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      The Ultimate English Literature Quiz!

      The Ultimate English Literature Quiz!
      Books & Literature · Trivia / IQ

      By BrainFall Staff - Updated: April 9, 2024

      We bet you can’t get all the answers to these challenging questions on English literature. They’ll take you through history on a journey from Middle English to William Shakespeare to people writing in the twenty-first century. See how many you can answer!

      English Literature

      English literature, specifically British literature, includes more than just William Shakespeare and Jane Austen. This quiz on literature will test your knowledge of literary greats throughout history. You'll have to dig deep into English classes of yore to answer quiz questions about classic works from the Middle Ages to today.

      The Ultimate English Literature Quiz!

      English literature lays open a treasure chest of narratives that have bewitched, taught, and transported us across seas, into past centuries, and inside the minds of some unforgettable characters. Whether you're a proud bookworm or just someone who’s watched a bit too much "Masterpiece Theatre", we promise that our Ultimate English Literature Quiz is going to rattle those dusty school-day memories and get your literary juices flowing. We've spun tales and questions from Chaucer to Shakespeare, and Austen to Rowling, so grab your metaphorical quills – it’s time to test your literary knowledge!

      A stack of classic novels, a quill and ink, and a vintage desk with a leather chair. A bookshelf filled with literary works in the background

      We've scoured our old bookshelves and dusted off the classics to create a challenging adventure that'll take you on a rollicking ride through the pages of the books you've loved, loathed, or left on the shelf far too long. Think you can distinguish your Brontës from your Byrons? Or know which author brought us face to face with Big Brother? Then throw on your reading glasses and let's see if you can score more than just a 'passable' grade. With each question, challenge your friends, flaunt your impressive lexicon, and reveal whether you’ve got the mind of a modern-day Shakespeare or if you're more of a 'CliffsNotes' connoisseur.

      Brush Up On The English Classics

      A pile of classic English literature books surrounded by a vintage desk lamp and a cup of tea

      Before we dive in, remember that quizzing ourselves on the English classics is like attending the most fabulous literary costume ball ever. You never know which beloved character from the pages of history might ask you for a dance!

      Dive Into Shakespeare's World

      Shakespeare is our homeboy of drama and the original master of wordplay. Have you ever wooed someone with "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" or gotten into a spat and declared, "Thou art a boil, a plague sore"? Yeah, we've all been there. Brushing up on The Bard's best, from Hamlet to Romeo and Juliet, means you’ll be ready to drop Elizabethan insults and sweet nothings with the best of them.

      Victorian Literature Highlights

      The Victorian era: a time of corsets, afternoon tea, and some seriously brooding heroes. Our pal Charles Dickens knew how to spin a tale with the likes of Great Expectations and Oliver Twist. These stories aren't just about fog and chimney sweeps; they're about the triumph and tragedy of the human spirit. And hey, who can forget Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre? Talk about #GothicRomanceGoals. Get your petticoats fluffed – we're journeying through the best of moody moors and grand estates.

      The British Novel Journey

      Let's trot down the rabbit hole with Lewis Carroll and meet Alice in Wonderland. Who needs normal when you can have tea parties with Mad Hatters and race with Red Queens? The British novel has taken us on wild rides through fantasy lands, stirred our passions with epic love stories, and even haunted us with tales of ghosts and ghouls. Classic novels are the bread and butter of any literary buff, serving up hearty slices of life with a side of timeless wisdom.

      So, grab your quill, or you know, just a pencil, and let's ace this quiz like the literary legends we are!

      Test Your Wit: Assorted Literary Questions

      Ah, literature! It's the spice of intellectual life, where characters leap off the page and poetic verses tug at our heartstrings. But how well do we really know our literary onions? It's time to put on our Sherlock Holmes deerstalker hats and investigate, as we traverse through a maze of questions that'll test our literary know-how.

      Character Conundrums

      Characters are the beating heart of any story, and we've cooked up some brain-scratchers involving the quirkiest, most beloved, or downright nefarious personalities from classical to contemporary literature. For instance, if we inquire about which Charles Dickens character is known for saying "Please, sir, I want some more," would you know the answer? How about identifying Emma Bovary's creator? These conundrums are sure to have us reminiscing over the countless pages we've turned.

      Potterhead Pandemonium

      Calling all witches, wizards, and muggles alike! We know our Harry Potter books like the back of our wands, don't we? Well, it's time to sort the Hufflepuffs from the Slytherins with trivia that digs deep into the magical minutiae of J.K. Rowling's world. Can we recall the various forms of the Patronus Charm or the full list of ingredients for a Polyjuice Potion? No Pensieves needed – just our noggins loaded with Harry Potter facts!

      Poetic Prowess

      Poetry is not just about rhyming or counting syllables – it's a symphony of words! Let's show off our poetic prowess. We'll need to distinguish our adjectives from our adverbs, and our nouns from our verbs as we tackle excerpts from the greats. Whether it's discerning a sonnet from a haiku or identifying who penned "Do not go gentle into that good night," our mastery over the realm of poetry is about to be put to the ultimate test.

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      Question 1/10

      Everybody knows ol’ William Shakespeare, but only those with true English-literature knowledge know the other Renaissance playwrights—like this guy who wrote Doctor Faustus:

      • Thomas Kyd
      • Christopher Marlowe
      • William Congreve
      • John Dryden
      Question 2/10

      This poet’s most famous work is about a misbehaving couple, but the writer also wrote Areopagitica, a polemic against censorship.

      • John Milton
      • Andrew Marvell
      • William Blake
      • Carol Duffy
      Question 3/10

      Today, many English classes cover the poem “My Last Duchess” by the male half of this nineteenth-century literary power couple. But, while they were alive, it was the woman who received all the acclaim, particularly for Sonnets from the Portuguese. Not common in the history of literature!

      • Percy and Mary Shelley
      • George Henry Lewes and George Eliot
      • Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning
      • Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath
      Question 4/10

      Don’t you love it when writers honor other writers? Michael Cunningham’s The Hours intertwines three stories: one about this author and two inspired by one of their most famous novels. We’ll give you a hint: the main character of one of the stories is named Clarissa.

      • Jean Rhys
      • E.M. Forster
      • Anne Bronte
      • Virginia Woolf
      Question 5/10

      “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” This famous first sentence opens which Dickens novel?

      • Oliver Twist
      • A Tale of Two Cities
      • Great Expectations
      • A Christmas Carol
      Question 6/10

      Name the British playwright who wrote The Homecoming, Betrayal, The Birthday Party, and The Room.

      • Caryl Churchill
      • Peter Shaffer
      • Bola Agbaje
      • Harold Pinter
      Question 7/10

      In 1999, poet Seamus Heaney published a new version of this classic.

      • Beowulf
      • The Iliad
      • Dream of the Rood
      • Paradise Lost
      Question 8/10

      Countless English students have been forced to memorize the following words, the beginning to which classic work of literature?
      "Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote
      The droghte of March hath perced to the roote"

      • Pilgrim’s Progress
      • Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
      • The Canterbury Tales
      • Le Morte d’Arthur
      Question 9/10

      The history of women writers was long neglected, but these days we’ve rediscovered forgotten artists—like this Restoration author who wrote Oroonoko and was one of the first women known to make her living with her pen.

      • Margaret Cavendish
      • Aphra Behn
      • Margery Kempe
      • Ann Radcliffe
      Question 10/10

      Sometimes those related by blood also share talent. That’s certainly the case for the Brontë sisters. You may know your Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre, but can you identify the novel written by Anne, the least famous sister?

      • The Mill on the Floss
      • Mary Barton
      • Shirley
      • The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
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