Literature Frequency List (Extended)

Question 1

Novel
Author: Charles Dickens
1843
Characters: Ebenezer Scrooge, Jacob Marley, Bob Cratchit, Tiny Tim
It recounts the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, an elderly miser who is visited by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley and the spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come. In the process, Scrooge is transformed into a kinder, gentler man.

Answer 1

A Christmas Carol

Question 2

Drama
Author: Henrik Ibsen
1879
Characters: Nora Helmer, Torvald Helmer, their three children, Mrs. Linde, Dr. Rank, and Nils Krogstad
The play concerns Nora’s self-discovery as she realizes how stifling and weak her life is, and how neither her husband or marriage are what she thought they were.

Answer 2

A Dolls House

Question 3

Novel
Author: Ernest Hemingway
1929
Characters: Frederic Henry, Catherine Barkley, Rinaldi, Helen Ferguson, and The Priest
Follows the love affair of Frederic Henry, an injured soldier, and Catherine Barkley, his nurse during World War I in Italy. Frederic falls in love with Catherine as she tends to his wounds. Frederic is called back to the front where a botched retreat causes Frederic to have to desert.

Answer 3

A Farewell to Arms

Question 4

Drama
Author: William Shakespeare
1595
Characters: Puck, Hermia, Lysander, Oberon, Egeus, Demetrius and Helena
Four Athenians run away to the forest only to have Puck the fairy make both of the boys fall in love with the same girl. The four run through the forest pursuing each other while Puck helps his master play a trick on the fairy queen.

Answer 4

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Question 5

Drama
Author: Lorraine Hansberry
1959
Characters: Beneatha, Walter Lee, Karl Lindner, Lena, and Ruth
The story of the Youngers, a Black family living in the 1950s and their struggles to follow their dreams in a time period when people were not treated equally based on their gender and race

Answer 5

A Raisin in the Sun

Question 6

Novel
Author: Charles Dickens
1859
Characters: Charles Darnay, Alexandre Manette, Sydney Carton, Madame Defarge, Jarvis Lorry, Lucie Manette
Tells the story of the French Doctor Manette, his 18-year-long imprisonment in the Bastille in Paris, and his release to live in London with his daughter Lucie whom he had never met. The story is set against the conditions that led up to the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror.

Answer 6

A Tale of Two Cities

Question 7

Poem
Poet: Virgil
19 BC
Characters: Aeneas, Turnus, Dido, Juno, Venus
Tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who fled the fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans.

Answer 7

Aeneid

Question 8

Children’s
Author: Louis Carroll
1865
Characters: Hatter, Cheshire Cat, Queen of Hearts, White Rabbit, Alice, Caterpillar
A young girl named Alice falls asleep and dreams that she follows a White Rabbit down a rabbit hole. She has many wondrous, often bizarre adventures. Alice often changes size unexpectedly, growing as tall as a house and shrinking to three inches.

Answer 8

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Question 9

Novel
Author: Erich Maria Remarque
1929
Characters: Stanislaus Katczinsky, Westhus, Tjaden, Paul Bäumer, Albert, Mueller
Tells the story of a group of young Germans who enlist in World War I after being captivated by slogans of patriotism and honour. It is narrated by the protagonist, Paul Baumer, who is 20 years old.

Answer 9

All Quiet on the Western Front

Question 10

Novel
Author: George Orwell
1945
Characters: Old Major, Napoleon, Snowball, Squealer, Boxer, Mr. Jones
It tells the story of a group of anthropomorphic farm animals who rebel against their human farmer, hoping to create a society where the animals can be equal, free, and happy. Ultimately, the rebellion is betrayed, and under the dictatorship of a pig named Napoleon, the farm ends up in a state far worse than before. Retells the story of the Russian Revolution and the rise to power of Joseph Stalin

Answer 10

Animal Farm

Question 11

Novel
Author: Leo Tolstoy
1877
Characters:Vronsky, Anna, Konstantin Dmitrievich Levin, Oblonsky, Kitty Shcherbatsky, Aleksei
The story centers on an extramarital affair between Anna and cavalry officer Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky that scandalizes the social circles of Saint Petersburg and forces the young lovers to flee to Italy in a search for happiness, but after they return to Russia, their lives further unravel.

