NEW QUESTION CONNECTION LANGUAGE ARTS

ANCIENT AND LINEAGE-BASED LITERATURE

In the last decade of his reign, this ancient Babylonian king conquered the last of his rivals to create a unified Mesopotamian state. His most enduring historical legacy, however, was one of the earliest written code of laws. Who was this sixth king of Babylon's Amorite [AM-uh-ryt] Dynasty?

Hammurabi [hah-moo-RAH-bee]

Picking up where Genesis left off, this Biblical book describes the escape of the Israelites from Egypt and the giving of the Ten Commandments to Moses. Which book of the Bible is it?

(Book of) Exodus

This question requires a two-part answer. As told of in chapter 19 of the Book of Genesis, God rained down "brimstone and fire" to destroy what two "cities of the Plain" as punishment for their evil ways?

Sodom AND Gomorrah

Around 400 B.C. the Indian grammarian Panini [pah-NEE-nee] published his Eight Books in which he systemized the rules of what ancient language?

Sanskrit

On his seventh voyage, he was attacked by corsairs. On his sixth voyage, he visited the land of Serendip. On his third voyage, he encountered the Cyclops. Name this seaman whose tale is told in the Thousand and One Nights.

Sinbad (the Sailor) (Accept: Sindbad)

The death of Moses is recounted in which final book of the Biblical Pentateuch [PEN-tuh-took]?

Deuteronomy [doot-ur-AHN-uh-mee]

In 1901, an ancient stone slab was unearthed in Iran. On this slab was inscribed what collection of Babylonian law which prescribed "an eye for an eye" and "a tooth for a tooth"?

Code of Hammurabi (Accept:Hammurabi's Code)

Around 1225 A.D, the historian Snorri [SNOR-ee] Sturluson [STUR-loo-sohn] wrote the Heimskringla [HAYMS-kring-lah], a prose history about the kings of which Scandinavian country?

Norway

The Song of Hildebrand is one of the earliest complete poems from the writings of which European country?

Germany

The Indian sage Valmiki is said to be the author of what great Sanskrit epic in which the prince Rama tries to regain his throne and rescue his wife Sita.

(The) Ramayana [rah-MAH-yuh-nuh]

The ancient tale of Gilgamesh describes a hero who goes on a perilous quest in search of a magical herb that will give anyone who eats it what magical power?

Immortality

Written on seven clay tablets, the Enuma Elish [en-OO-muh EL-ish] is a sacred creation epic from which ancient civilization?

Babylonia

What ridge located east of Jerusalem across the Valley of Kidron is mentioned in the New Testament as the site of Jesus' Ascension?

Mount of Olives

This question requires a multiple answer. These three young princes of Judah were carried into captivity with Daniel. When they refused to worship Nebuchadnezzar's [neb-uh-kuhd-NEZ-urz] golden image, they were cast into the fiery furnace but their faith in the Lord saved them. Name these three Biblical figures.

Shadrach, Meshach, AND Abednego

In an ancient epic, what "wild man of the woods" is created by the gods as a foil for the wicked king Gilgamesh?

Enkidu [en-KEE-doo]

The medieval literature of Iceland is broken down into three categories. These consist of Eddic poetry, saga literature, and what third category of literature made up of sophisticated poems composed by the court poets?

Skaldic [SKAWL-dik] (Poetry or Literature)

Used in ancient times, give the name for the type of carved, upright stone slab that was often inscribed with funerary prayers for the deceased or with the accomplishments of great rulers.

Stele [STEE-lee]

This question requires a multiple answer. What two Indian epics make up the principle sources of Hindu social and religious doctrine?

(The) Mahabharata [muh-hah-BAH-ruh-tuh] AND (The) Ramayana

In Babylonian mythology, she was regarded as the mother of all life and as the goddess of love and war. Name this principle goddess of the ancient Mesopotamians.

Ishtar

It recounts the history of Persia from the dawn of man to the fall of a great empire in the 7th century A.D. Give the title of this national Iranian epic completed in 1010 after its author Firdawsi [fur-DOW-see] worked on it for more than 35 years.

Shah Namah [shah nah-MAH] (Accept: The Book of Kings)

Identify the 11th century Persian mystic, poet, and theologian whose most famous work is the Munajat, a collection of mystical prayers in rhymed prose.

Ansari [ahn-SAHR-ee]

Born of the air and water, he controls the elements through magical words and songs. Who is this greatest Finnish wizard and the hero of the Kalevala [KAH-le-vah-lah]?

Vainamoinen [VIE-nuh-moy-nun]

Dating from the 13th-century, what saga tells the story of Iceland's greatest poet and his lifelong feud with the Norwegian crown?

Egil's Saga

According to the book of Colossians, he was a Gentile and a physician. Later, he became the patron saint of doctors and artists. Name this author of the third Gospel of the New Testament as well as the Acts of the Apostles.

(Saint) Luke

It was regularly used during the time of the Roman Empire, but in the Middle Ages it began to be replaced by parchment, which would didn't cost as much. Identify this ancient writing material used by the people of Palestine, Syria, and Egypt.

Papyrus [puh-PY-ruhs]

After many daring adventures and escapes, he manages to gain great wealth, power, and the hand of the sultan's daughter. Name this character from the Arabian Nights who finds a magic lamp with a genie inside.

Aladdin

Arabic for "readings," the Koran is said to contain the sacred scriptures of which second largest world religion?

Islam

Today, this bird has become a symbol of death and resurrection. Name this eaglelike bird from ancient Arabia which would burn itself to death at the end of its 500-year lifecycle only to arise young again from the ashes.

Phoenix

In the book of Exodus, God sent ten plagues to punish the Egyptians for holding the Israelite people captive. The first plague caused the waters of the Nile River to turn to blood, while the last plague resulted in the death of all the firstborn Egyptian children. This final plague is remembered each year in which Jewish festival celebrated in late March or early April?

Passover

What 11th and 12th century astronomer and mathematician from ancient Persia is best known for his sensual poem The Rubaiyat [ROO-by-yaht]?

(Omar) Khayyam [ky-AHM]

Dating from about 3,200 years ago, oracle bones are the earliest evidence of writing from what country?

China

An ancient epic composed about 2000 B.C. has the brave king Gilgamesh ruling the city of Uruk [OO-ruk]. In what modern-day Middle Eastern country is the ancient Sumerian city of Uruk [OO-ruk] located?

Iraq

In the Bible, this substance was described as "white, powdery, and as fine as hoarfrost." Every day except on the Sabbath, God sent this miracle food falling from the sky to feed the Israelites as they fled to the Promised Land. What was this substance?

Manna

In Babylonian mythology, she was regarded as the mother of all life and as the goddess of love and war. Name this principle goddess of the ancient Mesopotamians.

Ishtar

In the Bible, Goliath was a great warrior who was defeated by King David. Goliath was a member of what group of ancient Sea Peoples who settled on the southern coastal plain of Canaan?

Philistines [FIL-uh-steenz]

ANCIENT GREEK AND ROMAN LITERATURE

An example of Old Attic Comedy from ancient Greece, what satire of the Athenian judicial system by Aristophanes [air-uh-STAHF-uh-neez] includes the name of stinging insects in its title?

(The) Wasps

Plato's Phaedo describes a scene in which what influential Greek philosopher meets his end by drinking hemlock?

Socrates

Vergil's Aeneid [i-NEE-id] describes the arrival of Aeneas [i-NEE-uhs] and the Trojan refugees at her court. Identify this queen of Carthage who eventually killed herself after Aeneas left Carthage for Italy.

Dido [DY-doh]

Aristotle credited this dramatist with several theatrical innovations, including the introduction of a third actor into the plot. Who was this Greek playwright from the 5th century B.C. who authored the plays Ajax, Antigone, and Oedipus Rex?

Sophocles [SAHF-uh-kleez]

In 58 B.C. he was exiled for his role in the murders of several conspirators, but after Julius Caesar's assassination in 44 B.C., he returned to politics, attacking Mark Antony and allying himself with Octavian. Identify this ancient Roman political leader who is also famous for his many eloquent orations.

(Marcus Tullius) Cicero [SIS-ur-oh]

A patron and censor, Cato the Elder advocated the complete destruction of what North African city, the opponent of Rome during the Punic Wars?

Carthage

She so loved Odysseus that she offered to grant him immortality if he would only consent to stay with her. Identify this nymph from Homer's Odyssey, on whose island the hero Odysseus spent seven years on his way home from Troy.

Calypso

In what satiric drama by Aristophanes [air-uh-STAHF-uh-neez] do 30,000 geese and cranes build the fantastic city of Cloudcuckooland?

(The) Birds

His works were influenced by his military experience in the Battles of Marathon and Salamis during the Persian Wars. The author of the earliest surviving tragedies, what Greek dramatist is known for Prometheus Bound and the Oresteia [or-es-TEE-uh] trilogy?

Aeschylus [ES-kuh-luhs]

Born in Cordoba, Spain, he went to Rome as a young boy to study rhetoric and philosophy. In 59 AD, he was made tutor to the emperor Nero, but he soon fell out of favor and went into retirement. Name this author known for his Moral Letters and Moral Essays.

Seneca

This Athenian author of the 5th century B.C. is considered the greatest historian of ancient Greece. Identify this ancient aristocrat remembered for his unfinished History of the Peloponnesian War.

Thucydides [thoo-SID-uh-deez]

Although he influenced the creation of more realistic dramas, the ancient tragic author Euripides [yur-IP-uh-deez] introduced what highly improbably dramatic device in which a god would be lowered onto the stage to resolve any crisis in the plot?

Deus Ex Machina [DAY-uhs eks MAH-kin-uh]

Aristotle introduced what term that refers to the purging of the emotions of pity and fear experienced by the audience viewing a classical tragedy?

Catharsis [kuh-THAR-sis]

Taken from the name of an ancient king and military figure, what two-word term has come to refer to a victory won at such a heavy cost to the victor that it is equivalent to a defeat?

Pyrrhic [PEER-ik] Victory

It was the site of Early Bronze Age settlements and became a part of the Delian [DEL-ee-uhn] League in 479 B.C. Give the name of this Greek island in the Aegean Sea that was the home of such poets as Alcaeus [al-SEE-uhs] and Sappho [SAF-oh].

Lesbos

The only complete surviving example of this type of drama from ancient Greece is Cyclops by Euripides [yur-IP-uh-deez]. Give the name for this type of brief, burlesque comedy dedicated to Dionysus and presented by actors who dressed in animal skins and tails.

Satyr (Play)

It is a genealogical account of the Greek gods from the beginning of time and is the earliest surviving Greek religious work. In what 8th century B.C. work does the poet Hesiod [HES-ee-uhd] describe Chaos, the Titans, and finally the creation of the Olympian gods?

Theogony [thee-AHG-uh-nee]

From what first and second century Greek author did Shakespeare borrow the information needed to write his last tragedy, Coriolanus?

Plutarch [PLOO-tahrk]

Give the name of the 1st century A.D. poet from ancient Rome who arranged over 1,500 of his short poems into the 14 book collection Epigrams.

Martial

His works inspired the medieval tradition of courtly love. Name the ancient Roman poet who is chiefly known for the lyric poems he wrote and dedicated to his beloved mistress Lesbia.

Catullus [kuh-TUHL-uhs]

As a youth, he was seduced by Aphrodite who later bore his son Aeneas [I-NEE-uhs]. Give the name of Aeneas's father who is carried to safety in Vergil's Aeneid [i-NEE-id] after the fall of Troy.

Anchises [an-KY-seez]

A common sight at theatres of ancient Greece was an architectural background through which the actors entered onto the stage. Give the name for this type of covered building that also functioned as a dressing room and storage area.

Skené

The French musician Maurice Ravel [rah-VEL] based one of his ballets on what ancient pastoral romance about two simple goatherds written by the third century Greek author Longus [LAWNG-guhs]?

Daphnis and Chloe

"Do not trust the horse, Trojans. Whatever it is, I fear the Greeks, even when they bring gifts." In what epic masterpiece by Virgil can the preceding quote be found?

(The) Aeneid

By what name did the Romans call the brave title hero written about by Homer in his Odyssey?

Ulysses

A prolific poet from Rome's Golden Age, what 1st-century B.C. author wrote about many mythological changes in his masterpiece the Metamorphoses [met-uh-MOHR-fuh-seez].

Ovid [AHV-id]

In Homer's Odyssey, Polyphemus [pah-luh-FEE-muhs] traps Odysseus and his crew in a cave and refuses to let them leave. Polyphemus was a member of a race of one-eyed giants in Greek mythology who were given what name?

Cyclops (Accept: Cyclopes)

What 4th century B.C. Greek philosopher included the famous allegory of the cave in Book 7 of his political dialogue The Republic?

Plato

First produced in 429 B.C., the title character of this drama learns that he has murdered his father and married his mother. Name this Sophocles drama, the first in his famous trilogy.

Oedipus Rex (Accept: Oedipus Tyrannus)

She was born around 630 B.C. on the Greek island of Lesbos in the Aegean Sea. Who was this Greek poet whose many love lyrics were addressed to women?

Sappho [SAF-oh]

The Greek poet Theocritus [thee-AHK-ri-tuhs] is known for his 30 short poems called the Idylls. These poems greatly contributed to the development of what type of literature which extols a rustic life in the countryside?

Pastoral (Literature)

His plays attacked the social and political abuses of his time and jeered at the tragedies of other playwrights of the period. Name the ancient Greek author of such comedies as The Clouds, The Wasps, and The Birds.

Aristophanes [ar-uh-STAHF-uh-neez]

Deserted by her husband Jason, the title character of what play by Euripides [yur-IP-uh-deez] murders her own children to get even?

Medea [meh-DEE-uh]

MEDIEVAL LITERATURE

In the Old English epic Beowulf, the hero vanquishes the monster Grendel and his nightmarish mother. By what creature is the warrior Beowulf finally killed?

(Fire) Dragon

The Lay of the Cid [SID] is a medieval epic concerning a brave warrior and his deeds. In what country was this famous poem written?

Spain

In 1859, Edward Fitzgerald translated what Persian poet's The Rubaiyat into English?

