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125 Literary Jeopardy Answers To Test Your Bookish Trivia

Kelly Jensen Feb 24, 2020

Kelly Jensen

Editor

Kelly is a former librarian and a long-time blogger at STACKED. She's the editor/author of (DON'T) CALL ME CRAZY: 33 VOICES START THE CONVERSATION ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH and the editor/author of HERE WE ARE: FEMINISM FOR THE REAL WORLD. Her next book, BODY TALK, will publish in Fall 2020. Follow her on Instagram @heykellyjensen.

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A few years back, in honor of the 50th anniversary of Jeopardy on television. I pulled together a set of posts featuring Literary Jeopardy final answers. Given that bookish trivia continues to be a powerhouse on the show, it seems about time to revisit some of the best book category answers and put your question skills to the test.

For those who don’t know how Jeopardy works, each of the clues are an answer. Your job is to come up with the question. Here’s an example: “This is the largest independent book website in North America” is the answer. The correct question would be “What is Book Riot?”

J-Archive has the most comprehensive record of Jeopardy’s games and players, and all of the answers and questions were sourced from them. Find below answers by category, with corresponding questions listed by category at the bottom half of the post.

Get ready. Get set. It’s literary Jeopardy!

Literary Jeopardy Answers

From Page To Screen

This Spielberg Holocaust film was based on a book by Thomas Keneally.
A novel by Chuck Palahniuk was the basis for this film starring Brad Pitt & Edward Norton.
She stars as literary forger Lee Israel in “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”, based on the memoir of the same name.
This film with Ray Liotta & Joe Pesci was based on the book “Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family”
Emma Stone played aspiring writer Skeeter Phelan in this ’60s-set film based on the novel of the same name

Literary Ladies

1944’s “Absent in the Spring” is one of the non-mystery novels she wrote under the name Mary Westmacott
On Ursula Le Guin’s passing, George R.R. Martin called her one of the great writers of these paired genres of the past century
It’s the first name shared by bestselling authors Delinsky, Tuchman & Kingsolver
During the Harlem Renaissance, she wrote “Their Eyes Were Watching God”
At 15 she wrote a satirical “History of England” by “a partial, prejudiced, & ignorant historian”

Numeric Lit

This kid lit classic has a chapter called “The Puppies Arrive”

E.L. James self-published this first book in an erotic series that started as fan fiction loosely based on “Twilight”

The cover of the first edition of this 1961 military novel included a dancing figure & a little airplane

John Reed gave an eyewitness account of the Bolshevik Revolution in “Ten Days That” did this

“The Science of Deduction” is chapter one of this Sherlock Holmes story

Non-Adverb “-LY” Words

A young female horse
In scientific classification, it’s between order & genus
2 independent countries lie within the borders of this nation
5-letter piece of ornamental lace or embroidery found on a table
Hospital attendant job with non-medical duties

International Literature

The novel titled this “Patient” is set in Italy & was written by Sri Lankan-Canadian Michael Ondaatje
Born off Queensland, Kath Walker, aka Oodgeroo Noonuccal, wrote “We Are Going”, the 1st book of poems by a person of this ethnicity
Gabriel Sundukian wrote this language’s greatest dramas in what’s now the country of Georgia
This poet told the Nobel Banquet, “Our Irish theatre could (never) have come into existence but for” Henrik Ibsen
Son of a Polish patriot, he was born in what’s now Berdychiv, Ukraine & wrote works like “Typhoon” in English

One-Word Book Titles

This book by Malcolm Gladwell subtitled “The Power of Thinking Without Thinking” is a real eye-opener
Born a slave, Sethe escapes to Ohio but is haunted by memories of a lost baby in this Toni Morrison novel
2 psychics have a pyrokinetic child in this Stephen King work
This 1974 James Michener novel covers centuries, not just 1 significant year, in the history of Colorado
In this 1984 William Gibson cyberpunk classic, a data thief matches wits with a powerful artificial intelligence

The Book Nook

“Pebble in the Sky” was his first novel, the “Foundation” of a long & prolific career writing science fiction
“The Fastest Kid in the Fifth Grade” is chapter 3 of “Bridge to” this enchanted land
He taught us “The Power of Myth”
The title of this debut novel by Gillian Flynn is an allusion to cutting, part of Camille Preaker’s traumatic past in the book
The first book in a series, it opens in Inverness in 1945 & begins. “It wasn’t a very likely place for disappearances”

Read Any Bestsellers Lately?

