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Title Characters No 2 Trivia Quiz

Can you identify the characters who are described in the titles of ten literary works (e.g. Sarah Woodruff, in John Fowles' novel, is "The French Lieutenant's Woman")?

A multiple-choice quiz by TabbyTom. Estimated time: 5 mins.

Author
TabbyTom

Time
5 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
185,991

Updated
Dec 03 21

# Qns
10

Difficulty
Tough

Avg Score
5 / 10

Plays
1238

One at a Time - Single Page - Timed Game

Question 1 of 10

1. In Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew," what is the name of the shrewish heroine? Hint

Bianca

Olivia

Portia

Katharina, or Kate

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Question 2 of 10

2. Which of Moli�re's comedies takes its name from a character called Harpagon? Hint

Le Misanthrope (The Misanthropist)

L'Avare (The Miser)

Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (The Would-be Nobleman)

L'�tourdi (The Scatterbrain)

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Question 3 of 10

3. In a novel by Sir Walter Scott, who is Lucy Ashton? Hint

The Lady of the Lake

The Bride of Lammermoor

The Fair Maid of Perth

Lord Ullin's Daughter

4. Dickens usually prefers to name his novels simply after the hero (e.g. Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Nicholas Nickleby) rather than using a description. But there is at least one exception; who is "Our Mutual Friend"? Hint

Silas Wegg

Eugene Wrayburn

Mr Boffin

John Harmon junior, a.k.a. Rokesmith

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Question 5 of 10

5. In a novel by Thomas Hardy, who is Michael Henchard? Hint

A Laodicean

The Trumpet-Major

The Mayor of Casterbridge

A Changed Man

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Question 6 of 10

6. A classic comic novel is Jerome K. Jerome's "Three Men in a Boat, to Say Nothing of the Dog." The narrator is referred to throughout the book as "J". What are the names of his two companions and the dog? Hint

Gilbert, Harry and Caesar

Gerald, Herbert and Rover

George, Harris and Montmorency

A, B and Z

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Question 7 of 10

7. Edgar Wallace was a thriller writer who created a quartet of self-appointed champions of justice called Manfred, Ryder, Collier and Poccari. By what collective name were they known in the title of the first novel that featured them? Hint

The Four Avengers

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

The Four Paladins

The Four Just Men

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Question 8 of 10

8. The first volume of John Galsworthy's "Forsyte Saga" trilogy has a title which describes Soames Forsyte. What is it? Hint

The Man of Law

The Man of Property

The Lord of the Manor

The Man of the World

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Question 9 of 10

9. Lytton Strachey is best remembered for his potted biographies of three men and a woman entitled "Eminent Victorians." Who were the subjects of this work? Hint

Cecil Rhodes, Charles Darwin, Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Emmeline Pankhurst

William Ewart Gladstone, Benjamin Disraeli, Charles Dickens and Queen Victoria

Cardinal Henry Manning, Dr Thomas Arnold, General Gordon and Florence Nightingale

The Prince of Wales, Alfred Lord Tennyson, W. G. Grace and George Eliot

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Question 10 of 10

10. James Goldman's play "The Lion in Winter" dealt with the political and family problems of which king of England? Hint

Henry VIII

John

Charles I

Henry II

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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. In Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew," what is the name of the shrewish heroine?

Answer: Katharina, or Kate

Petruchio's penultimate speech in the play ("Why, there's a wench! Come on and kiss me, Kate!") provided Cole Porter with the title of his musical comedy centring on a production of the "Shrew."

2. Which of Moli�re's comedies takes its name from a character called Harpagon?

Answer: L'Avare (The Miser)

The play is a rather grim comedy, showing the effects of avarice both on the miser himself and on the characters of those who have to deal with him.

3. In a novel by Sir Walter Scott, who is Lucy Ashton?

Answer: The Bride of Lammermoor

Scott isn't read as much as he used to be, but this story is a little more familiar than most: it was used by Donizetti as the basis of his opera "Lucia di Lammermoor."

Answer: John Harmon junior, a.k.a. Rokesmith

The phrase is used by Mr Boffin in chapter 9 of the novel, when visiting the Wilfers, with whom Harmon is lodging under his assumed name.

5. In a novel by Thomas Hardy, who is Michael Henchard?

Answer: The Mayor of Casterbridge

After selling his wife to a sailor when drunk, Henchard vows to live a sober and respectable life. He becomes a well-to-do businessman and mayor of his borough, but a combination of unhappy circumstances and the effects of his own obstinacy reduce him to penury again. He dies alone, and his will is a plea for complete oblivion ( "...that no man remember me: to this I put my name").

Answer: George, Harris and Montmorency

Jerome's novel has retained its popularity ever since its publication in 1889. Many of us wholeheartedly endorse the narrator's famous passage about work: "I love work; it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours. The thought of getting rid of it nearly breaks my heart."

Answer: The Four Just Men

Born in poverty, Wallace became one of the most prolific and successful popular novelists of his day. He wrote more than 170 novels with sales that reached five million copies a year at their peak, and also turned out many Hollywood film scripts. Besides the Four Just Men, he created Sanders of the River and J. G. Reeder.

However, he managed to gamble away even more than he earned, and he died at the age of 57 in Hollywood, deep in debt, starting work on the screenplay for "King Kong."

8. The first volume of John Galsworthy's "Forsyte Saga" trilogy has a title which describes Soames Forsyte. What is it?

Answer: The Man of Property

Soames Forsyte, a successful lawyer, becomes a "man of property" in the usual sense of the words when he builds a country house for his wife Irene. He has the same proprietorial instinct towards her as he has towards his material possessions.

9. Lytton Strachey is best remembered for his potted biographies of three men and a woman entitled "Eminent Victorians." Who were the subjects of this work?

Answer: Cardinal Henry Manning, Dr Thomas Arnold, General Gordon and Florence Nightingale

Manning was the second Roman Catholic primate of England after the restoration of the hierarchy in 1850. Arnold was the headmaster of Rugby School from 1828 to 1841, whose practices set the pattern for education in British "public" (i.e. private) schools for generations to come. Gordon, a popular general, was besieged and killed in Khartoum in 1885. Florence Nightingale is remembered for her reforms of the nursing profession. Strachey's work was iconoclastic by the standards of his day: he is particularly scathing about Dr Arnold, though he seems to have some admiration for Manning.

10. James Goldman's play "The Lion in Winter" dealt with the political and family problems of which king of England?

Answer: Henry II

The work is best known in its movie version. Goldman adapted his play for the screen and won an Oscar for his screenplay.

Source: Author TabbyTom

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor MotherGoose before going online.
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