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Yup, English and Irish Lit Trivia Quiz

Here are some questions on English and Irish writers, their works, etc., all trivialized for your safety and enjoyment. Enjoy!

A multiple-choice quiz by Lofgeornost. Estimated time: 6 mins.

Author
Lofgeornost

Time
6 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
57,900

Updated
Jul 23 22

# Qns
15

Difficulty
Tough

Avg Score
9 / 15

Plays
1884

Awards
Top 20% Quiz

One at a Time - Single Page - Timed Game

Question 1 of 15

1. In 1897 this writer was released from prison; he moved to France, wrote a ballad about his prison experience, and changed his name to Sebastian Melmoth. By what name is he better known? Hint

Charles Dickens

Oscar Wilde

John Ruskin

Anthony Trollope

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Question 2 of 15

2. This novel begins and ends at the Pensione Bertolini, where Lucy Honeychurch and George Emerson first meet and finally honeymoon, but only after various tea parties, tennis, and a broken engagement back in England. What is the novel's title? Hint

Between the Acts

The Moonstone

Far From the Madding Crowd

A Room With a View

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Question 3 of 15

3. 'The Upstart Crow' is the title of a book focused on the works of which writer? Hint

William Shakespeare

Charlotte Bronte

Lord Byron

George Eliot

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Question 4 of 15

4. Ray Bradbury entitled one of his short story collections 'The Golden Apples of the Sun'. From which poet did Bradbury borrow the line? Hint

D.G. Rossetti

G.M. Hopkins

W.B. Yeats

P.B. Shelley

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Question 5 of 15

5. 'The Spanish Tragedy' was published anonymously in 1592, but it has since been attributed to which playwright? Hint

Christopher Marlowe

Thomas Kyd

Ben Jonson

Robert Greene

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Question 6 of 15

6. Dylan Thomas's 'Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night' is which type of poem? Hint

vilanelle

pastoral

sonnet

hymn

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Question 7 of 15

7. In a beautiful and affecting poem, who did Ben Jonson bid 'Rest in soft peace...'? Hint

Marlowe

his wife

his son

Shakespeare

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Question 8 of 15

8. Bill Sikes, Little Nell, Sairey Gamp, and Uriah Heep were all created by which novelist?

Answer: (First and last name required)

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Question 9 of 15

9. Who wrote the sonnet which begins 'How do I love thee? Let me count the ways'? Hint

Christina Rossetti

William Shakespeare

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Robert Burns

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Question 10 of 15

10. Though best known as a novelist, this writer published a play, entitled 'Exiles', in 1918. First staged in Munich, the play flopped, and finally appeared on the London stage in 1926 after years of delay. Who was the writer? Hint

James Joyce

D.H. Lawrence

Thomas Hardy

George Orwell

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Question 11 of 15

11. He was both a painter and a poet, and one of the original founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Among his verse was a sonnet sequence he called 'The House of Life'. Who was he? Hint

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Siegfried Sassoon

W.H. Auden

William Morris

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Question 12 of 15

12. 'The Comedians', 'The Power and the Glory', and 'The Heart of the Matter' - who wrote these three novels? Hint

David Lodge

Nadine Gordimer

Graham Greene

George Orwell

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Question 13 of 15

13. It is believed that Malory wrote 'Le Morte D'Arthur' under which circumstances? Hint

as a courtier to Richard III

while in a monastery

while in prison

while living as a bandit

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Question 14 of 15

14. 'In the room the women come and go, Talking of Michelangelo' comes from which Eliot poem? Hint

The Hippopotamus

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Hysteria

Morning at the Window

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Question 15 of 15

15. In Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales', the pilgrims are travelling to whose shrine? Hint

Thomas a'Becket's

Bede's

Boethius's

Thomas More's

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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. In 1897 this writer was released from prison; he moved to France, wrote a ballad about his prison experience, and changed his name to Sebastian Melmoth. By what name is he better known?

