110 Literature & Books Quiz Questions & Answers

Below are 110 literature & books quiz questions with the correct answer and a short explanation for each. Use them to revise, host a quiz night, or prepare for competitions — then challenge yourself with the timed, interactive version on QuizOxa.

Literature & Books Quiz Questions and Answers

1. Q1. Who wrote the famous tragedy 'Romeo and Juliet'?

   ✅ Answer: William Shakespeare

   💡 William Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet early in his career, around 1595–1597.

2. Q2. In which city is the tragic story of Romeo and Juliet set?

   ✅ Answer: Verona

   💡 The play is set in Verona, Italy, which now attracts tourists visiting 'Juliet's balcony'.

3. Q3. Who is the creator of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes?

   ✅ Answer: Arthur Conan Doyle

   💡 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle introduced Sherlock Holmes in the 1887 novel 'A Study in Scarlet'.

4. Q4. Which gothic novel by Mary Shelley features a scientist who creates a living creature?

   ✅ Answer: Frankenstein

   💡 Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus was published anonymously by Mary Shelley in 1818 when she was 20.

5. Q5. Who wrote the 1813 classic novel 'Pride and Prejudice'?

   ✅ Answer: Jane Austen

   💡 Jane Austen wrote Pride and Prejudice, charting the emotional development of protagonist Elizabeth Bennet.

6. Q6. What is the street address of Sherlock Holmes' residence in London?

   ✅ Answer: 221B Baker Street

   💡 Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson live in lodgings at 221B Baker Street, London.

7. Q7. Which allegorical novella by George Orwell features farm animals who rebel against their human farmer?

   ✅ Answer: Animal Farm

   💡 Animal Farm, published in 1945, is a satirical allegory reflecting the events leading up to the Russian Revolution.

8. Q8. Who is the narrator of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel 'The Great Gatsby'?

   ✅ Answer: Nick Carraway

   💡 Nick Carraway, Gatsby's neighbour, acts as the first-person narrator of the novel.

9. Q9. In Lewis Carroll's 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland', what does the White Rabbit keep looking at?

   ✅ Answer: A pocket watch

   💡 The White Rabbit constantly checks his pocket watch, muttering that he is 'late for a very important date!'

10. Q10. Who is the loyal, practical squire and companion of Don Quixote?

    ✅ Answer: Sancho Panza

    💡 Sancho Panza accompanies Don Quixote, providing realistic, humorous commentary to Quixote's chivalric delusions.

11. Q11. What is the name of the captain who seeks revenge on the white whale in Herman Melville's 'Moby-Dick'?

    ✅ Answer: Captain Ahab

    💡 Captain Ahab is the monomaniacal commander of the whaling ship Pequod, obsessed with killing Moby Dick.

12. Q12. Who wrote the epic 14th-century poem 'The Divine Comedy'?

    ✅ Answer: Dante Alighieri

    💡 Dante Alighieri wrote the Divine Comedy, tracing his journey through Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso.

13. Q13. Who is the main protagonist of George Orwell's dystopian novel '1984'?

    ✅ Answer: Winston Smith

    💡 Winston Smith is a low-ranking member of the ruling Party in London who rebels against Big Brother's totalitarian rule.

14. Q14. In Ray Bradbury's 'Fahrenheit 451', what is the significance of the temperature in the title?

    ✅ Answer: It is the temperature at which book paper catches fire and burns

    💡 The title refers to the temperature at which book paper autoignites, symbolizing the firemen's job of burning books.

15. Q15. In J.R.R. Tolkien's 'The Lord of the Rings', who is the original creator of the One Ring?

    ✅ Answer: Sauron

    💡 Sauron forged the One Ring in the fires of Mount Doom during the Second Age to gain dominion over Middle-earth.

16. Q16. Who wrote the philosophical novel 'The Picture of Dorian Gray'?

    ✅ Answer: Oscar Wilde

    💡 Oscar Wilde wrote this story about a young man whose portrait ages and bears the scars of his sins while he remains young.

17. Q17. Who is the ex-convict protagonist of Victor Hugo's epic novel 'Les Misérables'?

    ✅ Answer: Jean Valjean

    💡 Jean Valjean is imprisoned for 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his sister's starving child, then struggles for redemption.

18. Q18. Which Russian author wrote 'Crime and Punishment', detailing the moral dilemma of Raskolnikov?

    ✅ Answer: Fyodor Dostoevsky

    💡 Fyodor Dostoevsky published Crime and Punishment in 1866, exploring the psychological consequences of murder.