No. 1 on the New York Times’ combined print & e-book nonfiction list in May 2019 was the long-awaited “Report” by this man
In 2019 this Rick Riordan title guy—”& the Olympians”, too—spent week 500 on the children’s series list, & that’s no myth
Dirk Pitt returned for book No. 25 in “Celtic Empire” by father-&-son Clive & Dirk this (& it’s not Pitt)
Baseball writer Tyler Kepner took an in-depth look at 10 types of pitches in a book with this single letter as its title
This comedian may have decided “Life Will Be the Death of Me”, but not before she made the bestseller list

Characters In The Work

Hrothgar, Wiglaf
Lennie Small, George Milton
Don Fernando, Dulcinea
Richard Parker, Orange Juice, Santosh Patel
By Cormac McCarthy: the Kid, Judge Holden

Biographers

W.E.B. Du Bois wrote a 1909 biography defending this abolitionist who was hanged 50 years earlier
His “The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.” came out in 1791, 7 years after his friend’s death
“The Pioneers”, the latest by David McCullough, features the settlers of this American territory just past the Ohio river
Rose Byrne played biographer Rebecca Skloot in the HBO movie “The Immortal Life of” this woman
His fourth volume on Lyndon Johnson appeared in 2012 & was followed by great anticipation of volume 5

Literary Narrators

In the epilogue to “Moby-Dick”, this rescued narrator quotes from the book of Job: “and I only am escaped alone to tell thee”
Daisy Buchanan’s cousin, he narrates “The Great Gatsby”
Though he takes his own life in “The Sound and the Fury”, Quentin Compson is back to narrate this author’s “Absalom, Absalom!”
In “The Book Thief”, the narrator isn’t a who per se but this, knocking at the door
Montresor, the narrator of this Poe story, lures Fortunato to his doom with the promise of a fine Spanish sherry

Books for Younger Readers

Emily Elizabeth & this large colorful canine have many adventures in works by Norman Bridwell
She wrote the classics “Ramona the Pest” & “Beezus & Ramona”
In Kipling’s “The Jungle Book”, this mongoose faces off against 2 cobras to protect his human family
Mary Pope Osborne has taken kids all through history as Jack & Annie travel in this magic structure
Milo learns about time from a watchdog named Tock after driving through this mysterious title object

20th Century Novels

A futuristic society revolves around science & efficiency in this 1932 novel by Aldous Huxley
“A House Divided” completed Pearl Buck’s trilogy that began 4 years earlier with this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel
A line from this novel: “Name’s Joad, Tom Joad”
This novel by Garcia Marquez tells of the Buendia family in the mythic town of Macondo from the 1820s to the 1920s
Nadsat, the fictional language in this book, is from the Russian suffix that means “teen”

Books Going Back In Time

Garry Wills’ 1992 “Lincoln at” this place examines an event sixscore & nine years previous
The New Orleans Advocate reported a “flood of books” for this event’s 10th anniversary, including “Cooking Up a Storm”
It’s the title town where 2 former Texas Rangers live in the 1870s in a classic novel by Larry McMurtry
“I woke to the sound of a mosquito whining in my left ear”, begins 2000’s “Fever 1793”, about an epidemic of this disease
His 1815 novel “Guy Mannering” begins in the year “17–” with Guy visiting some ruins in Dumfries

American Poets Laureate

The federal laureate position is technically called “Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry” by this library
This “Chicago” poet was Illinois’ poet laureate in the last years of his life from 1962 to 1967
Colorado laureate Milford Shields must have been surprised when the governor also made this singer laureate in 1974
In 1998 Lawrence Ferlinghetti was made this city’s first poet laureate
In 2019 Joy Harjo of the Muscogee Creek Nation of this state was named the first Native American poet laureate

The Non-Fiction Book’s Subtitle

With a rhyming title: “The True Story of the Manson Murders”
“A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything”
About Louis Zamperini: “A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption”
By Sheryl Sandberg: “Women, Work, and the Will to Lead”
Made into a Jennifer Aniston movie, “The No-Excuses Truth to Understanding Guys”

Ban That Book!

