My Literary Quiz

Do you know your Austen from your Bronte? Have you devoured the Booker Prize winners? Do your shelves groan with great reads? If you think you’re a book worm, then test your literary knowledge here…

1. Which Thomas Hardy novel is about a man who sold his wife and daughter?

2. The book series, Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin was set in which city?

3. Which recent best-seller was based on the horrific Josef Fritzl case?

4. What was the name of the book adaption movie starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo Di Caprio as a married couple living in the American suburbs in the 1950s?

5. Which 80s teen series featured the twins Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield?

6. What was the name of Salman Rushdie’s book that caused huge outrage and led to a fatwa calling for his death?

7. Whose first two novels are Hideous Kinky and Peerless Flats?

8. Name all five of the Famous Five

9. What was Alice Sebold’s best-selling debut?

10. What was the only book for children by Ian Fleming – James Bond author

11. Throughout the novel, Dickens character Miss Havisham famously wears which outfit?

12. What was the name of Homer’s epic work set in the time before the Trojan War?

13. Which 80s bonkbuster book catapulted Jilly Cooper to fame?

14. Milo Mindbender is a character in which iconic book?

15. Name the world’s most translated, studied and widely read non-fiction diary.

16. The Bennet family appear in which Jane Austen novel?

17. Can you name the writer of The Color Purple?

18. About which otter did Henry Williamson write a 1927 novel?

19. Which classic novel featured the dark and brooding Heathcliff?

20. Who wrote the Twilight series of novels?

21. “I will not drink more than 14 alcohol units a week” – which book character famously said this?

22. The poet Ted Hughes was married to which famous author?

23. Which book is this the opening line from:

“As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect”

24. What was the title of the first Harry Potter book?

25. Which literary characters set out on a journey from the Tabard Inn in Southwark?

26. Which Austen character famously told Miss Bates to shut up?

27. Can you name the 3 leading literary titans of the American Beat Generation? – 1960s writers

28. Can you name the two lead charactors in David Nicholls’ hit book One Day?

29. Who wrote Frankenstein?

30. “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again” can you match this quote to the classic book?

Scoring: the highest points you can get are 41 e.g in question 4 you’d get 2 points for naming the book and author. You can adapt as you please to your audience of quizzers!

I’ll post the answers below…. No peeking!

No peeking or cheating please…. You’ve been warned!

Answers

1. The Mayor of Casterbridge

2. San Francisco

3. Room by Emma Donoghue

4. Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates

5. Sweet Valley High by Francine Pascal

6. The Satanic Verses

7. Esther Freud

8. Julian, Dick, George/Georgina, Anne and Timmy the dog

9. The Lovely Bones

10. Chitty, Chitty, Bang Bang

11. Wedding dress

12. The Odyssey

13. Riders

14. Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

15. The Diary of Ann Frank

16. Pride & Prejudice

17. Alice Walker

18. Tarka

19. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

20. Stephenie Meyer

21. Bridget Jones

22. Sylvia Plath

23. Franz Kafka, Metamorphosis and Other Stories

24. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

25. Chaucer’s the Canterbury Tales

26. Emma

27. Jack Kerouac. William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg

28. Emma and Dexter

29. Mary Shelley

30. Rebecca by Daphne de Maurier

I wrote this quiz as part of my very fun, cheese, wine and cake fuelled World Book Night celebrations.