19. Q19. Who is the author of the satirical catch-22 novel set during World War II?

    ✅ Answer: Joseph Heller

    💡 Joseph Heller wrote Catch-22 (1961), popularizing the phrase 'catch-22' to describe a paradoxical, no-win situation.

20. Q20. What is the geographic setting for Ernest Hemingway's novella 'The Old Man and the Sea'?

    ✅ Answer: Havana, Cuba

    💡 The novella is set in Cuba, telling the story of Santiago, an aging Cuban fisherman who battles a giant marlin.

21. Q21. Who wrote the massive, complex 1996 novel 'Infinite Jest'?

    ✅ Answer: David Foster Wallace

    💡 David Foster Wallace wrote Infinite Jest, famous for its encyclopedic scope, endnotes, and exploration of addiction.

22. Q22. In which city does James Joyce's modernist masterpiece 'Ulysses' take place?

    ✅ Answer: Dublin

    💡 Ulysses chronicles the appointments and encounters of Leopold Bloom in Dublin on a single day, 16 June 1904.

23. Q23. In Franz Kafka's novella 'The Metamorphosis', what is the name of the protagonist who wakes up transformed into a giant insect?

    ✅ Answer: Gregor Samsa

    💡 Gregor Samsa wakes up to find himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous vermin (Ungeziefer).

24. Q24. Charles Dickens' 'A Tale of Two Cities' is set in which two cities?

    ✅ Answer: London and Paris

    💡 The novel is set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution, contrasting the two cities.

25. Q25. Who wrote the ancient Greek epic poem 'The Iliad', detailing the siege of Troy?

    ✅ Answer: Homer

    💡 Homer is the legendary ancient Greek poet credited with composing the Iliad and the Odyssey around the 8th century BCE.

26. Q26. Who wrote the dark colonial novella 'Heart of Darkness', which inspired the movie 'Apocalypse Now'?

    ✅ Answer: Joseph Conrad

    💡 Joseph Conrad wrote Heart of Darkness in 1899, exploring the journey of Marlow up the Congo River.

27. Q27. Which Russian nobleman wrote the monumental historical novel 'War and Peace'?

    ✅ Answer: Leo Tolstoy

    💡 Count Leo Tolstoy published War and Peace in 1869, chronicling the French invasion of Russia and its impact on Tsarist society.

28. Q28. Who wrote the multi-volume modernist epic 'In Search of Lost Time' (also known as Remembrance of Things Past)?

    ✅ Answer: Marcel Proust

    💡 Marcel Proust wrote this monumental work, famous for its length, themes of memory, and involuntary recall triggered by a madeleine cookie.

29. Q29. What are the three distinct sections (realms) of Dante's 'Divine Comedy'?

    ✅ Answer: Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso

    💡 Dante's poem is structured into three canticas representing his journey: Inferno (Hell), Purgatorio (Purgatory), and Paradiso (Heaven).

30. Q30. Who is the author of 'The Canterbury Tales', a collection of stories told by pilgrims on their way to Canterbury Cathedral?

    ✅ Answer: Geoffrey Chaucer

    💡 Geoffrey Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales in Middle English in the late 14th century.

31. Q31. In which play does a character ask, “To be, or not to be”?

    ✅ Answer: Hamlet

    💡 Prince Hamlet speaks the soliloquy as he considers life and death.

32. Q32. In which town was William Shakespeare born in 1564?

    ✅ Answer: Stratford-upon-Avon

    💡 Shakespeare was born and buried in Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire.

33. Q33. In which Italian city is Romeo and Juliet set?

    ✅ Answer: Verona

    💡 The play’s feuding families are the Montagues and the Capulets.

34. Q34. Which play features three witches who predict a Scottish nobleman will become king?

    ✅ Answer: Macbeth

    💡 Many actors avoid saying “Macbeth” inside a theatre, calling it “the Scottish play”.

35. Q35. What was the name of the London theatre most associated with Shakespeare’s company?

    ✅ Answer: The Globe

    💡 The Globe opened in 1599; a modern reconstruction opened near the original site in 1997.

36. Q36. Which jealous general is manipulated by Iago?

    ✅ Answer: Othello

    💡 Iago convinces Othello that his wife Desdemona has been unfaithful.

37. Q37. Which play includes the line “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears”?

    ✅ Answer: Julius Caesar

    💡 Mark Antony speaks it at Caesar’s funeral.

