Art and Literature

1. Which two cities provide the setting for Charles Dickens’s ‘A Tale of Two Cities’?

London and Paris

2. What are the names of the three ‘Darling’ children in J.M. Barrie’s ‘Peter Pan’?

Wendy, John and Michael

3. Which book of the New Testament comes after the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John?

Acts (of the Apostles)

4. In which century was the Florentine painter known as Sandro Botticelli born?

15th century (born around 1445)

5. Which cartoon animal is owned by Jon Arbuckle?

Garfield (and Odie)

6. In ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ by Douglas Adams, which character chose his name because “when he first arrived fifteen years ago, the minimal research he had done had suggested to him…” that it would be “… nicely inconspicuous”?

Ford Prefect

7. Who wrote the 1936 novel ‘Gone with the Wind’, on which the 1939 film of the same name was based?

Margaret Mitchell

8. Which Shakespearean play features the characters of Goneril, Regan and Cordelia?

King Lear

9. What is the first name of Professor McGonagall in the Harry Potter books?

Minerva

10. A Banksy painting of ‘Girl with Balloon’ self-shredded after selling at action in October. Where did this take place?

Sotheby’s in London

Who wrote these famous works of literature?

1. Invisible Man (1952)

Ralph Ellison

2. Mrs Dalloway (1925)

Virginia Woolf

3. A Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1864)

Jules Verne

4. The Sound and the Fury (1929)

William Faulkner

5. In Search of Lost Time (À la recherche du temps perdu –  Also translated as ‘Remembrance of Things Past – 7 volumes between 1871 and 1922)

Marcel Proust

6. Gulliver’s Travels (1726)

Jonathan Swift

7. The Trial (1925)

Franz Kafka

8. Beloved (1987)

Toni Morrison

9. Midnight’s Children (1981)

Salman Rushdie

10. The Old Man and the Sea (1951)

Ernest Hemingway

1. What was the real name of George Eliot?

Mary Anne Evans

2. ‘Celeste’ is a shade of which primary colour?

Blue 

3. Which American relationship counsellor wrote the hugely successful book ‘Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus’?

John Gray

4. ‘The President is Missing’, ‘The 17th Suspect’ and ‘Along Came a Spider’ are all titles by which American author?

James Patterson

5. Tony Stark is the alter ego of which Marvel Comics super hero?

Iron Man

6. Which is the last book of the Old Testament?

Malachi

7. Which French post-impressionist painter produced a series of paintings entitled ‘The Card Players’?

Paul Cézanne

8. Which was the first James Bond novel to be published by Ian Fleming?

Casino Royale

9. What is defined by Collins Dictionary as “a speech in a play in which a character speaks to himself or herself and to the audience, rather than to another actor”?

Soliloquy

10. Who wrote ‘Don Quixote’?

Miguel de Cervantes

1. Which English author wrote the fantasy trilogy entitled ‘His Dark Materials’?

Philip Pullman

2. In which century was William Shakespeare born?

16th century (born 1564 – exact date not recorded but baptised 26th April)

3. Which English painter, born in Liverpool in August 1724, was best known for his paintings of horses, such as ‘Whistlejacket’ which hangs in London’s National Gallery?

George Stubbs

4. Which 1930 painting by Grant Wood depicts a farmer holding a pitchfork and standing in front of a building alongside a woman, assumed to be his wife?

American Gothic

5. Which famous building in Paris houses France’s National Museum of Modern Art (Le Musée National d’Art Moderne)?

Pompidou Centre/Centre Georges Pompidou

6. Which French philosopher, writer and political activist won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1964?

Jean-Paul Sartre

7. Which 18th century English landscape painter is known predominantly for his paintings of Dedham Vale, now a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the East of England?

John Constable

8. Who wrote poems entitled ‘Mandalay’, ‘Gunga Din’ and ‘The White Man’s Burden’?

Rudyard Kipling

9. The 1994 film ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ is based on a Stephen King novel. Which American actress’s name was omitted from the original title?

Rita Hayworth (Originally entitled ‘Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption’ – those who have seen the film will know that a poster of Rita Hayworth is important to the plot)

10. Which was published first: Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’ or Emily Brontë’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ (originally published under the pseudonym ‘Ellis Bell’)?

Pride and Prejudice (Pride and Prejudice was first published in 1813, Wuthering Heights in 1847)

1. Who served as Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom between October 1972 and May 1984?

John Betjeman

2. Which two types of animal were used as the mallets and balls at the Queen’s croquet ground in Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’?

Flamingoes as mallets and hedgehogs as balls

3. How old was Adrian Mole when he wrote his ‘Secret Diary’ according to Sue Townsend’s 1982 book?

Thirteen and three-quarters

4. In which country would you find the State Hermitage Museum?

Russia (St. Petersburg)

5. Who created the cartoon character ‘Garfield’?

Jim Davis

6. In which modern-day country was Rembrandt born?

Netherlands (Was the Dutch Republic at the time)

7. ‘A Bigger Splash’, ‘Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy’ and ‘Garrowby Hill’ are all paintings by which English artist?

David Hockney

8. Published in 2017, ‘Only Fools and Stories’ is whose second autobiography?

David Jason

9. “Night is generally my time for walking.” This is the opening line to which novel by Charles Dickens?

The Old Curiosity Shop

10. What is Frankenstein’s first name in Mary Shelley’s novel?

Victor

Opening lines quiz – Of which famous works of literature are these the opening lines?

1. “Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Verona, where we lay our scene…”

Romeo and Juliet – William Shakespeare

2. “Dr. Iannis had enjoyed a satisfactory day in which none of his patients had died or got any worse.”

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis de Bernieres

3. “Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday; I can’t be sure.”

The Stranger – Albert Camus

4. All children, except one, grow up.”

Peter Pan – J.M. Barrie

5. “My father’s family name being Pirrip, and my Christian name Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip.”

Great Expectations – Charles Dickens

6. “It was 7 minutes after midnight. The dog was lying on the grass in the middle of the lawn in front of Mrs Shears’ house. Its eyes were closed.”

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Mark Haddon

7. “Not for the first time, an argument had broken out over breakfast at number four, Privet Drive.”

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets – J.K. Rowling

8. “Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the galaxy lies a small, unregarded yellow sun.”

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams

9. “Now is the winter of our discontent, made glorious summer by this sun of York…”

Richard III – William Shakespeare

10. “One thing was certain, that the white kitten had nothing to do with it: – it was the black kitten’s fault entirely.”

Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There – Lewis Carroll

To download the opening lines quiz as a PDF contestant question paper, with printed questions only plus spaces for contestant answers, please click on the grey box below:

Art and Literature Trivia – Quiz Questions and Answers for your pub quiz

1. Which English television presenter has released novels entitled ‘The Holiday Home’, ‘The Postcard’ and ‘A Seaside Affair’?

Fern Britton

2. In which year was Volume 1 of Adolf Hitler’s autobiographical work ‘Mein Kampf’ published?

1925

3. How many lines are there in a sonnet?

Fourteen

4. Liberty Evans and Sapphire Jones are fictional characters by which former glamour model?

Katie Price (Jordan)

5. Who served as Poet Laureate of the UK from 1984 until his death in 1998?

Ted Hughes

6. Who wrote the 17th century epic poem ‘Paradise Lost’?

John Milton

7. In which UK city would you find the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum?

Glasgow

8. Which French post-Impressionist painter’s works include ‘Bathers at Asnières’ and ‘A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte’?

Georges Seurat

9. In Gustave Flaubert’s 1856 novel what was Madame Bovary’s first name?

Emma

10. ‘Bring Up the Bodies’ is a 2012 historical novel by which English writer?

Hilary Mantel

To download the Art and Literature Trivia Quiz as a PDF contestant question paper, with printed questions plus spaces for contestant answers, please click on the grey box below:

Writers quiz – These ten writers are known by the initials of their Christian names plus their surname. Can you recognise them from their first names only?

1. Edward Morgan

Forster

2. Thomas Stearns

Eliot

3. Pelham Grenville

Wodehouse

4. Lucy Maud

Montgomery

5. John Ronald Reuel

Tolkien

6. Gilbert Keith

Chesterton

7. James Graham

Ballard

8. Herbert George

Wells

9. Herbert Ernest

Bates

10. Edward Estlin

Cummings

To download the ‘writers quiz’ as a PDF contestant question paper, with printed questions only plus spaces for answers, please click on the grey link below:

1. Who was the Poet Laureate between May 1999 and May 2009?

Andrew Motion

2. According to Douglas Adams’ ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’, what is the answer to the ultimate question of Life, the Universe and Everything?

42

3. In which Charles Dickens novel do the characters of Esther Summerson and Mr John Jarndyce feature?

Bleak House

4. Which English cartoonist, illustrator and children’s writer is best-known for illustrating Roald Dahl’s books?

Quentin Blake

5. Which two primary colours could you mix together to make purple when painting?

Red and blue

6. Which American author published his fourth novel, ‘The Sound and the Fury’, in 1929?

William Faulkner

7. Paul Cézanne, Paul Gaugin, Vincent Van Gogh and Georges Seurat were the four major figures of which art movement?

Post-Impressionism

8. Who wrote the 1997 historical novel ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’, which was later turned into a film of the same name?

Arthur Golden

9. Which English children’s author has published many books, including ‘Wave Me Goodbye’, ‘The Mum-Minder’ and ‘Lizzie Zipmouth’?

Jacqueline Wilson

10. What is the name on the girl who is the ‘Worst Witch’ in Jill Murphy’s books of the same name?

Mildred Hubble

1. Which American Gothic fiction author wrote ‘Interview with a Vampire’?

Anne Rice

2. How many ‘Canterbury Tales’ were written by Geoffrey Chaucer?

24

3. What, in the art and decorating world, is gesso?

A type of white paint (Similar to white acrylic paint but thinner)

4. Who was the eldest of Enid Blyton’s ‘Famous Five’?

Julian

5. In which Parisian museum would you find Auguste Renoir’s ‘Bal du Moulin de la Galette’, Claude Monet’s ‘London, Houses of Parliament’ and Edouard Manet’s ‘Olympia’?

The Musée d’Orsay

6. Who wrote ‘The French Lieutenant’s Woman’?

John Fowles

7. What does the ‘L.S.’ stand for in the name of the English artist L.S. Lowry?

Laurence Stephen

8. What was the name of the first children’s book to be published by David Walliams?

The Boy in the Dress

9. Who wrote the hugely successful ‘Shopaholic’ series of novels, featuring the main character Rebecca Bloomwood?

Sophie Kinsella (Real name Madeleine Wickham, under which she also writes)

10. Which was the first Dan Brown book to feature the religious iconology expert Robert Langdon?

Angels & Demons

Fictional detectives quiz. Below we will give you ten famous detectives from the world of literature. Can you tell us which author created each character?

1. Hercule Poirot

Agatha Christie

2. Philip Marlowe

Raymond Chandler

3. Sherlock Holmes

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

4. Dirk Gently

Douglas Adams

5. Alex Cross

James Patterson

6. Inspector Morse

Colin Dexter

7. John Rebus

Ian Rankin

8. Adam Dalgliesh

P.D. James

9. Maigret

Georges Simenon

10. Eleanor Roosevelt

Elliott Roosevelt (Son of  Franklin D. and Eleanor Roosevelt, he wrote a number of books including a series where his own mother was the detective)

To download the ‘Fictional Detectives’ quiz as a PDF contestant question paper, with questions only plus spaces for contestant answers, please click on the grey link below:

1. Which 1887 detective novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle marked the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes?

A Study in Scarlet

2. Which French Post-Impressionist painter’s works include ‘The Card Players’ and ‘The Bathers’?

Paul Cézanne

3. Which former journalist and spy has written many novels, including ‘The Day of the Jackal’ and ‘The Odessa File’?

Frederick Forsyth

4. In Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’, Jack informs Lady Bracknell that as a baby he was found in a handbag in the cloakroom of a railway station. Which station?

Victoria Station

5. Who designed the sculpture ‘The Angel of The North’?

Sir Antony Gormley

6. What was the name of Don Quixote’s horse?

Rocinante

7. In Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel ‘The Color Purple’, the protagonist and narrator, Celie, grows up in which US state?

Georgia

8. The architect Walter Gropius was the founder of which German art school?

Bauhaus

9. Who created the character ‘Detective Inspector Jack Frost’ who appeared in nine published novels and a successful television series?

R.D. Wingfield

10. The Venus de Milo is one of the most famous works of Greek sculpture – but was it created BC or AD?

BC (At some point between 13o and 100 BC)