Smart Cookie Trivia

40 Literature Trivia Questions and Answers (Easy to Hard)

Authors, characters, first lines, and famous settings. These start easy and get harder as you go. Tap any question to reveal the answer and a quick fact.

1. 1Who wrote "Romeo and Juliet"?Answer

   William ShakespeareThe tragedy of the two young lovers is set in Verona, Italy.

2. 2Who wrote the Harry Potter series?Answer

   J.K. RowlingThe first book was published in 1997.

3. 3In "Moby-Dick", which captain is obsessed with hunting the white whale?Answer

   Captain AhabHerman Melville published the novel in 1851.

4. 4Who wrote "Pride and Prejudice"?Answer

   Jane AustenIt was published in 1813 and introduced Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy.

5. 5Who wrote the novel "1984"?Answer

   George OrwellOrwell was the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair.

6. 6In which novel does the lawyer Atticus Finch appear?Answer

   To Kill a MockingbirdHarper Lee's 1960 novel won the Pulitzer Prize.

7. 7Who wrote "The Cat in the Hat"?Answer

   Dr. SeussHe wrote it using a vocabulary of just a couple of hundred simple words.

8. 8Which hobbit carries the One Ring to Mordor?Answer

   Frodo BagginsHis loyal companion on the journey is Samwise Gamgee.

9. 9Who wrote "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer"?Answer

   Mark TwainMark Twain was the pen name of Samuel Clemens.

10. 10Which fictional detective lives at 221B Baker Street?Answer

    Sherlock HolmesArthur Conan Doyle introduced him in 1887.

11. 11Who wrote "Charlotte's Web"?Answer

    E. B. WhiteThe story of Wilbur the pig and the spider Charlotte came out in 1952.

12. 12Who falls down a rabbit hole into Wonderland?Answer

    AliceLewis Carroll published her adventures in 1865.

13. 13Who wrote "The Great Gatsby"?Answer

    F. Scott FitzgeraldThe 1925 novel is set on Long Island during the Jazz Age.

14. 14Count Dracula's castle is in which region?Answer

    TransylvaniaBram Stoker's novel was published in 1897.

1. 15Who wrote "One Hundred Years of Solitude"?Answer

   Gabriel García MárquezThe Colombian author won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982.

2. 16Which novel opens: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times"?Answer

   A Tale of Two CitiesCharles Dickens's 1859 novel is set in London and Paris.

3. 17Who wrote "Frankenstein"?Answer

   Mary ShelleyShe began it at 18, and it was published in 1818.

4. 18Which poet wrote "The Raven"?Answer

   Edgar Allan PoeThe poem, with its refrain "Nevermore", appeared in 1845.

5. 19In which fictional town is "To Kill a Mockingbird" set?Answer

   Maycomb, AlabamaIt was loosely based on Harper Lee's hometown of Monroeville.

6. 20Who wrote "Don Quixote"?Answer

   Miguel de CervantesIt was published in two parts, in 1605 and 1615.

7. 21In "The Hunger Games", which district is Katniss Everdeen from?Answer

   District 12It is the coal-mining district of Panem.

8. 22Who wrote "Brave New World"?Answer

   Aldous HuxleyThe dystopian novel was published in 1932.

9. 23Which Russian author wrote "War and Peace"?Answer

   Leo TolstoyThe epic follows several families through Napoleon's invasion of Russia.

10. 24What is the name of Don Quixote's squire?Answer

    Sancho PanzaThe practical farmer is the perfect foil to the dreamy knight.

11. 25Who wrote "The Catcher in the Rye"?Answer

    J. D. SalingerIts narrator is the teenage Holden Caulfield.

12. 26Which epic poem follows Odysseus on his long journey home?Answer

    The OdysseyAttributed to Homer, it tells of his ten years of wandering after the Trojan War.

13. 27Who wrote "Jane Eyre"?Answer

    Charlotte BrontëIt was first published in 1847 under the pen name Currer Bell.

14. 28Which novel features firemen whose job is to burn books?Answer

    Fahrenheit 451Ray Bradbury's title is the temperature at which paper supposedly catches fire.

1. 29Who wrote "The Divine Comedy"?Answer

   Dante AlighieriIts three parts are Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso.

2. 30Which novel features the brooding Heathcliff?Answer

   Wuthering HeightsIt was Emily Brontë's only novel.

3. 31Which author created the fictional Yoknapatawpha County?Answer

   William FaulknerIt is his stand-in for a corner of northern Mississippi.

4. 32Who wrote "Things Fall Apart"?Answer

   Chinua AchebeThe 1958 novel is one of the most widely read works of African literature.

5. 33Which Shakespeare play contains the line "To be, or not to be"?Answer

   HamletThe Prince of Denmark speaks it while contemplating life and death.

6. 34Who wrote "The Tale of Genji"?Answer

   Murasaki ShikibuWritten in Japan in the early 11th century, it is often called the world's first novel.

7. 35Who wrote the play "Waiting for Godot"?Answer

   Samuel BeckettThe Irish playwright wrote it first in French.

8. 36Which poet wrote "The Waste Land"?Answer

   T. S. EliotThe poem was published in 1922.

9. 37What is the name of the main character in "Crime and Punishment"?Answer

   Rodion RaskolnikovFyodor Dostoevsky published the novel in 1866.

10. 38Who wrote "Mrs Dalloway"?Answer

    Virginia WoolfThe whole novel takes place on a single day in June in London.

11. 39Which book begins "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit"?Answer

    The HobbitJ.R.R. Tolkien published it in 1937.

12. 40What pen name did Mary Ann Evans write under?Answer

    George EliotHer novels include "Middlemarch" and "Silas Marner".