38. Q38. How many sonnets did Shakespeare publish?

    ✅ Answer: 154

    💡 Sonnet 18 begins “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”

39. Q39. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, whose head is turned into a donkey’s?

    ✅ Answer: Bottom

    💡 Puck transforms Nick Bottom, and the fairy queen Titania falls in love with him under a spell.

40. Q40. Which play is thought to be one of Shakespeare’s last solo works, featuring the magician Prospero?

    ✅ Answer: The Tempest

    💡 Prospero’s farewell to magic is often read as Shakespeare’s farewell to the stage.

41. Q41. Which king divides his kingdom among his daughters, with tragic results?

    ✅ Answer: King Lear

    💡 Lear banishes his honest daughter Cordelia and trusts Goneril and Regan.

42. Q42. In The Merchant of Venice, what does Shylock demand as security for a loan?

    ✅ Answer: A pound of flesh

    💡 Portia, disguised as a lawyer, defeats the bond in court.

43. Q43. Which character says “A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!”?

    ✅ Answer: Richard III

    💡 Richard cries out during the Battle of Bosworth Field.

44. Q44. In which year did Shakespeare die?

    ✅ Answer: 1616

    💡 He died on 23 April 1616, the date also traditionally given as his birthday.

45. Q45. What is the 1623 collection of Shakespeare’s plays commonly called?

    ✅ Answer: The First Folio

    💡 Without the First Folio, about 18 of his plays might have been lost.

46. Q46. In Twelfth Night, which character disguises herself as a young man called Cesario?

    ✅ Answer: Viola

    💡 Viola is shipwrecked in Illyria and serves Duke Orsino in disguise.

47. Q47. Which play includes the line “All the world’s a stage”?

    ✅ Answer: As You Like It

    💡 Jaques describes the “seven ages of man” in the speech.

48. Q48. What is the name of Hamlet’s girlfriend who drowns?

    ✅ Answer: Ophelia

    💡 Ophelia is the daughter of Polonius and sister of Laertes.

49. Q49. Which famous comedy features the sparring lovers Beatrice and Benedick?

    ✅ Answer: Much Ado About Nothing

    💡 Their “merry war” of wits ends in marriage.

50. Q50. What was the name of Shakespeare’s wife?

    ✅ Answer: Anne Hathaway

    💡 They married in 1582; Mary Arden was his mother and Susanna his daughter.

51. Q51. Who wrote Pride and Prejudice?

    ✅ Answer: Jane Austen

    💡 Published in 1813, it follows Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy.

52. Q52. Which novel by George Orwell features “Big Brother”?

    ✅ Answer: Nineteen Eighty-Four

    💡 Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) also gave us “doublethink” and “thought police”.

53. Q53. Who wrote Moby-Dick, about Captain Ahab’s hunt for a white whale?

    ✅ Answer: Herman Melville

    💡 Its narrator famously begins, “Call me Ishmael.”

54. Q54. In which novel is Jay Gatsby the title character?

    ✅ Answer: The Great Gatsby

    💡 F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel is narrated by Nick Carraway.

55. Q55. Which Russian author wrote War and Peace?

    ✅ Answer: Leo Tolstoy

    💡 War and Peace follows several families during Napoleon’s invasion of Russia.

56. Q56. Which Charles Dickens novel features Ebenezer Scrooge?

    ✅ Answer: A Christmas Carol

    💡 Scrooge is visited by three spirits on Christmas Eve.

58. Q57. Who wrote Frankenstein, published in 1818?

    ✅ Answer: Mary Shelley

    💡 Mary Shelley began the story aged 18 during a ghost-story contest at Lake Geneva.

59. Q58. Which novel by Harper Lee features lawyer Atticus Finch?

    ✅ Answer: To Kill a Mockingbird

    💡 The 1960 novel is narrated by his daughter, Scout.

60. Q59. Which Spanish novel features a knight who attacks windmills thinking they are giants?

    ✅ Answer: Don Quixote

    💡 Miguel de Cervantes published the first part of Don Quixote in 1605.

61. Q60. Which Brontë sister wrote Wuthering Heights?

    ✅ Answer: Emily

    💡 Emily’s only novel was published in 1847, a year before her death.

62. Q61. Which novel begins, “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife”?

    ✅ Answer: Pride and Prejudice

    💡 It is one of the most famous opening lines in English literature.

63. Q62. Who wrote One Hundred Years of Solitude?

    ✅ Answer: Gabriel García Márquez

    💡 The novel follows the Buendía family in the fictional town of Macondo.