Answer 11

Anna Karenina

Question 12

Drama
Author:Sophocles
441 BC
Characters: Creon, Ismene, Eurydice of Thebes, Tiresias
The title character’s two brothers kill each other fighting for the throne of Thebes. King Creon declares one a traitor and forbids his burial. The title character tries to bury him but is caught and condemned to die starving in a cave. At the end, she and her fiance, Creon’s son, both kill themselves, as does Creon’s queen, Eurydice.

Answer 12

Antigone

Question 13

Novel
Author: William Faulkner
1930
Characters: Addie, Anse, Darl, Cash, Jewel
The book is narrated by 15 different characters over 59 chapters. It is the story of the death of Addie Bundren and her poor, rural family’s quest to honor her wish to be buried in her hometown of Jefferson, Mississippi as well as the motives—noble or selfish—they show on the journey.

Answer 13

As I Lay Dying

Question 14

Drama
Author: William Shakespeare
1599
Characters: Rosalind, Duke Senior, Jaques, Celia, Orlando, Touchstone, Oliver, Duke Frederick
Rosalind and her cousin escape into the forest and find Orlando, Rosalind’s love. Disguised as a boy shepherd, Rosalind has Orlando woo her under the guise of “curing” him of his love for Rosalind. Rosalind reveals she is a girl and marries Orlando during a group wedding at the end of the play.

Answer 14

As You Like It

Question 15

Novel
Author: Toni Morrison
1987
Characters:
Examines the destructive legacy of slavery as it chronicles the life of a Black woman named Sethe, from her pre-Civil War days as a slave in Kentucky to her time in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1873. Sethe, lives with just her daughter, Denver, and they are joined by Paul D and a mysterious girl who adopts the title name. The story eventually reveals that the title character is the physical manifestation of the spirit of Sethe’s daughter, whom Sethe murdered instead of allowing her to experience slavery.

Answer 15

Beloved

Question 16

Poem
Poet: Unknown
9th-10th Century
Characters: Hrothgar, Wiglaf, Grendel
It tells the story of the title character, a Scandinavian hero who gains fame as a young man by vanquishing the monster Grendel and Grendel’s mother; later, as an aging king, he kills a dragon but dies soon after, honoured and lamented.

Answer 16

Beowulf

Question 17

Poem
Poet: Unknown
200 BC-AD 200
Characters: Arjuna
Krishna
Dhritarashtra
Sanjaya
Bhishma, Kauravas, Duryodhana, Pandava, Aryaman
Recounts a lengthy struggle and brief war between two sides of the Bharata family—the Pandavas and the Kauravas—over their kingdom of Hastinapura. Recounts a dialogue in the moments leading up to the war between the Pandava warrior Arjuna and his charioteer and trusted advisor, Krishna, who turns out to be a worldly incarnation of Vishnu, a god who serves as the Supreme Being in many forms of Hinduism

Answer 17

Bhagavad Gita

Question 18

Novel
Author: Aldous Huxley
1932
Characters: Bernard Marx, Mustapha Mond, Lenina Crowne, John the Savage, Helmholtz Watson
Examines a futuristic society, called the World State, that revolves around science and efficiency. In this society, emotions and individuality are conditioned out of children at a young age, and there are no lasting relationships because “every one belongs to every one else”

Answer 18

Brave New World

Question 19

Novel
Author: Voltaire
1759
Characters: Pangloss, Cunégonde, The baron of Thunder-ten-Tronckh, Cacambo, Martin
The young and naive title character stumbles from one adventure to the next, including fighting in wars, being arrested, being nearly burned at the stake, finding El Dorado and leaving it.

Answer 19

Candide

Question 20

Novel
Author: Joseph Heller
1961
Characters: Yossarian, Major Major Major Major, Milo Minderbinder, Doc Daneeka, Colonel Cathcart, Nately, Chief White Halfoat, Captain Aardvark, Scheisskopf, Orr, Chaplain Tappman, General Dreedle
The work centres on Captain John Yossarian, an American bombardier stationed on a Mediterranean island during World War II, and chronicles his desperate attempts to stay alive.

