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During and immediately after which conflict did Herman Melville's Moby Dick achieve popularity and generally become regarded as a masterpiece of American literature?
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| Answered: |
905 times |
| Correct: |
266 times (19.9%) |
| Difficulty: |
very difficult |
| Incorrect: |
639 times (47.8%) |
| Skipped: |
433 times (32.4%) |
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In Herman Melville's Moby Dick, what is the name of Ishmael's headhunting companion?
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
6642 times |
| Correct: |
4329 times (51.3%) |
| Difficulty: |
medium |
| Incorrect: |
2313 times (27.4%) |
| Skipped: |
1794 times (21.3%) |
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In Melville's Moby Dick, what is the name of Ahab's whaling ship?
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
14243 times |
| Correct: |
11488 times (69.1%) |
| Difficulty: |
medium |
| Incorrect: |
2755 times (16.6%) |
| Skipped: |
2391 times (14.4%) |
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Tusitala (Samoan for story teller) was a name given to which Scottish writer?
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
219 times |
| Correct: |
149 times (22.6%) |
| Difficulty: |
difficult |
| Incorrect: |
70 times (10.6%) |
| Skipped: |
440 times (66.8%) |
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After what author did Kurt Vonnegut name his son?
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| Answered: |
253 times |
| Correct: |
106 times (21.8%) |
| Difficulty: |
difficult |
| Incorrect: |
147 times (30.2%) |
| Skipped: |
233 times (47.9%) |
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In Herman Melville's Bartleby, the Scrivener, what phrase was Bartleby fond of using, confounding his boss?
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
2723 times |
| Correct: |
2183 times (56.6%) |
| Difficulty: |
medium |
| Incorrect: |
540 times (14.0%) |
| Skipped: |
1132 times (29.4%) |
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Which of the following is not a novel by Herman Melville?
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
38 times |
| Correct: |
14 times (18.9%) |
| Difficulty: |
very difficult |
| Incorrect: |
24 times (32.4%) |
| Skipped: |
36 times (48.6%) |
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In Moby Dick by Herman Melville, who were Ahab's three mates?
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
800 times |
| Correct: |
325 times (29.2%) |
| Difficulty: |
difficult |
| Incorrect: |
475 times (42.7%) |
| Skipped: |
312 times (28.1%) |
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In Moby Dick by Herman Melville, which of the mates is the first to kill a whale?
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
603 times |
| Correct: |
206 times (18.7%) |
| Difficulty: |
very difficult |
| Incorrect: |
397 times (36.1%) |
| Skipped: |
497 times (45.2%) |
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In Moby Dick by Herman Melville, how do Ishmael and Queequeg first become friends?
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
717 times |
| Correct: |
494 times (44.7%) |
| Difficulty: |
medium |
| Incorrect: |
223 times (20.2%) |
| Skipped: |
388 times (35.1%) |
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Of which American author (whom he greatly admired) did Henry James publish a critical study in 1879, one which proved rather controversial in the USA?
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
796 times |
| Correct: |
350 times (28.8%) |
| Difficulty: |
difficult |
| Incorrect: |
446 times (36.7%) |
| Skipped: |
419 times (34.5%) |
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What Herman Melville book is about someone who prefers not to do his work?
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
1866 times |
| Correct: |
1218 times (51.0%) |
| Difficulty: |
medium |
| Incorrect: |
648 times (27.1%) |
| Skipped: |
523 times (21.9%) |
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"I should prefer not to" echoes throughout what story?
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
1083 times |
| Correct: |
907 times (65.6%) |
| Difficulty: |
medium |
| Incorrect: |
176 times (12.7%) |
| Skipped: |
300 times (21.7%) |
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To whom did Herman Melville write: "I shall leave the world, I feel, with more satisfaction for having come to know you. Knowing you persuades me more than the Bible of our immortality"?
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
624 times |
| Correct: |
297 times (31.9%) |
| Difficulty: |
difficult |
| Incorrect: |
327 times (35.1%) |
| Skipped: |
307 times (33.0%) |
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Shortly before his death a great 20th-century novelist read Herman Melville's Billy Budd, Sailor (calling it "the most beautiful story in the world") and exclaimed "O could I have written that!" Who is the novelist in question?
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
108 times |
| Correct: |
40 times (25.6%) |
| Difficulty: |
difficult |
| Incorrect: |
68 times (43.6%) |
| Skipped: |
48 times (30.8%) |
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Which 19th-century American writer once exclaimed that he would rather "be damned to John Bunyan's heaven" than read Henry James's novel, The Bostonians?