(Omar) Khayyam [ky-AHM]

In The Castle of Perseverance, the soul of Humanum Genus resides in a castle that is encircled by the forces of good and evil. This play is representative of what type of allegorical drama from the Middle Ages which presented the fall of man and his eventual redemption?

Morality Play(s)

This epic poem begins on Good Friday in the year 1300 when the narrator finds himself lost in the wood of Error. Soon, he is met by the spirit of Vergil and led through the Inferno, Purgatory, and into Paradise. Give the title of this epic poem by Dante.

(The) Divine Comedy (Accept: La Divina Commedia)

Northumbrian, Mercian, Kentish, and West Saxon were four dialects of what language used in Britain from the 5th century until the Norman Conquest in 1066?

Old English (Accept: Anglo-Saxon)

A favorite of England's Richard the Lionhearted, Blondel [BLAWN-del] was a French minstrel who composed about 20 song-poems. Give the name for these wandering French minstrels of the Middle Ages who mostly sang long ballads of courtly love.

Troubadour(s)

She has been married five times and tells a tale about one of King Arthur's knights who is given one year to save his life by finding out "what women most desire." Name this character who appears in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

(The) Wife of Bath

Through the treason of Ganelon, he is killed in a pass in the Pyrenees while returning from an invasion of Spain in 778. Who was this legendary nephew of Charlemagne and the hero of a French song cycle from the Middle Ages?

Roland

The works of Chaucer and the enduring stories of Piers Plowman and "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" were originally written in what form of the English language that was spoken from the time of the Norman invasion in 1066 until the introduction of printing in England in 1476?

Middle English

Versions of this English ballad exist in Italy, Holland, Germany, and Scotland, where the hero is called Ronald. Sir Walter Scott postulated that it originally referred to the death of the Earl of Murray, the nephew of Robert Bruce. Name this English melody in which a young man and his hunting hounds are poisoned and await death.

"Lord Randal"

Identify the medieval theologian who wrote the following lines in a famous 5th century work. "From these and similar testimonies, all of which it were tedious to cite, we have learned that there is a city of God, and its Founder has inspired us with a love which makes us covet its citizenship."

(Saint) Augustine

By what two-word name is the supposed author of the medieval tale "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" known?

Pearl Poet

In Malory's Morte D'Arthur, this figure hunts the Questing Beast. He is the father of the knights Dornar and Percival, among others, and was killed by Sir Gawain in revenge for the death of his father. Who was this character from the Arthurian legends?

(King) Pellinore

Its discovery was the prime objective of all the medieval alchemists. Name this hypothetical substance which could, according to legend, convert all baser metals into gold.

Philosopher's Stone

The main character of this type of play is usually either a Shinto god or a deceased nobleman looking for salvation. Give the name for this type of one-act play, the oldest form of traditional drama in Japan.

No [NOH] (Drama)

Until the 12th century A.D. most literary writings produced in Gaul were written in what language?

Latin

This Germanic epic is based on tales from the Poetic Edda and the Volsung Saga. The story of the warrior Siegfried is presented in this medieval tale which served to inspire Richard Wagner's [VAHG-nur] Ring cycle. Name it.

Nibelungenlied [nee-be-LUNG-en-leet]

This cycle of medieval plays dramatizes events from the creation of the universe to the hanging of Judas Iscariot. Name this series of mystery plays that was originaly acted at the English fairs of Widkirk.

Wakefield Plays (or Mysteries) (Accept: Towneley Plays or Mysteries)

This character from German folklore was said to live in the Black Forest and lure children to their deaths. Name this king of the elves, the subject of famous works by Goethe [GUR-tuh] and Schubert [SHOO-bairt].

Erl-King (Accept: Erlkonig)

During the Middle Ages, the seven liberal arts were divided into two categories. Grammar, rhetoric, and logic made up the trivium while arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music made up what other category?

Quadrivium

A contemporary of Geoffrey Chaucer, what 14th century alliterative poet is regarded as the author of the Middle English poem Piers Plowman?

(William) Langland (Accept: William Langley)

The Parliament of Fowls and Troilus and Creseyde [TROY-luhs and KRES-uh-duh] are two works by what medieval English poet who is best remembered for his Canterbury Tales?

(Geoffrey) Chaucer

It was a form of allegorical drama from the Middle Ages that depicted the fall of man, his life in sin, and his eventual redemption. What is this type of play, an example of which is the drama Everyman?

Morality Play

The female entertainer Okuni first performed this type of theater in which stylized acting is combined with lyric singing and dancing. Later, however, women were banned from professional stages and this form of drama has since been performed only by men. Name this theater spectacle from Japan.

Kabuki [kah-BOO-kee]

"Learn, therefore, first to cleanse, purify and sublime, to dissolve, congeal, distill and sometime to conjoin and separate, and how to do all, that when you think to rise, thou do not fall." These words were written by Simon Forman about what ancient science that was concerned with transmuting base metals into gold?

Alchemy

In which story from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales does one of King Arthur's knights go on a quest to find out "what women most desire"?

"(The) Wife of Bath's Tale"

An influence on Chaucer, what collection of stories by Boccaccio [boh-KAH-choh] is set in Florence during the time of a great plague?

Decameron [dee-KAM-uh-rahn]

What 15th century English author retold many of the King Arthur stories in his 1469 romance Le Morte Darthur [mohrt DAHR-THUR]?

(Sir Thomas) Malory

After the legendary King Arthur was killed by his nephew Mordred at the battle of Camlan, he was taken to what island where his wounds would be healed?

Avalon

RENAISSANCE ENGLISH LITERATURE (1400 TO 1600)

Above the Wicket Gate is written, "Knock and it shall be opened unto you." In what allegory would you find the Wicket Gate, the entrance to a road leading to the Celestial City?

Pilgrim's Progress

The 16th and 17th century poet John Donne [duhn] was the leading exponent of the metaphysical style of poetry. In his poem "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" Donne compares two lovers' souls to the legs of what mathematical device used for drawing circles?

Compass

Bottom and his crew of artisans, Oberon and Titania, and Hermia and Lysander all appear in what 1595 comedy by Shakespeare?

(A) Midsummer Night's Dream

The title of this 1516 work literally translates as "no place." The island described in the essay was supposedly located somewhere in the Southern Hemisphere. As described by the character of Raphael Hythloday, this island was an ideal community ruled by reason. Name the island and you've also named what essay by the English statesman Sir Thomas More?

Utopia

At the end of Hamlet, this character is left alive after a bloody scene in which Hamlet, Laertes, and the king and queen all die. Name this trusted friend of Hamlet.

Horatio

Which character from Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queen was meant to signify Queen Elizabeth I?

Gloriana

After an apprenticeship to his bricklayer stepfather and military service in Flanders, he tried his hand at acting and playwrighting. Name this Elizabethan dramatist whose comedies include Bartholomew Fair, Volpone [vohl-POH-nee], and The Alchemist.

(Ben) Jonson

Sir Thomas Wyatt, John Milton, Christopher Marlowe, and Sir Thomas More all lived and wrote during what period in English history which lasted from 1485 until 1660?

Renaissance

Written in two parts, what 1590 play by Christopher Marlowe chronicles the rise of a lowly shepherd to an ambitious conqueror?

Tamburlaine the Great

By the end of the drama, a total of 9 characters have died bloody deaths on stage. Give the title of this 1586 revenge play by Thomas Kyd in which Bel Imperia's lover, Horatio, is murdered by her brother Lorenzo.

(The) Spanish Tragedy

This question requires a multiple answer. Their works were praised for their authentic portrayal of manners and served to influence the ribald comedies of the Restoration period. Name these two Jacobean playwrights, contemporaries of Shakespeare, who wrote A King and No King and The Woman Hater.

(Francis) Beaumont [BOH-mahnt] and (John) Fletcher

An English dramatist, he is known for his portrayal of passion and for his concentration on incest, as evidenced in the plays 'Tis Pity She's a Whore and The Broken Heart. Who was this playwright from the early Stuart period?

(John) Ford

This play was first performed for the Queen of England for the Christian feast of Epiphany in January of 1601. Much of the comedy is supplied by Sir Toby Belch and Andrew Aguecheek while the power of love is illustrated by Sebastian and Viola. Give the title of this comedy by Shakespeare.

Twelfth Night

Name the 17th century metaphysical poet famous for such works as "The Garden" and "To His Coy Mistress".

(Andrew) Marvell

In what parody of a famous Christopher Marlowe poem would you find the following lines? "If all the world and love were young / And truth in every shepherd's tongue / These pretty pleasures might me move / To live with thee and be thy love."

"(The) Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd"

In what work by John Donne can the following quote be found? "Any man's death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

"Meditation 17"

To what character does Richard Lovelace dedicate the words "I could not love thee, Dear, so much / Loved I not honor more"?

Lucasta

In 1471, he visited Germany, where he learned the art of printing. Five years later, what merchant and writer established the first printing press in England?

(William) Caxton

Ben Jonson pioneered a dramatic form in which he exposed the follies of men on stage in the hope that, seeing their humanly defects ridiculed before an audience, people would mend their ways. Give the three-word term for this type of comedy written by Ben Jonson.

Comedy of Humors

The 1566 drama The Supposes was the first English prose comedy. The 1573 play Jocasta was one of the earliest English blank-verse tragedies. The 1576 play The Steele Glass was the first true English satire. Identify the innovative Elizabethan playwright and poet who authored all of the preceding works.

(George) Gascoigne [gas-KOYN]

Edmund Kean, John Gielgud, Alec Guinness, and Laurence Olivier have all performed at this London theatre that opened in 1818. Give the popular name for this theatre whose official name became the Royal Victoria in 1833.

Old Vic (Theatre)

It is a pastoral elegy written on the death of Edward King, a friend of the author. What is this 1638 poem by John Milton in which Nature itself mourns the passing of the young student?

Lycidas

The Forced Marriage and The Lucky Chance are two plays by what 17th century dramatist, the first woman to write professionally for the English stage?

(Aphra) Behn [BAYN]

The plot for this 1599 play was taken from one of the biographies contained in Parallel Lives by the Greek author Plutarch [PLOO-tahrk]. Name this Shakespearean play in which the title character, a powerful Roman general and dictator, is warned to "beware the ideas of March."

Julius Caesar

The nickname of the author William Shakespeare contains the name of what English river, near which Shakespeare was born?

(River) Avon

A great English poet of the 17th century, he was bedridden in the last years of his life. During this period, he was often visitied by many younger admirers who were known collectively as the "Sons of Ben." Name him.

(Ben) Jonson

It was during this time period in European history that Cervantes [sair-VAHN-tays], More, and Shakespeare lived and wrote. Name this period which lasted from the early 1300s until the late 1500s.

Renaissance

In what European country is Shakespeare's revenge tragedy Hamlet set?Denmark

What character from a famous play by Christopher Marlowe asks the following upon conjuring up the beautiful Helen of Troy? "Is this the face that launched a thousand ships, and burnt the topless towers of Ilium?"

(Doctor) Faustus

Name the Elizabethan playwright famous for his tragedy The White Devil and for his "blood and thunder" play The Duchess of Malfi.

(John) Webster

Along with Macbeth, this Shakespearean character receives prophecies from the three witches. Name this character who is murdered on Macbeth's orders but who later returns from the grave as a ghost that only Macbeth can see and hear.

Banquo

This English poet left the long allegorical poem The Faerie Queene unfinished at the time of his death. Name this "Prince of Poets" from the Elizabethan era.

(Edmund) Spenser

Which of King Lear's three daughters in a famous play by Shakespeare is the only one who proves faithful to her aging father?

Cordelia

RENAISSANCE EUROPEAN LITERATURE (1400 TO 1600)

Besides being a monarch, Queen Margaret of Navarre was also an author. She wrote the first collection of French tales, a work that was modeled on what mid-14th century collection by Giovanni Boccaccio [boh-KAH-choh]?

(The) Decameron

Influenced by the study of the philosophy and literature of ancient Greece and Rome, it developed in Europe during the Renaissance. What is this philosophy that emphasizes the personal worth of the individual and the central importance of human values?

Humanism

What author wrote the following line in a famous 1513 work? "It is not essential then that a prince should have all the good qualities which I have enumerated above, but it is most essential that he should appear to have them."

(Nicolo) Machiavelli [mahk-ee-uh-VEL-lee]

In his Adages, he showed the consistency of Christian teachings with ancient pagan wisdom. Who was this 15th and 16th century Dutch humanist who satirized the corruptions of the clergy in his 1509 work The Praise of Folly?

(Desiderius) Erasmus [ir-AZ-muhs]

Taken from the Italian word for "little song," what type of poem is made up of 14 lines of iambic pentameter?

Sonnet

The French poet Adam de la Halle [duh lah ahl] wrote many lyrics of courtly love. One of his plays makes use of an early version of the legends surrounding what famous outlaw who lived in England's Sherwood Forest?

Robin Hood

Identify the popular 16th century author of the French Renaissance who is given credit for developing the personal essay.

(Michel de [mee-SHEL duh]) Montaigne [mohn-TAYN]

This Renaissance scholar was patronized by the Colonna family of Rome. In 1342, he published his Song Book, a collection of love lyrics written to his beloved Laura. Who was this famous Italian humanist?

Petrarch [PEE-trahrk]

Without the means for much of a formal education, he became a soldier and lost the use of his left hand in the 1571 Battle of Lepanto. He later took up writing, producing such works as Galatea and The Trip to Parnassus. This Spanish author is better known, however, for his novel about an aged nobleman who,

because he has been deluded by notions of chivalry, believes himself a knight. Name this author.

(Miguel de) Cervantes [sair-VAHN-tays] (Saavedra)

In his day, this Englishman was regarded as an ideal Renaissance courtier. He is today better remembered for his literary works such as Astrophel and Stella and The Defence of Poesie. Who was he?

(Sir Philip) Sidney

The Italian poet Ludovico Ariosto [ah-ree-AWS-toh] wrote Orlando Furioso about a famous medieval hero whom the Italians called Orlando. By what name did the French call Orlando?

Roland

Who am I? I was a 17th-century French novelist. Two of my works are translated together as Voyages to the Moon and the Sun. I was noted for dueling and my long nose, and I inspired a famous play by Edmond Rostand.

