A new series beginning in 1800.
Beginning in the early years of the novel – as we know and love it – each quiz covers a decade of literary events – 2 questions per year. Births, deaths, publications, events; fiction, non-fiction, poetry, plays and books for children.
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Question of
1850 – Which letter of the alphabet is The Scarlet Letter in Hawthorne’s novel?
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A
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H
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Question of
1850 – The first modern public library opened in the UK, in which city?
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Salford
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Birmingham
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Question of
1851 – What was the best selling novel of the 19th century which was published in this year?
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Uncle Tom’s Cabin
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Bleak House
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Question of
1851 – ‘Call me Ishamael.’ Which famous first line does this come from?
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Moby Dick
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Kidnapped
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Question of
1852 – What is unique about the narrator in Dickens’ Bleak House?
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She is Dickens’ only female narrator
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He is an old man recounting the past
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Question of
1852 – What invaluable reference book for writers was first published in this year?
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Roget’s Thesaurus
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Oxford English Dictionary
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Question of
1853 – In Elizabeth Gaskell’s Ruth, what is the name of Ruth’s illegitimate son?
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Leonard
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Henry
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Question of
1853 – Who wrote the memoirs Twelve Years a Slave?
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Solomon Northup
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Frederick Douglass
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Question of
1854 – ‘We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.’ Which writer was born in Dublin on October 16th?
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Oscar Wilde
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GB Shaw
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Question of
1854 – Which famous poem begins, ‘Half a league, half a league/Half a league onward…’
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The Charge of the Light Brigade
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Invictus
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Question of
1855 – The first of Trollope’s Chronicles of Barsetshire is published. What is it called?
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The Warden
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Barchester Towers
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Question of
1855 – What is the name of Dickens’ Little Dorrit who made her debut this year?
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Amy
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Emily
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Question of
1856 – ‘Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.’ Which playwright was born in Dublin on July 26th?
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George Bernard Shaw
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Seán O’Casey
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Question of
1856 – What is the name of Flaubert’s Madame Bovary?
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Emma
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Charlotte
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Question of
1857 – In Thomas Hughes’ children’s novel, which school were Tom Brown’s Schooldays spent at?
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Rugby
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Harrow
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Question of
1857 – Elizabeth Gaskell published her biography of which great female writer?
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Charlotte Bronte
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Jane Austen
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Question of
1858 – Dickens embarked on the first of his exhausting reading tours. How many towns or cities did he perform at?
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49
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25
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Question of
1858 – Finish the title of George Eliot’s first published work: Scenes of — Life.
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Clerical
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Village
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Question of
1859 – Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management is published. What is Mrs Beeton’s first name?
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Isabella
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Eliza
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Question of
1859 – What profession does Eliot’s Adam Bede follow?
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Carpenter
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Blacksmith
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