Answer 20

Catch-22

Question 21

Novel
Author: Fyodor Dostoyevsky
1866
Characters: Rodion Raskolnikov, Sonia Marmeladova, Arkady Ivanovich Svidrigailov, Dmitri Prokofich Razumikhin, Avdotya Romanovna
It follows a young man called Rodion Raskolnikov – first as he plots to kill an elderly pawnbroker, then as he commits the deed, and finally as he confronts the many consequences of his actions.

Answer 21

Crime and Punishment

Question 22

Novel
Author: Alan Paton
1948
Characters: Stephen Kumalo, Absalom Kumalo, John Kumalo, Reverend Msimangu, James Jarvis
Explores the history and beginning of apartheid in South Africa. The novel tells the story of two protagonists, Stephen Kumalo, a Black priest, and James Jarvis, a white farmer, as they travel to Johannesburg to search for and connect with their sons.

Answer 22

Cry, the Beloved Country

Question 23

Novel
Author: Charles Dickens
1850
Characters: Uriah Heep, Peggotty, Wilkins Micawber, Edward Murdstone, James Steerforth, Aunt Betsey Trotwood, Dora Spenlow
The title character’s adventures on his journey from an unhappy and impoverished childhood to the discovery of his vocation as a successful novelist.

Answer 23

David Copperfield

Question 24

Drama
Author: Arthur Miller
1949
Characters: William ‘Willy’, Linda, Biff and Happy
It is a two-act tragedy set in late 1940s Brooklyn told through a montage of memories, dreams, and arguments of the protagonist Willy Loman, a travelling salesman who is despondent with his life and appears to be slipping into senility.

Answer 24

Death of a Salesman

Question 25

Poem
Poets: George Gorden, Lord Byron
1819
Characters: Donna Julia, Don José, Donna Inez
The title character takes his own life as a wandering womanizer and flips it around, making his hero seduced by lots of women. Love is a source of pleasure and of pain in the poem.

Answer 25

Don Juan

Question 26

Novel
Author: Miguel de Cervantes
1605
Characters: Sancho Panza, Alonso Quijano, Dulcinea del Toboso, Rocinante, Cide Hamete Benengeli, Clavileño, Cardenio, Ginés de Pasamonte
A man with questionable sanity goes on a series of quests to become a knight, accompanied by his ‘squire’, Sancho

Answer 26

Don Quixote

Question 27

Novel
Author: Bram Stoker
1897
Characters: Abraham Van Helsing, Mina Harker, Jonathan Harker, Lucy Westenra
Renfield, Dr. John Seward, Quincey Morris
A novel about a vampire and his attempts to move to London and begin feeding on the local population. A coalition of protagonists serve as vampire hunters and attempt to stop and destroy the title character

Answer 27

Dracula

Question 28

Novel
Author: Ray Bradbury
1953
Characters: Guy Montag, Clarisse McClellan, Beatty, Mildred Montag, Faber, Black, Stoneman
Set in a future society where books are banned and “firemen” burn any that are discovered. Follows the protagonist, Guy Montag, a fireman who begins to question his duty to the state and ultimately has to choose between his personal beliefs and his loyalty to the government.

Answer 28

Fahrenheit 451

Question 29

Poem
Poet: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
1808
Characters: Mephistopheles, Wagne, Gretchen, Thersites, Valentin
A German necromancer or astrologer sells his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge and power.

Answer 29

Faust

Question 30

Novel
Author: Ernest Hemingway
1940
Characters:Robert Jordan, El Sordo, Pilar, Anselmo, Pablo, Primitivo, Andrés, Eladio
It tells the story of Robert Jordan, a young American volunteer attached to a Republican guerrilla unit during the Spanish Civil War. As a dynamiter, he is assigned to blow up a bridge during an attack on the city of Segovia.

Answer 30

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Question 31

Novel
Author: Mary Shelley
1818
Characters: Monster, Victor, Captain Robert Walton, Elizabeth Lavenza, Dr. Henry Clerval
A scientific genius brings to life a terrifying monster that torments its creator. It is considered one of the first science-fiction novels.

