The Classics of English Literature 3 Quiz

Answer: Archimago

Edmund Spenser (1552-1599) was one of the first scholars to attend the Merchant Taylors School in London. He became a graduate of Cambridge University (Pembroke College) but had been a published poet since school. He secured the patronage of Sir Philip Sidney, a leading political, literary and social icon of his day.
Spenser created a particular verse form subsequently called the 'Spensarian Stanza' within which format he wrote the 'Faerie Queene'. Some academics and critics think his creation was derived from the verse form used by Chaucer in the 'Monk's Tale'.

Answer: Nicholas Nickleby

It must be impossible to do justice to a quiz on classic English Literature without reference to the great novelist Charles Dickens (1812-1870). Much of Dickens' own life is reflected in his novels. He had a hard childhood and worked as a child labourer in a blacking factory.

His father had more optimism than business sense and was eventually imprisoned in Marshalsea prison. Any detailed look at his novels and his own biography provide revealing glimpses of art and reality.

Answer: T. B. Macaulay

Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859) was an accomplished and voluminous author of essays, literary criticisms, histories and political works. He gained an impressive reputation as a classical scholar and debater.

Answer: Desperate Remedies

Thomas Hardy's first novel published in 1871 was called 'Desperate Remedies'.
Thomas Hardy wrote all of the novels featured. He was born in 1840 and died in 1928 having become feted during his lifetime as a most accomplished author and poet.

Answer: Novels of Ingenuity

Thomas Hardy was awarded the rare honour of Order of Merit by the British Crown. He was a direct descendant of Nelson's Flag ship Captain who attended to him as he died at Trafalgar.

Answer: Lysistrata

Aristophanes (c. 450 BC - c. 385 BC) was known as the great Athenian comedic playwright of his day.

Answer: She Stoops To Conquer

Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774) was a poet, dramatist and literary essayist. He contracted smallpox at an early age which left him badly disfigured. He failed his interview for entry into the Church (which he didn't want to do) by turning up dressed in scarlet trousers.

He had a series of scrapes as a young man which left him penniless more than once. He eventually qualified for medicine. Settling in London he became friends with Johnson and a member of the famous Literary Club.

Answer: Richard Burton

Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821-1890) was a famous explorer and scholar. He was said to have mastered over thirty languages and was the first free Westerner to enter (in disguise) Mecca.

Answer: Apuleis

Apuleis (C. 123 AD - C. 170 AD) was a Roman citizen born in North Africa. His best known work 'The Golden Ass' is also known as 'Metamorphoses'. His ideas demonstrated in this work became widely used during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries (Boccaccio for example) as the inspiration for new works of art, poems and dramas.

Answer: Christopher Fry

Christopher Fry, born in 1907, was an English dramatist who produced plays in verse form. His first major success was 'The Lady's Not for Burning' which was a comedy set in the Middle Ages.
Among his many other works are 'Venus Observed' (1950) and 'The Dark Is Light Enough' (1954).