Are you a book lover, a literary fan, or someone who just enjoys a good challenge? Dive into this collection of 200 literature quiz questions that span genres, authors, famous works, and literary devices. These questions are perfect for trivia nights, classroom activities, or testing your knowledge. Ready to start? Let’s begin!
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Classic literature quiz questions
- Who wrote the Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex?
Answer: Sophocles - In which century was Don Quixote published?
Answer: 17th century - What is the first name of Dr. Jekyll in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?
Answer: Henry - Which Charles Dickens novel begins with the line: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”?
Answer: A Tale of Two Cities - Who is the narrator of Moby-Dick?
Answer: Ishmael - Which novel features the character Heathcliff?
Answer: Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë - Who is the name of the epic poem written by John Milton?
Answer: Paradise Lost - What is the subtitle of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein?
Answer: The Modern Prometheus - Who wrote the play A Streetcar Named Desire?
Answer: Tennessee Williams - In what language was Don Quixote originally written?
Answer: Spanish - In Jane Eyre, who is the mysterious employer of Jane?
Answer: Mr. Rochester - What is the full title of Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn?
Answer: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Who wrote the Divine Comedy?
Answer: Dante Alighieri - In which novel does Elizabeth Bennet appear?
Answer: Pride and Prejudice - What is the title of the second novel in The Lord of the Rings trilogy?
Answer: The Two Towers - Who is the author of The Scarlet Letter?
Answer: Nathaniel Hawthorne - Who is the author of the 18th-century satirical work Candide?
Answer: Voltaire - What is the setting for Wuthering Heights?
Answer: The Yorkshire moors - Which Russian novel begins with the line, “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way”?
Answer: Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy - In Dante’s Divine Comedy, what is the name of the guide who leads Dante through Hell?
Answer: Virgil - What is the name of the ship in Treasure Island?
Answer: The Hispaniola - What is the central conflict in The Iliad?
Answer: The Trojan War - What animal is central to Orwell’s allegorical novella Animal Farm?
Answer: Pigs - Which novel tells the story of Jean Valjean?
Answer: Les Misérables - What is the real name of the author known as Mark Twain?
Answer: Samuel Langhorne Clemens - Who is the author of The Odyssey?
Answer: Homer - In The Scarlet Letter, what does the letter “A” on Hester Prynne’s dress symbolize?
Answer: Adultery - Who is the tragic hero in Oedipus Rex?
Answer: Oedipus - What is the genre of Bram Stoker’s Dracula?
Answer: Gothic fiction - Which novel by Charles Dickens features the character Ebenezer Scrooge?
Answer: A Christmas Carol - Which book begins with “Call me Ishmael”?
Answer: Moby-Dick - Who wrote Anna Karenina?
Answer: Leo Tolstoy - What is the primary setting of Great Expectations?
Answer: England - Who is the name of the author of Madame Bovary?
Answer: Gustave Flaubert - Who wrote The Canterbury Tales?
Answer: Geoffrey Chaucer - In which play does the line “To be, or not to be” appear?
Answer: Hamlet - Who is the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin?
Answer: Harriet Beecher Stowe - What is the name of the monster in Beowulf?
Answer: Grendel - Who wrote The Last of the Mohicans, a novel set during the French and Indian War?
Answer: James Fenimore Cooper - What is the theme of A Tale of Two Cities?
Answer: Sacrifice and resurrection - Who is the name of the author of Gulliver’s Travels?
Answer: Jonathan Swift - Which novel is set during the Napoleonic Wars?
Answer: War and Peace - Who wrote The Count of Monte Cristo?
Answer: Alexandre Dumas - Which Shakespearean play features the character Shylock?
Answer: The Merchant of Venice - What is the setting of The Grapes of Wrath?
Answer: Dust Bowl-era America - Which American poet wrote Leaves of Grass?
Answer: Walt Whitman - Who wrote Heart of Darkness?
Answer: Joseph Conrad - What is the central theme of The Old Man and the Sea?
Answer: Struggle and perseverance - Who is the protagonist in Dracula?
Answer: Jonathan Harker - What is the main conflict in Romeo and Juliet?
Answer: Feuding families
Create a classic literature quiz preloaded with these 50 questions.
Modern and contemporary literature quiz questions
- Who wrote The Great Gatsby?
Answer: F. Scott Fitzgerald - Name the dystopian novel written by George Orwell.
Answer: 1984 - Who is the protagonist in The Catcher in the Rye?