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
796 times |
| Correct: |
562 times (50.8%) |
| Difficulty: |
medium |
| Incorrect: |
234 times (21.2%) |
| Skipped: |
310 times (28.0%) |
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Which novelist became friends with Henry James after sending him one of his novels in 1896 with a letter, saying that James's characters had stood "consoling by my side under many skies. They have lived with me, faithful and serene--with the bright serenity of Immortals. And to you thanks are due for such glorious companionship"?
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
108 times |
| Correct: |
37 times (24.2%) |
| Difficulty: |
difficult |
| Incorrect: |
71 times (46.4%) |
| Skipped: |
45 times (29.4%) |
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In the final years of his life, Stephen Crane lived close to a fellow American writer who befriended him and helped him financially during difficult times. Who is that writer?
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
105 times |
| Correct: |
45 times (30.4%) |
| Difficulty: |
difficult |
| Incorrect: |
60 times (40.5%) |
| Skipped: |
43 times (29.1%) |
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Herman Melville's last novel, Billy Budd, Sailor, was turned into an opera with music by Benjamin Britten in 1951. Which famous novelist helped turning the novel into a libretto; in fact, he originally inspired Britten to consider the Melville work for an opera?
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
110 times |
| Correct: |
35 times (20.1%) |
| Difficulty: |
difficult |
| Incorrect: |
75 times (43.1%) |
| Skipped: |
64 times (36.8%) |
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Most of the operas of Benjamin Britten are based on great works of literature. Which of these novelists is the only writer on whose works Britten based two of his operas?
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
89 times |
| Correct: |
26 times (17.0%) |
| Difficulty: |
very difficult |
| Incorrect: |
63 times (41.2%) |
| Skipped: |
64 times (41.8%) |
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Herman Melville's Bartleby the Scrivener A Story of Wall Street preferred:
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
99 times |
| Correct: |
79 times (59.8%) |
| Difficulty: |
medium |
| Incorrect: |
20 times (15.2%) |
| Skipped: |
33 times (25.0%) |
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Who wrote a lengthy, flattering letter to Walt Whitman on the first publication of Leaves of Grass, saying: "I greet you at the beginning of a great career"?
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
507 times |
| Correct: |
291 times (41.1%) |
| Difficulty: |
medium |
| Incorrect: |
216 times (30.5%) |
| Skipped: |
201 times (28.4%) |
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In Moby-Dick or, The Whale by Herman Melville, Captain Ahab is missing one of which appendage?
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
1097 times |
| Correct: |
898 times (70.0%) |
| Difficulty: |
easy |
| Incorrect: |
199 times (15.5%) |
| Skipped: |
185 times (14.4%) |
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Which writer wrote., " The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation."
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
789 times |
| Correct: |
489 times (50.8%) |
| Difficulty: |
medium |
| Incorrect: |
300 times (31.2%) |
| Skipped: |
173 times (18.0%) |
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Which author and abolitionist refused to pay a tax and spent a short time in jail?
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
772 times |
| Correct: |
496 times (51.1%) |
| Difficulty: |
medium |
| Incorrect: |
276 times (28.5%) |
| Skipped: |
198 times (20.4%) |
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In Moby-Dick or, The Whale by Herman Melville, who of the below is not a harpooneer?
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
422 times |
| Correct: |
213 times (24.6%) |
| Difficulty: |
difficult |
| Incorrect: |
209 times (24.2%) |
| Skipped: |
443 times (51.2%) |
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This literary character is a wandering sailor who tells the tale of a ship in the pursuit of a large white whale.
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
825 times |
| Correct: |
674 times (78.9%) |
| Difficulty: |
easy |
| Incorrect: |
151 times (17.7%) |
| Skipped: |
29 times (3.4%) |
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Which one of these authors' work does NOT receive an extended discussion in Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's groundbreaking work of criticism: Epistemology of the Closet?
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
48 times |
| Correct: |
7 times (7.6%) |
| Difficulty: |
really really difficult |
| Incorrect: |
41 times (44.6%) |
| Skipped: |
44 times (47.8%) |
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Apropos which 19th-century novelist does Dorothy Parker dare you:
"Who call him spurious and shoddy
Shall do it o'er my lifeless body.
I heartily invite such birds
To come outside and say those words!"
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
99 times |
| Correct: |
48 times (35.3%) |
| Difficulty: |
difficult |
| Incorrect: |
51 times (37.5%) |
| Skipped: |
37 times (27.2%) |
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Which great novelist wrote this to a friend (also a famed writer) after finishing his masterpiece?
"In me divine magnanimities are spontaneous and instantaneous -- catch them while you can. The world goes round, and the other side comes up. So now I can't write what I felt."
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see if you know the answer
| Answered: |
70 times |
| Correct: |
20 times (17.2%) |
| Difficulty: |
very difficult |
| Incorrect: |
50 times (43.1%) |
| Skipped: |
46 times (39.7%) |
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