Literature Guide

Introduction

Literature is one of the main subjects that come up in Quiz Bowl competitions (along with Science, History, and Fine Arts). Literature, like the other three, contains a large amount of information. The best way for a young Quiz Bowl player to start tackling this vast amount of information begins with memorization. Memorization of key facts and clues in their subject area is the key to success for almost every Quiz Bowl player. However since the amount of information is so vast in subject areas it is equally important for a player to learn good and smart study habits, if there is one thing I wish I had then and have now it would be proficiency in studying. You have to learn that while reading Hamlet may be deeply interesting it is far less efficient than notecarding old questions with clues that consistently come up in competitions. I’m going to quote my friend Paul Hamilton who hits the nail on the head saying, “The single most important skill that a Quiz Bowl player must develop is the ability to distinguish between information that will result in answering more questions and information that is not relevant to actually scoring points.” Therefore it is important that you find the studying habits that work best for you. Experiment with new methods and once you find something that works run with it. Hard work is also essential, never become complacent and strive to become a better player everyday.

What is Literature

Literature mostly covers fiction, plays, and poetry. These can be broken down into different types of questions.

1. Author: this covers the writer of a work and usually focuses on works done by said author. Sometimes biographical information will be featured but not nearly as often. The question usually ends with their best known works.

2. Work: this is the novel, poem, play, etc. It will usually feature plot points and characters as clues with the author’s name coming last.

3. Work Content: This will feature answer lines with major characters, locations, and even events in a novel. The name of the book and the author will be at the end

4. Country or Group: Sometimes there are questions that focus on the country that authors came from or a literary group (ex. England or the Romantics).

All of these categories overlap into each other. So knowing a certain character can help you know the author or the work that may come up as a tossup. Deep knowledge will reward you in more ways than you know

Studying Literature There are numerous resources that can be used for studying Literature. I’ve listed them here.

1. Frequency List: This list contains all the works and their authors. They’re ordered based on how often they come up in competition. The Catholic Central Academic Team has full access to these pages and Mr. Gismondi has told me he expects freshmen to have the first 10-15 pages memorized by the end of the first quarter of the season. The Frequency List is a great starting point for knowing what you have to know but you need to supplement this with the other resources.

2. Questions: This is a primary way to learn information that is central to Quiz Bowl. One of the central ideas in studying Quiz Bowl is the existence of a canon, information and clues that continually come up in toss-ups. If you hear a clue in a toss-up it’s probably been used in another toss-up before. By studying old questions you prepare yourself for the questions you’ll hear in the future. Here are links to question databases: www.hsapq.com/samples www.quizbowldb.com www.quizbowlpackets.com

3. Wikipedia: This is actually a very useful place to find information for novels, short stories, poems, plays, and authors. The most useful aspects of Wikipedia for me were the plot synopses and character lists that come with most of their articles. Just remember to remain efficient as some articles contain lots of information that, while interesting, isn’t useful for answering Quiz Bowl questions.

4. Sparknotes: A more in depth source from Wikipedia, Sparknotes has novel, play, and short story summaries. It also has helpful character lists and chapter by chapter recaps. Just remember, like Wikipedia, to not get lost in the flood of information

5. Playing Quiz Bowl: Quiz Bowl is a game and experience trumps knowledge more than you think. Learning the discipline, speed, and gamesmanship involved in Quiz Bowl comes from playing as much as you can.

Literature List

This is organized by author with priority given to works in the top 100 on the Frequency List (*).

Chinua Achebe-Nigerian writer

Things Fall Apart* -Okonkwo, Ikemefuna, Nwoye, Ezinma, Mr. Brown, Reverend Smith

No Longer at Ease (sequel to Things Fall Apart) -Obi Okonkwo, Clara Okeke, Mr. Green, Marie Tomlinson

A Man of the People Odili, Nanga

Anthills of the Savannah -Ikem Osodi, Sam, Chris Oriko

Aeschylus-Ancient Greek playwright, Athenian tragedian

Orestia* -Agamemnon -Agamemnon, Clytemnestra, Cassandra, Aegisthus -The Libation Bearers -Orestes, Electra, Pylades, Aegisthus, Clytemnestra, Erinyes (Furies) -The Eumenides -Orestes, Erinyes, Apollo, Athena

Seven Against Thebes -Polynices (attacking), Eteocles (defending)

The Persians -Atossa, Xerxes

The Suppliants

Louisa May Alcott-American Novelist

Little Women* Meg March, Jo March, Beth March, Amy March, Friederich Bhaer, John Brooke, Theodore “Laurie” Laurence, Margaret March, Aunt Josephine

Little Men -Plumfield Boys

Jo’s Boys

Dante Aligheri-Italian Poet

The Divine Comedy* 3 parts -Inferno* (Hell, 9 circles) (most famous) -Purgatorio (Purgatory, 9 terraces) -Paradiso (Heaven, 9 spheres) Characters Dante, Virgil (guide through Inferno and Purgatorio), Beatrice (Guide through Paradiso) Use of Terza Rima

La Vita Nuova

Jane Austen-English Novelist

Pride and Prejudice* -Elizabeth Bennet, Fitzwilliam Darcy, Jane Bennet, Mary Bennet, Catherine Bennet, Lydia Bennet, Charles Bingley, George Wickham, Charlotte Lucas

Sense and Sensibility* -Elinor Dashwood, Marianne Dashwood, Edward Ferrars, John Willoughby, Colonel Brandon, Lucy Steele

Mansfield Park -Fanny Price, Edmund Bertram, Mr. Crawford, Maria Bertram, Julia Bertram, Tom Bertram

Emma -Emma Woodhouse, George Knightley, Jane Fairfax, Harriet Smith, Mr. Weston, Robert Martin

Northanger Abbey Persuasion

Samuel Beckett- Irish writer, Theatre of the Absurd

Waiting for Godot* -Vladimir, Estragon, Pozzo, Lucky, the boy

Krapp’s Last Tape -Krapp, Bianca, Fanny -tape recorder -69 years old

Endgame -Hamm, Clov, Nagg, Nell

Rockaby

Giovanni Boccaccio-Italian writer

The Decameron* -similar to the Canterbury Tales -7 men and 3 women (called the Brigata) -Black Death -10 stories each day for 10 days

On Famous Women On the Fates of Famous Men

Anne Bronte-English Novelist, Acton Bell

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Charlotte Bronte-English novelist, Currer Bell Jane Eyre*

-Jane Eyre, Mr. Rochester, Bertha Mason, Adele Varens, Mr. Brocklehurst, Helen Burns, Grace Poole, Mrs. Reed -Lowood -The Red Room -Thornfield

Emily Bronte-English Novelist, Ellis Bell

Wuthering Heights* -Heathcliff, Catherine Earnshaw, Edgar Linton, Isabella Linton, Nelly Dean, Hindley Earnshaw, Hareton Earnshaw -Thrushcross Grange

Agnes Grey

John Bunyan-English writer

Pilgrim’s Progress* -Christian, Faithful, Hopeful, Judge Hate-Good, Good-Will, the Interpreter, Evangelist, Apollyon -Vanity Fair, City of Destruction, Celestial City

Albert Camus-Algerian author

The Stranger* -Meursault, the Arab, Marie Cardona, Raymond Sintes, Salamano

The Plague -Oran -Dr. Bernard Rieux, Raymond Rambert, Cottard, Tarrou, Father Paneloux, Joseph Grand

The Fall -Clamence

The Myth of Sisyphus

Lewis Carroll-British writer and mathematician

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland* -Alice, the White Rabbit, Mad Hatter, March Hare, Cheshire Cat, Dormouse, Queen of Hearts, Knave of Hearts

Through the Looking Glass -Alice, the Walrus and the Carpenter, Tweedledum and Tweedledee, Jabberwock

“The Hunting of the Snark” -Bellman

“Jabberwocky” -“twas brillig and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe” -“”vorpal blade” -“beamish boy”

Willa Cather-American Author

My Ántonia* -Ántonia Shimerda, Jim Burden, Anton Cuzak, Wick Cutter, Lena Lindgard, Larry Donovan

O Pioneers! -Alexandra Bergson, Carl Lindstrum, Emil Bergson, Marie Shabata, Frank Shabata, Crazy Ivar

The Song of the Lark -Thea Kronberg, Dr. Archie, Ray Kennedy, Professor Wusch, Henry Bitmer, Fred Ottenberg

