Can You Name Which Literary Classic These Characters Are From?

By: Olivia Cantor
Estimated Completion Time
6 min
Can You Name Which Literary Classic These Characters Are From?
Image: Eva Katalin Kondoros / E+ / Getty Images

About This Quiz

Great literary works gave us many memorable characters throughout the centuries. Are you familiar with many of them?

Many of these unforgettable fictional friends are the prototypes of personalities we see in different stories today. If plot patterns in storytelling get rehashed and improved upon time and again, the same process happens with characters as well. These characters even come alive outside of literary pages, as we can see them manifest in various forms of media in modern times.

Film and TV characters, even those we encounter in comic books and practically all kinds of art, all have characteristics attributed to an iconic classic literary character, in parts or altogether. From the way they look, their behavior, their innate goodness or their conniving schemes, these literary characters become archetypes that get transformed into various stereotypes and tropes. Look closely, and you'll notice these, too! If you're a bookworm who loves to read the classics, then these are probably familiar to you already.

So, do you want to see your familiarity with these great characters? We'll describe them and their situation a bit, and choose which novel they appeared in. Sounds cool? Then let's get busy!

Jay is the party-hardy billionaire character from which F. Scott Fitzgerald novel?
Tender is the Night
The Last Tycoon
The Great Gatsby
This Side of Paradise
A strong female character who challenged cultural stereotypes of her era is Elizabeth Bennet. In which novel did she appear?
Northanger Abbey
Mansfield Park
Sense and Sensibility
Pride and Prejudice
While roaming around New York, teenager Holden Caulfield likes to think and swear a lot. Which novel did he come from?
The Laughing Man
Down at the Dinghy
The Catcher in the Rye
For Esmé--wih Love and Squalor

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One of the Brontë literary sisters wrote of a lead character named Jane. Can you guess which novel she came from?
The Professor
Shirley
Villette
Jane Eyre
Sherlock Holmes, the beloved detective, is the lead character in which British mystery novel?
The Hound of the Baskervilles
Murder on the Orient Express
The Secret of Father Brown
Busman's Honeymoon
The American Civil War and Scarlett O'Hara didn't see eye to eye, so to speak, in which classic novel?
Gods and Generals
The Red Badge of Courage
Gone with the Wind
Cold Mountain

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Atticus Finch is the lawyer who's also the dad of Scout and Jem in this classic novel. What's the title?
To Kill A Mockingbird
The Firm
Presumed Innocent
Anatomy of a Murder
Cigarette-smoking party girl Holly Golightly can be found cavorting with New York's high society people in which literary work?
In Cold Blood
The Grass Harp
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Other Voices, Other Rooms
Gregor Samsa is the unfortunate human who got turned into another being in which novel?
Animal Farm
The Plague
Lord of the Flies
The Metamorphosis

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Hester Prynne's story became a cautionary tale about adultery and hypocrisy. What novel narrates her hardships?
The House of the Seven Gables
The Scarlet Letter
Fanshawe
The Marble Faun: Or, The Romance of Monte Beni
The ivory trader in Congo named Kurtz is one of the central characters in which moody novel?
Lord Jim
The Secret Agent
The Nature of a Crime
Heart of Darkness
It's the Queen of Hearts who gives this novel's protagonist some royal pain and punishment. What novel is this?
The Hunting of the Snark
Sylvie and Bruno
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
What the Tortoise Said to Achilles

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Valentine Michael Smith is not exactly an alien, but he was raised by one in which classic sci-fi novel?
Brave New World
Fahrenheit 451
Stranger in a Strange Land
The Time Machine
Eldest daughter Jo March helps her mother run things in their house while their father is away. What novel did these characters come from?
Eight Cousins
Behind a Mask
Little Women
A Modern Mephistopheles
Santiago is the person alluded to in the title of this classic Hemingway novel. Can you name it?
The Old Man and the Sea
For Whom the Bell Tolls
A Farewell to Arms
To Have and Have Not

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Elizabeth is the name of this scary scientist's fiancée, in a novel subtitled "Or, The Modern Prometheus." Which novel is this?
Lodore
Valperga
Frankenstein
Mathilda
Yes, before he became a film hero, James Bond is a literary hero. Can you name the novel where his adventures are told?
The Thirty-Nine Steps
The Secret Agent
Casino Royale
The Day of the Jackal
In the musical adaptation of this novel, Éponine is the one singing "On My Own." What novel is this?
Les Orientales
Notre-Dame de Paris
Les Misérables
Cromwell

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A con man by trade, the anti-hero Tom makes a living by imitating people and pretending to be them. What novel details his illegal exploits?
Strangers on a Train
The Price of Salt
The Talented Mr. Ripley
This Sweet Sickness
The independent-minded Bathsheba Everdene's relationships are chronicled in which Thomas Hardy novel?
Jude the Obscure
Tess of the d'Urbervilles
The Mayor of Casterbridge
Far From The Madding Crowd
The hobbit named Frodo Baggins is the biggest small character to come out of fantasy novel lore. Where can you read his adventures?
Earthsea Cycle
The Call of the Wild
The Lord of the Rings
The Sound and the Fury

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The stoic yet creepy Mrs. Danvers is the housekeeper in the de Winter estate called Manderley. Where can we read all about her?
The King's General
The House on the Strand
Jamaica Inn
Rebecca
In today's language, Lennie Small will be classified as a person with mental disability. In which Steinbeck work can you read about this good-natured guy?
East of Eden
Cannery Row
Of Mice and Men
The Grapes of Wrath
Social climbing via manipulation seems to be Becky Sharp's "expertise" in which novel?
Vanity Fair
The Luck of Barry Lyndon
The Book of Snobs
The Paris Sketchbook

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Of all the Dickensian characters, we get reminded of Ebenezer Scrooge every single year. What novel contains his story?
A Christmas Carol
Great Expectations
The Pickwick Papers
A Tale of Two Cities
The dame named Dagny Taggart dominates the story set in a dystopian America in which novel?
Anthem
Atlas Shrugged
The Fountainhead
Ideal
This World War II-set novel finds Air Force Captain John Yossarian in the lead. Which satirical work is this?
Hard Times
Erewhon
Catch-22
Brave New World

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The opening line of this novel mentions Clarissa "would buy the flowers herself." What Virginia Woolf novel is this?
To The Lighthouse
Mrs. Dalloway
The Voyage Out
The Waves
Leopold Bloom's day in Dublin is narrated in the stream of consciousness-structured tale of which pivotal novel?
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Dubliners
Finnegans Wake
Ulysses
Miss Marple is a senior citizen who's also an amateur detective in which whodunit novel?
The Big Sleep
The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side
The Maltese Falcon
The Innocence of Father Brown

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This titular character's vanity can be seen in his fear of growing old and wrinkled. Which Oscar Wilde novel can you find this hedonistic narcissist?
The Importance of Being Earnest
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Duchess of Padua
A Woman of No Importance
Mina Harker is the wife of Jonathan, the one who travels and meets creatures of the night in which classic novel?
The Primrose Path
The Snake's Pass
Dracula
The Lady of the Shroud
Col. Aureliano Buendia and his clan's magical realist life is chronicled in this Latin American novel. What's the title?
The House of the Spirits
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Pedro Páramo
Like Water for Chocolate

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Catherine Earnshaw fell in love with a man named Heathcliff in which classic novel?
Wuthering Heights
The Castle of Otranto
The Mysteries of Udolpho
Melmoth the Wanderer
Humbert Humbert would definitely be considered as a pedophile by today's standards. In which controversial novel did he appear?
Pale Fire
Lolita
Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle
Bend Sinister