MAJOR - Literature Flashcards
Who wrote this line? “Where ignorance is bliss, it is folly to be wise”.
a. Robert Browning
b. William Shakespeare
c. Rudyard Kipling
d. Edgar Allan Poe
B – William Shakespeare
What nationality was Robert Louis Stevenson, writer of ‘Treasure Island’?
a. English
b. Welsh
c. Irish
d. Scottish
D – Scottish – Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
Which Bronte writer authored “Jane Eyre”?
a. Charlotte
b. Emily
c. Cristina
d. Anne
A – Charlotte – Charlotte’s Jane Eyre was the first to know success, while Emily’s Wuthering Heights, Anne’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and other works were later to be accepted as masterpieces of literature. Christina Georgina Rossetti was an English poet who wrote a variety of romantic, devotional, and children’s poems. She is best known for her long poem Goblin Market, her love poem Remember, and for the words of the Christmas carol In the Bleak Midwinter.
In which century were Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales written?
a. 14th
b. 15th
c. 16th
d. 17th
A – 14th – The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer at the end of the 14th century.
The following taboo phrases were used by which writer? “I fart at thee”, “shit on your head’, “dirty bastard”
a. Ernest Hemingway
b. Henry James
c. Ben Johnson
d. Arnold Bronte
C – Ben Johnson –
In the book’ The Lord of the Rings’, who or what is Bilbo Baggins?
a. man
b. hobbit
c. wizard
d. dwarf
B – hobbit – Bilbo Baggins is the protagonist and titular character of The Hobbit and a supporting character in The Lord of the Rings, two of the most well-known of J. R. R. Tolkien’s fantasy writings.
Name the book which opens with the line ‘All children, except one grew up’?
a. The Jungle Book
b. Tom Sawyer
c. Peter Pan
d. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
C – Peter Pan – Peter Pan is a character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie (1860–1937). A mischievous boy who can fly and magically refuses to grow up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood adventuring on the small island of Neverland as the leader of his gang the Lost Boys, interacting with mermaids, Indians, fairies, pirates, and (from time to time) meeting ordinary children from the world outside.
How many lines does a sonnet have?
a. 12
b. 13
c. 14
d. 15
C – 14 – The term “sonnet” derives from the Occitan word sonet and the Italian word sonetto, both meaning “little song” or “little sound”. By the thirteenth century, it had come to signify a poem of fourteen lines that follows a strict rhyme scheme and specific structure.
Who was the author of the famous storybook ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’?
a. H.G. Wells
b. Lewis Carroll
c. Mark Twain
d. E.B. White
B – Lewis Carroll – Some of H.G. Wells’ works are “The Time Machine”, “The Island of Doctor Moreau”, “The Invisible Man”, “The War of the Worlds”. He is also known as the Father of Science Fiction. Mark Twain is most popular in his “Tom Sawyer” and “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”. E.B. White is well known of her novel “Charlotte’s Web”.
“Cabbages and Kings” (1904) is either a novel or a collection of related short stories written by O. Henry. In it, he coined the phrase “banana republic.” On what was his title based?
a. Mark Twain’s “The Prince and the Pauper”
b. Alice Hegan Rice’s “Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch”
c. “The Shahnameh” — an 11th Century Persian epic poem
d. Lewis Carroll’s poem “The Walrus and the Carpenter”
D – Lewis Carroll’s poem “The Walrus and the Carpenter”
Two versions of Robert A. Heinlein’s novel “Stranger in a Strange Land” have been published: the edited version first published in 1961 and the original full-length (60,000 words longer) published posthumously in 1991. From what does the title derive?
a. The play “Antony and Cleopatra” by William Shakespeare
b. The Old Testament Book of Exodus
c. The novel “Gulliver’s Travels” by Jonathan Swift
d. The book “Utopia” by Sir Thomas More
B – The Old Testament Book of Exodus – Moses fled Egypt and married Zipporah. “And she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land.” Exodus 2:22 Authorized (King James) Version.
Southern American poet, novelist and literary critic Robert Penn Warren wrote “All the King’s Men” in 1946. The novel won the 1947 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. On what is the book’s title based?
a. A verse in the nursery rhyme “Humpty Dumpty”
b. William Shakespeare’s play “Richard III”
c. Oscar Wilde’s short story “The Young King”
d. Joyce Kilmer’s poem “Kings”
A – A verse in the nursery rhyme “Humpty Dumpty” – Robert Penn Warren is the only person to have won Pulitzer Prizes for both fiction and poetry. A commemorative postage stamp was issued in the United States in 2005 to honor the 100th anniversary of his birth. Stage plays, television versions, several movies and even a grand opera have been based on Warren’s novel.
Which novel, eventually published in 1945, was rejected by a New York publisher stating ‘it is impossible to sell animal stories in the USA’?
a. Animal Farm
b. Black Beauty
c. Watership Down
d. The Tale of Peter Rabbit
A – ‘Animal Farm’ was written by George Orwell, and is a satire on revolution and the corruption of power. One of the best known lines from it is ‘all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others’. The rejection notice implies that the publisher did not actually read the book or totally misunderstood it if he did. ‘Watership Down’ was written by Richard Adams and published in 1972. Anna Sewell wrote ‘Black Beauty’, which appeared in 1877 and Beatrix Potter was the author of ‘The Tale of Peter Rabbit’ from 1902.
Which writer of spy fiction, and creator of Smiley, was rejected with the words ‘you are welcome to ** – he hasn’t got any future’?
a. Ian Fleming
b. John le Carré
c. Eric Ambler
d. Len Deighton
B – John le Carré – This was a rejection notice for ‘The Spy Who Came in From the Cold’, which found another publisher in 1963. Le Carré had worked for both MI5 and MI6, the British intelligence services, and left to become an author full time following the success of this novel. Among Len Deighton’s novels are ‘The Ipcress File’ and Eric Ambler wrote ‘The Mask of Dimitrios’. Fleming, of course, is the creator of probably the most famous spy of all in James Bond.
‘The Good Earth’ was rejected fourteen times, before being published and going on to win the Pulitzer Prize. Who was the author?
a. Pearl S. Buck
b. John Steinbeck
c. Edith Wharton
d. Henry Miller
A – Pearl S. Buck – One rejection notice read ‘I regret that the American public is not interested in anything on China’. The novel was published in 1931 and won the Pulitzer Prize the following year. Pearl S Buck wrote numerous other novels, including ‘East Wind, West Wind’, short stories, biographies and non-fiction works and won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938.
