English Lit 101 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ralph Nickleby

Ralph is Nicholas' uncle and a Scrooge-like character who is obsessed with money. He resents his nephew's idealism and vows to bring the younger man down, but eventually his plots only harm himself. Hawk is more an antagonist of Nicholas' sister and foists his unwanted attentions on her. Nicholas, however, rebuffs Hawk who then vows revenge, but never follows through. Newman is Nicholas' best friend. Gride is another miserly character who tries to manipulate Madeline's inheritance by proposing marriage just to get at her wealth.

Answer: Billy

Billy the page is mentioned in three of Conan Doyle's detective stories - "The Valley of Fear", "The Problem of Thor Bridge" and "The Mazarin Stone". The last has his most significant role as he actually participates in helping Holmes bring the villains, Sylvius and Merton, to justice. He was portrayed in the 1939 movie "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" by Terry Kilburn.

Answer: Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Coleridge viewed his poetry as "the mediatress between, and reconciler of, nature and man" while Wordsworth saw his as "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings which takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility." Both Wordsworth and Coleridge collaborated on the book "Lyrical Ballads" which was published in 1798.

Answer: Chanticleer

Chanticleer is an egotistical rooster who is captured by a fox and makes use the fox's vanity to escape. Nicholas is the protagonist in the Miller's tale, Theseus is in The Knight's tale and Jankyn appears in the Wife of Bath's story.

Answer: Robert Burns

Burns wrote this in his 1784 poem "O Leave Novels". It is good advice and warns against fast-talking con artists. Remember that when going shopping for a new car.

Answer: Jane Eyre

Published in 1847 by Charlotte Brontė, its soap opera style plot remains popular. It has been dramatized in dozens of movie, radio and TV adaptations, and even made into several musicals. In the end Jane agrees to marry the widowed Edward Rochester.

Answer: Rudyard Kipling

Kipling won the seventh Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907 "in consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas and remarkable talent for narration which characterize the creations of this world-famous author". It was another 18 years until another writer from the British Isles won this award - George Bernard Shaw in 1925.

Answer: 32

Banned in the UK because of its explicit descriptions of physical intimacy and what was considered at that time to be unprintable language, it was first published in 1928 in Florence, Italy. However, societal norms changed and the ban was lifted in 1960.

Answer: Snickersnack and Snickersnee

Dodgson was also an inventor, clergyman, mathematician and an avid photographer, despite suffering a knee injury and deafness. There are world-wide literary societies dedicated to the study of his satirical works. It is said that he wrote all of his works while standing.

Answer: 19

During a vacation to Lake Geneva, Switzerland in 1816, Mary to start writing "Frankenstein" which started out to be a short-story, but at the urging of her intimate companion, Percy Shelley, it expanded into a novel. She later described that summer as "when I first stepped out from childhood into life".