Renaissance Lit
Young Adult Lit
Shakespeare's Life
Literary Symbols
Political Writers
100

In Thomas More’s “Utopia,” the story of the Utopians is related in Book Two by this humorously-named world traveler.

Rafael Hytholoday

100

In Suzanne Collins’ “Hunger Games” trilogy, this nation has replaced the United States on the North American continent.

Panem 

100

Shakespeare was born in this village to the southwest of Coventry in 1564.

Stratford-Upon-Avon

100

In Western literature, doves typically symbolize this, although in ancient Mesopotamia they often stood in for the feminine divine, representing goddesses of love, sexuality, and fertility.

Peace

100

This American author wrote “Civil Disobedience,” and spent a great deal of time down at Walden Pond.

Henry David Thoreau

200

Machiavelli’s “The Prince” was originally written to this ruler of Florence, in hopes it would land its author a job and return from exile.

Lorenzo d'Medici, the Magnificent 

200

The category of “young adult fiction” originated after the publication of this S.E. Hinton novel in 1967. Since then, it’s stayed golden.

The Outsiders

200

When he was 18 years old, Shakespeare married her, who was twenty-six at the time. She ended up outliving William by several years, although not nearly long enough to star in “The Princess Diaries.”

Anne Hathaway

200

Macbeth wonders if he sees one of these before him, a typical symbol of impending betrayal in Shakespeare’s tragedies.

A Dagger

200

This ancient Greek philosopher wrote “The Republic,” a treatise on an ideal government. His attempt to apply his ideas in Syracuse was a predictable failure.

Plato

300

In Christopher Marlowe’s “Doctor Faustus,” this demon is sent to attend to Faustus after he signs away his soul to the Devil.

Mephistopheles

300

In the United Kingdom, the first book of the Harry Potter series was published under this title.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

300

Shakespeare’s first daughter Susanna was followed by the twins: Judith, and this unfortunate lad who died at the age of 11, Shakespeare’s only son.

Hamnet Shakespeare

300

In the Old Testament, Jacob sees angels going up and down one of these, often used as a symbol of the link between Heaven and Earth.

A Ladder

300

This 19th century writer is famous for his eloquent descriptions of working class exploitation as well as his lifelong failure to hold a job for any significant amount of time. He authored “Das Kapital,” a foundational text for Communism.

Karl Marx

400

This Dutch writer and Northern Humanist translated the New Testament, and wrote “The Praise of Folly.” He is known more these days for his close friendship with Sir Thomas More.

Desiderius Erasmus

400

In Markus Zuzak’s “The Book Thief,” this character (who also serves as the narrator) appears frequently, but doesn’t come for Leisel Memminger until the very end.

Death

400

Historians and biographers really have no clue what year marked Shakespeare’s journey to London, but we know that by 1592 he had become a founding member of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, a theatre troupe later known by this name after they gained the patronage of King James I.

The King's Men

400

Redcrosse Knight in Spencer’s “Faerie Queen” wears the symbol associated with this Cappadocian Greek saint, martyr, and Patron of England.

St. George

400

This English writer, in his 1651 work “Leviathan,” proclaimed life in the state of nature was “nasty, brutish, and short.”

Thomas Hobbes

500

This French lord and writer was one of the most prominent philosophers of the French Renaissance and popularized the essay.

Michel de Montaigne

500

This fantasy novel by Dianne Wynne Jones, first published in 1986, gained a wider audience when it was adapted into 2004 animated film directed by Hayao Miyazaki.

Howl's Moving Castle

500

Shakespeare’s father John originally belonged to this trade before being elected alderman and eventually mayor in Stratford.

Glovemaking

500

A glass unicorn is the symbol of fragility, otherness, and innocence associated with this character from Tennessee Williams’ play “The Glass Menagerie.”

Laura Wingfield

500

This Premier of the Soviet Union also wrote “Dialectical and Historical Materialism,” a central text in Soviet political theory.

Joseph Stalin

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