan Kundera ("Lightness of Being"), Isabel Allende ("House of the Spirits") and Graham Swift ("Waterland").
3. I'm not sure why I've kept this Dickens novel - I didn't enjoy it at all! The opening lines are "Now, what I want is, Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else."

Answer: Hard Times

Not as enjoyable as some of Dickens' more well-known works, in fact I don't think I even finished it!
4. "The Makioka Sisters" is the story of a merchant family in decline in pre-war Osaka and deals with issues of pride, duty, and tradition as the family attempts to arrange a suitable marriage for the stubborn Yukiko. Who wrote it?

Answer: Junichiro Tanizaki

My favourite Japanese novel. It was written during the war but wasn't allowed to be published until 1948 as war-time censors felt it idealised decadent pre-war (ie non-militaristic) values.
5. Umberto Eco's best known work, "The Name of the Rose" was made into a movie starring Sean Connery. That novel's on my shelf, as are the following works of fiction and non-fiction . Which one was not written by Eco?

Answer: The Temptation to Exist

"The Temptation to Exist" is by E.M.Cioran (and really too depressing!)"Foucault's Pendulum" was the novel that followed "The Name of the Rose" - long and wordy with lots of quotations in illegible ancient alphabets! The other two books are collections of essays on related topics by Eco.
6. I still have my old high school and university poetry anthologies. One of my favourites, of the poems we studied, begins: "Had we but world enough, and time, This coyness, Lady, were no crime." Who's the poet?

Answer: Andrew Marvell

From "To his coy mistress". It was something of a revelation to us at age 17 or 18 that 300 years earlier men were already expressing very familiar sentiments - just in more flowery language!
7. The following authors are all represented on my shelves. Which of one of them has not won the Nobel Prize for Literature?

Answer: David Malouf

David Malouf is an Australian writer whose most well-known work is his novel "An Imaginary Life". White won the Nobel Prize in 1973, Garcia Marquez in 1982 and Oe in 1994.
8. Returning to my schooldays...I've still got lots of texts from my Speech and Drama lessons, including the following four. Which of them was written by Spanish playwright Federico Garcia Lorca?

Answer: Blood Wedding

The other playwrights are Bertolt Brecht("Mother Courage"), Samuel Beckett ("Happy Days") and Jean Claude van Itallie ("Almost Like Being").
9. I have a book of short stories by writers such as Steel Rudd, Hal Porter and Peter Carey. Complete the title of this collection: "The Penguin Book of _________Short Stories".

Answer: Australian

Novelist Peter Carey's name might have been a clue for non-Australians (even though he now lives in New York).
10. We started the quiz, with 'which was published first?' We'll end by moving forward a few decades and asking 'which of the following novels was published last?'

Answer: "The God of Small Things" Arundhati Roy

The dates are:Auster - 1985, Morrison - 1992, Doyle - 1993 and Roy - 1997.
Thanks for playing my first literature quiz!
Source: Author wajo

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor Bruyere before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.
3/28/2024, Copyright 2024 FunTrivia, Inc. - Report an Error / Contact Us