History of English Literature MCQs

THE AGE OF REASON

Q#1 Which is the period of the French Revolution?
(a) 1880-1890
(b) 1784-1794
(c) 1794-1804
(d) 1789-1799
Answer: (d) 1789-1799

Q#2 Slave trade was abolished in England in which year?
(a) 1787
(b) 1890
(c) 1785
(d) 1788
Answer: (a) 1787

Q#3: The trial of Warren Hastings took place in

(a) 1785
(b) 1786
(c) 1789
(d) 1787

Answer: (b) 1786

Q#4: American Declaration of Independence took place in

(a) 1775
(b) 1777
(c) 1776
(d) 1778

Answer: (c) 1776

Q#5: The war of Austrian succession took place in

(a) 1750
(b) 1745
(c) 1740
(d) 1755

Answer: (c) 1740

Q#6: When did the conquest of India begin under General Clive?

(a) 1920
(b) 1772
(c) 1762
(d) 1767

Answer: (d) 1767

Q#7: When did George III succeed the throne?

(a) 1750
(b) 1780
(c) 1760
(d) 1765

Answer: (c) 1760

Q#8: The cynical and corrupt practices of Walpole, the premier of the first Tory cabinet, were replaced by the more enlightened policies of Pitt in which year?

(a) 1757
(b) 1820
(c) 1759
(d) 1761

Answer: (a) 1757

Q#9: The Town and Country Mouse is a creation of

(a) Oliver Goldsmith
(b) Samuel Richardson
(c) John Gay
(d) Matthew Prior

Answer: (d) Matthew Prior

Q#10: The treaty of Paris was signed in the year

(a) 1781
(b) 1782
(c) 1784
(d) 1783

Answer: (d) 1783

Q#11: Which is the first tragedy written in English?

(a) King Lear
(b) Gorboduc
(c) Hamlet
(d) Edward II

Answer: (b) Gorboduc

Q#12: Queen Elizabeth had been reigning nearly _____ years when William Shakespeare was born.

(a) Twelve
(b) Eight
(c) Ten
(d) Six

Answer: (d) Six

Q#13: John William Shakespeare (William Shakespeare’s father) happily married Mary Arden in

(a) 1507
(b) 1515
(c) 1557
(d) 1520

Answer: (c) 1557

Q#14: Gorboduc was written in

(a) 1540
(b) 1555
(c) 1561
(d) 1562

Answer: (c) 1561

Q#15: Marston, Chapman, and Webster passed away in the year

(a) 1647
(b) 1641
(c) 1643
(d) 1634

Answer: (d) 1634

Q#16: William Shakespeare passed away during the reign of

(a) Elizabeth
(b) James II
(c) Charles II
(d) Mary

Answer: (a) Elizabeth

Q#17: Boccaccio first attempted prose adventure ‘The Decameron’ in

(a) Greece
(b) France
(c) Paris
(d) Italy

Answer: (d) Italy

Q#18: Edmund Burke’s Reflection on the French Revolution resulted in which of the following?

(a) French victory
(b) War with France
(c) Puritan dominance
(d) Spiritual death of the English

Answer: (b) War with France

Q#19: When did the Great Fire of London take place?

(a) 1666
(b) 1606
(c) 1640
(d) 1610

Answer: (a) 1666

Q#20: How many years ago was the Empire of Babylon at its zenith?