Answer 31

Frankenstein

Question 32

Novel
Author: Charles Dickens
1861
Characters: Pip, Miss Havisham, Estella, Abel Magwitch, Mrs. Joe Gargery, John Wemmick, Biddy, Orlick
Childhood and young adult years of Pip a blacksmith’s apprentice in a country village. He suddenly comes into a large fortune from a mysterious benefactor and moves to London where he enters high society.

Answer 32

Great Expectations

Question 33

Novel
Author: Johnathan Swift
1726
Characters: Houyhnhnms, Munodi, Mary Burton, The Brobdingnagians, Yahoos, Glumdalclitch, Laputans, James Bates
A first-person narrative that is told from the point of view of the title character, a surgeon and sea captain who visits remote regions of the world, and it describes four adventures.

Answer 33

Gulliver’s Travels

Question 34

Drama
Author: William Shakespeare
1601
Characters: Ophelia, Claudius, Polonius, Laertes, Horatio, Gertrude
The ghost of the King of Denmark tells his son to avenge his murder by killing the new king, his uncle. The title character feigns madness, contemplates life and death, and seeks revenge. His uncle, fearing for his life, also devises plots to kill him.

Answer 34

Hamlet

Question 35

Novella
Author: Joseph Conrad
1902
Characters: Kurtz, Charlie Marlow, the Manager, the Brick Maker, the Chief Accountant
Various European powers are exploiting Africa for its riches and resources while leaving little or nothing to the Africans who are laboring under them

Answer 35

Heart of Darkness

Question 36

Poem
Poet: Homer
8th Century BC
Characters: Achilles, Odysseus, Agamemnon, Hector, Patroclus, Priam, Menelaus, Paris, Aphrodite, Aeneas
Covers the quarrels and fighting near the end of the Trojan War. The story opens nine years into the war, which basically started because Paris, son of King Priam of Troy, kidnapped Helen from Menelaus, a Greek and brother of Agamemnon, King of Mycenae

Answer 36

Iliad

Question 37

Poem
Poet: Dante Aligheri
1310-1314
Characters: Dante, Virgil, Beatrice, Charon, Paolo da Rimini, Francesca da Rimini, Lucifer
Guided by the poet Virgil, Dante descends through the Nine Circles of Hell, eventually arriving at the center where Satan himself resides. After escaping Hell, Dante and Virgil will go on to Purgatory and then Dante will go on to Heaven.

Answer 37

Inferno

Question 38

Novel
Author: Ralph Ellison
1952
Characters: Ras the Exhorter, Tod Clifton, Brother Jack, Rinehart
The story of a young African American man who moves north during the Harlem Renaissance and faces many trials as he attempts to find his place in society.

Answer 38

Invisible Man

Question 39

Novel
Author: Sir Walter Scott
1820
Characters:
Brian de Bois-Guilbert, Cedric, Rowena, Reginald Front-de Boeuf, Lucas de Beaumanoir, Prince John, Wamba, Isaac of York
The story of one of the remaining Anglo-Saxon noble families at a time when the nobility in England was overwhelmingly Norman. It follows the Saxon protagonist, Sir Wilfred, who is out of favour with his father for Sir Wilfred’s allegiance to the Norman king Richard the Lionheart.

Answer 39

Ivanhoe

Question 40

Novel
Author: Charlotte Bronte
1847
Characters: Edward Rochester, Bertha Mason, Mrs. Reed, Helen Burns, Mr. Brocklehurst, Mrs.Fairfax, St. John Rivers, Grace Poole, Miss Temple
Orphaned as a baby, the title character struggles through her nearly loveless childhood and becomes a governess at Thornfield Hall. Small and facially plain, she is passionate and strongly principled and values freedom and independence.

Answer 40

Jane Eyre

Question 41

Drama
Playwright: William Shakespeare
1599
Characters: Marullus, Volumnius, Pindarus, Lucillius, Cinna the Poet, Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus, Titinius, Messala, Quintus Ligarius, Publius Cornelius Dolabella
Jealous conspirators convince Brutus to join their assassination plot against the title character. To stop him from gaining too much power, Brutus and the conspirators kill him on the Ides of March. Mark Antony drives the conspirators out of Rome and fights them in a battle.