Answer: Holden Caulfield - What is the central theme of Of Mice and Men?
Answer: The American Dream and friendship - Which book begins with “When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow”?
Answer: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - Who wrote The Road?
Answer: Cormac McCarthy - In To Kill a Mockingbird, who is Atticus Finch?
Answer: A lawyer and the father of Scout and Jem - Name the author of Beloved.
Answer: Toni Morrison - Which dystopian novel features the character Winston Smith?
Answer: 1984 - Who wrote The Kite Runner?
Answer: Khaled Hosseini - What is the name of the dystopian society in The Handmaid’s Tale?
Answer: Gilead - Who is the protagonist in Life of Pi?
Answer: Piscine Molitor Patel (Pi) - Which book by Margaret Atwood won the Booker Prize in 2000?
Answer: The Blind Assassin - Who wrote Slaughterhouse-Five?
Answer: Kurt Vonnegut - What is the setting of The Hunger Games?
Answer: Panem - Name the author of A Thousand Splendid Suns.
Answer: Khaled Hosseini - Which American writer wrote Infinite Jest?
Answer: David Foster Wallace - Who is the author of Norwegian Wood?
Answer: Haruki Murakami - Which novel features the city of Macondo?
Answer: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez - In which U.S. state does most of the Twilight series take place?
Answer: Washington - Name the author of Shantaram.
Answer: Gregory David Roberts - Which book features the phrase “So it goes”?
Answer: Slaughterhouse-Five - Who wrote The Goldfinch?
Answer: Donna Tartt - What is the central theme of Atonement?
Answer: Guilt and redemption - Name the author of The Secret History.
Answer: Donna Tartt - Who wrote The Lovely Bones?
Answer: Alice Sebold - In which book does Lisbeth Salander appear?
Answer: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson - Who is the author of The Underground Railroad?
Answer: Colson Whitehead - What is the primary setting of Big Little Lies?
Answer: Monterey, California - Who wrote Intermezzo?
Answer: Sally Rooney - Which book brought Sally Rooney widespread acclaim?
Answer: Normal People - Name the author of Cloud Atlas.
Answer: David Mitchell - What is the theme of An American Marriage by Tayari Jones?
Answer: Love and systemic injustice - Who wrote The Light We Carry?
Answer: Michelle Obama - What are the names of Harry Potter’s two best friends?
Answer: Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley - What is the name of the father figure in The Road?
Answer: His name is not mentioned (he is referred to as “the man”). - Who wrote The Night Circus?
Answer: Erin Morgenstern - Which novel explores the theme of cloning and immortality in Never Let Me Go?
Answer: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro - Name the author of Room.
Answer: Emma Donoghue - Who is the author of A Man Called Ove?
Answer: Fredrik Backman - In which book does the city of Gilead appear?
Answer: The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood - Name the author of Everything I Never Told You.
Answer: Celeste Ng - Who wrote Homegoing?
Answer: Yaa Gyasi - Name the Booker Prize-winning novel by Arundhati Roy.
Answer: The God of Small Things - What is the theme of Pachinko?
Answer: Family, identity, and resilience - Who is the author of The Midnight Library?
Answer: Matt Haig - What is the main character’s name in Where the Crawdads Sing?
Answer: Kya Clark - Name the author of The Dutch House.
Answer: Ann Patchett - Who wrote Lessons in Chemistry?
Answer: Bonnie Garmus - Which book by Anthony Doerr won a Pulitzer Prize?
Answer: All the Light We Cannot See
Create a modern and contemporary literature quiz preloaded with these 50 questions.
Literary awards quiz questions
- What is the name of the literary award given annually by the Swedish Academy?
Answer: The Nobel Prize in Literature - Which prestigious award is given for fiction, drama, and poetry in the United States?
Answer: The Pulitzer Prize - Who was the first recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1901?
Answer: Sully Prudhomme - Which British literary award is given annually for the best original novel written in English and published in the UK?
Answer: The Booker Prize (formerly the Man Booker Prize) - Who won the Booker Prize in 2022 for the novel The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida?
Answer: Shehan Karunatilaka - What is the name of the American award for science fiction and fantasy works?
Answer: The Hugo Award - Which poet won the Pulitzer Prize in 2020 for their collection The Tradition?
Answer: Jericho Brown - Which award is given to the best original French-language novel of the year?
Answer: Prix Goncourt - Who was the first African-American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature?
Answer: Toni Morrison - Which novel won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2023?
