All Free English Literature MCQs with Answers

• A. The short work speaks of the daunting search for truth and knowledge.
• B. It is obsessed with the descriptions of an endless and ultimately incomprehensible library.
• C. Borges takes great pains to show how the key to understanding the library is reason.
• D. The library is analogous to the universe.

Explanation: The library represents the universe and the characters’ frustrating search for truth, while its infinite books remain fundamentally…

• A. Seamus Heaney
• B. James Joyce
• C. William Butler Yeats
• D. E.M. Forster

Explanation: Seamus Heaney, James Joyce, and W. B. Yeats are major Irish writers, whereas E. M. Forster was English.

• A. Joyce's "The Dead"
• B. Hemingway's "My Old Man"
• C. Woolf's "A Haunted House"
• D. Borges' "The Library of Babel"

Explanation: Borges’s “The Library of Babel” imagines the universe as an endless library made up of hexagonal galleries.

• A. It begins with the famous line: "North Richmond Street being blind, was a quiet street except at the hour when the Christian Brothers' School set the boys free."
• B. It speaks of the author's illicit relationship with a young girl.
• C. It is a dramatization of the relationship between Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
• D. It is an analysis of "Exodus" from "The Holy Bible."

Explanation: Araby opens with the sentence about North Richmond Street being a blind, quiet street.

• A. "The Dead"
• B. "The Surrealist Manifesto"
• C. "The Heart of Darkness"
• D. "To the Lighthouse"

Explanation: Eliot greatly admired James Joyce’s “The Dead” and regarded it as one of the finest short stories ever written.

• A. His career ended when he was jailed for criminal "gross indecency."
• B. He believed that art should be something more than the reproduction and appreciation of the natural world.
• C. Wilde was the author of such poems as "Bénédiction," "L'Albatros," and "élévation."
• D. He was notorious for his use of paradox.Books & Literature

Explanation: “Bénédiction,” “L’Albatros,” and “Élévation” are poems by Charles Baudelaire, not Oscar Wilde.

• A. Amy Lowell
• B. Gertrude Stein
• C. Virginia Woolf
• D. Alice Walker

Explanation: The statement comes from Virginia Woolf’s extended reflection on women, writing, and material independence in A Room of One’s Own.

• A. Women should wear more makeup in order to attract husbands.
• B. Women should make sure to receive an education in order to secure their own futures.
• C. Women should take pains to remain generous, modest, and capable.
• D. Women should be given the right to vote immediately.

Explanation: Eliza Lynn Linton’s conservative critique of the ‘girl of the period’ praises women who remain generous, modest, and capable.

• A. its mocking tone.
• B. its absurd response to a real issue.
• C. its sentimental plea to its audience.
• D. its attempt to shock readers into acting.

Explanation: Swift's proposal uses mock seriousness, grotesque absurdity, and deliberate shock to expose the treatment of the Irish poor.

• A. social contract theory of government.
• B. blank slate or tabula rasa.
• C. divine authority of kings.
• D. natural political rights.

Explanation: Locke rejected the divine right of kings and supported government based on consent, natural rights, and a social contract.

• A. Classification, order, and judgment
• B. Romantic origins
• C. Linguistic indeterminacy
• D. Subjective experience

Explanation: Johnson's Dictionary reflects the eighteenth-century drive to impose order on knowledge and language through classification, definition…

• A. the ultimate expression of humankind's ability to control its own destiny.
• B. a misguided attempt to overthrow human nature by rejecting tradition.
• C. a necessary change that was beginning to go astray.
• D. an event that had little consequence to England

Explanation: In Reflections on the Revolution in France, Burke condemned the revolutionaries for rejecting inherited traditions and attempting to…

• A. "Toxophilus"
• B. "Utopia"
• C. "The Inferno"
• D. "Paradise Lost"

Explanation: Sir Thomas More’s Utopia, published in 1516, presents an imagined commonwealth to examine political and social problems in contemporary…

• A. Riches, jewels, and gold
• B. Suicide
• C. Marriage and divorce
• D. All of the above

Explanation: Utopia discusses wealth and gold, attitudes toward suicide, and rules concerning marriage and divorce.

• A. "Euphues"
• B. "Paradise Lost"
• C. "Paradise Regained"
• D. "Acts and Monuments"

Explanation: John Foxe’s Acts and Monuments, commonly called the Book of Martyrs, uses Protestant martyrology to narrate the struggle between the true…

• A. Buddhist
• B. Anglican
• C. Quaker
• D. Catholic

Explanation: John Foxe was a Protestant writer whose Acts and Monuments strongly attacked Catholic persecution and celebrated Protestant martyrs.

• A. "Acts and Monuments"
• B. "Utopia"
• C. "Euphues"
• D. "Paradise Regained"

Explanation: Acts and Monuments, commonly called the Book of Martyrs, contains Foxe’s account of Protestant history and persecution.

• A. Mass
• B. Transubstantiation
• C. Resurrection
• D. both A and C

Explanation: Foxe’s Protestant criticism was directed chiefly against the Roman Catholic Mass, whose doctrinal basis included transubstantiation.

• A. Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
• B. Speaker of the House of Commons
• C. Master of Requests
• D. All of the above

Explanation: Thomas More served as Speaker of the House of Commons, Master of Requests, and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster before becoming Lord…

• A. Sir Thomas More
• B. Sir Walter Raleigh
• C. Sir Philip Sidney
• D. Sir William Shakespeare

Explanation: Sir Walter Raleigh became a prominent favourite of Elizabeth I, received a knighthood, and was appointed captain of the Queen’s Guard in…