Death Comes to the Archbishop -Joseph Vaillant, Jean Marie Latour

Miguel de Cervantes-Spanish novelist, fought in the Battle of Lepanto

Don Quixote* -Don Quixote, Sancha Panza, Dulcinera, Rocinante, Knight of the White Moon

Galatea Exemplary Novels

Geoffrey Chaucer-English poet

Canterbury Tales* -Chaucer, the Knight, the Wife of Bath, The Reeve, The Miller, The Pardoner There is a helpful list of all the tales with full synopses at http://aceqb.com/improve/ listed under Canterbury Tales

Samuel Taylor Coleridge-British poet

Lyrical Ballads -with William Wordsworth

“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”* -The Mariner, the wedding-guest, the albatross, 200 sailors -“Water, water every where,/nor any drop to drink” -“stoppeth one of three”

“Kubla Khan” -Xanadu -“stately pleasure dome” -“a damsel with a dulcimer/ Singing of Mount Abora” -interrupted by visitor from Porlock

“Dejection: An Ode” -“My genial spirits fail”

“Christabel” “The Aeolian Harp”

Joseph Conrad-Polish author who wrote in England

Heart of Darkness* -Charles Marlow, Kurtz, the Russian, Kurtz’s fiancée -The Nellie -“Exterminate all the brutes” and “the horror, the horror”

Lord Jim -Jim, Marlow -The Patna

Nostromo -Nostromo (Giovanni Battista Fidanza), Charles Gould, Martin Decoud, the Violas -Costaguana

The Secret Agent -Adolf Verloc, Winnie Verloc

Under Western Eyes -Razumov

Stephen Crane-American Novelist

The Red Badge of Courage* -Henry Fleming, Jim Conklin, Wilson, the Tattered Soldier, the Lieutenatant

Maggie: A Girl of the Streets -Maggie Johnson, Jimmie Johnson, Tommie Johnson, Pete, Nellie

“The Open Boat” -the Correspondent (Crane), Billie (the Oiler), the Captain, The Cook

The Black Riders and Other Lines poetry collection

Daniel Defoe-English writer

Robinson Crusoe* -Crusoe, Friday

Moll Flanders -Moll, Robin, Callum Murray -Moll married 5 times -Newgate Prison

Journal of the Plague Years

Charles Dickens- English novelist

A Tale of Two Cities* -Sydney Carton, Charles Darnay, Lucie Mannette, Doctor Mannette, Monsieur and Madame Defarge, Jerry Cruncher (Resurrection Man)

David Copperfield* -David Copperfield, Mr. Micawber, Uriah Heep, Mr. Wickfield, Agnes Wickfield, Clara Pegotty, Dora Spenlow, Thomas Traddles, James Steerforth -Salem House

Great Expectations* -Pip, Estella, Abel Magwitch, Mrs. Havisham, Mr. Jaggers, Mr. and Mrs. Joe Gargery, Orlick

Oliver Twist* -Oliver Twist, The Artful Dodger, Fagin, Nancy, Bill Sikes, Rose, Mr. Brownlow, Monks, Mr. Bumble

A Christmas Carol -Ebenezer Scrooge; Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come, Bob Crachit, Tiny Tim, Jacob Marley, Fezziwig

Bleak House -Esther Summerson, John Jarndyce, Ada Clare, Allan Woodcourt, Inspector Bucket, Mademoiselle Hortense, Krook (spontaneous combustion)

-Jarndyce v. Jarndyce Hard Times The Pickwick Papers (first novel)

Fyodor Dostoyevsky- Russian novelist

Crime and Punishment* -Raskolnikov, Sonya, Porfiry Petrovich, Dunya, Razumikhin, Svidrigaïlov, Marmeladov, Alyona Ivanovna

The Brothers Karamazov* -Fyodor Karamazov (father), Dmitri Karamazov, Ivan Karamazov, Alexei Karamazov, Pavel Smerdyakov (illegitimate son), Father Zosima, Grushenka

The Idiot -Prince Myshkin, Rogozhin, Nastassya, Agalaya

Notes From the Underground

Alexandre Dumas-French novelist

The Three Musketeers* -d’Artagnan, Athos, Porthos, Aramis, Cardinal Richeliu, Milady de Winter

The Count of Monte Cristo* -Edmund Dantes, Danglars, Comte de Morcef, Abbé Faria, Fernand Mondego, Gérard de Villefort, Mercédès Mondego Other d’Artagnan Romances

