Choose the correct option for each question on the Victorian Period, then open Show answer to check yourself. The full answer key is at the end of the post.
1. Queen Victoria’s reign began in:
- 1832
- 1837
- 1851
- 1901
Answer: (b) 1837
2. Queen Victoria died in:
- 1887
- 1897
- 1901
- 1910
Answer: (c) 1901
3. Who succeeded Wordsworth as Poet Laureate in 1850?
- Browning
- Tennyson
- Arnold
- Southey
Answer: (b) Tennyson
4. In Memoriam is Tennyson’s elegy for:
- Arthur Hallam
- Shelley
- Keats
- His father
Answer: (a) Arthur Hallam
5. “Nature, red in tooth and claw” occurs in:
- In Memoriam
- Ulysses
- Maud
- Locksley Hall
Answer: (a) In Memoriam
6. “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield” ends:
- The Lotos-Eaters
- Ulysses
- Crossing the Bar
- Tithonus
Answer: (b) Ulysses
7. Tennyson’s Idylls of the King is based on:
- Greek myth
- Arthurian legend
- Norse sagas
- Biblical stories
Answer: (b) Arthurian legend
8. “Sunset and evening star” begins Tennyson’s poem:
- Crossing the Bar
- Break, Break, Break
- Mariana
- The Princess
Answer: (a) Crossing the Bar
9. “My Last Duchess” is by:
- Tennyson
- Browning
- Arnold
- Rossetti
Answer: (b) Browning
10. “My Last Duchess” is an example of a:
- Ode
- Dramatic monologue
- Sonnet
- Ballad
Answer: (b) Dramatic monologue
11. The speaker of “My Last Duchess” is the Duke of:
- Milan
- Ferrara
- Urbino
- Florence
Answer: (b) Ferrara
12. “Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be” is from Browning’s:
- Rabbi Ben Ezra
- Andrea del Sarto
- Fra Lippo Lippi
- Porphyria’s Lover
Answer: (a) Rabbi Ben Ezra
13. “Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp” occurs in:
- My Last Duchess
- Andrea del Sarto
- Pippa Passes
- The Ring and the Book
Answer: (b) Andrea del Sarto
14. Browning’s The Ring and the Book (1868–69) is based on:
- A Roman murder case
- Arthurian legend
- Greek myth
- The French Revolution
Answer: (a) A Roman murder case
15. Sonnets from the Portuguese is by:
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning
- Christina Rossetti
- Emily Brontë
- Jean Ingelow
Answer: (a) Elizabeth Barrett Browning
16. “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways” is Sonnet number:
- 14
- 28
- 43
- 44
Answer: (c) 43
17. Aurora Leigh (1856) is a:
- Verse novel
- Play
- Arthurian epic
- Critical essay
Answer: (a) Verse novel
18. “Dover Beach” is by:
- Hopkins
- Matthew Arnold
- Clough
- Swinburne
Answer: (b) Matthew Arnold
19. The “Sea of Faith” is a famous image in:
- Dover Beach
- The Scholar-Gipsy
- Thyrsis
- Rugby Chapel
Answer: (a) Dover Beach
20. Culture and Anarchy (1869) is by:
- Matthew Arnold
- Carlyle
- Ruskin
- J. S. Mill
Answer: (a) Matthew Arnold
21. In Culture and Anarchy, Arnold calls the middle class the:
- Barbarians
- Philistines
- Populace
- Hellenes
Answer: (b) Philistines
22. Darwin’s On the Origin of Species was published in:
- 1837
- 1851
- 1859
- 1871
Answer: (c) 1859
23. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was founded in:
- 1830
- 1848
- 1859
- 1870
Answer: (b) 1848
24. Which of these was NOT a founding member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood?
- John Everett Millais
- William Holman Hunt
- Dante Gabriel Rossetti
- John Ruskin
Answer: (d) John Ruskin
25. Goblin Market (1862) was written by:
- Christina Rossetti
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning
- Emily Dickinson
- George Eliot
Answer: (a) Christina Rossetti
26. “Sprung rhythm” is associated with:
- Gerard Manley Hopkins
- Browning
- Swinburne
- Tennyson
Answer: (a) Gerard Manley Hopkins
27. Hopkins’s poems were first collected and published in:
- 1889
- 1918
- 1900
- 1930
Answer: (b) 1918
28. “All art is quite useless” appears in the preface to:
- The Importance of Being Earnest
- The Picture of Dorian Gray
- Salome
- Lady Windermere’s Fan
Answer: (b) The Picture of Dorian Gray
29. The Importance of Being Earnest was first performed in:
- 1881
- 1890
- 1895
- 1900
Answer: (c) 1895
30. Which was Dickens’s first novel?
- Oliver Twist
- Pickwick Papers
- Nicholas Nickleby
- Sketches by Boz
Answer: (b) Pickwick Papers
31. “Please, sir, I want some more” is spoken in:
- David Copperfield
- Oliver Twist
- Hard Times
- Bleak House
Answer: (b) Oliver Twist
32. Dickens dedicated Hard Times to:
- Ruskin
- Carlyle
- Arnold
- J. S. Mill
Answer: (b) Carlyle
33. Dickens’s semi-autobiographical novel is:
- Great Expectations
- David Copperfield
- Bleak House
- Little Dorrit
Answer: (b) David Copperfield
34. Pip is the hero of:
- Great Expectations
- Oliver Twist
- Hard Times
- Dombey and Son
Answer: (a) Great Expectations
35. “A Novel without a Hero” is the subtitle of:
- Pendennis
- Vanity Fair
- Barry Lyndon
- Henry Esmond
Answer: (b) Vanity Fair
36. Jane Eyre was published in:
- 1837
- 1847
- 1857
- 1867
Answer: (b) 1847
37. Wuthering Heights was written by:
- Charlotte Brontë
- Emily Brontë
- Anne Brontë
- George Eliot
Answer: (b) Emily Brontë
38. The Brontë sisters published their first work under the pseudonyms Currer, Ellis and Acton:
- Brown
- Bell
- Black
- Barton
Answer: (b) Bell
39. George Eliot’s real name was:
- Mary Ann Evans
- Elizabeth Gaskell
- Charlotte Yonge
- Mary Braddon
Answer: (a) Mary Ann Evans
40. The subtitle of Middlemarch is:
- A Study of Provincial Life
- A Novel without a Hero
- The Modern Prometheus
- A Pure Woman
Answer: (a) A Study of Provincial Life
41. The subtitle of Tess of the d’Urbervilles is:
- A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented
- A Study of Provincial Life
- The Modern Prometheus
- A Romance of Wessex
Answer: (a) A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented
42. Which was Thomas Hardy’s last novel?
- Tess of the d’Urbervilles
- Jude the Obscure
- The Return of the Native
- Far from the Madding Crowd
Answer: (b) Jude the Obscure
43. Mary Barton (1848) is by:
- Elizabeth Gaskell
- George Eliot
- Charlotte Brontë
- Benjamin Disraeli
Answer: (a) Elizabeth Gaskell
44. Sybil, or The Two Nations (1845) is by:
- Benjamin Disraeli
- Elizabeth Gaskell
- Charles Kingsley
- Dickens
Answer: (a) Benjamin Disraeli
45. The Woman in White is by:
- Mary Braddon
- Wilkie Collins
- Charles Dickens
- Bram Stoker
Answer: (b) Wilkie Collins
46. Lady Audley’s Secret is by:
- Mary Elizabeth Braddon
- Wilkie Collins
- Elizabeth Gaskell
- Ouida
Answer: (a) Mary Elizabeth Braddon
47. Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was published in:
- 1859
- 1876
- 1886
- 1897
Answer: (c) 1886
48. Dracula (1897) was written by:
- Bram Stoker
- Oscar Wilde
- R. L. Stevenson
- Arthur Conan Doyle
Answer: (a) Bram Stoker
49. The phrase “Condition of England” was popularised by:
- Ruskin
- Carlyle
- Arnold
- Dickens
Answer: (b) Carlyle
50. Unto This Last (1860) is by:
- Carlyle
- John Ruskin
- J. S. Mill
- Walter Pater
Answer: (b) John Ruskin
Answer key
| Q | Ans | Q | Ans | Q | Ans | Q | Ans | Q | Ans |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | b | 11 | b | 21 | b | 31 | b | 41 | a |
| 2 | c | 12 | a | 22 | c | 32 | b | 42 | b |
| 3 | b | 13 | b | 23 | b | 33 | b | 43 | a |
| 4 | a | 14 | a | 24 | d | 34 | a | 44 | a |
| 5 | a | 15 | a | 25 | a | 35 | b | 45 | b |
| 6 | b | 16 | c | 26 | a | 36 | b | 46 | a |
| 7 | b | 17 | a | 27 | b | 37 | b | 47 | c |
| 8 | a | 18 | b | 28 | b | 38 | b | 48 | a |
| 9 | b | 19 | a | 29 | c | 39 | a | 49 | b |
| 10 | b | 20 | a | 30 | b | 40 | a | 50 | b |

