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
1910 – What is the name of the bleak mansion that Mary is sent to in Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden?
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Misslethwaite Manor
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Moor House
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Question of
1910 – Finish the title of HG Wells’ comic novel of this year: The — of Mr Polly
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History
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Adventures
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Question of
1911 – ‘I had the story, bit by bit, from various people…’ so begins which classic novel by Edith Wharton?
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Ethan Frome
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The Age of Innocence
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Question of
1911 – ‘All cruel people describe themselves as paragons of frankness.’ Which American playwright was born in Mississippi on March 26th?
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Tennessee Williams
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Arthur Miller
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Question of
1912 – What is the name of Henry Higgins’ co-conspirator in his efforts to turn a flower girl into a ‘lady’ in GB Shaw’s Pygmalion?
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Colonel Pickering
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Dr Pearce
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Question of
1912 – Which book by Zane Grey was one of the first and most popular in the Western genre?
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Riders of the Purple Sage
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The Lone Star Ranger
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Question of
1913 – O Pioneers! By Willa Cather tells of a family in Nebraska who have emigrated from where?
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Sweden
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Holland
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Question of
1913 – Paul Morel was the working title for which one of DH Lawrence’s classic novels?
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Sons and Lovers
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Women in Love
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Question of
1914 – ‘Somebody’s boring me. I think it’s me.’ Which Welsh writer was born in Swansea on October 27th?
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Dylan Thomas
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Kate Roberts
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Question of
1914 – Maurice, EM Forster’s novel about homosexual love, was written in this year but wasn’t published until when?
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1971
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1946
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Question of
1915 – ‘In Flanders fields the poppies blow/Between the crosses, row on row…’ which war poet wrote the haunting In Flanders Fields?
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John McCrae
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Wilfred Owen
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Question of
1915 – ‘Let us go then, you and I/When the evening is spread out against the sky…’ so begins one of the most famous poems in English Literature. Which one is it?
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The Love Song on J Alfred Prufrock
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If
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Question of
1916 – ‘A little nonsense now and then, is cherished by the wisest men.’ Which wonderful writer for children was born in Cardiff on September 13th?
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Roald Dahl
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Enid Blyton
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Question of
1916 – In Kafka’s novella, The Metamorphosis, what does Gregor get turned into?
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A giant bug
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A blackbird
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Question of
1917 – Owen’s Dulce et Decorum est is written in this year? What does the title mean?
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It is sweet and fitting
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Dreams and lies
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Question of
1917 – Summer is only one of two of Wharton’s novels not set in New York. Where is it set?
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New England
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Vermont
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Question of
1918 – Which novel won the first ever Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in this year?
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His Family by Ernest Poole
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The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington
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Question of
1918 – What is Antonia’s surname in Cather’s My Ántonia?
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Shimerda
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Cuzak
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Question of
1919 – Virginia Woolf’s novel Night and Day concerns women’s lives and women’s suffrage. What Shakespeare play does it reference throughout?
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As You Like It
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Twelfth Night
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Question of
1919 – ‘I’m just sick of ego, ego, ego. My own and everybody else’s.’ Which ground breaking writer was born in New Hampshire on January 1st?
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JD Salinger
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Truman Capote
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