Can You Read?

Question 1

Disney took the name of villainous sidekick Iago in Aladdin from the same named antagonist in this Shakespeare play.

Accepted Answer

Othello

Question 2

The German word Bildungsroman describes what literary genre?

Accepted Answer

Coming-of-age

Question 3

What classic novel famously begins with the line, 'Call me Ishmael'?

Accepted Answer

Moby-Dick; or, The Whale - Herman Melville

Question 4

What is the name of Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel in which the narrator sexually abuses his stepdaughter?

Accepted Answer

Lolita

Question 5

This Gravity's Rainbow and V. author has little to no photos in existence, not having been seen in public in 50+ years.

Accepted Answer

Thomas Pynchon

Question 6

What is the name of Agatha Christie's famous Belgian detective, known for his moustache and 'little grey cells'?

Accepted Answer

Hercule Poirot

Question 7

What language was the epic novel Don Quixote originally written in?

Accepted Answer

Spanish

Question 8

What is the titular city of Armistead Maupin's timeless queer novel Tales of the City?

Accepted Answer

San Francisco

Question 9

Printed worldwide as Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, what was it titled in the US?

Accepted Answer

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Question 10

'Big Brother' became a common term to describe mass surveillance in society due to its use in what dystopian novel?

Accepted Answer

Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell

Question 11

Cabaret is based off Goodbye to Berlin, inspired by this author's time in Germany during the rise of Nazism.

Accepted Answer

Christopher Isherwood

Question 12

Which author's bibliography includes Giovanni's Room, If Beale Street Could Talk, and Go Tell It On the Mountain?

Accepted Answer

James Baldwin

Question 13

What book was found on John Lennon's murderer, with a note inside ending with, 'This is my statement'?

Accepted Answer

The Catcher in the Rye - J. D. Salinger

Question 14

1995 film Clueless is loosely based on which Jane Austen novel?

Accepted Answer

Emma

Question 15

Which character is the narrator of F. Scott Fitzgerald's Great American Novel The Great Gatsby?

Accepted Answer

Nick Carraway

Question 16

Besides religious texts (Bible, Qu'ran, The Book of Mormon), what is the best selling book of all time?

Accepted Answer

A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

Question 17

Pierre Bezukhov and Andrei Bolkonsky are characters from this 1,225-page piece of acclaimed Russian literature.

Accepted Answer

War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

Question 18

Which of these children's novels was not written by Roald Dahl?

Accepted Answer

Charlotte's Web

Question 19

What was the name of the group formed of British mystery writers, including Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers?

Accepted Answer

Detection Club

Question 20

Ulysses protagonist Leopold Bloom was inspired by James Joyce's friend, this Italian author of Zeno's Conscience.

Accepted Answer

Italo Svevo

Question 21

Besides Shakespeare, who is the best selling author of all time?

Accepted Answer

Agatha Christie

Questions 21