(a) 1000
(b) 1500
(c) 2500
(d) 3000

Answer: (c) 2500

Period	Time Frame	Key Characteristics	Famous Authors and Works
Old English (Anglo-Saxon)	450-1066	Oral tradition, epic poetry, Christian themes, use of Old English	Beowulf (Anonymous), The Seafarer (Anonymous)
Middle English	1066-1500	Feudalism, chivalric romance, religious themes, courtly love, use of Middle English	Geoffrey Chaucer (The Canterbury Tales), Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Anonymous)
Renaissance	1500-1660	Revival of classical learning, humanism, exploration, individualism, use of Early Modern English	William Shakespeare (Hamlet, Macbeth), Christopher Marlowe (Doctor Faustus), Edmund Spenser (The Faerie Queene)
Elizabethan Era	1558-1603	Flourishing of drama and poetry, focus on humanism and the complexities of life and love	William Shakespeare (Sonnet 18, Romeo and Juliet), Ben Jonson (Volpone)
Jacobean Era	1603-1625	Darker themes, exploration of human flaws, metaphysical poetry	John Donne (The Flea), Thomas Middleton (The Changeling)
Caroline Age	1625-1649	Courtly culture, poetry focused on love and loyalty, metaphysical and cavalier poets	John Milton (Lycidas), Robert Herrick (To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time)
Commonwealth/Interregnum	1649-1660	Puritanism, religious and political writings, decline in drama	John Milton (Paradise Lost), Andrew Marvell (To His Coy Mistress)
Restoration	1660-1700	Comedy of manners, satirical works, heroic drama, beginnings of the novel	John Dryden (Absalom and Achitophel), Aphra Behn (Oroonoko)
18th Century/Enlightenment	1700-1798	Rationalism, satire, the novel, development of journalism, neoclassicism	Jonathan Swift (Gulliver’s Travels), Alexander Pope (The Rape of the Lock), Samuel Johnson (Dictionary of the English Language)
Romantic Period	1798-1837	Emphasis on emotion, nature, individualism, rebellion against industrialization	William Wordsworth (Lyrical Ballads), Samuel Taylor Coleridge (The Rime of the Ancient Mariner), Mary Shelley (Frankenstein)
Victorian Era	1837-1901	Social criticism, realism, focus on morality and family, exploration of social class issues	Charles Dickens (Great Expectations), Charlotte Brontë (Jane Eyre), Thomas Hardy (Tess of the d’Urbervilles)
Edwardian Era	1901-1914	Continuation of Victorian themes, more critical of social norms, rise of modernism	E.M. Forster (A Room with a View), H.G. Wells (The War of the Worlds)
Modern Period	1914-1945	Experimental styles, stream of consciousness, disillusionment post-WWI, existential themes	James Joyce (Ulysses), T.S. Eliot (The Waste Land), Virginia Woolf (Mrs. Dalloway)
Postmodern Period	1945-present	Fragmentation, unreliable narrators, metafiction, blending of genres, questioning of traditional narratives	Samuel Beckett (Waiting for Godot), Salman Rushdie (Midnight’s Children), Margaret Atwood (The Handmaid’s Tale)

21. Who wrote The Four Ages of Poetry? (a) Shelley
(b) Collins
(c) Eliot
(d) Peacock
Answer: Peacock

22. Who wrote the book Heroic Idylls? (a) W. Scott
(b) L. Hunt
(c) W.S. Landor
(d) W. Cobbett
Answer: W.S. Landor

23. Walter Landor’s Count Julian is a (a) Poem
(b) Essay
(c) Drama
(d) Memoir
Answer: Drama

24. The Four Ages of Poetry was an attack on (a) Elizabethan poetry
(b) Neo-classicism
(c) Romanticism
(d) Victorian age
Answer: Romanticism

25. The Old English Baron is a novel by (a) Clara Reeve
(b) Walpole
(c) Lewis
(d) Mrs. Shelley
Answer: Clara Reeve

26. The Absentee is the best novel by (a) F. Burney
(b) Ferrier
(c) Austen
(d) Edgeworth
Answer: Edgeworth

27. When was the Westminster Review released? (a) 1830
(b) 1824
(c) 1845
(d) 1817
Answer: 1824

28. The Edinburgh Review was founded in (a) 1809
(b) 1819
(c) 1817
(d) 1802
Answer: 1802

29. Ancient Spanish Ballads was produced by (a) L. Hunt
(b) Lockhart
(c) Robert Southey
(d) De Quincey
Answer: Lockhart

30. Sidney Smith’s Wit and Wisdom came out in (a) 1860
(b) 1957
(c) 1850
(d) 1863
Answer: 1860

31. Thomas Moore’s Lalla Rookh is (a) Play
(b) Oriental romance
(c) Short story
(d) Essay
Answer: Oriental romance

32. Which among the following was not a creation of John Clare? (a) Punch
(b) The Rural Muse
(c) The Village Minstrel
(d) The Shepherd’s Calendar
Answer: Punch

33. Tales from Shakespeare was released in the year (a) 1801
(b) 1807
(c) 1804
(d) 1802
Answer: 1807

34. The Road to Ruin is a sentimental comedy by (a) Oliver Goldsmith
(b) Sheridan
(c) Thomas Holcroft
(d) Cumberland
Answer: Thomas Holcroft

35. Punch was produced by (a) Robert Southey
(b) Leigh Hunt
(c) Thomas Hood
(d) John Keats
Answer: Thomas Hood

36. When was John Woodvil released? (a) 1533
(b) 1522
(c) 1677
(d) 1807
Answer: 1522

37. The Recess was the creation of (a) Dickens
(b) Walpole
(c) Sophia Lee
(d) Scott
Answer: Sophia Lee

38. When was the Reform Bill passed? (a) 1837
(b) 1845
(c) 1832
(d) 1849
Answer: 1832

39. Queen Victoria became the Empress of India in (a) 1876
(b) 1837
(c) 1857
(d) 1887
Answer: 1876

40. The Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria’s reign was celebrated in (a) 1837
(b) 1901
(c) 1865
(d) 1887
Answer: 1887