Answer: Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver and Trust by Hernan Diaz (joint winners) - What is the name of the award given by the British Crime Writers’ Association?
Answer: The Gold Dagger Award - Which author won the Booker Prize twice, for Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies?
Answer: Hilary Mantel - What is the name of the literary award given for children’s books in the United States?
Answer: The Newbery Medal - Who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2021?
Answer: Abdulrazak Gurnah - Which award is presented annually by PEN America for literary excellence?
Answer: The PEN/Faulkner Award - Which author won the 2020 Booker Prize for the novel Shuggie Bain?
Answer: Douglas Stuart - What is the name of the literary prize awarded to works written in Spanish?
Answer: The Miguel de Cervantes Prize - Which award is given annually for the best debut novel written by a British, Irish, or Commonwealth author?
Answer: The Dylan Thomas Prize - Who won the Hugo Award in 2019 for The Calculating Stars?
Answer: Mary Robinette Kowal - Which American literary prize is awarded for achievements in literature for young adults?
Answer: The Printz Award - Who was the first woman to win the Booker Prize in 1970?
Answer: Bernice Rubens for The Elected Member - Which Japanese author has been nominated multiple times but has not won the Nobel Prize in Literature?
Answer: Haruki Murakami - What is the name of the literary award for excellence in Canadian literature?
Answer: The Governor General’s Literary Awards - Which writer won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016 for contributions to music and songwriting?
Answer: Bob Dylan - Who won the International Booker Prize in 2023 for the novel Time Shelter?
Answer: Georgi Gospodinov
Create a literary awards quiz preloaded with these 25 questions.
Famous authors’ quiz questions
- Who is the author of The Midnight Library, a contemporary bestseller about life choices?
Answer: Matt Haig - Which author wrote the A Court of Thorns and Roses series, a popular fantasy series?
Answer: Sarah J. Maas - Who is the author of the novel It Ends With Us, a top-selling romance book?
Answer: Colleen Hoover - Which bestselling thriller author wrote The Silent Patient?
Answer: Alex Michaelides - Which famous author wrote Les Misérables?
Answer: Victor Hugo - Which Japanese author is known for Norwegian Wood and Kafka on the Shore?
Answer: Haruki Murakami - Who is the author of the Bridgerton series, which inspired the hit Netflix show?
Answer: Julia Quinn - Who is the author of The Chronicles of Narnia?
Answer: C.S. Lewis - Who wrote Lessons in Chemistry, a recent bestseller about a woman scientist?
Answer: Bonnie Garmus - Which author created the fictional world of Middle-earth in The Lord of the Rings?
Answer: J.R.R. Tolkien - Who is the author of the Shadow and Bone trilogy and Six of Crows duology?
Answer: Leigh Bardugo - Which author wrote Daisy Jones & The Six, recently adapted into a TV series?
Answer: Taylor Jenkins Reid - Who is the author of Malibu Rising and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo?
Answer: Taylor Jenkins Reid - Which thriller author wrote the Jack Reacher series?
Answer: Lee Child - Who wrote Shatter Me, a bestselling YA dystopian series?
Answer: Tahereh Mafi - Which American author wrote The Great Gatsby?
Answer: F. Scott Fitzgerald - Who wrote The Picture of Dorian Gray?
Answer: Oscar Wilde - Which author wrote Verity, a dark thriller novel?
Answer: Colleen Hoover - Who is the author of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, a critically acclaimed novel about gaming and creativity?
Answer: Gabrielle Zevin - Which South Korean author wrote The Vegetarian, a Booker Prize-winning novel?
Answer: Han Kang - Which author wrote the Song of Achilles, another Greek mythology-based bestseller?
Answer: Madeline Miller - Who is the author of The Paris Library, a novel about World War II librarians?
Answer: Janet Skeslien Charles - Who wrote Crime and Punishment?
Answer: Fyodor Dostoevsky - Who wrote A Man Called Ove, a heartwarming novel about a grumpy old man?
Answer: Fredrik Backman - Which American author is known for the novels The Color Purple and Possessing the Secret of Joy?
Answer: Alice Walker
Create a famous authors' quiz preloaded with these 25 questions.
Children’s literature quiz questions
- Who wrote Charlotte’s Web, the story of a pig named Wilbur and a spider named Charlotte?
Answer: E.B. White - What type of animal is Aslan in The Chronicles of Narnia?
Answer: A lion - Who is the author of Matilda and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?
Answer: Roald Dahl - What is the name of the hobbit who goes on an adventure in The Hobbit?
