Quiz of the Day
Shakespeare & Literature
Thursday, 23 April 2026
World Book Day + Shakespeare's birthday — famous opening lines, literary characters
1. How many plays did William Shakespeare write?
- 27
- 37
- 32
- 42
Shakespeare wrote 37 plays (some scholars count 38 or 39 due to collaboration disputes), 154 sonnets, and two long narrative poems — all in about 25 years of active writing.
2. Which novel begins 'It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife'?
- Pride and Prejudice
- Wuthering Heights
- Emma
- Jane Eyre
Jane Austen originally titled the novel 'First Impressions' and completed it in 1797, but it wasn't published until 1813 after significant revisions. It's been adapted for screen over 20 times.
3. What famous phrase from Hamlet means 'to exist or not to exist'?
- All that glitters is not gold
- Something is rotten in the state of Denmark
- To be or not to be
- The lady doth protest too much
This soliloquy from Act 3, Scene 1 is the most quoted line in English literature. Shakespeare invented over 1,700 words that we still use today, including 'eyeball', 'lonely', 'assassination', and 'bedroom'.
4. Who wrote '1984', the dystopian novel about totalitarian surveillance?
- George Orwell
- Ray Bradbury
- Aldous Huxley
- H.G. Wells
Orwell wrote '1984' while seriously ill with tuberculosis on the Scottish island of Jura. He finished it in 1948 and simply reversed the last two digits for the title. He died just seven months after publication.
5. In which Shakespeare play does the line 'Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?' appear?
- Romeo and Juliet
- A Midsummer Night's Dream
- Othello
- The Tempest
'Wherefore' means 'why', not 'where' — Juliet is asking why Romeo has to be a Montague (her family's enemy), not where he is. This is one of the most commonly misunderstood lines in literature.
6. Which author created the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes?
- Arthur Conan Doyle
- Agatha Christie
- Edgar Allan Poe
- Wilkie Collins
Doyle grew so tired of Holmes that he killed him off in 1893, but public outcry was so intense — readers wore black armbands in mourning — that he was forced to bring the character back in 1903.
7. What is the best-selling book of all time (excluding religious texts)?
- Don Quixote
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
- A Tale of Two Cities
- The Lord of the Rings
Cervantes' Don Quixote, published in 1605, has sold over 500 million copies. It's often called the first modern novel and tells the story of a man who reads too many chivalric romances and goes mad.
8. Which Shakespeare play features the three witches who prophesy 'Double, double toil and trouble'?
- Macbeth
- The Tempest
- Hamlet
- King Lear
Actors consider it bad luck to say 'Macbeth' in a theatre — they call it 'The Scottish Play' instead. The superstition dates back centuries, with numerous reported accidents during productions.
9. Who wrote 'To Kill a Mockingbird'?
- Harper Lee
- F. Scott Fitzgerald
- John Steinbeck
- Toni Morrison
Lee only published one novel during most of her lifetime (1960). It won the Pulitzer Prize and has sold over 40 million copies. A second novel, 'Go Set a Watchman', was controversially published in 2015.
10. What was Shakespeare's theatre in London called?
- The Curtain
- The Swan
- The Rose
- The Globe
The original Globe Theatre was built in 1599, burned down in 1613 when a cannon prop set the thatched roof alight during Henry VIII, was rebuilt, and then demolished in 1644. A reconstruction opened in 1997.
11. Which children's book character lives in a house in the Hundred Acre Wood?
- Peter Rabbit
- The Wind in the Willows
- Winnie-the-Pooh
- Paddington Bear
A.A. Milne named Winnie-the-Pooh after a real bear his son Christopher Robin visited at London Zoo — a Canadian black bear named Winnipeg (Winnie) who was the regiment mascot of a WWI infantry brigade.
12. Which Brontë sister wrote 'Wuthering Heights'?
- Anne Brontë
- Branwell Brontë
- Charlotte Brontë
- Emily Brontë
Emily died at age 30, just one year after Wuthering Heights was published. Initial reviews were harsh — critics called it 'strange' and 'brutal' — but it's now considered one of the greatest novels in English.
13. What is the opening line of Charles Dickens' 'A Tale of Two Cities'?
- It was the best of times, it was the worst of times
- Call me Ishmael
- In the beginning
- It was a bright cold day in April
The full opening sentence of A Tale of Two Cities is 119 words long. The novel is set during the French Revolution and has sold over 200 million copies, making it one of the best-selling novels ever.
14. How many Harry Potter books are there in the main series?
- 5
- 7
- 8
- 6
J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series has sold over 600 million copies in 80 languages. The first book was rejected by 12 publishers before Bloomsbury accepted it — partly because the chairman's 8-year-old daughter loved the opening chapter.
15. In which century was Shakespeare born?
- 16th century
- 15th century
- 17th century
- 14th century
Shakespeare was born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon and died on April 23, 1616 — the same date as his birth (according to tradition) and the same day that Cervantes died. April 23 is now UNESCO's World Book Day.