(Savinien [sah-veen-YAN]) Cyrano de Bergerac [see-rah-NOH duh bair-zhair-ahk]

Accompanied by the talkative squire Sancho Panza, Don Quixote sets off on a quest inspired by the love of what peasant girl?

Dulcinea [duhl-sin-AY-uh]

In an 1897 comedy by Edmond Rostand, Cyrano believes that his overly long nose will discourage love from what lady?

Roxanne

Walther von der Vogelweide [FOH-gel-VY-de] was the most important German lyric poet of the Middle Ages. Give the term for these love-singers of the 12th through 14th centuries that were later replaced by the meistersingers [MY-stur-sing-urz].

Minnesinger(s)

Dr. Johann Faust was a 16th century student of magic and alchemy who inspired two later works by Marlowe and Goethe [GUR-tuh]. In what country did the historical Faust live?

Germany

He is credited with starting opera in Spain. Who was this 17th century Spanish playwright, the author of the philosophical play Life is a Dream?

(Pedro) Calderon [kahl-day-ROHN] (de la Barca)

Immensely popular in Spain during the 16th century, what style of novel presents a roguish hero who wanders from place to place suffering hunger and humiliation before learning to survive by his wits?

Picaresque [pik-uh-RESK] (Novel)

The cultivation of fine manners was enormously important in the courts of 16th century Europe. Identify the Italian writer who formulated the qualities of the perfect courtier in his 1528 Book of the Courtier.

(Baldassare) Castiglione [bahl-dahs-SAH-ray kahs-teel-YOH-nay]

In the eleventh month of her pregnancy, this literary character goes into labor as a result of eating too much tripe and gives birth to Gartantua [gahr-GAN-choo-uh] through her left ear. Name this character from Gargantua and Pantagruel [pan-TAG-roo-el].

Gargamelle

Supposedly founded by a Trojan hero, this city is home to Italy's second-oldest university. From 1318 until 1405 it fell under the rule of the Carrara family. Identify this city in northeastern Italy in which the Renaissance is recognized to have begun.

Padua [PA-juh-wuh]

Italian for "four hundreds," what term is used to refer to the 15th century, especially with reference to the art and literature of that period?

Quattrocento [kwat-roh-CHEN-toh]

This masterpiece of Spanish literature is considered second only to Don Quixote. Give the common title of this 1499 drama about the lovers Calisto and Melibea who are brought together by the character for whom the play is named.

Celestina [thay-lays-TEE-nah]

After observing the totalitarian government ruled by Cesare Borgia, the Florentine political theorist Nicolo Machiavelli [mahk-ee-uh-VEL-lee] wrote what treatise in which he argued that an effective ruler must be practical rather than virtuous in his use of power?

(The) Prince

The 366 lyrics in this Italian author's Canzoniere give an account of the poet's love for the idealized Laura. Identify the great Renaissance humanist who authored the Canzoniere.

(Francesco) Petrarch [PEE-trahrk]

What was the nationality of the 16th century essayist Michel [mee-SHEL] de Montaigne [mohn-TAYN]?

French

Cosimo patronized the arts and founded the Platonic Academy in Florence. Lorenzo created a brilliant court culture of painters, poets, and philosophers. Catherine greatly admired the doctrines of Machiavelli [mahk-ee-uh-VEL-lee].

Give the surname of the famous Florentine family whose members were among the great patrons of the Italian Renaissance.

Medici [MED-uh-chee]

Because he viewed Latin as a unifying language, many of his works emphasize the literary beauty and moral content of classic literature. In 1509 he published The Praise of Folly in which he attacked the foolishness of his times. Name this Dutch humanist.

(Desiderius) Erasmus [ir-AZ-muhs]

They ranged from political and religious tracts to lyrical ballads and sensational stories. Give the name for these cheap, popular pamphlets that were sold during the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries by wandering peddlers.

Chapbook(s)

Printed in 1455, what is the two-word name of the most famous example of Latin incunabula [in-kue-NAB-ue-luh]?

Gutenberg Bible

The Institutes of the Christian Religion is a 1536 work by what theologian who guided the Protestant Reformation in France?

(John) Calvin

The cultivation of fine manners was enormously important in the courts of 16th century Europe. Identify the Italian writer who formulated the qualities of the perfect courtier in his 1528 Book of the Courtier.

(Baldassare) Castiglione [bahl-dahs-SAH-ray kahs-teel-YOH-nay]

He is a grotesque, comic giant who uses his dandruff as cannonballs. Name this title character and father of the giant Pantagruel [pan-TAG-roo-el] who was created by the French author Francois Rabelais [rahb-LAY].

Gargantua [gahr-GAN-choo-uh]

AMERICAN LITERATURE BEFORE 1800

This man's sister-in-law was the first female printer in New England. A noted printer himself, this Colonial statesman and author is known for the many aphorisms printed in his Poor Richard's Almanack. Who was he?

(Benjamin) Franklin

Thomas Shepard's The Sincere Convert is one of the earliest spiritual autobiographies written by members of what religious group that settled in the Massachusetts Bay Colony?

Puritans

Gilbert Tennent, George Whitefield, and Jonathan Edwards were active during what period of history in which a great resurgence in religious interest swept over the American colonies?

Great Awakening

Description of New England, Map of Virginia, and The General History of Virginia are all documents which chronicle the early history of the English settlement in North America. These documents were all written by what member of the London Company whose life was saved by Powhatan's daughter Pocahontas?

(John) Smith

People of the Onondaga [ahn-uhn-DAW-guh] tribe have a creation myth in which the entire Earth is supported on the back of what type of sea creature?

Turtle

A religious separatist, William Bradford served as the governor of which New World colony for more than 30 years?

Plymouth (Colony)

The year 1783 saw the first appearance of the "blue-backed speller," a spelling book by what textbook author who is also known for producing the two-volume American Dictionary of the English Language?

(Noah) Webster

This colonial author created a national mood for revolution with his pamphlet Common Sense. Who was this early-American political author?

(Thomas) Paine

What type of writing did the pamphleteer Thomas Paine use to convince his readers that it was time for a revolution?

Persuasive (Writing)

She gained much recognition in colonial America with the collection Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. Identify this woman who is regarded as America’s first black poet.

(Phyllis) Wheatley

Give the title of Anne Bradstreet's 1650 poetry collection that was the first book of poems written in America.

(The) Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America

Freedom of the press in America was established due to an event that involved a colonial newspaper printer charged with seditious libel for opposing the government-controlled newspaper. Identify this German-born printer who was acquitted because what he printed was true.

(John Peter) Zenger

This question requires a multiple answer. The 18th century author William Byrd is famous for his History of the Dividing Line. This work resulted from a survey expedition Byrd made to map the boundary line between which two colonies?

Virginia AND North Carolina

Using the pseudonym J. Hector St. John, he wrote a series of essays that detailed life in colonial America. Who was this author of Letters from an American Farmer?

(Michel de) Crevecoeur [mee-SHEL day krev-KUR]

The Puritan clergyman Richard Mather helped to translate this work into English. What is the common name for this 1640 compilation of psalms that was the first book printed in the American colonies?

Bay Psalm Book

A sentimental and didactic tale of seduction, what 1791 novel by Susanna Rowson was extremely popular in America?

Charlotte Temple

This question requires a multiple answer. According to a famous aphorism in Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack, a man who goes to bed early and gets up early will be what three things?

Healthy, Wealthy, AND Wise

This question requires three names in your answer. In 1787 and 1788, what three individuals collaborated in writing The Federalist Papers, 85 essays that defended the new Constitution?

(Alexander) Hamilton, (John) Jay, AND (James) Madison

What 17th and 18th century American author did Robert Calef attack as an extremist witch hunter in his work More Wonders of the Invisible World?

(Cotton) Mather

This question requires a first and last name answer. Washington Irving based his short story "Rip Van Winkle" on this German legendary hero. Identify the fabled goatherd who drank the wine offered him by twelve knights and then fell asleep for twenty years.

Peter Klaus

Inspired by Sheridan's School for Scandal, this drama featured Jonathan, the first of many so-called "stage Yankees." Identify this 1787 play by Royall Tyler, America's first comedy.

(The) Contrast

Identify the Congregationalist minister who described the eternal punishments that awaited all sinners in his long ballad The Day of Doom.

(Michael) Wigglesworth

"Bar's Fight" was the first poem to be published by a black American. Name the Massachusetts slave who wrote this poem in 1746.

(Lucy) Terry

We see the sensitive side of him in a famous letter he wrote to his love, Sarah Pierrepont. Name this Colonial-era pastor who shows us his darker side in the fire-and-brimstone sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God."

(Jonathan) Edwards

The opening line of The American Crisis reads, "These are the times that try men's souls." Who wrote this famous pamphlet?

(Thomas) Paine

In a speech to the Virginia Convention in 1775, what man uttered the now-famous words, "Give me liberty or give me death"?

(Patrick) Henry

This man's sister-in-law was the first female printer in New England. A noted printer himself, this Colonial statesman and author is known for the many aphorisms printed in his Poor Richard's Almanack. Who was he?

(Benjamin) Franklin

Cotton Mather's Magnalia Christi Americana is a long historic memorial dedicated to the efforts of what religious group who wanted to establish their version of Christianity in the Western Hemisphere?

Puritan(s)

With only minor alterations, what important 1776 document is exclusively the work of Thomas Jefferson?

Declaration of Independence

This question requires a first and last name answer. He held a deep faith in the common people and effectively appealed to what was called his "trained mob." Identify this statesman, pamphleteer, and cousin of John Adams, who earned the nickname "Penman of the Revolution."

Sam(uel) Adams

Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack was a very popular book in both Europe and America. What was the only book in colonial America that was more widely read than Franklin's almanac?

(The) Bible

Give the name of the colonial settler who described the newly settled colony of Plymouth in his famous History of the Plymouth Plantation.

(William) Bradford

AMERICAN LITERATURE 1800 TO 1900

Every year since 1949 a cloaked stranger has visited the Baltimore grave of this famous American poet and left three roses and a bottle of cognac. Name this 19th century author of Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque.

(Edgar Allan) PoeIn January of 1897, on an expedition to Cuba, Stephen Crane was shipwrecked and spent two days in an open dinghy with three other men. This incident provided Crane with the inspiration for which of his stories that was published the following year?

"(The) Open Boat"

Hank Morgan, the protagonist of Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, is knocked unconscious and wakes to find himself back in the days of Camelot. He is condemned to death, but his life is saved after he astounds his captors by predicting what event?

Eclipse

This literary essay advises the reader to "trust thyself." In which of Emerson's essays does he write that, "Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist"?

"Self-Reliance"

During the Civil War, he helped recruit African American soldiers for the Union Army. Later, he fought vigorously for civil rights for African Americans. Who was this 19th century orator who published his autobiography, My Bondage and My Freedom, in 1855?

(Frederick) Douglass

"When I was a boy, there was but one permanent ambition among my comrades in our village on the west bank of the Mississippi River. That was, to be a steamboatman." What famous American author wrote these lines in his Life on the Mississippi?

(Mark) Twain (Accept: Samuel Clemens)

Death is not to be feared or despised because we are all a part of death and death is a part of us. That is the theme of what famous poem by William Cullen Bryant?

"Thanatopsis"

Kate Chopin wrote The Awakening about Edna, a woman whose sexual and artistic needs go unfulfilled. At the end of the novel, by what means does Edna commit suicide?

Drowning (Accept: Like Answers)

This question requires a first and last name answer. "The Man Without A Country" by Edward Everett Hale concerns a certain naval officer who curses

America and is condemned to live out his life aboard a ship. Name this character.

Philip Nolan

Who spoke the following words at an 1851 women's rights convention in Akron, Ohio? "That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman?"

(Sojourner) Truth (Accept: Isabella Bomefree OR Isabella Van Wagenen)

In what work can the following definitions be found? Diplomacy- the patriotic art of lying for one's country. Love- a temporary insanity curable by marriage. Saint- a dead sinner revised and edited.

(The) Devil's Dictionary

To what figure did Edgar Allan Poe dedicate the following words? "How statue-like I see thee stand/ The agate lamp within thy hand/ Ah! Psyche, from the regions which are holy land."

Helen (of Troy)

With a name meaning "laughing water," what Sioux Indian maiden becomes Hiawatha's bride in a famous Longfellow work?

Minnehaha

Of James Fenimore Cooper's five Leatherstocking Tales, the title of which one is missing from the following list? The Last of the Mohicans, The Pioneers, The Prairie, The Deerslayer.

(The) Pathfinder

As Peyton Farquhar falls to his death, he imagines that the rope around his neck has broken and he is set free. Give the title of the Ambrose Bierce short story whose true ending isn't quite as pleasant as Peyton dreamed.

"(An) Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"

This Quaker poet wrote and spoke in the old style, using words such as "thee, thou, and thine." He never drank an alcoholic beverage and always wore a plain black suit. Name this Fireside Poet who is remembered for "Maud Muller" and "Barbara Frietchie."

(John Greenleaf) Whittier

Washington Irving wrote The Sketch-Book using the pseudonym of Geoffrey Crayon. What nome de plume did he use when publishing his A History of New York in 1809?

(Diedrich) Knickerbocker

A Massachusetts dowager orders her fiance, Lambert Strether, to rescue her son Chad from a Parisian femme fatale in what 1903 novel by Henry James?

(The) Ambassadors

His photographs, articles, and books focused on the squalid living conditions of poor people living in New York City. In 1890 his ground-breaking book How the Other Half Lives was published. Identify this journalist who campaigned for improvements in urban living conditions.

(Jacob) Riis [rees]

An ancestor of the Pyncheon family accussed him of witchcraft and he was put to death for his crime. Before he died, however, he placed a curse on the family that has plagued them for several generations. Identify this character in Hawthorne's House of the Seven Gables.

(Matthew) Maule

A group of 18th-century American poets, they attended Yale University. Their goal was to establish a school of poetry based on uniquely American subjects, but they mostly emulated neoclassical models from Europe. Name this poetry school that included such prominent members as John Trumbull, David Humphreys, and Joel Barlow.

Hartford Wits (Accept: Connecticut Wits)

A 1960's television series was based on what Owen Wister novel with a geographical name?

(The) Virginian

His book The Old Swimmin' Hole and 'Leven More Poems made him one of the highest-paid poets of his time. Identify this Indiana-born poet remembered for "Little Orphan Annie" and "When the Frost Is on the Punkin".