Answer: Oscar Wilde

Wilde adopted his alias from 'Melmoth The Wanderer', a novel written by a fellow Irish writer, Charles Maturin.

Answer: A Room With a View

One of E.M. Forster's novels that gave Merchant and Ivory a reason for being.

3. 'The Upstart Crow' is the title of a book focused on the works of which writer?

Answer: William Shakespeare

The title comes from University wit Robert Greene's condemnation of Shakespeare as 'an upstart crow' trying to break out of his station as an actor and become a playwright.

4. Ray Bradbury entitled one of his short story collections 'The Golden Apples of the Sun'. From which poet did Bradbury borrow the line?

Answer: W.B. Yeats

Yeats's poem 'The Song of Wandering Aengus' tells of a man who has been enchanted by a 'glimmering' faery girl, and wanders in pursuit of her, until the day they can reunite and pluck 'The golden apples of the sun.'

5. 'The Spanish Tragedy' was published anonymously in 1592, but it has since been attributed to which playwright?

Answer: Thomas Kyd

The only work published under Kyd's name was the play 'Cornelia' in 1594; it is also believed that he wrote a play on the subject of Hamlet before Shakespeare, but there is no extant copy.

6. Dylan Thomas's 'Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night' is which type of poem?

Answer: vilanelle

The vilanelle is, like the sonnet, a rigid verse. It has nineteen lines (five 3 line stanzas, and a concluding 4 line stanza), with the first and third lines being refrains. Stephen Dedalus, in 'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man', works assiduously on a vilanelle dedicated to a girl he adores.

7. In a beautiful and affecting poem, who did Ben Jonson bid 'Rest in soft peace...'?

Answer: his son

The poem is 'On My First Son'. Jonson's son had died of the plague in 1603.

8. Bill Sikes, Little Nell, Sairey Gamp, and Uriah Heep were all created by which novelist?

Answer: Charles Dickens

The man was nearly pluperfect when it came to naming characters.

9. Who wrote the sonnet which begins 'How do I love thee? Let me count the ways'?

Answer: Elizabeth Barrett Browning

While an invalid being courted by Robert Browning, Elizabeth wrote the sequence of sonnets she would later publish at her husband's urging. Because the poems were so personal, she chose to release them as 'translations' from Portuguese.

Answer: James Joyce

'Exiles' actually wasn't Joyce's first venture into drama. At the age of eighteen, high on Ibsen's work, Joyce wrote a play called 'A Brilliant Career' (dedicated to himself), but it only exists today in small fragments.

11. He was both a painter and a poet, and one of the original founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Among his verse was a sonnet sequence he called 'The House of Life'. Who was he?

Answer: Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Rossetti married one of his models, Lizzie Siddal, and when she died he buried a manuscript of poems with her. Years later he had the body disinterred to retrieve the poems, and published them. Requiescat in pace.

12. 'The Comedians', 'The Power and the Glory', and 'The Heart of the Matter' - who wrote these three novels?

Answer: Graham Greene

Greene also wrote the screenplay for 'The Third Man'. I once read that while a student at Oxford he played Russian roulette a half dozen times. It's probably a good thing he didn't shoot for lucky seven.

13. It is believed that Malory wrote 'Le Morte D'Arthur' under which circumstances?

Answer: while in prison

Malory was imprisoned for various crimes, including murder and plundering a priory. It also didn't help to be a Lancastrian while Yorkists were in power. He is believed to have died in prison.

14. 'In the room the women come and go, Talking of Michelangelo' comes from which Eliot poem?

Answer: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Thomas Stearns Eliot was born in St. Louis and attended Harvard, but he settled in England in 1915 and became an English citizen in 1926.

15. In Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales', the pilgrims are travelling to whose shrine?

Answer: Thomas a'Becket's

Chaucer's plan was to have the pilgrims each tell four tales, two on the journey to the shrine, and two on the return trip. That pretty much would've quapdrupled the semesters it takes to study Chaucer.

Source: Author Lofgeornost

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