64. Q63. In Animal Farm, which animals take control of the farm?

    ✅ Answer: The pigs

    💡 Orwell’s fable satirises the Russian Revolution and Stalinism.

65. Q64. Which novel by Victor Hugo features Jean Valjean?

    ✅ Answer: Les Misérables

    💡 Valjean is pursued for years by the policeman Javert.

66. Q65. Who wrote Crime and Punishment?

    ✅ Answer: Fyodor Dostoevsky

    💡 The novel follows Raskolnikov, a student who commits murder.

67. Q66. Which American novel follows Huckleberry Finn and Jim down the Mississippi River?

    ✅ Answer: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

    💡 Mark Twain published it in 1884.

68. Q67. Which J. D. Salinger novel is narrated by Holden Caulfield?

    ✅ Answer: The Catcher in the Rye

    💡 It was published in 1951.

69. Q68. Which Charlotte Brontë heroine falls in love with Mr Rochester?

    ✅ Answer: Jane Eyre

    💡 Rochester hides a secret in the attic of Thornfield Hall.

70. Q69. Who wrote Things Fall Apart, one of the most widely read African novels?

    ✅ Answer: Chinua Achebe

    💡 Achebe’s 1958 novel follows Okonkwo in an Igbo village.

71. Q70. In Dracula, where does the Count live before travelling to England?

    ✅ Answer: Transylvania

    💡 Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel begins with Jonathan Harker’s journey to Castle Dracula.

72. Q71. Who wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?

    ✅ Answer: Roald Dahl

    💡 Roald Dahl published it in 1964; it features Willy Wonka and the Oompa-Loompas.

73. Q72. In which book does a girl follow a White Rabbit down a rabbit hole?

    ✅ Answer: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

    💡 Lewis Carroll published the book in 1865.

74. Q73. What is the name of the bear who lives in the Hundred Acre Wood?

    ✅ Answer: Winnie-the-Pooh

    💡 A. A. Milne based the stories on his son Christopher Robin’s toys.

75. Q74. Which boy never grows up and lives in Neverland?

    ✅ Answer: Peter Pan

    💡 J. M. Barrie gave the rights to Peter Pan to Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.

76. Q75. Who wrote The Cat in the Hat?

    ✅ Answer: Dr. Seuss

    💡 Dr. Seuss, real name Theodor Geisel, wrote it using a limited list of words for early readers.

77. Q76. In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, how do the children reach Narnia?

    ✅ Answer: Through a wardrobe

    💡 C. S. Lewis published the book in 1950.

78. Q77. Which marmalade-loving bear comes from “darkest Peru”?

    ✅ Answer: Paddington Bear

    💡 Michael Bond’s Paddington is found at Paddington Station in London.

79. Q78. Which Roald Dahl book features a girl with telekinetic powers and a cruel headmistress, Miss Trunchbull?

    ✅ Answer: Matilda

    💡 Matilda was published in 1988 and later became a hit musical.

80. Q79. In The Very Hungry Caterpillar, what does the caterpillar become?

    ✅ Answer: A beautiful butterfly

    💡 Eric Carle’s book has sold tens of millions of copies.

81. Q80. Which Beatrix Potter character is a mischievous rabbit who raids Mr McGregor’s garden?

    ✅ Answer: Peter Rabbit

    💡 The Tale of Peter Rabbit was first published commercially in 1902.

82. Q81. Who wrote the Harry Potter series?

    ✅ Answer: J. K. Rowling

    💡 The first book was published in the UK in 1997.

83. Q82. Where the Wild Things Are was written by which author?

    ✅ Answer: Maurice Sendak

    💡 Max sails to an island of Wild Things and becomes their king.

84. Q83. In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, what does the Tin Man want from the Wizard?

    ✅ Answer: A heart

    💡 The Scarecrow wants a brain and the Cowardly Lion wants courage.

85. Q84. Which Julia Donaldson character is a creature with “terrible tusks and terrible claws”?

    ✅ Answer: The Gruffalo

    💡 The Gruffalo was published in 1999 with illustrations by Axel Scheffler.

86. Q85. Which wooden puppet’s nose grows when he lies?

    ✅ Answer: Pinocchio

    💡 Carlo Collodi’s Italian story was first published as a book in 1883.

87. Q86. In Charlotte’s Web, what kind of animal is Charlotte?

    ✅ Answer: A spider

    💡 Charlotte writes words in her web to save the pig Wilbur.

