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Melville Herman Quizzes, Trivia and Puzzles
Melville Herman Quizzes, Trivia

Herman Melville Trivia

Herman Melville Trivia Quizzes

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"Call me Ishmael." So begins one of the classic American novels, 'Moby-Dick, or, The Whale', a tale of one man's obsession (with a whole lot of detail about the life on board a 19th Century whaling ship). Of course, Herman Melville wrote more than one book!
9 Herman Melville quizzes and 105 Herman Melville trivia questions.
1.
  Moby Dick Trivia   great trivia quiz  
Multiple Choice
 25 Qns
I've done quizzes on 'Melville sans Moby' and Whales and Whaling. Now I'm ready to take on the White Whale himself!
Tough, 25 Qns, tjoebigham, Dec 01 19
Recommended for grades: 11,12
Tough
tjoebigham
Dec 01 19
1627 plays
2.
  Moby-Dick    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
This is a short quiz on Melville's most famous novel. This is an adopted quiz from player kogand. Every effort has been made to preserve the original work. So grab your harpoon and "aweigh" we go! FYI, the only spoiler is in question 9's extra info.
Average, 10 Qns, BigTriviaDawg, May 04 22
Average
BigTriviaDawg gold member
May 04 22
219 plays
3.
  "Moby Dick": Melville's Masterpiece    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
What do you know about "Moby Dick", the book generally considered Herman Melville's greatest work?
Average, 10 Qns, lowtechmaster, Oct 20 17
Average
lowtechmaster
348 plays
4.
  Ah Bartleby,! Ah Humanity!   popular trivia quiz  
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
Long before passive resistance became a familiar technique for protesting perceived inequities, there was Bartleby!
Average, 10 Qns, braunda, Apr 13 05
Average
braunda
384 plays
5.
  Herman Melville's "Bartleby, the Scrivener"    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
"Bartleby, the Scrivener - A Story of Wall Street" is an 1853 short story by Herman Melville. It was originally published in the November and December 1853 issues of Putnam's Magazine.
Average, 10 Qns, Bimmed, Feb 22 22
Average
Bimmed
Feb 22 22
186 plays
6.
  Melville sans Moby    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
You probably know all about 'Moby Dick' trouble is, most people think Melville begins and ends with that classic. But Melville ranged far and wide in his work, and in almost every form. See how much Melville you really know!
Average, 10 Qns, tjoebigham, Apr 25 14
Average
tjoebigham
435 plays
7.
  Melville's Creations    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
Identify Melville's characters from the descriptions given. This quiz covers three novels and three short stories.
Tough, 10 Qns, skylarb, Jun 29 03
Tough
skylarb
571 plays
8.
  Melville's Poetry    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
My third Melville quiz is about his poetry, not as well-known as his other works, but as memorable.
Difficult, 10 Qns, tjoebigham, Jul 22 03
Difficult
tjoebigham
238 plays
9.
  Melville's 'Encantadas'    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
The ten sketches Melville wrote for 'Harper's' magazine and later published as part of his 'Piazza Tales'.
Tough, 10 Qns, tjoebigham, Jun 29 03
Tough
tjoebigham
202 plays
trivia question Quick Question
What other characters are black besides Dagoo?

From Quiz "Moby Dick Trivia"




Related Topics
  Literature Before 1900 [Literature] (50 quizzes)


Herman Melville Trivia Questions
1. The story "Bartleby the Scrivener" is about a scrivener, so what is a scrivener?

From Quiz Herman Melville's "Bartleby, the Scrivener"

Answer: A clerk, scribe or notary

A scrivener is a person who can read and write and makes their living by writing or copying written works. Bartleby was a special type of scrivener who wrote letters to court and legal documents.

2. In what year was Herman Melville's "Bartleby, the Scrivener" published?

From Quiz Ah Bartleby,! Ah Humanity!

Answer: 1853

"Bartleby" was published shortly after the critical rejection of Melville's masterpiece "Moby Dick." It is entirely possible to read the story as a condemnation of those readers who wanted him only to duplicate the successes of his earlier adventure stories, "Omoo" and "Typee."

3. Melville, like this character from his novel "Typee," jumped ship and lived with the cannibals.

From Quiz Melville's Creations

Answer: Tommo

Tommo is the narrator of "Typee," and he jumps ship with Toby. While Melville stayed less than a month with the cannibals, the fictional Tommo stays much longer, because his injured leg keeps him incapacitated.