(James Whitcomb) Riley

In his 1956 poem "A Supermarket in California," beat poet Allen Ginsberg makes many references to what famous 19th century poet best known for his 1855 collection Leaves of Grass?

(Walt) Whitman

The following lines are an excerpt from a famous tale by which American author? "Brer Fox went to work and got him some tar, and mixed it with some turpentine, and fixed up a contraption what he called a Tar-Baby."

(Joel Chandler) Harris

Influenced by the English Graveyard Poets, what 1817 poem by William Cullent Bryant advocates that death need not be feared but embraced?

"Thanatopsis"

In 1842 this American author was appointed U.S. minister to Spain, an office in which he served for four years. Some of his pseudonyms include Geoffrey Crayon and Diedrich Knickerbocker. Name this early 19th century author of A History of New York and The Sketch Book.

(Washington) Irving

In one of her poems Emily Dickinson writes that "some keep the Sabbath going to church." Give the three words which tell how the speaker of Dickinson's poem keeps the Sabbath.

Staying at home

Sherriff Jack Potter narrowly avoids being shot and killed by the drunken trouble-maker Scratchy Wilson in what 1898 short story by Stephen Crane?

"(The) Bride Comes To Yellow Sky"

From which 17th century English allegory did the American author William Makepeace Thackeray borrow the title for his novel Vanity Fair?

Pilgrim's Progress

This question requires a first and last name answer. Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1852 novel Uncle Tom's Cabin did much to popularize the abolitionist cause. In the novel, what cruel overseer of slaves is responsible for beating Uncle Tom to death?

Simon Legree

William Dean Howells and Henry James were two American writers who shifted literary tastes from romanticism to what movement which sought to portray true-to-life events without idealization?

Realism

BRITISH ISLES LITERATURE 1600-1800

According to a 1794 poem by William Blake, what creature is "burning bright in the forests of the night"?

Tyger

In 1611, what English king authorized the publication of the first English translation of the Bible?

(King) James I

In which of his satirical works did Jonathan Swift suggest that the children of poor Irish families should be eaten for food?

"(A) Modest Proposal"

In his poem called "Song" this English poet advises readers to "Go and catch a falling star." Name this 16th and 17th century metaphysical poet.

(John) Donne [duhn]

It was the first selection contained in the 1798 poetry volume Lyrical Ballads. Name this Coleridge poem about a sailor who is haunted by his decision to kill an innocent albatross.

"(The) Rime of the Ancient Mariner"

Horace Walpole's Castle of Otranto, Anne Radcliffe's Mysteries of Udolpho, and Matthew Gregory Lewis's The Monk are all examples of what type of novel that deals with mysterious and supernatural events?

Gothic (Romance)

Many of the poems in William Blake's Songs of Innocence have matching poems in Songs of Experience. Give the title of the innocent Blake poem which is meant to be the counterpart to his work "The Tyger."

"(The) Lamb"

This author wrote Shamela and Joseph Andrews, both based on works by Samuel Richardson. An English author, his other works include the farce Tom Thumb and his greatest novel Tom Jones. Who was this great 18th century writer?

(Henry) Fielding

After she is caught stealing, the title character of what Defoe novel is forced to go to America, where she starts a new and prosperous life?

Moll Flanders

It contains the well-known lyric "When Lovely Woman Stoops To Folly" and tells of the misfortunes of Charles Primrose and his family after losing their income. What is the title of the only novel by Irish author Oliver Goldsmith?

(The) Vicar of Wakefield

In Paradise Lost, Milton ranks him as one of the chief lords in Hell, second only to Satan. Identify this character whose name translates from the Hebrew as "Lord of the Flies."

Beelzebub

He attacked his literary enemy, Thomas Shadwell, in his satiric work "Mac Flecknoe" and memorialized Oliver Cromwell in his "Heroic Stanzas." Who was this English author whose other works include All For Love and Marriage a la Mode?

(John) Dryden

In his later years, this author spent much of his time outdoors fishing. Identify this 17th century English writer best known for The Compleat Angler, a discourse on the quiet pleasures of fishing.

(Izaak) Walton

This period in English literature began when Charles II regained the throne until the year 1789. Name this period in which Ben Jonson, Alexander Pope, and John Dryden all lived and wrote.

Restoration (Period or Era)

Consisting almost entirely of anecdotes and character sketches, what Laurence Sterne novel is a chaotic account of the life of its title character?

Tristram Shandy [TRIS-truhm SHAN-dee]

What objects are being described in the following excerpt from a William Wordsworth poem? Continuous as the stars that shine / And twinkle on the milky way, / They stretched in never-ending line / Along the margin of a bay; / Ten thousand saw I at a glance, / Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

Daffodils

This author's own life and exploits were reflected in those of his amoral characters. Who was this Restoration-era dramatist whose successes include The Comical Revenge and Man of Mode?

(Sir George) Etherege [ETH-uh-rij]

The overly jealous husband Pinchwife brings his wife Margery to London, where she becomes familiar with the fashionable ways of society and ends up cuckolding him with the libertine Horner in what Restoration drama by William Cycherley?

(The) Country Wife

An influence on later gothic works, what late 18th century tale by William Beckford focuses on a young caliph's search for meaning and satisfaction?

Vathek

This author wrote the domestic dramas The Christian Hero and Fatal Curiosity, but he is best known for the break he made with theatrical conventions in his tragic drama The London Merchant. Identify this English author.

(George) Lillo [LIL-oh]

Gulliver encounters this race in his fourth voyage. Although he longs to stay with them forever, they see him as just another Yahoo and he is forced to leave their land. Give the name for this race of rational horses who rule over the brutish Yahoos in Swift's Gulliver's Travels.

Houyhnhnms [HWIN-umz]

It narrates the ascension of the goddess of Dulness and her newly appointed prince to reign over the realm of all humane and intellectual pursuits. Identify this 1743 mock-epic that is considered Alexander Pope's finest literary achievement.

(The) Dunciad

A founding member of the Royal Society, he wrote his first volume of poems, Poetical Blossoms, when he was only 15. The other collections of what English metaphysical poet include The Mistress and Miscellanies?

(Abraham) Cowley

This English publisher was the first to print attractive and inexpensive books for children. Who was this publisher after whom an award for children's literature is named?

(John) Newbery

Christian sets off on a quest to find peace in the Celestial City in what allegorical work by author John Bunyan?

(The) Pilgrim's Progress

Considered the greatest poet of the 18th century, he wrote "Ode on the Death of a Favorite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Gold Fishes" and the famous "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard." Name this author.

(Thomas) Gray

Subtitled "A Vision in a Dream," this 1798 poem is based on the historical founder of a thirteenth-century Mongol empire. Name this poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in which the title character decrees a stately pleasure-dome in Xanadu [ZAN-uh-doo].

"Kubla Khan"

The 17th century poet Robert Herrick wrote the line, "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may" in his famous poem "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time." In this line, Herrick advocates what poetic motif which translates from Latin as "seize the day"?

Carpe Diem [KAR-pay DEE-em]

One of the most popular comic authors of Restoration dramas, what 17th and 18th century English author wrote Love for Love and The Way of the World?

(William) Congreve

He attacked his literary enemy, Thomas Shadwell, in his satiric work "Mac Flecknoe" and memorialized Oliver Cromwell in his "Heroic Stanzas." Who was this English author whose other works include All For Love and Marriage a la Mode?

(John) Dryden

The Lament for Art O'Leary by Eileen O'Connell was a eulogy for her husband who was killed by the sheriff of Cork. In what country was this eulogy set?

Ireland

On his third voyage, Lemuel Gulliver is rescued by inhabitants of the island of Laputa. What is so unusual about this large island?

It Can Fly (ACCEPT LIKE ANSWERS)

This period in English literature began when Charles II regained the throne until the year 1789. Name this period in which Ben Jonson, Alexander Pope, and John Dryden all lived and wrote.

Restoration (Period or Era)

BRITISH ISLES LITERATURE 1800-1900

The police officer, Sergeant Cuff, first appears in what 1868 work by Wilkie Collins, the first full-length detective novel?

(The) Moonstone

She is a rich, eccentric old recluse who lives in a decaying mansion. Who is this character from Dickens's Great Expectations who was jilted on her wedding day and has never taken off her wedding dress?

(Miss) Havisham

Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth collaborated to produce what famous collection of poems in 1798?

Lyrical Ballads

This question requires a first and last name answer. Mary Wollstonecraft wrote the famous work Vindication on the Rights of Women. Wollstonecraft was the mother-in-law of what other famous author famous for the poem"To A Skylark" and for the lyrical drama Prometheus Unbound?

Percy (Bysshe) Shelley

In 1823, this authored joined the Greek war for liberation from the Turks. Who was this Romantic poet, the author of Don Juan?

(Lord) Byron (Accept: George Gordon)

While at a house party on the shore of Lake Geneva in Switzerland in the summer of 1816, Lord Byron suggested that each of his guests compose a ghost story to entertain the company. What famous Gothic work by Mary Shelley resulted from this contest?

Frankenstein

What English author wrote the work from which William Makepeace Thackeray took the title for his novel Vanity Fair?

(John) Bunyan

"Porphyria's Lover" and "My Last Duchess" are two poems by Robert Browning. These works are examples of what type of poem in which a fictional speaker addresses a silent listener about some critical experience in his past?

Dramatic Monologue

After reading a composition in which a friend claimed that poetry no longer had a place in society, this Romantic author wrote A Defense of Poetry to counter that argument. Name this poet.

Percy (Bysshe) Shelley

Before writing Narrative of an Expedition to the Zanzibar and Its Tributaries, this Scottish-born English missionary and explorer discovered the Zambezi River and Victoria Falls. Name this man, the object of a famous search by Henry Stanley.

(David) Livingstone

"Gareth and Lynette," "Geraint and Enid," and "The Passing of Arthur" are all works included in what series of poems by Alfred, Lord Tennyson?

Idylls of the King

In what 1833 poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson does the author tell of an elderly king from Roman mythology who yearns to return to the sea and sail away from his home on the island of Ithaca?

"Ulysses"

During the first part of the 19th century, Gothic novels were so popular that the English author Jane Austen wrote what 1818 novel meant to parody the popular novels of her day?

Northanger Abbey

Identify the 19th and 20th century English author who gained popular success with his novels of African adventure King Solomon's Mines and She.

(H. Rider) Haggard

This question requires a multiple answer. Two sisters in a famous 1811 novel by Jane Austen are said to represent sense and sensibility. Name these two sisters.

Elinor AND Marianne (Dashwood)

An intelligent carpenter loves the young Hetty Sorrel, but she is seduced by the village squire Arthur Donnithorne. As the novel progresses, the title character comes to realize through his observations of Hetty that his own self-righteousness is a form of pride. Identify this work by George Eliot.

Adam Bede

Charles Dickens's Barnaby Rudge is exemplary of this style of popular novel that explored the nature of criminals and violence. What was this type of English novel whose name was drawn from a famous London prison?

Newgate (Novel)

Identify the London-born female novelist and social critic who contrasted the socioeconomic conditions in urban and rural areas of England in her 1855 work North and South.

(Elizabeth) Gaskell

Name the fictitious artist who created a portrait of the title character in Robert Browning's poem "My Last Duchess."

(Fra) Pandolf

Often known as the "Ettrick Shepherd," he spent his early life tending sheep. Later, however, Sir Walter Scott encouraged him to write poetry. Name this 19th century Scottish author of The Queen's Wake and The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner.

(James) Hogg

This poem is based on the legend that on a certain evening of the year, a young girl who performs a certain ritual will be granted a glimpse of her future husband. Give the title of this 1820 dreamlike poem by John Keats about the lovers Madeline and Porphyro.

"(The) Eve of St. Agnes"

In which long poem by John Keats does the author write of a mortal beloved by the moon goddess and of his despairing search for her?

"Endymion" [en-DIM-ee-uhn]

What 1898 work by Oscar Wilde resulted from a 2 year imprisonment for indecent acts?

(The) Ballad of Reading Gaol

In his "In Memorian," Alfred Lord Tennyson writes that of fifty seeds nature often brings how many to bear?

One

This question requires a first, middle, and last name answer. What poet wrote, "I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach" in her 1850 poem "How Do I Love Thee?"

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

The Talisman, The Bride of Lamermoor, and The Lady of the Lake are all works by what romantic author who is also known for his novel Ivanhoe?

(Sir Walter) Scott

The poem "Jabberwocky" can be found in what 1872 novel by Lewis Carroll, the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland?

Through the Looking Glass

Born with a clubfoot, George Gordon was a famous English Romantic poet. By what name does the literary world better know George Gordon?

(Lord) Byron

In what 1833 poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson does the author tell of an elderly king from Roman mythology who yearns to return to the sea and sail away from his home on the island of Ithaca?

"Ulysses"

His real name is Jack Dawkins, but what is the more common name of the chief pickpocket in Fagin's gang in Dickens' novel Oliver Twist?

Artful Dodger

This question requires a first and last name answer. Which of the three Bronte sisters wrote The Professor, Shirley, Villette, and Jane Eyre?

Charlotte Bronte

In which century did the author of the poems "The Cotter's Saturday Night" and "Tam o'Shanter" live?

18th (Century)

Name the fictitious artist who created a portrait of the title character in Robert Browning's poem "My Last Duchess."

(Fra) Pandolf

"Gareth and Lynette," "Geraint and Enid," and "The Passing of Arthur" are all works included in what series of poems by Alfred, Lord Tennyson?

Idylls of the King

EUROPEAN AND RUSSIAN LITERATURE 1600-1800

After reading too many novels about chivalry, this legendary character loses his mind and goes through the Spanish countryside on a magnificent quest. On one occasion, he attempts to fight a group of windmills because he believes them to be giants. Name this title character of a famous 1605 novel by Miguel de Cervantes [sair-VAHN-tays].

Don Quixote

These German siblings are considered the founders of modern German philology as a systematic study. They are more famous, however, for their book of folk and fairy tales for children. Who were they?

(Jacob and Wilhelm) Grimm (Accept: Brothers Grimm)

According to a drama by Friedrich von Schiller, the tyrannical Gessler forced what Swiss hero to shoot an apple off his son's head?

William Tell

Montesquieu and Rousseau were active in what intellectual movement of the 18th century that was influenced by the rise of modern science?

Enlightenment (Accept: Age of Reason)

During Russia's Kievan period, these folk chants were associated with the 10th-century Grand Prince Vladimer of Kiev. Give the collective term for these important oral tales in early Russian literature.

Byliny [by-LEE-nee]

He devoted his entire life to the theater, and he even died after collapsing while on stage. Name this popular 17th century French playwright who authored Tartuffe and The Misanthrope.

Moliere (Accept: Jean-Baptiste Poquelin)

The famous line, "Let us cultivate our garden," was meant by its author to encourage common sense in the readers. This is the concluding line of which 1759 philosophical tale by Voltaire?

Candide [kan-DEED]

Aleksandr Radishchev's [rah-DEESH-cheffs] Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow so enraged what empress that she banished him to Siberia?

Catherine the Great (Accept: Catherine II)

Traditionally, when a red flag flew above the Globe Theater, a history was being performed. A white flag signified a comedy. What color flag was flown to show that a tragedy was being staged?

Black

Often considered the founder of French tragedy, name the 17th century playwright whose works include Horace and Le Cid.

(Pierre) Corneille [kohr-NAY]

The French playwright Pierre Corneille [kohr-NAY] wrote the drama Le Cid in 1637. In this work, Corneille retold popular legends surrounding a warrior from which country?

Spain

This practice can be traced to ancient times when spirits were thought to live in trees. In Ireland, it's believed that this practice is performed to thank leprechauns for good luck. What is this common practice performed in hopes of bringing luck or good fortune?

Knocking on Wood

In what country did the theatrical genre known as commedia dell arte [kohm-MAY-dee-ah del AHR-tay] develop in the mid-1500s?

Italy

What word does the Talmud use to describe food that has been prepared so that it is fit and suitable under Jewish law?

Kosher [KOH-shur]

What city in southeastern Wisconsin on Lake Michigan has the same name as a great French tragic dramatist of the 17th century?

Racine [ruh-SEEN]

In the 1630 play The Love Rogue, Tirso [TEER-soh] de Molina [moh-LEE-nah] created what legendary Spanish character known for his womanizing?

Don Juan

This question requires a multiple answer. They originated in the farcical commedia dell arte [kohm-MAY-dee-ah del AHR-tay] sometime in the early 17th century. Name these two main heroes in countless English puppet shows.

Punch AND Judy

The plot of John Gay's The Beggar's Opera revolves around what rakish highwayman and his rivalry with Jeremy Peachum?

(Captain) Macheath

"Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains." What French thinker of the Enlightenment wrote this in The Social Contract?

(Jean Jacques) Rousseau [roo-SOH]

This English author is considered to be the father of the satirical novel. Identify this 18th century author of the picaresque novel Roderick Random and the epistolary novel The Expedition of Humphry Clinker.

(Tobias) Smollett [SMAHL-it]

This work classifies governments into three categories- monarchies, republics, and despotisms. It also describes the separation of governmental powers into three branches- the executive, legislative, and judicial. Name this work by Charles Montesquieu [mohn-tess-kee-OOH].

(The) Spirit of the Laws

Identify the French Enlightenment thinker who compiled a famous encyclopedia of rationalist thought.

(Denis) Diderot [dee-der-OH]

Often considered Russia's greatest poet, the works of what author include the short story "The Queen of Spades" and the play Boris Godunov [guh-doon-AWF]?

(Aleksander) Pushkin

Its major exponents were Goethe [GUR-tuh] and Schiller, and its chief goals were freedom and a return to nature. What was this German literary and intellectual movement of the 1770s and early 1780s whose name translates as "storm and stress"?

Sturm und Drang [SHTOORM unt DRAHNG]

Dating from the early 17th century, what type of prayer is recited at the close of Jewish religious services and by relatives of a deceased person at times of mourning?

Kaddish

William Makepeace Thackeray and A.A. Milne were writers for what British humor magazine known for its cartoons of public figures and satirical commentary on political issues?

Punch

The action takes place in a Russian provincial town whose officials mistake a new arrival for an imperial government investigator assigned to look into allegations of corruption. The officials set about impressing and bribing the visitor, who makes the most of his false identity and escapes before the real investigator appears. This is the plot of which drama by Nikolai Gogol [GOH-gul]?

(The) Inspector General

EUROPEAN AND RUSSIAN LITERATURE 1800-1900

What character says the following to the tyrant Gessler in a well-known drama? "If that my hand had struck my darling child, this second arrow I had aimed at you. And, be assured, I should not then have missed."

William Tell (Accept: Wilhelm Tell)

The Russian author Ivan Krylov [krih-LAWF] is famous for writing what type of moral tales with animals as characters?

Fables

Often called the world's greatest novel, it is a chronicle of the Napoleonic Wars in Russia. Name this novel by Leo Tolstoy.

War and Peace

His stories include "The Black Monk" and "Ward Number Six." His dramas include The Wedding, The Seagull, and The Cherry Orchard. Which Russian author is he?

(Anton) Chekhov

Twenty Years After is a sequel to what Alexandre Dumas novel about Athos, Porthos, and Aramis?

(The) Three Musketeers

It is the story of Emma, a French woman who is unhappy in her marriage. Emma finds that love affairs are not as romantic as they seem in novels. Name this work by Gustave Flaubert [floh-BAIR].

Madame Bovary

Thus Spake Zarathustra introduced the concepts of the will to power, the superman, and the death of God. Which German philosopher wrote this work?

(Friedrich) Nietzsche [NEE-che]

The Austrian author Max Brod [BROHT] was the chief editor and loyal friend of this writer who is remembered for The Trial, The Castle, and The Metamorphosis. Name him.

(Franz) Kafka

This adjective is applied to writing that is characterized by seemingly pointless or often disturbing complexity. What is this adjective that was derived from the author of "The Metamorphosis"?

Kafkaesque

Set in 19th century Holland, what novel by the American writer Mary Mapes Dodge tells of a 15-year-old boy whose family is so impoverished that he enters a skating contest to earn some money?

Hans Brinker (or, The Silver Skates)

This Russian author moved from literary romanticism to his own brand of realism. Name this 19th century author of such works as "Taras Bulba," The Inspector General, and Dead Souls.

(Nikolai) Gogol [GOH-gul]

His first play, Cromwell, was so bad that he was advised to try anything except writing. He stuck with it, however, and produced a series of novels that he titled The Human Comedy. Name this French author.

(Honore de [oh-nohr-AY]) Balzac [bahl-ZAHK]

In 1816, the Italian composer Gioacchino Rossini [rohs-SEE-nee] adapted a play by what French author into a celebrated opera titled The Barber of Seville?

(Pierre de) Beaumarchais [boh-mahr-SHAY]

It expresses the incompatibility between a rich inner life and the practical life required by society. What autobiographical novel by Johann von Goethe [GUR-tuh] earned him an international reputation and proved influential in the development of romanticism?

(The) Sorrows of Young Werther

What German author used his first-hand knowledge of trench warfare in World War I to write the popular work All Quiet in the Western Front?

(Erich) Remarque [ruh-MAHRK]

His works foreshadowed the psychological novels that would appear in the 20th century. What 19th century French author is remembered for the two novels The Charterhouse of Parma and The Red and the Black?

Stendhal [stan-DAHL] (Accept: Henri Marie Beyle)

Called the father of the modern Italian novel, what author's works include The Fifth of May and The Betrothed?

(Alessandro) Manzoni

Harry Haller is depicted as a man with dual personalities in which of Herman Hesse's [HES-ehz] works?

Steppenwolf

The old parable "The more you have, the more you want" comes into play in this short story by Leo Tolstoy. Name the story in which the peasant Pahom has dreams of acquiring more and more land.

"How Much Land Does A Man Need"

In Goethe's [GUR-tuhz] Faust, the title character searches for the beautiful Helen of Troy on this night. Traditionally held on the night preceding May the first, what

is the name for this night when witches held a Sabbath at which they rendezvoused with the devil?

Walpurgis Night (Accept: Walpurgisnacht)

Translating as "truth," give the name of the Russian periodical that served as the official newspaper of Lenin's Bolshevik party since 1912 and of the Soviet Union from 1918 until 1991.

Pravda [PRAHV-duh]

What 1846 novel by Dostoyevsky has been hailed as the quintessential doppelganger story?

(The) Double

This question requires a multiple answer. What are the first names of the title characters in Anton Chekhov's drama The Three Sisters?

Irina, Masha, AND Olga

The daughter of a French politician, she had numerous affairs, the most famous one being with the novelist Benjamin Constant. In her works, she helped to develop modern literary criticism. Name this author of Corinne and The Influence of Literature upon Society.

(Madame de) Stael [STAHL]

The title character falls in love with Count Vronsky and leaves her husband and child to be with him. Name this adultress and you've also named what 1877 novel by Leo Tolstoy?

Anna Karenina [kah-RAY-nee-nah]

The French author Victor Hugo first published The Hunchback of Notre Dame in 1831. Name the wild gypsy girl to whom the hunchbacked bellringer Quasimodo is devoted in this classic novel.

Esmerelda

What was the nationality of the author of the famous symbolist poetry volume The Flowers of Evil?

French

WESTERN HEMISPHERE LITERATURE

Name the California county which holds an annual frog jumping contest that was inspired by a popular short story by the American humorist Mark Twain.

Calaveras (County)

Four men set out on a whitewater canoe voyage in the Georgia wilderness. They encounter savage backwoodsmen and escape down the river in what 1970 novel by James Dickey?

Deliverance

In 1996, Donald Foster at Vassar College identified a previously unknown elegy by this English author. This was the first newly discovered piece to be attributed to him since parts of the play Sir Thomas More were credited to him in 1871. Identify this Elizabethan playwright known for his 36 plays and 154 sonnets.

(William) Shakespeare

Name the 9th century English monarch who established The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as the continuous register of national events.

Alfred (the Great)

The American writer Sarah Josepha Hale is credited with authoring what popular children's rhyme inspired by an actual case of a child being followed to school by her pet?

"Mary Had A Little Lamb"

In 1921, what writer became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for her work The Age of Innocence?

(Edith) Wharton

It concerns the members of the Baltimore Gun Club who conceive the idea of building an enormous cannon to shoot a "space-bullet" into the air. Give the title of this classic science fiction novel by Jules Verne.

From the Earth to the Moon

Ba! Ba! Black Sheep was one of the original working titles of what classic novel about Scarlett O'Hara?

Gone With the Wind

This American writer died from complications after swallowing part of a toothpick at a 1941 cocktail party. Name this author of Windy McPherson's Son and Winesburg, Ohio.

(Sherwood) Anderson

In the story "The Birds of Killingsworth," farmers kill a group of birds because they believe them to be harmful to their crops. With the birds gone, however, the

caterpillars do even more damage to the crops. What author included this ironic story in his Tales of a Wayside Inn?

(Henry Wadsworth) Longfellow

He witnessed the Plague and the Great Fire of London in 1666. Name the Englishman who wrote about these events in his famous diary.

(Samuel) Pepys [PEEPS]

Name the Norwegian-American novelist whose work Giants in the Earth conveys a realistic portrait of immigrant life on the Dakota prairies.

(Ole E.) Rolvaag [RURL-vawk]

Lucy Maud Montgomery wrote the popular Anne of Green Gables. This work is set in which smallest Canadian province?

Prince Edward Island

The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel was based on a story by what Hungarian author?

(Ferenc) Molnar

In which state is the Erskine Caldwell novel Tobacco Road set?Georgia

John's hunger for knowledge drives him to enter the forbidden ruins and learn the secrets of the "gods." What is this Steven Vincent Benet short story in which the son of a priest reveals to his people all he has learned of the terrible past?

"By the Waters of Babylon"

From which famous American short story has the following first lines been taken? "Far out in the country there was an old Negro woman with her head tied in a red rag, coming along a path through the pinewoods. Her name was Phoenix Jackson."

"(A) Worn Path"

Name the English mystery writer who is famous for her classic detective novels featuring the amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey.

(Dorothy L.) Sayers

Born into a wealthy Geneva family, he developed an early fascination with the scientists Albertus Magnus and Paracelsus. Name this fictional "mad scientist" who tells his story to Captain Walton while stuck in the Arctic in a famous Mary Shelley novel.

(Dr. Victor) Frankenstein

In what 1925 novel did Bruce Barton portray Jesus and his disciples as successful businessmen?

The Man Nobody Knows

Dating back to the 7th century, this festival promotes the Welsh tradition and national language. Name this annual festival at which bards compete in poetry, drama, and music.

Eisteddfod [y-STETH-vuhd]

Under the guidance of Merlin, he rescues his sister from Elfland, where the fairies have taken here. Name this younger brother of "the fair Burd Ellen" in an old Scottish ballad.

(Childe) Rowland

She is the daughter of the king's official storyteller. When she is born, it is prophesied that she will be the most beautiful woman of Ireland but that she will bring bloodshed and death. Who is this heroine of the Ulster Cycle.

Deirdre (of the Sorrows)

Lady Charlotte Guest was the first to translate what collection of medieval Welsh tales into English?

(The) Mabinogion

EASTERN HEMISPHERE LITERATURE

The Tale of Genji [GEN-jee] is often considered the world's first novel. In what country was this work written?

Japan

The Circle of Chalk is a classical play from the literature of which Asian country?China

He was born in Poland in 1904 but later emigrated to the United States. The works of which Nobel Prize-winning Yiddish author include The Family Moskat and Shadows on the Hudson?

(Isaac Bashevis) Singer

Scheherazade told these stories to her husband the sultan every night to save her life. What is this famous collection of folktales from Persia and India?

Arabian Nights (Accept: The Thousand and One [Arabian] Nights)

In 1629, women were banned from professional stages in Japan. Since that time, what type of stylized drama has been performed only by men?

Kabuki (Accept: Bunraku)

After Humbert Humbert moves to the United States, he falls in love with what much-younger title character of a Vladimir Nabokov novel?

Lolita

The Indian-born author Salman Rushdie was forced to go into hiding after the publication of which of his novels so enraged Ayatollah Khomeini that a reward was offered for his murder?

(The) Satanic Verses

The Japanese author Matsuo Basho [BAH-shoh] is famous for writing what type 17-syllable poems?

Haiku

Nora Helmer and her husband Torvald are the leading characters in which of Henrik Ibsen's dramas?

(A) Doll's House

More than 2,500 years ago, Sun Tzu composed this military masterpiece. Give the title of this military treatise that shows the way to a clean and aesthetic triumph over life's obstacles.

(The) Art of War

In what work can the following four lines be found? "Come, fill the Cup, and in the fire of Spring / Your Winter-garment of Repentance fling: / The Bird of Time has but a little way / To flutter--and the Bird is on the Wing."

(The) Rubaiyat [ROO-by-yaht] (of Omar Khayyam)

Also called the Festival of the Two Worlds, the Spoleto [spoh-LAI-toh] Festival is a famous literary and artistic fair that takes place on a yearly basis. In what country was this festival originally held?

Italy

What is the nationality of the internationally-acclaimed playwright Athol Fugard [FOO-gard]?

South African

In 1973, what novelist and playwright became the first Australian to win the Nobel Prize for literature?

(Patrick) White

What Czech author coined the word "robot" in his 1921 play R.U.R.?(Karl) Capek [CHAH-pek]

The Book of Laughter and Forgetting is the most celebrated novel of what Czech writer who also penned The Art of the Novel and The Unbearable Lightness of Being?

(Milan) Kundera [KUN-duh-ruh]

In 1963, the poet George Seferis [se-FAIR-is] became the first person of what nationality to win the Nobel Prize for literature?

Greek

In 1938, he wrote The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel, a work which picks up where Homer's story left off. He is more famous, however, for such novels as The Last Temptation of Christ and Zorba the Greek. Name him.

(Nikos [NEE-kohs]) Kazantzakis [kah-zahnd-ZAH-kees]

Name the 19th and 20th century Lebanese poet who wrote such works as The Prophet, Love Letters, and A Tear and a Smile.

(Kahlil) Gibran [juh-BRAHN]

The scene is a battlefield with the prince Arjuna pitted against his own family, but no sooner does the poem begin than the action reverts inward. Krishna, Arjuna's avatar and spiritual guide, points the way to the supreme wisdom and perfect freedom that lie within everyone's reach. Give the title of this Indian epic that is regarded to be one of the greatest spiritual books ever written.

Bhagavad Gita

Inspired by elements from Yoruba folklore and mythology, what was the first novel written by the Nigerian author Amos Tutuola [too-too-OH-luh]?

(The) Palm-Wine Drinkard

Cao Chan wrote 80 chapters of what greatest Chinese novel that was completed by another author, Kao Eh?

(The) Dream of the Red Chamber

Winner of the Nobel Prize for literature in 1920, this author's most famous novel is the story of one family's struggles in the Norwegian wilderness. Name this author of The Growth of the Soil.

(Knut) Hamsun [kuh-NOOT HAHM-sun]

It emerged in the 16th century when it was developed by Basho [BAH-shoh] from Buddhist and Taoist [DOW-ist] traditions. Give the name for this type of short poem from Japan which contains 17 syllables arranged in lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables.

Haiku [HY-koo]

The Book of the Dead is a collection of songs, hymns, and prayers from what ancient civilization?

Egyptian

In The Arabian Nights, Ali Baba opens the door to the thieves' cave by uttering what magical phrase?

"Open Sesame"

The Analects is a collection of the sayings and teachings of what ancient philosopher?

Confucius

Its English translation consists of 54 chapters and provides a look at the Japanese court life of the 11th century. Give the title of this book, considered to be the world's oldest novel.

(The) Tale of Gengi

POETRY SINCE 1900

"Good fences make good neighbors" writes what American poet in his work "Mending Wall"?

(Robert) Frost

Thomas Hardy's poem "The Convergence of the Twain" was written in remembrance of what ocean liner which sank in April of 1912 after it collided with an iceberg in the North Atlantic?

Titanic

Wilfred Owen's poem "Dulce et Decorum Est" was written about the horrors of which major war?

World War I

In what long poem of the beat generation does Allen Ginsberg speak of a society that has "destroyed the best minds of [his] generation"?

"Howl"

Rudolf Fisher, James Weldon Johnson, Zora Neale Hurston, and Langston Hughes are all writers who are associated with what New York City literary movement of the 1920s and early '30s?

Harlem Renaissance

In what fictitious locale are the poems "Mr. Flood's Party" and "Richard Cory," both by E.A. Robinson, set?

Tilbury Town

When she returned to California from a world lecture tour, she wished to visit her childhood home in Oakland. However, once she arrived this author could not locate her former home, which prompted her famous statement, "There is no there there." Name this 20th century author.

(Gertrude) Stein

This 1915 poetry collection is set in the cemetery of a small Midwestern town where the deceased townsfolk entertain the reader with anecdotes, images, and advice from their past lives. Name this best-known work of American poet Edgar Lee Masters.

Spoon River Anthology

The American poet Archibald MacLeish wrote the poem "Ars Poetica" in 1926. The title of this work is an allusion to a poetical treatise by what 1st century B.C. Roman poet?

Horace [HOHR-uhs]

Known as the "renegade of American poetry," what beat-generation author wrote such poems a "Marriage" and "Bomb"?

(Gregory) Corso

"Sailing to Byzantium" and "The Second Coming" are two poems by what Irish author of the late 19th and early 20th centuries?

(William Butler) Yeats [YAYTS]

Whom did Whitman call our country's first "great martyr chief" in his elegy "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd"?

(Abraham) Lincoln

This question requires a full-name answer. He was always quietly arrayed and he was always human when he talked, but still he flutered pulses when he said, "Good morning," and he glittered when he walked." Identify this E.A. Robinson title character who "went home and put a bullet through his head."

Richard Cory

Richard Bone and Lucinda Matlock are two of the former inhabitants of a small town who speak from their graves to tell us their story in what collection by Edgar Lee Masters?

Spoon River Anthology

Give the word which fills in the blank in the following excerpt from a Carl Sandburg poem. "Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo. Shovel them under and let me work--I am the BLANK; I cover all."

Grass

Each year two neighbors meet in the spring to repair a stone divider separating their properties in this Frost poem. Which poem is it?

"Mending Wall"

Amy Lowell, Hilda Doolittle, and Ezra Pound were all active in what literary movement of the early 20th century that attempted to revitalize the language of poetry?

Imagism

Name the American poet who wrote in his poem "Reflections on Ice Breaking" that "Candy is dandy but liquor is quicker."

(Ogden) Nash

In which of A.E. Housman's poems do the following lines appear? "The time you won your town the race / We chaired you through the market-poace / Man and boy stood cheering by, / And home we brought you shoulder-high."

"To An Athlete Dying Young"

Oliver Wendell Holmes first published this poem in his "Breakfast-Table" column in the Atlantic Monthly in 1858. Identify this poem about a horse-drawn vehicle which, despite the fact that it was built to last forever, spontaneously turns to dust exactly 100 years after it was built.

"(The) Deacon's Masterpiece" (Accept: "(The) Wonderful 'One-Hoss Shay'")

In "The Great Figure" by William Carlos Williams, the speaker says that he sees what figure painted in gold on a red fire truck?

(The Number) Five

Give the title of the Theodore Roethke poem in which a young boy enjoys a romping dance with his father.

"My Papa's Waltz"

This 10-volume work is the author's attempt to explain history, economics, and culture. What epic poem by Ezra Pound stirred up controversy when one of its volumes was awarded the 1949 Bollingen Prize in Poetry?

(The) Cantos

His poetry collections The Broken Ground, Wheels, and Sabbaths all deal with farming life in Kentucky. Identify this contemporary poet, a graduate of the University of Kentucky, who is known for his studies of American farming and its transformations.

(Wendell) Berry

Lunch Poems and A City Winter are two works by what U.S. author, a leading member of the New York School of poets and artists?

(Frank) O'Hara

In what 1965 poem does Sylvia Plath confront conflicting feelings about the death of her father when she was a child?

"Daddy"

Between 1906 and 1912, he toured the United States on foot, giving readings of his poetry in exchange for food and lodging. Name this poet whose first recognition came in 1913 for the poem "General William Booth Enters Into Heaven."

(Vachel [VAY-chul]) Lindsay

"Nocturne at Bethesda" and "Reconnaissance" are among the best-known poems of this Harlem Renaissance author. Name this author of the poetry collection The Old South and the novel Black Thunder.

(Arna) Bontemps [BOHN-tohm]

DRAMA SINCE 1900

In what 1939 drama does Lillian Hellman tell of the Hubbard family and depict the rise of industrialism in the South?

(The) Little Foxes

Which city serves as the setting for Tennessee Williams' nostalgic play The Glass Menagerie?

St. Louis

Homecoming, The Hunted, and The Haunted are the three parts of this dramatic trilogy by Eugene O'Neill. Name this series inspired by the Oresteia [or-es-TEE-uh] of Aeschylus [ES-kuh-luhs].

Mourning Becomes Electra

Although he believed that humans are free, he also believed that we are responsible for the choices we make. Identify this 20th century dramatist whose existentialist philosophy can be seen in such works as The Flies and No Exit.

(Jean-Paul) Sartre [SAHR-truh]

This question requires a first and last name answer. As he slips away from reality, he imagines that he sees his brother Ben, a successful diamond-miner and a man with all the luck. By the end of the play, he can no longer relate to his oldest son Biff, and he sees suicide as the only option. Who is this main character in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman?

Willy Loman

The title of which of Arthur Miller's plays could be restated as The Heat-Resistant Container for Melting Metals?

(The) Crucible

Eugene O'Neill's 1943 drama A Moon for the Misbegotten is a sequel to which of his other plays about the dysfunctional Tyrone family?

Long Day's Journey Into Night

Considered innovative for its lack of props and scenery, this play is revered for its sentimental yet realistic depiction of rural America. The Stage Manager acts as the narrator of which of Thornton Wilder's dramas that is set in Grover's Corners?

Our Town

This black American author completed only two plays before her death in 1965. Identify this author of The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window and A Raisin in the Sun.

(Lorraine) Hansberry

A comedy dealing with a family of lovable eccentrics won the 1937 Pulitzer Prize for its authors Moss Hart and George S. Kaufmann. What was the play's title?

You Can't Take It With You

This early 20th-century French author influenced the development of modern literature with his experimental writing and narrative techniques. Identify this author of The Immoralist, Straight is the Gate, and The Counterfeiters.

(Andre) Gide [ZHEED]

Fool For Love, The Tooth of Crime, and The Curse of the Starving Class are all dramas by what Pulitzer Prize winning playwright?

(Sam) Shepard

After several unsuccessful attempts on Broadway, he cofounded the Circle Repertory Company in 1969. He finally achieved success on Broadway in 1980 with Fifth of July and his Pulitzer-Prize winning play Talley's Folly. Who is this contemporary American dramatist?

(Lanford) Wilson

For what play was Alfred Uhry awarded the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1988?Driving Miss Daisy

German in origin, it was an outgrowth of post-World War I theatrical expressionism. The playwright Bertolt Brecht was its greatest proponent. What is this form of episodic drama that shattered the unities of Aristotelian drama?

Epic Theater

His bizarre comedies were noted for their violence, precise plotting, and comic dialogue. Which 20th century English playwrights works include What the Butler Saw and Entertaining Mr. Sloane?

(Joe) Orton

The lives of a group of lonely women in a small Kansas town are dirupted by the appearance of a charming drifter in what three-act drama by William Inge?

Picnic

Of the following four dramas, which one or ones did the English playwright Harold Pinter write? A) The Birthday Party B) Six Characters in Search of an Author C) Watch on the Rhine D) The Caretaker

A AND D (Accept: The Birthday Party AND The Caretaker)

The political satires of this Italian dramatist recall the improvisatory nature of the commedia dell'arte [kohm-MAY-dee-ah del AHR-tay]. Give the name of this contemporary author whose works include Mistero Buffo and Accidental Death of an Anarchist.

(Dario) Fo

Give the title of the 1907 play, the most popular "native theme" drama of Augustus Thomas, that thrilled audiences with its portrayal of hypnotism.

(The) Witching Hour

Stephen Crane wrote the short story "The Blue Hotel" and Toni Morrison wrote the novel The Bluest Eye, but what three-act tragedy by James Baldwin has this color in its title?

(The) Blues for Mister Charlie

Temptation and The Garden Party are two plays by this contemporary Czech playwright. Identify this individual who became Czechoslovakia's leader after that country's Communist regime was ousted in 1989.

(Vaclav [VAHTS-lahv]) Havel [HAH-vul]

The film script for the 1959 version of Ben Hur was written by what English playwright whose works include Venus Observed, A Sleep of Prisoners, and This Lady's Not For Burning?

(Christopher) Fry

He began his Broadway career in the 1950's and has authored such works as Come Blow Your Horn, Plaza Suite, and the Brighton Beach Memoirs. Name this man, contemporary American theatre's most commercially successful playwright.

(Neil) Simon

Martha and George engage in a series of verbal arguments in what 1962 drama by Edward Albee?

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

A "tragicomedy in two acts," it concerns the tramps Vladimir and Estragon who await the title character. Give the name of this 1952 drama by Irish author Samuel Beckett that comments on the utter absurdity of the human condition.

Waiting For Godot

The poet T.S. Eliot wrote the verse drama Murder in the Cathedral about the martyrdom of which archbishop of Canterbury?

(Thomas a) Becket

This author almost stopped writing after his 1959 play A Loss of Roses failed on Broadway. He did, however, have many successes such as Picnic, Come Back Little Sheba, and Bus Stop. Name this American playwright of the 1950s who committed suicide in 1973.

(William) Inge [INJ]

Lorraine Hansberry's best known play, A Raisin in the Sun, is set in a white-dominated suburb of which major American city?

Chicago

Arthur Miller's 1964 drama After the Fall portrays the author's unhappy marriage to what famous film actress?

(Marilyn) Monroe

A lawyer turned playwright, he began his writing career with the courtroom drama On Trial. Name this 20th century dramatist better remembered for The Adding Machine and Street Scene.

(Elmer) Rice

Set in 1900s San Francisco, the play I Remember Mama was written by what London-born American dramatist?