A book about George, who takes the new name Melissa, earned some bans but also one of these Greek-letter awards AKA the Lammys
This Stowe novel was banned in parts of the slave-holding South & in serf-holding Russia
Forget the love story—Pasternak’s “Dr. Zhivago” was banned in the USSR until 1987 because of its portrayal of this commie faction
Due to its alleged obscenity, in 1957 U.S. Customs seized 520 copies of this Allen Ginsberg poem printed in England
The 1722 novel “Moll Flanders” by this author has been taken off shelves for lewdness

A Tree Grows In Book Land

The Whomping Willow does its whomping on the grounds of this castle
The party tree that grew in this Middle-Earth land was the location of Bilbo’s farewell speech
Shel Silverstein’s “The Giving Tree” gives these fruits & more to a thoughtless boy
“It was a right motley company that gathered about the noble greenwood tree in Sherwood’s depths” in an 1883 tale of this hero
After this title character accepts Rochester’s proposal, lightning splits a chestnut tree at Thornfield Hall

Ancient Rome Fiction

Thornton Wilder’s novel about the time of Julius Caesar in Rome has this title, like an unlucky date for Julius
“The Gladiator” & “Rebellion” are the subtitles of Ben Kane’s books about this man who led a slave army against Rome
When the death of a popular politician threatens to destroy the Roman Republic, Gordianus the Finder must solve “A Murder on” this famous road
In “The Eagle of the Ninth”, a soldier seeks to discover what became of a legion that went missing in this faraway island
This novel by Robert Graves is written as the memoir of a reluctant 1st century Roman emperor

Book Numbers

By Bret Easton Ellis: “Less Than ____”
“The ____ Habits of Highly Effective People”
An international bestseller: “The ____ -Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared”
From “The Charge of the Light Brigade”: “All in the valley of Death rode the ___”
A Temperance Brennan novel: “___ Bones” (referring to the number of bones in the body)

The National Book Awards

This Tom Wolfe work was spacey but had the correct contents to win a 1980 Nonfiction Award
The 2017 Nonfiction winner was Masha Gessen’s “The Future is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed” this superpower
Colson Whitehead liberated the 2016 Fiction Award for his novel about this title 19th century “conveyance”
Thomas Pynchon found the Fiction Prize at the end of this 1973 novel
He won Fiction Awards for “The Magic Barrel” & “The Fixer” but not for “The Natural”

Fictional Characters

This Narnian lion appears in several other forms, including a lamb
Jilted on her wedding day, this Dickens character teaches her ward Estella to despise men
Much of “The Color Purple” is made up of letters written by her to God
Hemingway’s collections “In Our Time” & “Men Without Women” feature this character based partly on Hemingway
“The Good Earth” begins with Wang Lung’s marriage day—to this woman

True Story

Natalie Y. Moore examined “The South Side: A Portrait of” this city “and American Segregation “
A gopher is on the cover of the book titled this comedy film: “The Making of a Hollywood Cinderella Story”
A nonfiction classic by Rabbi Harold Kushner is “When” these “Happen to Good People”
Barack Obama’s first book was “Dreams from My Father”; his second was this “bold” bestseller that arrived in 2006
He wrote of the loss of both his parents in a 5-week span in “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius”

Her First Published Book

1811: “Sense and Sensibility”
1920: “The Mysterious Affair at Styles”
2005: “Twilight”
1940: “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter”
1988: “The Bean Trees”

Quotable Books

1865: “She was walking by the White Rabbit, who was peeping anxiously into her face”
1958: “It was some little while before I could bring myself to open the window, and ask Miss Golightly what she wanted”
1990: “You have brains in your head, you have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose”
1873: “Phileas Fogg had won his wager of twenty thousand pounds!”
A recent Pulitzer Prize winner set during WWII: “Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever”

Literary Jeopardy Questions