4. What islands are the 'Encantadas'?

From Quiz Melville's 'Encantadas'

Answer: Galapagos

The Galapagos, best known for Charles Darwin's research that led him to his thoery of evolution.

5. Name Melville's collection of Civil War poetry.

From Quiz Melville's Poetry

Answer: Battle-Pieces

Melville published 'Pieces' after war's end. 'War Is Kind' was by Stephen Crane, 'For The Union Dead' by Robert Lowell (who adapted Melville's 'Benito Cereno' for the stage.)

6. ""_____ _____ _____." What three words form the opening sentence of Moby Dick, perhaps the most famous of all?

From Quiz Moby Dick Trivia

Answer: Call me Ishmael

Ishmael, of course, being the narrator of the tale and named after the outcast son of Abraham's servant Hagar.

7. Name Melville's first two books to be published.

From Quiz Melville sans Moby

Answer: 'Typee' and 'Omoo'

'Typee' and 'Omoo' came from Melville's own experiences whaling in the South Seas.

8. From where does the ship that Ishmael takes set sail?

From Quiz Moby-Dick

Answer: Nantucket

The story's first action starts during a snowy December in New Bedford where Ishmael and Queequeg meet. The two travel together to the island of Nantucket where they seek employment on a whaling ship. During the 1800s, all of the four choices were whaling ports. The sperm whale, in particular, was prized as the oil was used for fuel.

9. The narrator of "Bartleby, the Scrivener" was the person who hired him. What was his profession?

From Quiz Herman Melville's "Bartleby, the Scrivener"

Answer: A lawyer

The narrator was an "unambitious" lawyer with thirty years of experience. He counted John Jacob Astor as one of his clients. Astor, who died in 1848, just before the setting of our story, was the richest man in the world at the time of his death. So, Bartleby was a legal scrivener.

10. When was "Moby Dick" first published?

From Quiz "Moby Dick": Melville's Masterpiece

Answer: 1851

It was published in 1851, first in Britain by Richard Bentley October 18, 1851, then in the United States by Harper & Brothers on November 14, 1851. (The two editions have several differences, a few significant but most minor.) Between its publication and September 28, 1891 when Melville died, only about 3200 copies were sold. It was a commercial failure.

11. After his death, Bartleby's employer learns that Bartleby had previously held another job for several years. Where did he work?

From Quiz Ah Bartleby,! Ah Humanity!

Answer: Dead Letter Office

"On errands of life, these letters speed to death. Ah Bartleby! Ah Humanity!"

12. A one time school teacher, this sailor reasons that idol worship is in accord with the golden rule.

From Quiz Melville's Creations

Answer: Ishmael

Ishmael is the narrator of "Moby Dick," and like its author Melville, he is something of a moral relativist. He sees both pagans and Christians as being "dreadfully cracked about the head." He is a melancholy figure who is almost suicidal, but who yet gets swept up in the quest for Moby Dick.

13. What creatures does Melville devote a sketch to?

From Quiz Melville's 'Encantadas'

Answer: tortoises

'Galapagos' comes from the Spanish for tortoise.

14. Who was the English artist who made the marine painting Melville based a poem on?

From Quiz Melville's Poetry

Answer: Turner

J. M. W. Turner is renowned for his marine {scenes;} his 'The Fighting Temeraire', about one of Nelson's warships towed out to be scrapped, was seen by Melville, who wrote a poem on it and included it in 'Battle-Pieces'.

15. Where does Ishmael's harpooner friend Queequeg come from?

From Quiz Moby Dick Trivia

Answer: Kokovoko

Though Melville's first book 'Typee' was about the Marquesas, he had Queequeg come from the fictional isle of Kokovoko, which is '...not down on any map. True places never are.'

16. Who is the companion of Wellington Redburn in 'Redburn'?

From Quiz Melville sans Moby

Answer: Harry Bolton

Harry Bolton, shipmate to Melville's title character, leads the latter on some fantastic adventures in London.

17. What unusual object does Queequeg keep with him in bed?

From Quiz Moby-Dick

Answer: A harpoon

Queequeg takes his harpoon literally everywhere including to bed with him! He shaves with his harpoon and uses it to grab meat at a meal. It is quickly discovered that Queequeg is brilliantly skilled at throwing the harpoon which helps secure him a spot on the ship. He becomes the harpooner for Starbuck, the ship's first mate.