Twenty Years After The Vicomte de Bragelonne

-includes the man in the Iron Mast

T.S. Eliot- American poet who became a British citizen

“The Waste Land”* 5 parts -The Burial of the Dead, A Game of Chess, The Fire Sermon, Death by Water, What the Thunder Said -dedicated to Ezra Pound

“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” -“yellow fog” -“”Do I dare eat a peach” -“women come and go/ Talking of Michelangelo”

“The Hollow Men” -5 sections -“Rat’s coat, crowskin, crossed staves” -“Here we go round the prickly pear” epigraphs “Mistah Kurtz-he dead” “A penny for the Old Guy” “This is how the world ends/Not with a bang but a whimper”

“Ash Wednesday” “Four Quartets” Murder in the Cathedral (play)

Ralph Ellison-African-American novelist

Invisible Man* -narrator is “an invisible man” -Dr. Bledsoe, Mr. Norton, Jim Trueblood, The Brotherhood, Ras

Juneteenth (unfinished) -Alonzo “Daddy’ Hickman, Adam Sunraider

Shadow and Act

William Faulkner-American Author

Yoknapatawpha County The Sound and the Fury*

-The Compson family -Jason(III), Caroline, Quentin, Caddy, Jason(IV), Benjy -Reverend Shegog

As I Lay Dying -Bundren family -Cash, Darl, Anse, Dewey, Vardaman, Dell, Jewel -Addie needs to be buried

Light in August -Joe Christmas, Joanna Burden, Gail Hightower, Byron Bunch, Lucas Burch, Lena Grove, Mr. McEachern

Absalom, Absalom! -Thomas Sutpen, Quentin Compson, Rosa Coldfield, Charles Bon, Henry, Wash Jones

“A Rose for Emily” -Emily Grierson, Homer Barron

F. Scott Fitzgerald-American Novelist, part of the Lost Generation

The Great Gatsby* -Jay Gatsby, Nick Carraway, Daisy Buchanan, Tom Buchanan, Jordan Baker, George Wilson, Myrtle Wilson, Meyer Wolfsheim -T.J. Eckleburg sign

This Side of Paradise -Amory Blaine

“Babylon Revisited” -Charlie Wales, Honoria

Tender is the Night The Last Tycoon (last novel)

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe-German writer (pronounced Gerr-tuh)

Faust* 2 parts -Heinrich Faust, Mephistopheles, Gretchen, Euphorian

The Sorrows of Young Werther -Werther, Lotte, Albert

Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship -Wilhelm, Barbara, Marianne, Felix, Mignon, Philina

Gabriel García Márquez- Colombian author

One Hundred Years of Solitude* -The Buendia family (multiple generations) -Jose Arcadio Buendia, Aureliano, Ursula, Remedios - Macondo

Love in the Time of Cholera -Florentino Ariza, Fermina Daza, Dr. Juvenal Urbino

Chronicle of a Death Foretold -Santiago Nasar

The General in His Labyrinth -fictional account of Simon Bolivar

Lorraine Hansberry-American playwright and writer

A Raisin in the Sun* -The Younger family -Walter, Ruth, Travis, Lena, Beneatha -George Mutchinson, Joseph Asagi, Willy Harris

To Be Young, Gifted, and Black The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window

-Sidney, Wally O’Hara

Nathaniel Hawthorne-American novelist

The Scarlet Letter* -Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingsworth, Pearl, Governor Bellingham

The House of Seven Gables -(17th century) Matthew Maule, Colonel Pyncheon -(19th century) Pyncheon Family -The Judge, Phoebe, Hepzibah, Alice, Clifford -Holgrave, Ned Higgins

The Marble Faun -Miriam, Hilda, Kenyon, Donatello

The Blithesdale Romance “The Birth-Mark” “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment”

-Heidegger, Killigre, Medbourne, Gascoigne, Wycherly “Rappaccini’s Daughter”

-Dr. Rappaccini, Giovanni Guasconti, Beatrice

Joseph Heller-American author

Catch-22* -Yossarian, Milo Minderbinder, Major Major Major Major, Colonel Cathcart, Snowden, Nately, Doc Daneeka