Answer 41

Julius Caesar

Question 42

Drama
Playwright: William Shakespeare
1605
Characters: Goneril, Cordelia, Regan, Edmund, Earl of Gloucester, King of France, Earl of Kent, Regan MacNeil, Duke of Cornwall’s Servant
The title character divides his kingdom among the two daughters who flatter him and banishes the third one who loves him. His eldest daughters both then reject him at their homes, so he goes mad and wanders through a storm.

Answer 42

King Lear

Question 43

Poem
Poet: Samuel-Taylor Coleridge
1798
The poem tells us about a kingdom with a mythical city known as Xanadu. It describes a powerful ruler who has great command. His authoritativeness lies in the fact that he can order for a pleasure dome to be built on merely one order.

Answer 43

Kubla Khan

Question 44

Collection
Poet: Walt Whitman
1855
Poems: Song of Myself, A Song for Occupations, To Think of Time, The Sleepers, I Sing the Body Electric, Faces, Song of the Answerer
A collection of poems that celebrates the beauty of nature, the human spirit, and the interconnectedness of all living things.

Answer 44

Leaves of Grass

Question 45

Novel
Author: Victor Hugo
1862
Characters: Jean Valjean, Cosette, Fantine, Inspector Javert, Gavroche, Éponine, Marius Pontmercy, Enjolras, Bishop Myriel
A story about inequality in France. Jean Valjean, a well-meaning thief turned factory owner, tries to help the dying Fantine, a young single mother, but is arrested. He finds Cosette, Fantine’s daughter out of wedlock, and rescues her from dismal circumstances.

Answer 45

Les Miserables

Question 46

Novel
Author: Louisa May Alcott
1868
Characters: Jo March, Beth March, Amy March, Meg March, Marmee March
The novel pairs heartwarming life lessons with more radical ideas about women’s roles in 19th-century America. Sisters Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy March learn to bear relative poverty following the warm example of their mother, Marmee, while their father is away at war.

Answer 46

Little Women

Question 47

Novel
Author: Vladimir Nabokov
1955
Characters: Humbert Humbert, Annabel Leigh, Valeria, Charlotte Haze, Dolores Haze
A French literature professor moves to New England and writes under the pseudonym Humbert Humbert. He describes his obsession with a 12-year-old “nymphet”, Dolores Haze, whom he kidnaps and sexually abuses after becoming her stepfather.

Answer 47

Lolita

Question 48

Drama
Playwright: Eugene O’Neil
1956
Characters: James Tyrone, Mary Tyrone, Jamie Tyrone, Edmund Tyrone, Cathleen
Depicts one long, summer day in the life of the fictional Tyrone family, a dysfunctional household based on O’Neill’s immediate family during his early years.

Answer 48

Long Day’s Journey Into the Night

Question 49

Novel
Author: William Golding
1954
Characters: Jack, Piggy, Ralph, Simon, Sam, Roger, Eric
a group of schoolboys are on a desert island. Furthermore, these boys try to form their own society on this island. The major themes are power struggle and rebellion. Ralph is the leader of the group.

Answer 49

Lord of the Flies

Question 50

Drama
Playwright: William Shakespeare
1606
Characters: Banquo, Macduff, King Duncan, Three Witches, Fleance, Malcolm, Donalbain, Lady Macduff, Young Siward, Macduff’s son
Three witches tell the title character, a Scottish general, that he will be King of Scotland. Encouraged by his wife, he kills the king, becomes the new king, and kills more people out of paranoia. Civil war erupts to overthrow him, resulting in more death.

Answer 50

Macbeth

Question 51

Novel
Author: Gustave Flaubert
1857
Characters: Emma Bovary, Charles Bovary, Rodolphe Boulanger, Monsieur Homais, Léon Dupuis, Monsieur Lheureux, Madame Homais, Justino
The story of Emma Bovary, a doctor’s wife whose passions and romantic notions drive her to start an affair, accumulate debts, entangle herself in lies and, in the end, commit suicide.

Answer 51

Madame Bovary

Question 52

Poem
Poet: Vyasa
200 BC
Characters:
Karna, Yudhishthir, Ashwatthama, Pandava, Dhritarashtra, Chitrangada, Draupadi
Revolves around the belief in one’s sacred duty called dharma. In this epic, life is depicted as a long journey where immorality is put down by justice, and morality triumphs in the end. It is the responsibility of the individual to follow the right path, since life in the world is short lived.

