All Free English Literature MCQs with Answers

Every English Literature question in the bank, across all chapters, each with the correct answer and a written explanation. Free and unlimited, with no account needed.

3,192 questions · page 134 of 160

  • A. Charles Darwin
  • B. A. Pope
  • C. T. Hardy
  • D. O. Goldsmith

Explanation: Charles Darwin wrote On the Origin of Species, published in 1859, presenting his theory of evolution by natural selection.

Correct answer: Charles Darwin
  • A. Shakespeare
  • B. Lamb
  • C. Lawrence
  • D. Mary Anne Evans

Explanation: Charles and Mary Lamb wrote Tales from Shakespeare to retell Shakespeare’s plays in accessible prose for young readers.

Correct answer: Lamb
  • A. Ruskin
  • B. Carlyle
  • C. Mill
  • D. None of these

Explanation: Thomas Carlyle wrote Heroes and Hero-Worship, a series of lectures examining figures such as the hero as divinity, prophet, poet and king.

Correct answer: Carlyle
  • A. Shakespeare
  • B. Chaucer
  • C. Spenser
  • D. Bacon

Explanation: The statement comes from Francis Bacon’s essay “Of Studies,” where reading, discussion, and writing are linked with fullness, readiness…

Correct answer: Bacon
  • A. 9
  • B. 10
  • C. 13
  • D. 15

Explanation: From 1 January 2007, the ISBN system changed from 10 digits to 13 digits to align with the international EAN-13 barcode system.

Correct answer: 13
  • A. Emily Bronte
  • B. Jane Austen
  • C. Robert Browning
  • D. None of these

Explanation: Emily Brontë and Jane Austen were women novelists, whereas Robert Browning was a male Victorian poet.

Correct answer: Robert Browning
  • A. Huxley
  • B. Carlyle
  • C. Ruskin
  • D. Mill

Explanation: Thomas Carlyle wrote On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History, a series of lectures examining different types of heroes.

Correct answer: Carlyle
  • A. Albert Einstein
  • B. Stephen Hawking
  • C. Jagadish Chandra Basu
  • D. Isaac Newton

Explanation: Stephen Hawking wrote A Brief History of Time, a popular-science book explaining concepts such as the origin of the universe and black…

Correct answer: Stephen Hawking
  • A. William Wordsworth
  • B. William Shakespeare
  • C. Thomas Grey
  • D. Saki

Explanation: Saki was the pen name of Hector Hugh Munro, a master of witty and often dark short stories, including “The Story-Teller.” The other…

Correct answer: Saki
  • A. Feeling like an outcast in your own house
  • B. Becoming a stuttering sycophant just to survive
  • C. Wrapping yourself in the armor of anger and resentment
  • D. All of the above

Explanation: Du Bois describes the psychological strain of racism through alienation, forced submissiveness, and the defensive cultivation of anger.

Correct answer: All of the above
  • A. Pazzi
  • B. Republic
  • C. Medici
  • D. Inquisition

Explanation: Machiavelli dedicated The Prince to Lorenzo de' Medici, seeking the support and favour of the ruling Medici family after the fall of the…

Correct answer: Medici
  • A. Of Prelatical Episcopacy
  • B. The Likeliest Means to Remove Hirelings from the Church
  • C. Of Practical Exorcisme
  • D. Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce

Explanation: Of Practical Exorcisme is not a work by Milton. The other three titles belong to his religious and political prose writings, including his…

Correct answer: Of Practical Exorcisme
  • A. Thomas Carlyle
  • B. Matthew Arnold
  • C. Charles Dickens
  • D. all of the above

Explanation: Carlyle, Arnold, and Dickens all published regularly in periodicals, which were central to Victorian literary culture.

Correct answer: all of the above
  • A. Contemporary literary criticism
  • B. Art and Literature
  • C. Theology
  • D. Social changes in the Victorian AgeExplore Top Audiobooks

Explanation: Arnold's Literature and Dogma treats Christianity primarily as a system of moral and spiritual ideas rather than as literal dogma, making…

Correct answer: Theology
  • A. Britain's preeminence as a global power will depend on mastery of foreign languages.
  • B. Even a foreign author is better than a homegrown scoundrel.
  • C. Abandon the introspection of the Romantics and turn to the higher moral purpose found in Goethe.
  • D. In a carefully veiled critique of the monarchy, Byron and Goethe stand in symbolically for Queen Victoria and Charles Darwin respectively.

Explanation: Carlyle contrasts Byron’s Romantic introspection and rebellious self-expression with Goethe’s disciplined, constructive and morally…

Correct answer: Abandon the introspection of the Romantics and turn to the higher moral purpose found in Goethe.
  • A. Religion
  • B. Civilization
  • C. Tehology
  • D. Education

Explanation: Culture and Anarchy presents culture as a means of developing the whole person and improving society, making education its principal…

Correct answer: Education
  • A. a new market position for nonfiction writing and an exalted sense of the didactic function of the writer
  • B. a Puritanical distrust of fictions and a thirst for trivia
  • C. the forbiddingly high cost of threevolume novels and the difficulty of finding poetry in bookshops outside of London
  • D. the deconstruction of the truth-fiction dichotomy and an accompanying relativistic sense that every opinion was of equal value

Explanation: Nonfiction gained popularity through a growing market for prose and the Victorian belief that writing should educate and improve readers.

Correct answer: a new market position for nonfiction writing and an exalted sense of the didactic function of the writer
  • A. theoretical science
  • B. metaphysics
  • C. abstract logical deductions
  • D. A, B, and C

Explanation: Swift attacked abstract, impractical systems of thought when they became detached from common sense and human experience.

Correct answer: A, B, and C
  • A. Henry St. John
  • B. Robert Harley
  • C. John Churchill
  • D. Robert Walpole

Explanation: Robert Walpole is conventionally regarded as Britain's first prime minister, serving during the reign of George II.

Correct answer: Robert Walpole
  • A. abolitionists and enthusiasts for slavery
  • B. round-earthers and flat-earthers
  • C. the Welsh and the Scots
  • D. champions of ancient and modern learning

Explanation: The Battle of the Books was a late-seventeenth-century dispute between supporters of ancient classical learning and advocates of modern…

Correct answer: champions of ancient and modern learning