Ernest Hemingway- American Novelist and all around badass

A Farewell to Arms* -Frederic Henry, Catherine Barkley, Rinaldi, Dr. Valenti

For Whom the Bell Tolls* -Robert Jordan, Maria, Pablo, Pilar, Anselmo, General Golz

The Sun Also Rises* -Jake Barnes, Lady Brett Ashley, Robert Cohn, Michael Campbell, Bil Gorton, Pedro Romero, Montoya

The Old Man and the Sea -Santiago, Manolin -Joe Dimaggio referenced

The Nick Adams Stories -“The Killers”-most important -Max and Al (hitmen), Ole Anderson (boxer), Sam, George

Homer-Greek Epic Poetry

Iliad* Greeks -Achilles, Agamemnon, Odysseus, Diomedes, Menelaus, Ajax, Nestor, Trojans -Hector, Priam, Paris, Aeneas, Deiphobus, Glaucus, Pandarus -Women -Helen, Hecuba, Andromache, Cassandra, Briseis

The Odyssey* -Odysseus, Penelope, Telemachus, Calypso, Circe, Polyphemus, the Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis

The Battle of Frogs and Mice

Victor Hugo-French author

Les Misérables* -Jean Valjean, Inspector Javert, Fantine, Cosette, Marius Pontmercy, the Thenardiers

The Hunchback of Notre Dame -Quasimodo, Claude Frollo, Esmerelda, Captain Phoebus, Gringoire

Toilers of the Sea

Aldous Huxley-British author

Brave New World* -John the Savage, Bernard Marx, Mustapha Mond, Lenina, Helmholtz Watson -Bokanovsky Process, Year of Ford

Point Counter Point -Walter Bidlake, Phillip Quarles

After Many a Summer Dies the Swan -Jeremy Pordage, Jo Stoyte, Virginia Maunciple, Peter Boone

Crome Yellow Eyeless in Gaza

-Helen Ledwidge, Anthony Beavis

Henrik Ibsen-Norwegian playwright

A Doll’s House* -Nora Helmer, Torvald Helmer, Krogstad, Kristine Linde

Hedda Gabbler -Hedda Gabbler, George Tesman, Judge Brack, Eilert Lövborg, Thea Elvsted, Bertha

The Wild Duck -Hedvig, Hialmar Ekvald, Gregers Werle

Ghosts -Helene Alving, Oswald Alving

An Enemy of the People -Doctor Thomas Stockmann

Peer Gynt

Washington Irving-American writer, Dietrich Knickerbocker+penname

Collections The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon Tale of a Traveler “Rip van Winkle”*

-Rip, Henry Hudson, Judith Gardenier, Wolf -nine pins -20 years asleep

James Joyce- Irish novelist poet

Ulysses* -Leopold Bloom, Molly Bloom, Stephen Dedalus, Buck Mulligan,

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man -Stephen Dedalus, Simon Dedalus, Emma Clery, Father Arnall

Finnegans Wake -Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker, Anna Livia Plurabelle, Shem, Shaun Issy

Dubliners (short story collection) -“The Dead” -Gabriel Conroy -“Araby” -“Eveline” -“Ivy Day in the Committee Room”

Chamber Music

Harper Lee- American author

To Kill a Mockingbird* -Atticus Finch, Scout Finch, Jem Finch, Dill Harris, Boo Radley, Tom Robinson, Bob Ewell, Mayella Ewell, Calpurnia

Jack London-American novelist

The Call of the Wild* -Buck, John Thornton, Spitz, Dave, Hal, Charles, Mercedes, Judge Miller

White Fang -White Fang, Kiche, One Eye, Grey Beaver, Beauty Smith, Weedon Scott, Collie, Judge Scott

The Sea-Wolf -Wolf Larsen, Humphrey van Weyden, Maud Brewster, Johnson, Leach, Death Larsen

“To Build a Fire” The Iron Heel

-Avis Everhard

Thomas Mann-German writer

Magic Mountain* -Hans Castorp, Settembrini, Mynheer Peppercorn, Clavdia Clauchat, Leo Naphta

Death in Venice -Gustav von Ashenbach, Tadzio, Jaschiu

Doctor Faustus -Adrian Leverkuhn, Serenus Zeitblom, Esmerelda, Schildknapp -composer

Mario and the Magician -Cavaliere Cipolla (the magician)

