Famous Authors & Literature

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Instructions: From Shakespeare to Hemingway — how well do you know the world's greatest books and authors?

1.
Who wrote the tragic love story 'Romeo and Juliet'?
A
William Shakespeare
B
Charles Dickens
C
Geoffrey Chaucer
D
Jane Austen
2.
In Shakespeare's 'Hamlet,' what is the famous opening line of Hamlet's most well-known soliloquy?
A
'All the world's a stage'
B
'To be, or not to be'
C
'What's in a name?'
D
'Out, out, brief candle'
3.
Charles Dickens wrote 'A Tale of Two Cities.' Which two cities does it refer to?
A
London and Paris
B
Rome and Venice
C
Berlin and Vienna
D
New York and Boston
4.
What was the real name of the American author known as Mark Twain?
A
Nathaniel Hawthorne
B
Henry James
C
Ralph Waldo Emerson
D
Samuel Clemens
5.
Which novel by Jane Austen begins with the line 'It is a truth universally acknowledged'?
A
Emma
B
Persuasion
C
Sense and Sensibility
D
Pride and Prejudice
6.
Ernest Hemingway wrote which of these novels?
A
Of Mice and Men
B
The Great Gatsby
C
Catch-22
D
The Old Man and the Sea
7.
F. Scott Fitzgerald is best known for writing which classic American novel?
A
The Catcher in the Rye
B
The Great Gatsby
C
The Sun Also Rises
D
Farewell to Arms
8.
Who wrote the classic novel 'To Kill a Mockingbird'?
A
Harper Lee
B
Maya Angelou
C
Toni Morrison
D
Flannery O'Connor
9.
J.R.R. Tolkien is the author of which fantasy epic?
A
The Lord of the Rings
B
Harry Potter
C
The Chronicles of Narnia
D
A Game of Thrones
10.
Agatha Christie holds the Guinness World Record for being the best-selling what?
A
Fiction writer
B
Playwright
C
Poet
D
Children's author
11.
Which poem by Edgar Allan Poe features a talking bird that repeats 'Nevermore'?
A
The Bells
B
The Raven
C
Annabel Lee
D
The Tell-Tale Heart
12.
Emily Brontë wrote which classic novel set on the Yorkshire moors?
A
Jane Eyre
B
Wuthering Heights
C
Middlemarch
D
Tess of the d'Urbervilles
13.
The ancient Greek poet Homer is credited with writing 'The Odyssey.' What is it about?
A
The creation of the Greek gods
B
Odysseus's long journey home after the Trojan War
C
The founding of Rome
D
The Trojan War battles
14.
Who wrote the novel 'Moby Dick' about an obsessive hunt for a white whale?
A
Jack London
B
Herman Melville
C
Joseph Conrad
D
Nathaniel Hawthorne
15.
Who wrote the dystopian novel '1984,' which introduced concepts like 'Big Brother' and 'thoughtcrime'?
A
H.G. Wells
B
Ray Bradbury
C
George Orwell
D
Aldous Huxley

Answer Key

Question 1

A. William Shakespeare

Shakespeare wrote 'Romeo and Juliet' around 1594-1596. It remains one of the most performed plays in the world and has inspired countless adaptations.

Question 2

B. 'To be, or not to be'

'To be, or not to be, that is the question' is perhaps the most famous line in all of English literature. The soliloquy explores themes of life, death, and existence.

Question 3

A. London and Paris

'A Tale of Two Cities' (1859) is set during the French Revolution. Its opening line — 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times' — is one of the most famous in literature.

Question 4

D. Samuel Clemens

Samuel Langhorne Clemens adopted the pen name Mark Twain, a riverboat term meaning 'two fathoms deep.' He wrote 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer' and 'Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.'

Question 5

D. Pride and Prejudice

'Pride and Prejudice' (1813) opens with one of the most iconic sentences in English literature. Austen completed the novel when she was just 21 years old.

Question 6

D. The Old Man and the Sea

'The Old Man and the Sea' (1952) tells the story of an aging Cuban fisherman. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 and helped Hemingway win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954.

Question 7

B. The Great Gatsby

'The Great Gatsby' (1925) captures the glamour and emptiness of the Jazz Age. Though it received mixed reviews initially, it is now considered one of the greatest American novels.

Question 8

A. Harper Lee

Harper Lee published 'To Kill a Mockingbird' in 1960. Set in the American South, it addresses racial injustice and won the Pulitzer Prize. Lee published only one other novel in her lifetime.

Question 9

A. The Lord of the Rings

Tolkien published 'The Lord of the Rings' in three volumes between 1954 and 1955. He created entire languages for the world of Middle-earth, drawing on his expertise as a linguistics professor at Oxford.

Question 10

A. Fiction writer

Agatha Christie is the best-selling fiction writer of all time, with over 2 billion copies sold worldwide. She created the beloved detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple.

Question 11

B. The Raven

'The Raven' was published in 1845 and made Poe a household name. The poem's dark, melodic style and haunting refrain of 'Nevermore' made it an instant sensation.

Question 12

B. Wuthering Heights

'Wuthering Heights' (1847) was Emily Brontë's only novel. It was published under the pen name Ellis Bell and tells the passionate, turbulent story of Heathcliff and Catherine.

Question 13

B. Odysseus's long journey home after the Trojan War

'The Odyssey' follows the hero Odysseus on his 10-year journey home after the Trojan War. It's one of the oldest works of Western literature, composed around the 8th century BC.

Question 14

B. Herman Melville

Herman Melville published 'Moby Dick' in 1851. It was a commercial failure during his lifetime but is now considered one of the greatest American novels ever written.

Question 15

C. George Orwell

George Orwell published '1984' in 1949, depicting a totalitarian society under constant surveillance. The novel's terms like 'Big Brother' and 'Orwellian' have become part of everyday language.

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