Answer: Bilbo Baggins - Who wrote Anne of Green Gables, the story of a spirited orphan girl?
Answer: L.M. Montgomery - What is the title of the first book in the Harry Potter series?
Answer: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (or Philosopher’s Stone outside the U.S.) - In Peter Pan, what is the name of the Darling family’s dog?
Answer: Nana - Who wrote the Percy Jackson & The Olympians series?
Answer: Rick Riordan - In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, what color is the Queen of Hearts associated with?
Answer: Red - What are the names of the four Pevensie siblings in The Chronicles of Narnia?
Answer: Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy
Create a children’s literature quiz preloaded with these 10 questions.
English literature quiz questions
- Who is the author of Pride and Prejudice?
Answer: Jane Austen - Which Shakespearean play features the characters Rosencrantz and Guildenstern?
Answer: Hamlet - What is the name of the monster in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein?
Answer: The creature (often mistakenly called Frankenstein) - Who wrote the epic poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner?
Answer: Samuel Taylor Coleridge - What is the name of the heroine in Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd?
Answer: Bathsheba Everdene - In which English novel does the character Pip appear?
Answer: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens - Which Romantic poet wrote the poem I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud?
Answer: William Wordsworth - Who wrote the Gothic novel Wuthering Heights?
Answer: Emily Brontë - Which novel by George Orwell explores themes of totalitarianism and surveillance?
Answer: 1984 - Who wrote the satirical play The Importance of Being Earnest?
Answer: Oscar Wilde - What is the setting for William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies?
Answer: A deserted island - Which Elizabethan poet and dramatist wrote Doctor Faustus?
Answer: Christopher Marlowe - What is the title of the sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland?
Answer: Through the Looking-Glass - Who wrote the dystopian novel Brave New World?
Answer: Aldous Huxley - Which famous English poet is buried in Westminster Abbey’s Poet’s Corner and wrote Paradise Lost?
Answer: John Milton - In which Shakespearean tragedy does the character Iago appear?
Answer: Othello - Who wrote the detective novel The Hound of the Baskervilles?
Answer: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - What is the name of the family estate in Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility?
Answer: Norland Park - Who wrote the play Waiting for Godot, often classified as part of the Theatre of the Absurd?
Answer: Samuel Beckett - What is the subtitle of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde?
Answer: A Shilling Shock
Create a English literature quiz preloaded with these 20 questions.
Russian literature quiz questions
- Who wrote War and Peace?
Answer: Leo Tolstoy - What is the name of the protagonist in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment?
Answer: Rodion Raskolnikov - Which Russian author wrote The Master and Margarita?
Answer: Mikhail Bulgakov - In Anna Karenina, what is the name of Anna’s lover?
Answer: Count Alexei Vronsky - What is the title of Nikolai Gogol’s famous short story about a stolen piece of clothing?
Answer: The Overcoat - Who is the author of the play The Cherry Orchard?
Answer: Anton Chekhov - What is the central theme of Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov?
Answer: Faith, morality, and free will - Which 19th-century poet wrote Eugene Onegin, often called the “novel in verse”?
Answer: Alexander Pushkin - Who wrote Dead Souls, a satirical novel about Russian bureaucracy?
Answer: Nikolai Gogol - Which Russian author is known for his science fiction works such as We?
Answer: Yevgeny Zamyatin - Who is the author of the novella A Hero of Our Time?
Answer: Mikhail Lermontov - What is the title of Leo Tolstoy’s novella that explores existential themes of death?
Answer: The Death of Ivan Ilyich - Which character in Crime and Punishment represents Raskolnikov’s moral conscience?
Answer: Sonia (Sofya Semyonovna Marmeladov) - What is the title of the dystopian novel written by Andrei Platonov?
Answer: The Foundation Pit - Who wrote the novel Doctor Zhivago, which won the Nobel Prize in Literature?
Answer: Boris Pasternak - What is the setting of Chekhov’s play Three Sisters?
Answer: A provincial Russian town - Which Russian author wrote the poem The Bronze Horseman?
Answer: Alexander Pushkin - In The Master and Margarita, who is the devilish character that visits Moscow?
Answer: Woland - What is the name of the character in Gogol’s The Nose, whose nose takes on a life of its own?
Answer: Major Kovalyov - Which Russian author wrote One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, a novel about life in a Soviet labor camp?
Answer: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Create a Russian literature quiz preloaded with these 20 questions.
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