Buddenbrooks (first novel) -Tom, Christian, Gerda, Hanno, Gotthold, Old Johann

Herman Melville-American Novelist

Moby Dick* -Captain Ahab, Ishmael, Queequeq, Starbuck, Fedallah, Stubb, Flask, Pip, Tashtego, Daggoo, the Whale

Billy Budd: Foretopman* -Billy Budd, Captain Vere, John Claggart

Bartleby the Scrivener -Bartleby, the narrator (a Manhattan attorney), Nippers, Turkey, Ginger Nut

Arthur Miller-American Playwright

The Crucible* -John Proctor, Abigail Williams, Reverend Parris, Elizabeth Proctor, Judge Hathorne, Mr. Danforth, Giles Corey, Thomas Putnam, Mary Warren, Rebecca Nurse

Death of a Salesman* -Willy Loman, Linda Loman, Biff, Happy, Charley, Bernard, Howard Wagner

All My Sons -Joe Keller, Kate Keller, Chris Keller, Ann Deever, George Deever, Steve Deever (unseen) -defective airplane parts

A View From the Bridge -Eddie Carbone, Catherine, Rodolpho, Marco

After the Fall The Price The Last Yankee

John Milton-English poet

Paradise Lost* -Satan (Lucifer), Adam and Eve, Son of God, God the Father, Raphael, Michael, Mammon, Beelzebub Poems

“Lycidas” “L’Allegro” “Il Penseroso”

Vladimir Nabokov-Russian-American author

Lolita* -Humbert Humbert, Lolita, Clare Quilty, Charlotte Haze, Dick Schiller

Pale Fire -999-line poem by fictional poet John Shade -fictional editor Charles Kinbote

Eugene O’Neill-American playwright

Long Day’s Journey into Night* -James Tyrone Sr. (actor), Mary Tyrone (morphine addict), Jamie Tyrone, Edmund Tyrone, Cathleen -not seen-Shaughnessy, Doc Hardy

The Iceman Cometh -Theodore “Hickey” Hickman (murdered Evelyn), Piet Wetjoen, Cecil Lewis, Don Parritt, Harry Slade, Joe Mott -Harry Hope’s bar

Mourning Becomes Electra Trilogy adaptation of the Orestia -Homecoming -The Hunted -The Haunted -Ezra Mannon, Christine Mannon, Orin Mannon, Lavinia Mannon, Captain Brant

Anna Christie Anna, Chris Christopherson, Mat Burke, Johnny the Priest

Desire Under the Elms -Ephraim Cabot, Simeon Cabot, Peter Cabot, Eben Cabot, Abbie Putnam

The Great God Brown The Emperor Jones

George Orwell- English novelist and satirist

1984* -Big Brother, Winston Smith, Julia, O’Brien, Emmanuel Goldstein, Charrington

Animal Farm* -Napoleon, Snowball, Squealer, Old Major, Boxer, Benjamin, Moses, Mr. Jones, Mr. Frederick

“Shooting an Elephant”

Edgar Allan Poe-American writer

The Raven* -Lenore -“Nevermore” -Bust of Pallas -“A midnight dreary”

“The Cask of Amontillado” -Montresor, Fortunato

“The Fall of the House of Usher” -Roderick and Madeline Usher

“The Masque of Red Death” -Prince Prospero

“The Murders in the Rue Morgue” -C. Auguste Dupin

“The Purloined Letter” -Dupin (again)

“The Pit and the Pendulum” “The Tell-Tale Heart”

Aleksander Pushkin-Russian Author

Eugene Onegin* -in verse -Eugene Onegin, Vladimir Lensky, Tatyana, Larina, Olga Larina, Zaretsky, Guillot

“The Queen of Spades” -Hermann, the Countess, Lizavyeta Ivanovna

Boris Godunov -Russian Czar who began time of troubles -opera by Mussorgsky

The Bronze Horseman -Evgenii, Parasha, the Neva river,

The Stone Guest -Don Juan

J.D. Salinger-American writer

Catcher in the Rye* -Holden Caufield, Phoebe Caufield, D.B Caufield, Allie Caufield, Sunny, Maurice, Sally Hayes, Mr. Antolini, Horwitz -The Glass Family -Les(father), Bessie (mother), Seymour, Buddy (Salinger standin), Boo Boo, Walt, Waker, Zooey, Franny -Appeared on It’s a Wise Child