41. The accession of George V took place in (a) 1910
(b) 1909
(c) 1908
(d) 1911
Answer: 1910

42. Queen Victoria succeeded to the throne of England after (a) George III
(b) George IV
(c) Edward VII
(d) William IV
Answer: William IV

43. Who is not a member of the Bloomsbury Group? (a) G.B. Shaw
(b) Leonard Woolf
(c) Lytton Strachey
(d) E.M. Forster
Answer: G.B. Shaw

44. The Irish National Theatre was constructed in (a) America
(b) London
(c) Scotland
(d) Dublin
Answer: Dublin

45. Benedetto Croce was the main exponent of (a) Expressionism
(b) Surrealism
(c) Dadaism
(d) Impressionism
Answer: Expressionism

46. Edward VII came to the throne in (a) 1900
(b) 1903
(c) 1902
(d) 1901
Answer: 1901

47. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was formed in England in (a) 1846
(b) 1852
(c) 1850
(d) 1848
Answer: 1848

48. Who formed the Rhymer’s Club? (a) The Expressionists
(b) The Surrealists
(c) The Impressionists
(d) The Naturalists
Answer: The Impressionists

49. Who was the promoter of the slogan “Art for Art’s Sake”? (a) Oscar Wilde
(b) Bennett
(c) Conrad
(d) Chesterton
Answer: Oscar Wilde

50. The revolt of the nineties against Victorianism (a) Reiterates the old formula of Liberty, Equality and Eternity in a new setting
(b) Worships power rather than beauty
(c) Challenges the older values of art and life
(d) All of the above
Answer: All of the above

51. Rural Rides released in the year

(a) 1830
(b) 1831
(c) 1832
(d) 1801

Answer: 1830

52. “The Rural Muse” (1835) is a poem by

(a) Thomas Hood
(b) John Keats
(c) Shelley
(d) John Clare

Answer: John Clare

53. Who says, “The romantic movement was the expression of individual genius rather than the established rules”?

(a) John Keats (English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets)
(b) Charles Lamb (English essayist)
(c) Walter Pater
(d) W.J. Long

Answer: W.J. Long

54. Valerius is a novel by which of the following authors?

(a) Galt
(b) J.G. Lockhart
(c) Peacock
(d) Austen

Answer: J.G. Lockhart

Twentieth Century MCQs

55. When did George V pass away?

(a) 1924
(b) 1935
(c) 1955
(d) 1936

Question’s Answer: 1936

56. Which group of writers can be linked with 20th-century literature?

(a) Milton, Donne & Herbert
(b) Shaw, Wells & Galsworthy
(c) Hardy, Dickens & Jane Austen
(d) Fielding, Samuel Richardson & Smollett

Question’s Answer: Shaw, Wells & Galsworthy

57. The term ‘Imagism’ is linked with which of the following?

(a) Ezra Pound
(b) F.R. Leavis
(c) T.S. Eliot
(d) David Herbert Lawrence

Question’s Answer: Ezra Pound

58. Which is not a characteristic of 20th-century English society?

(a) There was loosening in sex taboos and an increase in sexual promiscuity
(b) There were problems like overcrowding, housing storage, and an increase in vice and crime
(c) The impact of psychologists like Freud, Jung & Bergson was seen in English Literature
(d) Ennui and boredom were not part of city life

Question’s Answer: Ennui and boredom were not part of city life

59. What is the period of World War I?

(a) 1939 to 1944
(b) 1901 to 1909
(c) 1914 to 1919
(d) 1920 to 1924

Question’s Answer: 1914 to 1919

60. Who was the King of England in the second decade of the 20th century?

(a) George II
(b) George V
(c) George IV
(d) George III

Question’s Answer: George V

61. What is the period of World War II?

(a) 1914-1919
(b) 1939-1944
(c) 1917-1920
(d) 1920-1924

Question’s Answer: 1939-1944

62. Starting with the 20th century, _______

(a) There was a complete breakdown of the agrarian way of life and economy
(b) England still had an agrarian economy
(c) Life moved as gaily as the sparkling Thames
(d) None of these

Question’s Answer: There was a complete breakdown of the agrarian way of life and economy

History of English Literature MCQs
By: Prof. Dr. Fazal Rehman | Last updated: January 31, 2025

THE AGE OF REASON

Twentieth Century MCQs

English literature MCQs

Famous English Authors MCQs

More English Literature MCQs

English Comprehension & Composition MCQs

Download Book

10,000+ English MCQs Homepage

Related Posts: