Literature Quiz – Printable Version
20 multiple-choice questions with an explained answer key, ready to print.
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Name: ………………………………Score: ……… / 20
- Who wrote 'Britannicus'?
- A. Racine
- B. Corneille
- C. Boileau
- D. Shakespeare
- Which author created the character of Sherlock Holmes?
- A. Arthur Conan Doyle
- B. Agatha Christie
- C. G.K. Chesterton
- D. Edgar Allan Poe
- Which French writer received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957?
- A. André Gide
- B. François Mauriac
- C. Albert Camus
- D. Jean-Paul Sartre
- Which author wrote 'In Search of Lost Time' (À la recherche du temps perdu)?
- A. André Gide
- B. Paul Valéry
- C. Marcel Proust
- D. Anatole France
- Which Irish author wrote 'Ulysses'?
- A. James Joyce
- B. Oscar Wilde
- C. W.B. Yeats
- D. Samuel Beckett
- Which figure of speech is used in: 'A hunter who can hunt without his hunting dog'?
- A. Anaphora
- B. Alliteration
- C. Metaphor
- D. Metonymy
- On what is the doctrine of hedonism in philosophy based?
- A. The pursuit of love
- B. The pursuit of truth
- C. The pursuit of the subconscious
- D. The pursuit of pleasure
- In 'Romeo and Juliet', which Italian city are the two enemy families from?
- A. Florence
- B. Venice
- C. Verona
- D. Milan
- What is the correct plural of 'bail' (lease contract)?
- A. bails
- B. bals
- C. baux
- D. bailes
- What is the meaning of the word 'palimpsest' in literature?
- A. A novel whose chapters can be read in any order
- B. A figure of speech repeating a word at the start of a sentence
- C. A text whose writing has been erased to write a new one over it
- D. A collection of anonymous medieval poems
- What is the special feature of a palindrome?
- A. It reads the same in both directions
- B. It is always long
- C. It contains errors
- D. It is in verse
- In 'The Little Prince', what does the narrator draw at the beginning?
- A. An airplane
- B. An elephant inside a boa
- C. A hat
- D. A sheep
- Which author is famous for his prose poems 'Le Spleen de Paris'?
- A. Verlaine
- B. Baudelaire
- C. Hugo
- D. Rimbaud
- Who is the quintessential 'poète maudit' (cursed poet)?
- A. Hugo
- B. Baudelaire
- C. Molière
- D. La Fontaine
- Who wrote 'Les Liaisons dangereuses' (Dangerous Liaisons)?
- A. Rousseau
- B. Voltaire
- C. Laclos
- D. Sade
- Which author is famous for his madeleine?
- A. Proust
- B. Hugo
- C. Flaubert
- D. Zola
- What is the figure of speech that replaces a word with a phrase that describes it without naming it?
- A. Synecdoche
- B. Periphrasis
- C. Ellipsis
- D. Metonymy
- Who is the author of 'Nausea', the first existentialist novel?
- A. André Malraux
- B. Jean-Paul Sartre
- C. Simone de Beauvoir
- D. Albert Camus
- Which author wrote 'Le Grand Meaulnes'?
- A. Henri Barbusse
- B. Pierre Loti
- C. Francis Jammes
- D. Alain-Fournier
- What is the correct agreement in the sentence: 'Les tableaux qu'il a __ au musée' (The paintings he __ at the museum)?
- A. exposé
- B. exposer
- C. exposés
- D. exposées
Answer key — Literature Quiz
- A. RacineAt the death of Emperor Claudius, it was not his son Britannicus who succeeded him, but the son of Agrippina, his second wife, whom he had adopted: Nero.
- A. Arthur Conan DoyleArthur Conan Doyle created Sherlock Holmes in 1887. He tried to kill him off in 1893 (fed up with him!), but the public protested so strongly he had to bring him back.
- C. Albert CamusAlbert Camus received the Nobel at age 44 in 1957, one of the youngest French laureates.
- C. Marcel ProustThis monumental 7-volume work (1913–1927) is one of the longest novels in French literature.
- A. James JoycePublished in 1922, Joyce's Ulysses depicts a single day in Dublin (June 16, 1904).
- B. AlliterationAn alliteration is the repetition of the same consonant sounds in a sentence or verse, creating a rhythmic sound effect.
- D. The pursuit of pleasureAccording to this doctrine, the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of suffering are the fundamental motives of human activity.
- C. VeronaShakespeare's play (c. 1595) features the Montagues and the Capulets in Verona.
- C. bauxThe plural of 'bail' is 'baux', on the model of travail/travaux, corail/coraux.
- C. A text whose writing has been erased to write a new one over itA palimpsest is a parchment manuscript whose ink has been scraped or washed off to reuse the support.
- A. It reads the same in both directionsLike 'A man, a plan, a canal: Panama'. Handy for people who get bored.
- B. An elephant inside a boaEveryone thinks it's a hat, but no. The disappointment of adults starts right there.
- B. BaudelaireWhen he wasn't being depressed by the flowers of evil, he was wandering around Paris.
- B. BaudelaireTo be cursed, you need talent and a lot of problems.
- C. LaclosThe nastiest emotional manipulation manual in history.
- A. ProustThe most famous pastry in world literature.
- B. PeriphrasisPeriphrasis consists of designating a thing or person by a descriptive expression rather than by its proper name.
- B. Jean-Paul SartrePublished in 1938, 'Nausea' is Sartre's first novel. The hero, Antoine Roquentin, feels a profound anguish at the absurdity of the existence of things.
- D. Alain-Fournier'Le Grand Meaulnes' (1913) is Alain-Fournier's only novel; he died at 27 during World War I.
- C. exposésWith auxiliary 'avoir', the past participle agrees with the direct object if it precedes the verb.