18. Why did the lawyer in "Bartleby, the Scrivener" need a third scrivener?

From Quiz Herman Melville's "Bartleby, the Scrivener"

Answer: The office of Master in Chancery was conferred upon the lawyer.

The lawyer was able to work around the ineffectiveness of his two existing scriveners with his original business. However, he received the Master in Chancery appointment, which considerably increased his workload.

19. To whom did Melville dedicate "Moby Dick"?

From Quiz "Moby Dick": Melville's Masterpiece

Answer: Nathaniel Hawthorne

In the summer of 1850, Melville bought a home in Pittsfield, MA, a few miles from Hawthorne's home in Lennox. They met at a picnic and became friends. The dedication resulted. However, the friendship did not last and was effectively over by 1852 (for no definite reason).

20. What famous New York street is mentioned in the subtitle of the story?

From Quiz Ah Bartleby,! Ah Humanity!

Answer: Wall Street

Imagery of walls is prevalant throughout the story. Also, "Wall Street" has a mercantile connotation which fits with the narrator's acquisitive and parsimonious nature.

21. "He was on the whole a clean, comely looking cannibal."

From Quiz Melville's Creations

Answer: Queequeg

This description describes a noble and heroic character who figures prominently in "Moby Dick." Queequeg twice risks his life to rescue others, and in the end even his coffin serves to rescue Ishmael.

22. From what high point can you get a panoramic view of the islands?

From Quiz Melville's 'Encantadas'

Answer: Rock Rodondo

Or 'Round Rock' in Spanish.

23. In what poem did Melville say 'All wars are boyish, and are fought by boys'?

From Quiz Melville's Poetry

Answer: The March Into Virginia

About the War's first battle, a horrible rout for the North. Melville's line is among his most quoted.

24. What little wooden idol does Queequeg worship?

From Quiz Moby Dick Trivia

Answer: Yojo

'Omoo' was Melville's second book, Hector Hugh 'Saki' Munro created Srendi Vashtar(a ferret) and Loki is the Norse god of evil(ever read the Marvel Comics about Thor?)

25. What was the name of Queequeg's idol?

From Quiz Moby-Dick

Answer: Yojo

Queequeg follows an interesting type of animism religion where his idol Yojo gives him guidance as to what to do. Ishmael finds it curious that Queequeg will sit with his idol and burn incense to it. At one point, Queequeg decides to spend a period of silent time fasting before his idol. This episode alarmed Ishmael as Queequeg had locked the door and was unresponsive once the landlord was able to get the door open. The outcome of this long trance was Yojo telling Queequeg that Ishmael would pick the ship on which to sail.

26. The first sentence in Moby Dick" is "Call me Ishmael." From where does the name "Ishmael" come?

From Quiz "Moby Dick": Melville's Masterpiece

Answer: Genesis

In Genesis 16:1-16, 17:18-25, 21:6-21, and 25:9-17 (RSV), is the story of the birth of Ishmael to Abram and the maid Hagar and their subsequent history after being cast out into the wilderness. Ismael ultimately becomes a wanderer, who, dying in the desert, is saved by a miracle when a well of water suddenly appears. The Biblical Ishmael, thus, is the prototype of an outcast and wanderer. In "Moby Dick", Ishmael is a solitary wanderer who enters the "wilderness" of the vast ocean. He, too, escapes death by a "miracle" (when he is able to climb onto the coffin to escape the sea and the whale). [The analogy between the two is far more complex than this brief summary.]

27. He "lived in the world, as the last of the Grisly bears lived in settled Missouri."

From Quiz Melville's Creations

Answer: Ahab

This quote describes the quest-driven captain in "Moby Dick." Ahab is compared to both Job, who questioned God's justice, and Jonah, who refused to obey God and fled from Him by sea.

28. Wha type of ship almost was wrecked on the island?

From Quiz Melville's 'Encantadas'

Answer: frigate

It was the U.S Navy frigate 'Essex', no relation to the whaleship of the same name that was wrecked by a sperm whale and inspired the climax of 'Moby Dick'.

29. What ships made up the 'Stone Fleet' Melville wrote about?

From Quiz Melville's Poetry

Answer: whalers

Ex-whaleman Melville had an affinity for these old whalers, now filled with heavy stone and scuttled in Charleston harbor to block it. Without success, though...'A failure, and complete was you old Stone Fleet'.

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