Franny and Zooey -Franny Glass, Zooey Glass, Lane Coutell

Nine Stories -“A Perfect Day for Bananafish” -Seymour Glass, Sybil Carpenter -“For Esmé-With Love and Squalor” -Sergeant X, Esmé -“Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut” -Eloise, Mary Jane, Walt -“The Laughing Man” -The Chief, the Comanche Club -“Teddy” -Theodore “Teddy” McArdle, Nicholson

Sir Walter Scott-Scottish writer

Ivanhoe* -Wilfred of Ivanhoe, Cedric the Saxon, Rowena, Rebecca, Richard the Lion Heart (the Black Knight), Locksley (Robin Hood)

The Bride of Lammermoor -Lucy Ashton, Edgar Ravenswood

The Heart of Midlothian -Jeannie Deans, John Porteus -Tolbooth Prison

Rob Roy -Frank Osbaldistone, Diana Vernon, Rashleigh, MacGregor

Guy Mannering -Harry Bertram

Waverly Edward, Clan mac-Ivor

William Shakespeare-The single most tossed-up writer in Quiz Bowl, a literature player needs to know almost every work by this playwright.

Hamlet* -Hamlet, Claudius, Gertrude, Horatio, Ophelia, Polonius, Laertes, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Ghost of Old Hamlet

Macbeth* -Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, MacDuff, Banquo, Malcolm, Duncan, Donalbain, the Three Witches

King Lear* -Lear, Cordelia, Reagan, Goneril, Earl of Gloucester, Edgar, Edmund, the Fool

Othello* -Othello, Iago, Desdemona, Michael Cassio, Emilia, Roderigo, Brabantio, the Doge of Venice

The Tempest* -Prospero, Miranda, Ariel, Caliban, Ferdinand, Alonso, Sebastian, Antonio, Stephano

Romeo and Juliet* -Capulets (Juliet) and Montagues (Romeo) (feuding families) -Romeo, Juliet, Mercutio, Tybalt, Benvolio, Nurse, Friar Laurence, Prince Escalus, Count Paris

The Merchant of Venice* -Shylock, Bassanio, Portia (Balthazar), Antonio, Lorenzo, Jessica, Nerissa (Stephano), Gratiano

A Midsummer Night’s Dream* Humans -Hermia, Lysander, Helena, Demetrius, Theseus, Hippolyta, the Mechanicals, Nick Bottom Faeries -Puck/Robin Goodfellow, Oberon, Titania

Julius Caesar* -Brutus, Cassius, Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, Calpurnia, Portia, Octavius, Lepidus, Soothsayer

As You Like It* -Rosalind, Celia, Touchstone, Jacques, Orlando, Oliver, Duke Senior

Much Ado About Nothing* -Hero, Claudio, Benedick, Beatrice, Don Pedro, Don John, Dogberry

The Merry Wives of Windsor* -John Falstaff, Mistress Ford, Mistress Page, Mistress Quickly

The Taming of the Shrew* -Katherina, Petruchio, Bianca, Hortensio, Lucentio, Baptista, Christopher Slay

George Bernard Shaw- Bristish playwright

Pygmalion* -Eliza Doolittle, Henry Higgins, Colonel Pickering, Albert Doolittle, Freddie Hill -Basis for My Fair Lady

Mrs. Warren’s Profession -Mrs. Kitty Warren, Mr. Praed, Sir George Crofts, Reverend Samuel Gardener, Vivie Warren, Frank Gardner

Major Barbara -Barbara, Andrew Undershaft, Lady Britomart, Adolphus Cusins

Arms and the Man -Raina Petkoff, Captain Bluntschli

Man and Superman Candida

Upton Sinclair-American novelist

The Jungle* -Jurgus Rudkis, Ona, Antanas (Jurgis’ father and son), Phil Connor, Elzbieta, Stanislovas -Pure Food and Drug Act

Oil! -James Arnold Ross -basis for There Will Be Blood

Sophocles-Ancient Greek Playwright, one of the three Athenian tragedians

Theban Plays Oedipus Rex*

-Oedipus, Tiresias, Jocasta, Creon Oedipus at Colonus

-Oedipus, Antigone, Ismene, Theseus, Eumenides, Creon Antigone*

-Antigone, Ismene, Creon, Tiresias, Haemon, Eurydice

John Steinbeck-American author

The Grapes of Wrath* -Tom Joad, Ma Joad, Pa Joad, Rose of Sharon Joad Rivers, Connie Rivers, Jim Casy, numerous other Joads

