CLEP Humanities : Identifying Titles, Authors, or Schools of Fiction

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for CLEP Humanities

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Example Questions

Example Question #41 : Identifying Titles, Authors, Or Schools Of Fiction

Anna Karenina and War and Peace were written by which writer?

Possible Answers:

Leo Tolstoy

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Ivan Turgenev

Mikhail Katkov

Nikolai Gogol

Correct answer:

Leo Tolstoy

Explanation:

Both Anna Karenina and War and Peace were written by Leo Tolstoy in the mid-nineteenth century.

Example Question #41 : Identifying Titles, Authors, Or Schools Of Fiction

The author who is most well known for writing the Sherlock Holmes series of detective stories is __________.

Possible Answers:

George Eliot

James Joyce

Arthur Conan Doyle

Charles Dickens

Thomas Hardy

Correct answer:

Arthur Conan Doyle

Explanation:

Sherlock Holmes was an instant hit as soon as the detective was introduced in the late nineteenth century in serialized stories. The detective's creator, Arthur Conan Doyle, actually thought the Holmes stories would be easily forgotten and that his legacy would be built on more serious pieces of literature. Holmes was so well loved for his deductive reasoning, use of modern technology, and investigative work caused Conan Doyle to bring him back to life after killing him in a story.

All of the other answer options were influential British novelists of the 19th century, except for James Joyce, who wrote exclusively in the early 20th century.

Example Question #43 : Identifying Titles, Authors, Or Schools Of Fiction

Which of the following works was NOT written by Fyodor Dostoyevsky?

Possible Answers:

The Cherry Orchard

Notes from Underground

Crime and Punishment

The Idiot

The Brothers Karamazov

Correct answer:

The Cherry Orchard

Explanation:

Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881) was a Russian author of short fiction and novels. His works include everything on the list except The Cherry Orchard (1904) which was the last play written by Anton Chekov.

Example Question #42 : Identifying Titles, Authors, Or Schools Of Fiction

Which novel, written by American author Stephen Crane, describes the story of a private in the Union army that flees from his first battle in the American Civil War and consequently wishes for a wound to prove his bravery?

Possible Answers:

Shiloh

The Killer Angels

Across Five Aprils

The Red Badge of Courage

Gone With the Wind

Correct answer:

The Red Badge of Courage

Explanation:

Across Five Aprils was published in 1964 and written by Irene Hunt. The Killer Angels was published in 1974 and written by Michael Shaara. Gone With the Wind was published in 1936 and written by Margaret Mitchell. Shiloh was published in 1952 and written by Shelby Foote. Stephen Crane published The Red Badge of Courage in 1895.

Example Question #45 : Identifying Titles, Authors, Or Schools Of Fiction

Who wrote The Last of the Mohicans?

Possible Answers:

Victor Hugo

Robert Louis Stevenson

Jack London

James Fenimore Cooper

Sir Walter Scott

Correct answer:

James Fenimore Cooper

Explanation:

The Last of the Mohicans was written by American James Fenimore Cooper and published in 1826. It is the second book in his Leatherstocking Tales series which takes place during the mid-18th century on the American East Coast. Jack London wrote primarily adventure novels such as Call of the Wild.  Victor Hugo is best known for Les Miserables andThe Hunchback of Notre Dame. Sir Walter Scott wrote Ivanhoe and Robert Louis Stevenson wrote Treasure Island.

Example Question #43 : Identifying Titles, Authors, Or Schools Of Fiction

Who was the author of the early novel Don Quixote, published in two volumes between 1605 and 1615?

Possible Answers:

William Shakespeare

Jean Racine

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Francisco Rodrigues Lobo

Giambattista Marino

Correct answer:

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Explanation:

The two-part literary work The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote de la Mancha was a landmark of world literature, as it was written in a prose style in epic length. This makes it one of the earliest novels, and made its author, the Spaniard Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, world famous. Its influence would stretch centuries, as it was still a model for novels during the nineteenth century.

Example Question #44 : Identifying Titles, Authors, Or Schools Of Fiction

The 1749 novel The History of Tom Jones: A Foundling was written by which of the following authors?

Possible Answers:

George Eliot

Henry Fielding

William Makepeace Thackeray

Charles Dickens

Jane Austen

Correct answer:

Henry Fielding

Explanation:

The History of Tom Jones: A Foundling was one of the very first English novels, with its author, Henry Fielding, being more well known at the time of its publication as a playwright than as a novelist. Fielding's picaresque novel unfolded over eighteen books, detailing the eponymous protagonist's romantic and social life in a comic vein. Fielding's work provided a great deal of inspiration for the large wave of novelists that emerged in England in the nineteenth century, including Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, and William Makepeace Thackeray.

Example Question #45 : Identifying Titles, Authors, Or Schools Of Fiction

Who is the German author who wrote the epistolary work The Sorrows of Young Werther?

Possible Answers:

Friedrich Maximilian Klinger

Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz

Friedrich Schiller

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Johann Gottfried Herder

Correct answer:

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Explanation:

The Sorrows of Young Werther is a novel that takes the form of a series of letters from a young man named Werther to his friend about the peasants in the fictional town of Wahlheim. The book was an important part of the Sturm und Drang movement in Germany that valued emotionalism and subjectivity in writing. Its publication made an instant literary star out of its author, the twenty-five-year-old Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, launching his incredible career.

Example Question #46 : Identifying Titles, Authors, Or Schools Of Fiction

Which eighteenth-century English author wrote the novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman?

Possible Answers:

Henry Fielding

Laurence Sterne

Samuel Johnson

Jonathan Swift

Alexander Pope

Correct answer:

Laurence Sterne

Explanation:

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman was published in nine volumes over eight years, from 1759 to 1767. The book is a humorous take on the sprawling novel of the eighteenth century, wherein the author, Laurence Sterne, has the protagonist and narrator ostensibly tell his life story, but takes so many digressions that very little of his story is actually told. The book was immediately popular among the reading public, and its winding narrative has been seen as a major foreshadowing of modernist narrative, prevalent in the twentieth century.

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