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Quiz about Women Authors In Modern English Literature

Women Authors In Modern English Literature Quiz

More and more women seem to take the adage seriously that the Pen is sometimes mightier than the Sword, and are taking part in the literary debate. How well do you know them?

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

Author
flem-ish

Time
6 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
99,548

Updated
Dec 03 21

# Qns
15

Difficulty
Tough

Avg Score
8 / 15

Plays
883

One at a Time - Single Page - Timed Game

Question 1 of 15

1. True or false: In Sylvia Plath's "The Bell Jar"(1963) the heroine, Esther Greenwood, just as the author herself did at a later moment, successfully commits suicide.

True

False

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Question 2 of 15

2. Which of these is the title of a novel by Djuna Barnes? Hint

Jerusalem the Golden

Daughters and Sons

Nightwood

Hotel du lac

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Question 3 of 15

3. True or false: Antonia Susan Byatt, author of the Booker Prize-winning novel "Possession"(Booker Prize 1990)is the sister of Margaret Drabble, author of "The Millstone" (1965).

True

False

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Question 4 of 15

4. Daphne du Maurier's popular novels "Rebecca" and "Jamaica Inn" both are set in ________________. Hint

Cornwall

the Lake District

Yorkshire

the Isle of Skye

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Question 5 of 15

5. Which of these authors was for a short period married to Ernest Hemingway? Hint

Martha Ellis Gellhorn

Willa Cather

Hilda Doolittle

Anita Desai

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Question 6 of 15

6. Which of these women authors had her novel "The Edible Woman" published in 1969? Hint

Patricia Highsmith

Erica Jong

Nadine Gordimer

Margaret Eleanor Atwood

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Question 7 of 15

7. Where in the U.S.A. was Carson McCullers from? Hint

Wisconsin

Arizona

Georgia

Montana

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Question 8 of 15

8. Under which name - correct spelling please, especially of first name - did Chloe Anthony Wofford write the books with which she won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993?

Answer: ("No Vans Allowed")

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Question 9 of 15

9. Doris Lessing's book "Going Home" describes a visit to Rhodesia, which was a country _____________. Hint

she had been brought up in

she had been born in

she hadn't ever visited herself

she knew only from a tourist visit

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Question 10 of 15

10. Which of these novels is the only one NOT written by Muriel Spark? Hint

The Ballad of Peckham Rye

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

The Mysterious Affair At Styles

Girls of Slender Means

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Question 11 of 15

11. Who wrote "The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook"? Hint

Gertrude Stein

Alice B. Toklas herself

Donna Tartt

Alice Walker

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Question 12 of 15

12. Which of these women novelists committed suicide by drowning herself in
the River Ouse in Sussex, England, in 1941? Hint

Virginia Woolf

Gertrude Stein

Alice B. Toklas

Kate Chopin

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Question 13 of 15

13. Which of these women authors was NOT born in Ireland? Hint

Iris Murdoch , author of "The Bell" 1958

Kate O'Brien, author of "Mary Lavelle" 1936.

Mary Mc Carthy, author of "Memories of a Catholic Girlhood" 1957

Edna O'Brien, author of "The Country Girls Trilogy" 1960-64

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Question 14 of 15

14. Which of these author's names is the only one that is NOT a pseudonym? Hint

Jeanette Winterson

Mary Renault

Josephine Tey

Jean Rhys

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Question 15 of 15

15. Which of these animals is given the first name Peter and is a leading character in quite a few of Helen Beatrix Potter's stories? Hint

a rabbit

a horse

a hare

a frog

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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. True or false: In Sylvia Plath's "The Bell Jar"(1963) the heroine, Esther Greenwood, just as the author herself did at a later moment, successfully commits suicide.

Answer: False

Esther Greenwood is saved in time; Sylvia Plath was not.

2. Which of these is the title of a novel by Djuna Barnes?

Answer: Nightwood

"Nightwood" was published in 1936. Ivy Compton-Burnett wrote "Daughters and Sons" (1937). "Jerusalem the Golden" was written by Margaret Drabble (1967). "Hotel du Lac" is a novel by Anita Brookner (1984).

3. True or false: Antonia Susan Byatt, author of the Booker Prize-winning novel "Possession"(Booker Prize 1990)is the sister of Margaret Drabble, author of "The Millstone" (1965).

Answer: True

Byatt was born in 1936; Drabble in 1939.

4. Daphne du Maurier's popular novels "Rebecca" and "Jamaica Inn" both are set in ________________.

Answer: Cornwall

Du Maurier also wrote a non-fiction book about her region, "Vanishing Cornwall", in 1967.

5. Which of these authors was for a short period married to Ernest Hemingway?

Answer: Martha Ellis Gellhorn

Gellhorn was born in 1908. Doolittle used her initials H.D. as a pen-name. She was born in 1886, was at one time engaged to Ezra Pound but finally, and in spite of her lesbian inclination, was married to Richard Aldington. She died in 1961. Anita Mazumdar Desai is an Indian novelist and was born in 1937. Willa Cather(1873-1947)) is the author of "Death Comes For the Archbishop".

6. Which of these women authors had her novel "The Edible Woman" published in 1969?

Answer: Margaret Eleanor Atwood

Jong (born in New York 1942) is probably best known for her novel "Fear of Flying"(1973). South-Africa-born Nadine Gordimer earned her reputation (and Nobel Prize) with novels such as "Burger's Daughter"(1979). Patricia Highsmith( born 1921) is the woman behind "The Talented Mr. Ripley".

7. Where in the U.S.A. was Carson McCullers from?

Answer: Georgia

Southern settings are a trademark of Carson McCullers in novels such as "The Member of the Wedding" in 1946, and "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" in 1940.

8. Under which name - correct spelling please, especially of first name - did Chloe Anthony Wofford write the books with which she won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993?

Answer: Toni Morrison

Books which she had written already before she won the Nobel Prize are: "Song of Solomon" 1977; "Beloved" 1987; "Jazz" 1992. After winning the Nobel Prize she still added to her list of successful novels "Paradise" 1998.

9. Doris Lessing's book "Going Home" describes a visit to Rhodesia, which was a country _____________.

Answer: she had been brought up in

Though Lessing was born in Iran (1919), the country where she got her education was Rhodesia. "Going Home" describes her impressions during the trip she made to that country after staying from 1949 till 1957 in London. After the publication of her book she was "banished" from the country. In 1962 she published another very successful work, "The Golden Note Book".

10. Which of these novels is the only one NOT written by Muriel Spark?

Answer: The Mysterious Affair At Styles

"The Ballad of Peckham Rye" dates back to 1960. "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" followed the next year. "Girls of Slender Means" was published in 1963. "The Mysterious Affair At Styles" was Agatha Christie's first detective story (1920). Agatha Christie lived from 1890 till 1976.

11. Who wrote "The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook"?

Answer: Alice B. Toklas herself

Alice Walker is the author of 'The Color Purple'(1982). Donna Tartt conquered the world with her "The Secret History" (1992). Gertrude Stein used the ironical phrase "The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas" as a title for a collection of personal "memories" about the people she met during her stay (with Alice B. Toklas) in Paris. Alice B. Toklas leaving literature with big L to her companion Stein, wrote a more practically orientated cookery guide.

12. Which of these women novelists committed suicide by drowning herself in the River Ouse in Sussex, England, in 1941?

Answer: Virginia Woolf

Woolf is the brilliant author of such top novels as "Mrs Dalloway", "Between the Acts", "The Waves", "Orlando", "To the Lighthouse".
Kate Chopin (1851-1904) is the famous author of "The Awakening"(1899).
Woolf's real surname was Stephen. Woolf was her husband's name, Leonard Woolf.

13. Which of these women authors was NOT born in Ireland?

Answer: Mary Mc Carthy, author of "Memories of a Catholic Girlhood" 1957

Though having an English ID, Iris Murdoch was born in Dublin.
Kate O'Brien was born at Limerick in 1987. She lived for several years
in Spain with a woman companion.
Edna O'Brien was born in the west of Ireland in 1932.
Only Mary Mc Carthy is an American writer,born in 1912, at Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. In 1938 she married the author Edmund Wilson but was divorced from him already in 1945.

14. Which of these author's names is the only one that is NOT a pseudonym?

Answer: Jeanette Winterson

Winterson's most popular book is probably "Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit" (1985). Josephine Tey's real name was Elizabeth Mackintosh. Ella Gwendolen Rees Williams aka Jean Rhys was born in Dominica from Creole parents. Mary Renault, author of "The Last of the Wine" (1956) was born in 1905 as Mary Challans. She died in 1983.

15. Which of these animals is given the first name Peter and is a leading character in quite a few of Helen Beatrix Potter's stories?

Answer: a rabbit

"Peter Rabbit" for sure.

Source: Author flem-ish

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