Of Mice and Men

-George Milton, Lennie Small, Curley, Curley’s wife, Candy, Crook Cannery Row

-Doc, Mack, Dora, Lee Chong, Hazel, Eddie, Chinaman

East of Eden -Adam Trask, Caleb Trask, Aron Trask, Cathy Ames, Samuel Hamilton, Lee

The Pearl -Kino, Juana, Coyotito

Harriet Beecher Stowe-American novelist

Uncle Tom’s Cabin -Uncle Tom, Eva St. Clare (Little Eva), Simpn Legree, George Harris, George Shelby, Topsy, Eliza

“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” -Ichabod Crane, Brom Bones, Katrina Van Tassel, Headless Horseman

“The Devil and Tom Walker” -Tom Walker, Old Scratch (devil), Captain Kidd

Alfred Lord Tennyson-English poet

Charge of the Light Brigade* -Battle of Balaclava, Crimean War -the six hundred

Ulysses In Memoriam A.H.H

-Arthur Henry Hallam Crossing the Bar The Lady of Shallot The Kraken Tithonus Enoch Arden The Lotus-Eaters

Mark Twain- American novelist and humorist

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn* -Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer, Jim, the Duke, the King, Sheperdsons and Grangerfords

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer* -Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, Aunt Polly, Becky Thatcher, Sid

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court -Hank Morgan

The Gilded Age “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”

Leo Tolstoy-Russian novelist

Anna Karenina* -Anna Karenina, Count Vronsky, Stiva, Dolly, Kitty, Konstantin Levin, Seryozha, Anna, Frou-Frou

War and Peace -Napoleonic Wars

Resurrection The Death of Ivan Ilyich

-Ivan Ilyich, Gerasim, Peter Ivanovich

Virgil- Ancient Roman Poet

Aeneid* -Aeneas, Dido, Lavinia, Pallas, Turnus

Voltaire-French writer and philosopher

Candide* -Candide, Dr. Pangloss, Cunégonde, Cacambo

Merope Zaire Letters on the English

Kurt Vonnegut-American Writer

Slaughterhouse Five* -Billy Pilgrim, Montana Wildhack, Tralfamadorians, Kilgore Trout, Howard Campbell, Elliot Rosewater, Paul Lazzarro

Cat’s Cradle -John, Felix Hoenikker, Papa Monzano -ice-nine -Bokonism

Breakfast of Champions -Dwayne Hoover, Kilgore Trout

God Bless You -Eliot Rosewater, Norman Mushari

The Sirens of Titan

Robert Penn Warren-American writer

All the King’s Men* -Willy Loman, Jack Burden, Anne Stanton, Adam Stanton, Judge Irwin, Cass Mastern, Tiny Duffey

Tennessee Williams-American Playwright

A Streetcar Named Desire* -Blache Du Bois, Stanley Kowalski, Stella Kowalski, Harold “Mitch” Mitchell

The Glass Menagerie* -Amanda Wingfield, Tom Wingfield, Laura Wingfield, Jim O’Connor

Cat On a Hot Tin Roof Pollitt Family -Big Daddy, Big Mama, Maggie, Brick, Mae, Gooper

The Rose Tattoo

Oscar Wilde-English writer

The Importance of Being Earnest* -Jack Worthing, Algernon Montcrief, Gwendolen Fairfax, Cecily Cardew, Lady Bracknell, Miss Prism

The Picture of Dorian Gray -Dorian Gray, Basil Hallward, Henry Wotton, Sybil Vane, James Vane, Alan Campbell

Lady Windemere’s Fan “The Ballad of Reading Gaol” “De Profundis”

Thornton Wilder- American playwright

Our Town* -Emily Webb, George Gibbs, Simon Stimson, Joe Crowell, Stage Manager -Grover’s Corner

The Skin of Our Teeth -Antrobus family (George, Maggie, Henry and Gladys), Sabina

The Bridge of San Luis Rey

William Wordsworth- English Poet

Lyrical Ballads -with Coleridge

“I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” -“dance with the daffodils”

“Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey” -“five years have passed”

The Prelude -Also known as The Recluse

“Ode: Imitations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood”