1. Which Jane Austen novel begins with the famous line “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife”?

2. In Charles Dickens’ festive novella “A Christmas Carol”, what is the first name of the miserly Mr Scrooge, visited by three spirits on Christmas Eve?

3. In which Shakespeare play does the central character deliver the famous soliloquy beginning “To be, or not to be, that is the question”?

4. Thomas Hardy’s novels are set in a fictional region he called “Wessex”, based on which real English county?

5. Which Victorian author wrote “Jane Eyre”, telling the story of an orphaned governess who falls in love with the brooding Mr Rochester of Thornfield Hall?

6. “Middlemarch”, widely regarded as one of the greatest novels in the English language, was written by a Victorian author using a male pen name. What was that pen name?

7. Which fictional detective, created by Arthur Conan Doyle, lives at 221B Baker Street in London and is famous for his powers of deduction?

8. In which decade was Oscar Wilde’s comic masterpiece “The Importance of Being Earnest” first performed on stage in London?

9. Which F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, set during the Jazz Age of the 1920s, follows the mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and his obsessive pursuit of Daisy Buchanan?

10. Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” is narrated by which young character, the daughter of lawyer Atticus Finch?

11. Which American author wrote “The Grapes of Wrath”, set during the Great Depression, and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1962?

12. “The Catcher in the Rye” follows the disaffected teenager Holden Caulfield through a few aimless days in New York City. Which American author wrote it?

13. “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Raven” are celebrated works by which 19th-century American author, known for his dark, gothic tales of mystery and horror?

14. Which American author wrote “Beloved”, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1988 and later the Nobel Prize in Literature, a novel set in the aftermath of slavery?

15. Which 1851 novel by Herman Melville follows the obsessive Captain Ahab on his hunt for a giant white sperm whale?

16. “On the Road”, the defining novel of the Beat Generation published in 1957 and said to have been typed on a continuous roll of paper, was written by which American author?

17. Which Russian author wrote both “War and Peace” and “Anna Karenina”, two of the most celebrated novels in world literature?

18. “One Hundred Years of Solitude”, a cornerstone of magical realist fiction, was written by which Colombian Nobel laureate?

19. Which Irish author wrote “Ulysses”, a novel set over a single day in Dublin and considered one of the most important works of 20th-century literature?

20. The British author of “Animal Farm” and “Nineteen Eighty-Four” used the pen name George Orwell. What was his real name?

21. “Les Miserables”, the sweeping historical novel set in 19th-century France and culminating in the Paris uprising of 1832, was written by which French author?

22. “The Metamorphosis”, in which a man wakes up to find he has transformed into a large insect, was written by which Prague-born author who wrote in German?

23. “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and its sequels were written by which Swedish author, who died before the books became a global phenomenon?

24. “Don Quixote”, often cited as the first modern novel, was written in the early 17th century by which Spanish author?

25. In J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, what are the full names of Harry’s two closest friends at Hogwarts?

26. Which author wrote “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”, the first published book in the Chronicles of Narnia series?

27. In Roald Dahl’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, what is the name of the eccentric chocolatier who opens his factory to five children?

28. “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” began as a BBC radio comedy before becoming a beloved series of comic science-fiction novels. Which British author wrote them?

29. Which small bear, created by author Michael Bond, arrives at a London railway station from Peru with a label reading “Please look after this bear” and is taken in by the Brown family?

30. In Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” trilogy, what is the name for the animal manifestations of human souls that accompany people throughout their lives?

31. “Where the Wild Things Are”, the beloved picture book in which a boy named Max sails to a land of monsters after being sent to his room, was written and illustrated by which author?

32. In Suzanne Collins’ “The Hunger Games” trilogy, what is the full name of the teenage girl who volunteers to take her sister’s place in the deadly games?

33. Which filmmaker directed the award-winning 2001 film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring”?

34. Which Daphne du Maurier novel, later filmed by Alfred Hitchcock, opens with the famous line “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again”?

35. Helen Fielding’s comic novel “Bridget Jones’s Diary” is a modern retelling of which Jane Austen classic?

36. Which 1988 Salman Rushdie novel, drawing on Islamic tradition, led to the author being placed under a fatwa and living under police protection for years?

37. Which Dan Brown thriller, featuring art historian Robert Langdon investigating a murder at the Louvre in Paris, became one of the best-selling novels of all time?

38. Which Gillian Flynn novel, adapted into a 2014 film starring Rosamund Pike and Ben Affleck, centres on the mysterious disappearance of a woman on her wedding anniversary?

39. Which Margaret Atwood novel, set in the theocratic state of Gilead where fertile women are enslaved as “handmaids”, was adapted into a critically acclaimed streaming television series?

40. “The Alchemist”, one of the best-selling books of all time and translated into over 80 languages, was written by which Brazilian author?