88. Q87. Which series by Rick Riordan features a demigod son of Poseidon?

    ✅ Answer: Percy Jackson and the Olympians

    💡 The first book, The Lightning Thief, was published in 2005.

89. Q88. In The BFG, what does BFG stand for?

    ✅ Answer: Big Friendly Giant

    💡 The BFG catches dreams and blows them into children’s bedrooms.

90. Q89. In Roald Dahl’s The Witches, what do the witches plan to turn all the children of England into?

    ✅ Answer: Mice

    💡 The Grand High Witch’s Formula 86 Delayed Action Mouse-Maker turns the narrator into a mouse.

91. Q90. Who wrote The Secret Garden, about a girl who restores a neglected garden?

    ✅ Answer: Frances Hodgson Burnett

    💡 The novel was published in 1911.

92. Q91. How many lines are in a sonnet?

    ✅ Answer: 14

    💡 Shakespearean and Petrarchan sonnets both have 14 lines.

93. Q92. A haiku is a short poetic form from which country?

    ✅ Answer: Japan

    💡 In English, haiku are often written with three lines of five, seven and five syllables.

94. Q93. Who wrote the epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey?

    ✅ Answer: Homer

    💡 The Odyssey follows Odysseus’s ten-year journey home after the Trojan War.

95. Q94. Who wrote “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”, about daffodils?

    ✅ Answer: William Wordsworth

    💡 Wordsworth was a leading poet of the English Romantic movement.

96. Q95. Which American poet wrote “The Road Not Taken”?

    ✅ Answer: Robert Frost

    💡 The poem ends, “I took the one less traveled by, / And that has made all the difference.”

97. Q96. Which poet wrote “The Raven”, with its refrain “Nevermore”?

    ✅ Answer: Edgar Allan Poe

    💡 Poe published the poem in 1845.

98. Q97. Which Italian poet wrote the Divine Comedy, describing a journey through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise?

    ✅ Answer: Dante Alighieri

    💡 In the poem, the Roman poet Virgil guides Dante through Hell and Purgatory.

99. Q98. Which American poet wrote “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” and read a poem at Bill Clinton’s 1993 inauguration?

    ✅ Answer: Maya Angelou

    💡 “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” is her 1969 autobiography; she read “On the Pulse of Morning” at the inauguration.

100. Q99. Which 13th-century Persian poet is one of the best-selling poets in the United States today?

     ✅ Answer: Rumi

     💡 Rumi’s mystical poems have been translated into dozens of languages.

101. Q100. Which reclusive American poet wrote nearly 1,800 poems, most published after her death?

     ✅ Answer: Emily Dickinson

     💡 Dickinson lived most of her life in Amherst, Massachusetts.

102. Q101. What is the term for the repetition of the same consonant sound at the start of nearby words?

     ✅ Answer: Alliteration

     💡 “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers” is a classic example.

103. Q102. Which Scottish poet wrote “Auld Lang Syne”?

     ✅ Answer: Robert Burns

     💡 It is sung around the world at New Year.

104. Q103. Which poet wrote “Do not go gentle into that good night”?

     ✅ Answer: Dylan Thomas

     💡 The Welsh poet wrote it for his dying father.

105. Q104. Which American poet wrote Leaves of Grass?

     ✅ Answer: Walt Whitman

     💡 Whitman kept revising and expanding the collection for decades after 1855.

106. Q105. What is a comparison using “like” or “as” called?

     ✅ Answer: A simile

     💡 “As brave as a lion” is a simile; “he is a lion” is a metaphor.

107. Q106. Which Indian poet became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, in 1913?

     ✅ Answer: Rabindranath Tagore

     💡 Tagore also wrote the national anthems of India and Bangladesh.

108. Q107. Which Old English epic poem features the hero who fights the monster Grendel?

     ✅ Answer: Beowulf

     💡 Beowulf survives in a single manuscript from around AD 1000.

109. Q108. Who wrote the epic poem Paradise Lost?

     ✅ Answer: John Milton

     💡 Milton dictated it after going blind; it was published in 1667.

110. Q109. Which Chilean poet won the Nobel Prize in 1971 and wrote Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair?

     ✅ Answer: Pablo Neruda

     💡 Neruda’s collection, published when he was 19, is one of the best-selling poetry books in Spanish.

111. Q110. Which poet wrote “Ozymandias”, about a ruined statue in the desert?

     ✅ Answer: Percy Bysshe Shelley

     💡 “Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!” is carved on the statue’s pedestal in the poem.

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