Answer 52

Mahabharata

Question 53

Novel
Author: Sinclair Lewis
1920
Characters: Carol Kennicott, Will Kennicott, Vida Sherwin, Guy Pollock, Maud Dyer, Miles Bjornstam, Fern Mullins, James Blausser
A scathing indictment of life in small-town America during the early years of the 20th century. The novel tells the story of Carol Milford, a young progressive woman raised in St. Paul, who marries Will Kennicott, a small-town doctor.

Answer 53

Main Street

Question 54

Novel
Author: George Eliot
1872
Characters: Dorothea Brooke, Mr. Arthur Brooke, Tertius Lydgate, Rev. Edward Casaubon, Mary Garth
A “study of provincial life.” At its center are the beautiful and inquisitive Dorothea Brooke and the ambitious young doctor Tertius Lydgate, who both have to abandon their idealist views when faced with the reality of daily life.

Answer 54

Middle March

Question 55

Novel
Author: Herman Melville
1851
Characters: Captain Ahab, Ishmael, Queequeg, Starbuck, Father Mapple, Stubb
The book is centered on the sailor Ishmael’s narrative of the maniacal quest of Ahab, captain of the whaling ship Pequod, for vengeance against the title character, the giant white sperm whale that bit off his leg on the ship’s previous voyage.

Answer 55

Moby Dick

Question 56

Drama
Playwright: William Shakespeare
1598
Characters: Beatrice, Benedict, Leonato, Dogberry, Don Pedro, Borachio, Claudio, Don John, Conrade, Hero
Count Claudio falls in love with Hero, the daughter of his host. Hero’s cousin Beatrice and Benedict are each duped into believing the other is in love with them. Claudio is deceived by a malicious plot and denounces Hero as unchaste before they marry. She faints and is believed dead, but recovers to be proved innocent by a chance discovery. Benedict wins Beatrice’s love defending her cousin’s honor, and to his surprise, Claudio is reunited with Hero, who he believed dead.

Answer 56

Much Ado about Nothing

Question 57

Novel
Author: Willa Cather
1918
Characters: Jimmy Burden, Ántonia Shimerda, Lena Lingard, Emmaline Burden, Josiah Burden
tells the story of Jim Burden and his enduring friendship with Antonia Shimerda. Set in the American Midwest in the late 19th century, it explores themes of immigrant identity, resilience, and the power of memory.

Answer 57

My Antonia

Question 58

Novel
Author: George Orwell
1948
Characters:
Winston Smith, Big Brother, Emmanuel Goldstein, Julia, O’Brien, Charrington, Syme
Follows the life of Winston Smith, a low ranking member of ‘the Party’, who is frustrated by the omnipresent eyes of the party, and its ominous ruler Big Brother. ‘Big Brother’ controls every aspect of people’s lives.

Answer 58

Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984)

Question 59

Drama
Playwright: Jean-Paul Sartre
1944
Characters: Joseph Garcin, Inèz Serrano, and Estelle Rigault
Three damned souls, Joseph Garcin, Inèz Serrano, and Estelle Rigault, are brought to the same room in Hell and locked inside by a mysterious valet. They had all expected torture devices to punish them for eternity, but instead, find a plain room furnished in the style of the French “Second Empire”

Answer 59

No Exit

Question 60

Poem
Poet: John Keats
1819
An undefined speaker looks at a Grecian urn, which is decorated with evocative images of rustic and rural life in ancient Greece. These scenes fascinate, mystify, and excite the speaker in equal measure—they seem to have captured life in its fullness, yet are frozen in time. The speaker’s response shifts through different moods, and ultimately the urn provokes questions more than it provides answers.

Answer 60

Ode on a Grecian Urn

Question 61

Poem
Poet: Fredrich von Schiller
1786
Describes the typically romantic ideal of a society of men equally bound together by bonds of joy and universal friendship. This concept is experienced as a true “return” to the divine dimension of the human being, idealized in Ancient Greece.

Answer 61

Ode to Joy