British Non-Fiction Writers
The Scottish author who wrote a biography about Samuel Johnson. His name has become a general term for a biographer.
Who is James Boswell?
The propaganda that the pigs spread to put themselves above the other animals. It ends “But some animals are more equal than others”
What is “All animals are equal”?
A novel of satire by George Orwell about animals taking over a farm.
What is Animal Farm?
A play by Irish author, Oscar Wilde, about two people who are pretending to be someone that they are not.
What is The Importance of Being Earnest?
An English poet of the 14th century, referred to as the father of poetry. His best known work is The Canterbury Tales featuring characters such as The Nun, The Wife of Bath, and The Host among others.
Who is Geoffrey Chaucer?
An English author of the twentieth century. He is best known for his stories of Winnie-the-Pooh.
Who is A.A Milne?
An English author commonly considered the founder of Science Fiction who also wrote historical and scientific works such as Outline of History.
Who is H.G. Wells?
The second part of a quote penned by Elizabeth Barrett Browning in Sonnets of the Portuguese, “How I love thee?...”
What is “Let me count the ways”?
A novel by George Orwell that depicts a totalitarian society of the future, ruled by an unseen figure referred to as Big Brother.
What is 1984?
A play, by the same name as the title character, where three children go to a place where children never grow older by Scottish author James Matthew Barrie.
What is Peter Pan?
A nineteenth century series of poems written by Alfred, Lord Tennyson about King Arthur.
What are Idylls of the King?
An English writer and logician, best known as the author of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking-Glass".
Who is Lewis Carroll?
An 18th century author who compiled a dictionary of the English language. He held a doctorate from Oxford and was known for his wit as well as his careful and balanced criticism of literature.
Who is Dr. Samuel Johnson?
One of the most popular quotes in literature penned by Alfred, Lord Tennyson which begins “Theirs not to reason why” or “Theirs not a reason why”
What is “Theirs but to do and die”?
A novel by Robert Louis Stevenson about a good doctor, whose well-intentioned experiments on himself went wrong and created an evil split-personality.
What is The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?
A comedy by William Shakespeare where the two central characters are a twin brother and sister. They both think the other is lost at sea.
What is Twelfth Night?
A collection of poems that William Blake wrote along with Songs of Experience which contains the lines “Tiger! Tiger! Burning Bright.”
What are the Songs of Innocence?
Wrote a series of novels including A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of the Four, and The Crooked Man featuring a detective and a doctor as his assistant.
Who is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle?
An author known in Philosophy for his defense of the Scientific Method and in literature for his essays. He penned the quote "Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man."
Who is Francis Bacon?
The second of two lines by Dylan Thomas, a Welsh poet, addressed to his dying father. “Do not go gentle into the good night…”
What is “Rage, rage against the dying of the light”?
A religious allegory by John Bunyan in which the main character travels from the City of Destruction to The Celestial City where he faces several challenges including the Slough of Despond. He eventually makes it to his destination and is allowed into Heaven.
★ ★ ★
What is The Pilgrim’s Progress?
A play by Richard Brinsley Sheridan which contains the character Mrs. Malaprop who often mixes up words (such as pineapple with pinnacle).
What is The Rivals?
A poem based on a folk tale from the Middle Ages in Germany by Robert Browning.
What is The Pied Piper of Hamelin?
An English author of the early nineteenth century. He was a leader of Romanticism; his poems included "Kubla Khan" and "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner".
Who is Samuel Taylor Coleridge?
Also a poet and a playwright, this nonfiction author urged the use of ordinary language in poetry.
Who is T.S. Eliot?
It is also called “The Seven Ages of Man,” since it treats that many periods in a man’s life: his years as an infant, schoolboy, lover. soldier, judge, foolish old man, and finally end with this.
★ ★ ★
What is “second childishness and more oblivion”?
A comic novel by Jane Austen about the life of an upper-middle-class family called the Bennets.
What is Pride and Prejudice?
A play by Christopher Marlowe where the title character interacts with the devil Mephistopheles.
What is Doctor Faustus?
A poem written by Percy Bysshe Shelley named after this type of bird.
What is a Skylark? Or What is To a Skylark?
An English author of the 20th century who experimented with stream-of-consciousness narrative technique. Her works include the novel "To the Lighthouse" and the essay "A Room of One's Own."
Who is Virginia Woolf?
This author wrote an essay about how the state may only interfere with the freedom of individuals only to protect other individuals and interfering with the freedom of individuals for their own good is not a sufficient reason.
Who is John Stuart Mill?
In the Book of Common Prayer this quote begins “We have left undone…”
What is “Those things which we ought to have done”?
A novel by Charlotte Bronte about the title character and a mysterious and moody Edward Rochester.
What is Jane Eyre?
A play by George Bernard Shaw, about a professor, Henry Higgins, who trains a poor, uneducated girl, Eliza Doolittle, to act and speak like a lady eventually falling in love with her. Also the name of a Greek sculptor who fell in love with his own statue.
What is Pygmalion?
A poem written by William Wordsworth which contains the lines “I wandered lonely as a cloud” and “The world is too much with us.”
What is Daffodils?
An English author of the twentieth century, known for her play "The Mousetrap" and many detective thrillers and murder mysteries.
Who is Agatha Christie?