(John) Van Druten

NOVELS SINCE 1900

Jake Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley appear in what 1926 novel by Lost Generation-author Ernest Hemingway?

(The) Sun Also Rises

This question requires a first and last name answer. What author won the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for his novel A Bell For Adano?

John Hersey

The Mummy, The Witching Hour, and The Tale of the Body Thief are all works by what contemporary American author known for her Vampire Chronicles?

(Anne) Rice

This 1902 novella was drawn from its author's own experiences as the captain of a West African river steamer in 1890. Give the title of this work in which Marlowe journeys up the Congo River in search of the ivory trader Mr. Kurtz.

Heart of Darkness

In which of Daniel Keys' short stories does he write of the mentally-challenged janitor Charlie Gordon who suddenly becomes very intelligent through experimental procedures?

"Flowers For Algernon"

This author wrote about the Depression in his nonfiction work Let Us Now Praise Famous Men and took a look at effect a man's death has on his 6-year-old son in the autobiographical work A Death in the Family. Name this Pulitzer Prize-winning author.

(James) Agee [AY-jee]

The American author Joseph Heller is widely known for his novel Catch-22. What title did Heller originally want to give to this work?

Catch-18

Name the 20th century American author best known for such panoramic Westerns as The Big Sky, These Thousand Hills, and The Way West.

(A.B.) Guthrie

Set in Russia during 1913, what 1966 novel by Bernard Malamud earned him the Pulitzer Prize and his second National Book Award?

(The) Fixer

This short story has no human characters and is an ironic reflection on the strengths and weaknesses of human nature. Identify the Ray Bradbury work in which he warns that technology can be very dangerous if we do not have the wisdom to use it correctly.

"There Will Come Soft Rains"

From what 1906 novel were the following lines taken? "Up to a year or two ago, it had been the custom to kill horses in the yards--ostensibly for fertilizer, but after long agitation the newspapers had been able to make the public realize that the horses were being canned."

(The) Jungle

This question requires a first and last name answer. "Man without enemies like dog without fleas" is just one of the clever proverbs spoken by what Chinese detective created by Earl Derr Biggers?

Charlie Chan

First published in 1930, it is considered one of William Faulkner's greatest works. Identify this novel about a poor family's wagon journey to bury the deceased Addie Bundren.

As I Lay Dying

After its protagonist has been expelled from prep school, he wanders New York City searching for truth and railing against the "phoniness" of the adult world. Give the title of this 1951 novel by J.D. Salinger that chronicles two days in the life of 16-year-old Holden Caulfield.

Catcher in the Rye

This author's The Witches of Eastwick inspired a movie starring Jack Nicholson and Cher. He wrote the story collection Pigeon Feathers, but he is best known for such novels as Rabbit Run and Rabbit is Rich. Who is this contemporary author?

(John) Updike

The wealthy financier Charles Yerkes provided the inspiration for this author's Cowperwood trilogy. Name this leading exponent of naturalism whose works such as Sister Carrie and Jennie Gerhardt were considered immoral.

(Theodore) Dreiser

Cup of Gold and The Pastures of Heaven are two early works by this California-born author who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1962. What author's other works include Tortilla Flat and The Grapes of Wrath?

(John) Steinbeck

He begins his career by battling the special interests and ends his life totally corrupted, the victim of an assassin's bullet. Name this Southern backwoods politician whose story is told in All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren.

(Willie) Stark

Her works include Girls of Slender Means and A Far Cry From Kensington, but she is best remembered for her 1961 novel about a highly unconventional teacher at an Edinburgh girl's school. Identify this contemporary Scottish author of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.

(Muriel) Spark

A harsh critic of the Soviet Union's government, name the 20th century author of The Gulag Archipelago and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.

(Aleksandr) Solzhenitsyn [sohl-zhuh-NEET-sin]

Give the title of Joseph Heller's 1994 novel that was written as a sequel to his 1961 novel Catch-22.

Closing Time

The Chinese detective Charlie Chan was created by what author in 1925's The House Without A Key?

(Earl Derr) Biggers

Framton Nuttel takes a trip to the country to improve his health in this ironic short story. Give the title of this Saki story in which Vera convinces Mr. Nuttel that he has actually seen ghosts.

"(The) Open Window"

The young Paul has the names of winning racehorses revealed to him in what short story by the English author D.H. Lawrence?

"(The) Rocking Horse Winner"

This question requires a first and last name answer. At the conclusion of James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, what character discovers his identity as a writer and leaves Ireland for the greater freedom of Europe?

Stephen Dedalus

Sam Spade is hired by a vulnerable young woman to find a priceless, ancient statue in what "hard-boiled" detective novel by Dashiell Hammett that was made into a memorable film in 1941 that starred Humphry Bogart and Mary Astor?

(The) Maltese Falcon

This author's The Quiet American was based on his experience as a journalist in French Indochina. His earlier work, The Power and the Glory, told of an alcoholic priest in revolutionary Mexico. Identify the British author who wrote these works.

(Graham) Greene

When asked why he wrote one of his novels, this Italian author replied, "I felt like poisoning a monk." Name this contemporary author known for the 1980 novel The Name of the Rose.

(Umberto) Eco

A Russian peasant is briefly captured by the Germans at the end of World War II. He manages to escape and return to fight with the Soviet forces, but he is sent to a forced labor camp as a traitor. Give the title of this Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn [suhl-zhuh-NEE-tsin] novel that depicts a single day for a typical Soviet prisoner.

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

Soon after arriving on Earth, a young Martian is exploited by scientists, newsmen, and politicians. Eventually, he founds his own church which teaches Martian customs that contradict those of Earth. These events transpire in what science fiction classic by Robert Heinlein?

Stranger in a Strange Land

Which of his novels did the British author Malcolm Lowry [LOW-ree] describe as "a drunken Divine Comedy"?

Under the Volcano

BIOGRAPHY AND NONFICTION

In the 2003 book An Unfinished Life, author Robert Dallek traces the life of what notable American from his birth in 1917 to his assassination in 1963?

(John F.) Kennedy

The 2002 Pulitzer Prize for biography was awarded to David McCullough for his book about the life of which president?

(John) Adams

It was the result of a six-year study of the murder of a rural Kansas family by two young drifters. Name this 1966 nonfiction novel by Truman Capote.

In Cold Blood

He turned to piracy after a career as a privateer during the War of Spanish Succession. Operating from a base in North Carolina, he attacked ships in the Caribbean and along the Atlantic coast of North America during the early 18th century. Who was this English pirate whose real name was Edward Teach?

Blackbeard

Pierre Galente's 2002 book Operation Valkyrie describes a 1944 plot to kill which world leader?

(Adolf) Hitler

In what 1959 novel did James A. Michener describe the geological creation of a famous island group and the successive human migrations up to the time the islands became a U.S. state?

Hawaii

In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt coined what term that is applied to such writers as Ray Baker, Ida Tarbell, and Upton Sinclair who expose corruption in business and politics?

Muckraker(s)

Her 1942 autobiography was titled Dust Tracks on a Road. Name this African-American folklorist who wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God.

(Zora Neale) Hurston

The theme of the 2002 book Nothing Is Impossible is that we are all capable of overcoming seemingly insurmountable hardships. What film actor wrote this book to show readers how, despite his paralysis, he still continues to believe that "life is worth living"?

(Christopher) Reeve

Paul Elie's 2003 biography The Life You Save May Be Your Own describes a 20th century literary group jokingly dubbed "the School of the Holy Ghost."

Among the members of this group were Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, Walker Percy, and what chronically ill, Georgia-born author of Wise Blood and Everything That Rises Must Converge?

(Flannery) O'Connor

Give the word which completes the following humorous clerihew by E.C. Bentley. "Sir Humphrey Davy / Abominated gravy / He lived in the odium/ Of having discovered…" what?

Sodium

What five words complete the following verse about a well-known murderer? "Lizzie Borden took an ax/ And gave her mother forty whacks/ And when she saw what she had done…"

"She gave her father forty-one"

This Scotsman became a lawyer like his father and went on to become a writer. Name the author of Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides who is best known as the biographer of Samuel Johnson.

(James) Boswell

Noted for his realistic portrayal of Midwestern rural life, what 19th and 20th century author's works include the autobiographical novels Son of the Middle Border and A Daughter of the Middle Border?

(Hamlin) Garland

This question requires a first and last name answer. In Mutiny on the Bounty by Nordhoff and Hall, what character leads the revolt against the tyrannical Captain Bligh?

Fletcher Christian

Which famous American historian has been awarded two Pulitzer Prizes for her works The Guns of August and Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-45?

(Barbara) Tuchman

Irving Stone was a pioneer in a genre he called the "biographical novel." He told of Michelangelo in The Agony and the Ecstasy and of Eugene Debs in Adversary in the House. What American author was the subject of Stone's Sailor on Horseback?

(Jack) London

In what inspirational book does Mitch Albom tell how he spent several months regularly visiting his old college professor during the teacher's final year of life?

Tuesdays With Morrie

In what April 2003 autobiography does Trisha Meili step forward and recount her brutal rape in a New York park fourteen years ago and her subsequent recovery from the horrific incident?

I am the Central Park Jogger

A 1998 book recounts a sermon given by Cotton Mather about what white female who, after being abducted by Indians, scalped her captors and escaped to freedom?

(Hannah) Dustan

A leading exponent of the local-color movement in American literature, this author is best known for his works depicting the life and society of 19th century New Orleans and Louisiana. Name this author of Old Creole Days and The Silent South.

(George Washington) Cable

An American novelist and screenwriter, she worked as a journalist in New York before returning to her native California. Identify this contemporary author of the essay collections After Henry and Slouching Towards Bethlehem.

(Joan) Didion [DID-ee-uhn]

At the age of 94, this Austrian Jew is still conducting his crusade to hunt down and punish German war criminals from World War II. His most famous case involved locating the Gestapo officer Adolf Eichmann [IKE-mahn] in Argentina. Who is this famous Nazi hunter?

(Simon) Wiesenthal [VEE-sen-thahl]

Up From Slavery chronicles the rise of what black educator from slavery to found the Tuskegee Institute, a vocational training facility for young blacks?

(Booker T.) Washington

A prime example of muckraking fiction, this 1906 novel deals with Jurgis Rudkus, a Lithuanian immigrant, who finds work in the Chicago stockyards. As the story proceeds, readers are horrified by the unsanitary conditions of the meat-packing industry. Give the title of this influential Upton Sinclair work.

(The) Jungle

In The Killer Strain, the Washington Post editor Marilyn Thompson describes the nation's first bioterrorist threat. This threat occurred after the September 11 attacks in 2001 and involved the use of which bacterial disease?

Anthrax

In a 2001 biography, author Karen Tanner describes the life of what dentist from the Old West, a friend of the Earp brothers, who was involved in the shootout at the O.K. Corral?

(John "Doc") Holliday

In 1969, what author was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction for his work The Armies of the Night?

(Norman) Mailer

The 2003 nonfiction work Fraud of the Century concerns Rutherford B. Hayes, Samuel Tilden, and the "stolen election" of what year?

1876

In this 6-volume masterpiece, the historian's art reached a new height that has rarely been matched. Give the title of this 13-century history written by Edward Gibbon about the withering away of a certain classical civilization.

(The History of the) Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

A 2000 nonfiction book by Tamara Eastman and Constance Bond describes the careers of Mary Read and what other famous female pirate?

(Anne) Bonny

LITERARY TERMS, ELEMENTS, AND DEVICES

By what term would we call the protagonist of a literary work who lacks in heroic qualities such as courage, idealism, and honest?

Antihero

In the dramatic type, the audience of a play knows something the characters themselves do not. In the verbal type, a person says the opposite of what is meant. In the situational type, the opposite of what is expected to happen occurs. What literary term is it?

Irony

Sometimes, an actor will give an introductory speech or monologue before the beginning of a play. By what term is this short speech known?

Prologue

Many of Edgar Allan Poe's short stories are set in this literary point of view where the narrator actually participates in the action of the story. Which point of view is it?

First Person (Point of View)

In what type of verse is a poem written if it has no regular meter or line length?Free (Verse)

"The green, grim grinch growled" is an example of what literary device in which the same initial consonant sound is repeated in a sequence of words?

Alliteration

What literary term is defined as a mistaken substitution of one word for another that sounds similar, generally with humorous effect? It was taken from the name of a character in Richard Sheridan's play The Rivals.

Malapropism

The term is derived from the theories of Carl Jung [YUNG] who theorized the existence of a "collective unconscious" that contained images recognized by all people. Give this term referring to a symbol whose significance is recognized universally.

Archetype

Samuel Richardson's novels Pamela and Clarissa Harlowe are both written as a series of letters through which the story is advanced. Give the term for this type of novel.

Epistolary (Novel)

James Malcolm Rymer's Varney the Vampire is an example of this type of pulp horror novel that was widely popular during the mid-1800s. This type of book is given what two-term related to the price for which it originally sold?

Penny Dreadful

Give the name for the type of poetic foot that consists of two stressed syllables.Spondee [spahn-DAY]

Latin for "cutting off," what term refers to a slight pause in a line of poetry?Caesura [she-ZOO-ruh]

What type of figurative literary element is used to directly compare two dissimilar things using the word like or as?

Simile

What figurative literary element is found in the following sentence? "The book sat on the shelf just begging to be read."

Personification

It is the most common stanza found in English poetry. What term refers to any four-line stanza of poetry?

Quatrain

Used frequently in supernatural tales, what literary term refers to hints or clues that a writer uses to encourage readers to anticipate future events?

Foreshadowing

Common ones include, "catch a cold," "run up a bill," and "put out the light." What term refers to expressions or phrases that have become accepted parts of a language but which make little sense if taken literally?

Idioms

The poem "On Monsieur's Departure" by Elizabeth I contains the line "I am and not, I freeze and yet am burned." This line illustrates what type of seemingly contradictory statement used to reveal some element of truth?

Paradox

Like a short story or a novel, it contains characters, setting, plot, and point of view. What is this type of poem used to tell a story?

Narrative (Poem)

It encompasses both vocabulary and syntax. What term refers to the specific word choice of a writer?

Diction

In a famous poem, William Wordsworth calls upon the poet John Milton in the line, "Milton! Thou shouldst be living at this hour." Give the term for this literary device in which a writer addresses someone who is either dead or not present?

Apostrophe

The Petrarchan, or Italian, sonnet consists of two parts. The first is an eight-line unit called an octave. What term refers to the concluding six-line portion of this sonnet form?

Sestet

The use of the word "wheels" in reference to an automobile is an example of what figure of speech in which a part of something is used to refer to the entire object?

Synecdoche [syn-NEK-duh-kee]

This term comes from the Greek for "to have the form of man." Name this term that is a synonym of personification.

Anthropomorphism

This term literally translates as "fatal flaw." Name the classic literary term for the tragic hero's error of judgment or inherent defect of character.

Hamartia [ham-mahr-TEE-uh]

French for "unknotting," what name is given to the final unraveling of the plot following the climax in a story?

Denoument [DAY-noo-mah]

From the Latin for "to strike out," what literary term denotes the omission of a vowel, consonant, or syllable, such as forming the word "'tis" from "it is?"

Elision

Give the name for the type of poetic foot that consists of two stressed syllables.Spondee [spahn-DAY]

How many poetical feet does the poetic line called an alexandrine contain?Six

“I'd walk a million miles for one of your smiles," is an example of what type of hyperbole [hi-PER-buh-lee] in which the exaggeration is magnified so greatly that it refers to an impossibility?

Adynaton [uh-DYE-nuh-than]

Any story that involves a long-lost lover who returns only to find that his spouse has remarried is said to have what type of plot format, named after an Alfred, Lord Tennyson character?

Enoch Arden (Plot)

In Seamus Heaney's poem "Digging," he uses the phrase "cold smell of potato mold" to blend the sense of smell and touch. What term refers to the technique of describing one sensation in terms of another?

Synesthesia

This question requires a multiple answer. In his Poetics, Aristotle advanced three unities that a drama should follow. Name them.

(Unities of) Action, Time, AND Place

GRAMMAR, MECHANICS, AND PUNCTUATION

What type of nouns name things that are thought of as a whole and which are not split into separate, countable parts such as languages, natural events, and abstractions?

Noncount (Nouns)

Classify the following sentence according to purpose and structure. "Did you break the window?"

Interrogative, Simple

Consider the sentence, "Yesterday I went skiing with Martha and Jeff." In what voice is the verb in this sentence?

Active

What error is illustrated in the following sentence? "The driver hit his brakes the car skidded to a halt."

Run-On (Sentence) (Accept: Fused or Run-Together Sentence)

While writing a research paper, Chris wants to find a similar word to use in place of the word "gloomy." What common reference book should he use?

Thesaurus

This type of statement is usually found near the beginning of an essay and makes clear the central theme and purpose of the work. Name it.

Thesis (Statement)

What tense is illustrated by the verb in the following sentence? "We had been eating at my brother's restaurant once a week until it went out of business."

Past Perfect Progressive

What specific error is contained in the following sentence? "Two hours are not enough time to finish the assignment."

Subject-Verb Agreement

State the mood of the verb used in the following sentence. "If I were you, I wouldn't put up with his tardiness."

Subjunctive (Mood)

The opposite of concise, what type of sentence contains many empty or repetitive words and phrases that do not contribute to the overall meaning?

Wordy (Sentence)

What type of sentence contains one dependent and one or more independent clauses?

Complex (Sentence)

What word should be used in place of the incorrectly-used word in the following sentence? "Mr. Morris insured me that he would have the report done by tomorrow morning."

Assured

What type of language would a writer be using if she presented distorted facts or figures in an attempt to manipulate or confuse the reader?

Slanted (Language)

What is the grammatical classification of the word "it" in the following sentence? "It was I who completed the test on time."

Expletive

Consider the sentence, "Nick went home when the game was over." What is the complete adverb clause in this sentence?

"When the game was over"

What mark of punctuation is used to close the salutation in a business letter, to introduce a long quotation, and to separate the hour and minutes in standard time notation?

Colon

This question requires a two-part answer. Classify the following sentence according to purpose and structure: Did Hansel and Gretel escape after the witch was pushed into the oven?

Interrogative, Complex

Correct the error, if there is one, in the following sentence. To whom does Ann speak about becoming a research assistant?

There Is No Error

What error is present in the following sentence? Sharks can smell blood from a quarter mile away they swim toward the source like a guided missile.

Run-On (Sentence) (Accept: Fused or Run-Together Sentence)

For this question you'll need to give a multiple answer. What are the three simple tenses in English grammar?

Present, Past, AND Future

Which part of speech is used to convey a relationship between the noun or pronoun following it and other words in the sentence?

Preposition

What punctuation mark is used to indicate a sudden break in continuity or to set off an emphatic phrase from the rest of the sentence?

Dash

By next week, we will have been meeting regularly for nine weeks. In what tense is the verb phrase in the preceding sentence?

Future Perfect Progressive

Identify the case of the pronoun in the following sentence. Jason showed him the report for school.

Objective (Case)

How many commas should be used in the following sentence? Jason Patrick, M.D., drove to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, last week to buy a new car for $25,000.

Five

What mood of verbs is used to express wishes, recommendations, requests, and conditional statements?

Subjunctive (Mood)

A gerund is a present participle that functions as which part of speech?Noun

What type of noun is used to name something that can be seen, touched, heard, smelled, or tasted?

Concrete (Noun)

This question requires a two-part answer. Identify the incorrectly used word in the following sentence and tell which word should be used to replace it. "Each human hand and foot leaves their distinctive print in the sand."

Their Should Be Its

What type of language would a writer be using if she presented distorted facts or figures in an attempt to manipulate or confuse the reader?

Slanted (Language)

What error is illustrated in the following sentence? "A good education and being smart go together."

Faulty Parallelism

In grammar, what is the term for a modifier that is considered misplaced because it is not clear whether it describes the word that comes before it or the word that follows it?

Squinting (Modifier)

What has been shifted in the following sentence? Because people are living longer, an employee in the twenty-first century will retire later.

Number

The most comprehensive, authoritative unabridged dictionary of the English language is often abbreviated as the OED. For what do these letters stand?

Oxford English Dictionary

SPELLING AND DEFINITIONS

What term do we give to the specialized vocabulary of a specific field or group that is unlikely to be understood by those not associated with that field or group?

Jargon

Correctly spell the word "yore" [YAWR] as it is used in the following sentence: Chivalry and manners were highly prized in the days of yore.

Y-O-R-E

This word has its origin in the Dutch word for "Johnny." Identify this term used during the Civil War to refer to a person from a Northern U.S. state but that is today used to refer to anyone from the United States itself.

Yankee

A soliloquy is a theatrical device in which a character speaks alone on stage to reveal his inner thoughts to the audience. Correctly spell the word "soliloquy."

S-O-L-I-L-O-Q-U-Y

Xenophobia is defined as the fear or hatred of what is strange or foreign. Correctly spell the word "xenophobia."

X-E-N-O-P-H-O-B-I-A

Even though Americans and the British people both speak the English language, the two groups sometimes use different words to refer to the same thing. What word would the British use to refer to the game Americans call checkers?

Draughts

What is the eight-letter term beginning with the letter "a" for an absolute despot who rules undisputedly?

Autocrat

Spell the term that means "able to resist attack" and that was once quoted by Mike Tyson when he said that his defenses were … what?

I-M-P-R-E-G-N-A-B-L-E

On most books you will find an ISBN. For what does the acronym ISBN stand?International Standard Book Number

A group of individuals or nations that work together to achieve common goals is designated by what four-letter term beginning with the letter "B"?

Bloc

Misogyny [meh-SAH-jeh-nee] is defined as the hatred of what group of people?Women

The diaphragm [DY-uh-fram] is a body partition that is found only in mammals. Correctly spell the word diaphragm.

D-I-A-P-H-R-A-G-M

A soliloquy is a theatrical device in which a character speaks alone on stage to reveal his inner thoughts to the audience. Correctly spell the word "soliloquy."

S-O-L-I-L-O-Q-U-Y

From the Greek for "folded," what term refers to the certificates given by high schools and colleges at graduations?

Diploma(s)

On our last vacation, my father drove around for hours trying to find the best hotel accommodations. Correctly spell the word accommodations.

A-C-C-O-M-M-O-D-A-T-I-O-N-S

Spell the word "affect" as it is used in the following sentence. "If Michael doesn't start getting to bed earlier, his tiredness will seriously affect his grades."

A-F-F-E-C-T

A building where concerts, lectures, and other public events take place is given what name that also refers to the ancient Athenian gymnasium where Aristotle taught?

Lyceum [ly-SEE-um]

An anticoagulant [an-tie-coh-AG-yuh-lunt] is defined as a substance that prevents what normal process from happening in blood?

Clotting

What eleven-letter word beginning with the letter "v" names a creamy soup made from onions, potatoes, and leeks that is often served chilled?

Vichyssoise [vish-ee-SWAAZ]

Add the number of days in a fortnight to the number of feet in two fathoms and from that subtract the number of years in a score. What number is your answer?

6

The verb desiccate refers to preserving food by removing its moisture. Spell the word desiccate.

D-E-S-I-C-C-A-T-E

What six-syllable word beginning with the letter "q" is used to refer to someone who is between the ages of forty and forty-nine?

Quadragenarian

This question requires a two-part answer. Identify the incorrectly used word in the following sentence and tell which word should replace it. "The factory workers produced less cars this year than last year."

Less Should Be Fewer

Eczema [EG-zuh-muh] is an inflammation of the skin characterized by reddening and itching. Spell the word eczema.

E-C-Z-E-M-A

Something that is sensual in appearance is said to be voluptuous [vuh-LUP-choo-uss]. Correctly spell the word voluptuous.

VOLUPTUOUS

A short, descriptive piece of literary writing is a vignette [vin-YET]. Correctly spell the word vignette.

V-I-G-N-E-T-T-E

Do you have what it takes to win the National Spelling Bee? Let's find out. Correctly spell the winning word from 1999, logorrhea [LOG-uh-ree-uh].

L-O-G-O-R-R-H-E-A

Bouillabaisse [boo-yuh-BAYSS] is a type of French soup made from fish, vegetables, herbs, and saffron. Correctly spell bouillabaisse.

B-O-U-I-L-L-A-B-A-I-S-S-E

What is the term for the system of sending messages using hand-held flags that are moved to represent letters of the alphabet?

Semaphore

What six-syllable word is used to refer to someone or something from the time before the biblical Flood?

Antediluvian

WORD ORIGINS AND COMMON FOREIGN PHRASES

According to a famous proverb, what word describes how absolute power corrupts?

Absolutely

"Aloha" is a traditional greeting or farewell from which language?Hawaiian

Your friends Heather and Don are going on a Caribbean cruise. If you wanted to wish them a good journey, what two-word French phrase should you use?

Bon Voyage

The Latin phrase "in vino veritas" says that there is truth in what?Wine

The name of this English coal mining port is associated with a popular expression which refers to doing something pointless or superfluous. If someone were to bring an object to some place where it was already in abundance, you might say that he has "carried coals to" where?

Newcastle

The words schmaltz, klutz, and chutzpah have entered English from which other language?

Yiddish

What Latin phrase refers to doing something over and over again until you're disgusted with it?

Ad Nauseam

Give the ten-letter Spanish term beginning with the letter "a" that refers to an enthusiast or a fan of some particular person, thing, or event.

Aficionado

Its vocabulary is drawn primarily from the Romance languages, English, German, and Latin and it was designed by Ludwik Zamenhof as an international means of communication. What is this artificial language used by at least one million people today?

Esperanto [es-pur-AHN-toh]

The Latin phrase "memento mori" translates as "a reminder of" what event?Death

This term originated when Sylvia Wright misunderstood the lyrics to the popular Scottish folk song "The Bonny Earl of Morray." Give the term used to refer to any misheard song lyric.

Mondegreen

The Latin word gustus refers to which of the five human senses?Taste

Next summer you are planning on taking a trip to Italy to see your cousin. If you wanted to say hello to him in the Italian language, what word should you use?

Ciao [CHOW]

Give the meaning of the Latin prefix "inter".Between (Accept: Among)

Identify the Latin phrase that is often used in describing a criminal's method of operation.

Modus Operandi [MOH-dus op-er-AN-dee]

Give the six-word translation of the following Latin words: "Veni, vidi, vici" [VEN-ee VEE-dee VEE-chee].

I Came, I Saw, I Conquered

The terms glasnost and perestroika have entered English from which other language?

Russian

What French phrase could be used to describe any the following names? George Sand, O. Henry, Mark Twain, George Orwell

Nom de Plume [nom duh PLOOM]

Give the ten-letter Spanish term beginning with the letter "a" that refers to an enthusiast or a fan of some particular person, thing, or event.

Aficionado

This is a misheard song lyric from a ballad about what American folk hero? "Killed in a bar when he was only three…"

(Davy) Crockett

What French phrase is used to designate an unruly child or a bold, outspoken person?

Enfant Terrible [ahn-FAHN tay-REEB-luh]

At one time or another, many people commit an embarrassing blunder that breaks some social conventions. The French have a phrase for this type of blunder that translates as "false step." What is that phrase?

Faux Pas [foh PAH]

The prefixes hypno, ornitho, and pyro were all taken from which language?

Greek

In British English, what part of a car is referred to as the bonnet?Hood

Sometimes, courts will appoint guardians for children to serve in the place of a parent. What Latin phrase describes this taking on of parental roles?

In Loco Parentis [in LOH-koh pa-REN-tiss]

What well-known proverb is paralleled in the following line? "A weak ticker never gained a dainty damsel"

Faint heart never won fair lady

In a classic proverb, what is said to be the "thief of time"?Procrastination

The Latin phrase "memento mori" translates as "a reminder of" what event?Death

What phrase, drawn from two monsters in Greek mythology, means "to be faced with the necessity of choosing between two equally undesirable or unpleasant things?"

"To Be Between Scylla and Charybdis"

What phrase from the Greek language is often used to refer to the common or ordinary people as opposed to the wealthy elite?

Hoi Polloi [HOY puh-LOY]

When you see someone who has lost his or her former glory, you might be reminded of what Latin phrase which translates as "thus passes away the glory of the world"?

Sic Transit Gloria Mundi [sick TRAN-sit GLOR-ee-uh MUN-dee]