MCQs on Charles Dickens

Which was the first novel of Charles Dickens ?

(A) Christmas Carols
(B) Pickwick Papers
(C) Hard Times
(D) Oliver Twist
Which is the most autobiographical novel of Charles
Dickens?
(A) David Copperfield
(B) Hard Times
(C) A Tale of Two Cities
(D) Dombey and Son
One of the following novels is only an episodic novel. Which
one?
(A) The Uncommercial Traveller
(B) American Notes
(C) Pickwick Papers
(D) Christmas Carols
Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities begins with the
sentence
(A) It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.
(B) It was the brightest of times; it was the darkest of times.
(C) It was the richest of times; it was the poorest of times.
(D) It was the happiest of times; it was the saddest of times.
The Tale of Two Cities has :
(A) a sentimental buffoon with a moral purpose
(B) a courageous lady in pain
(C) an optimist on verge of collapse
(D) a romantic hero with a weakness

Who compared Dickens with Shakespeare in making “a

character as real as flesh and blood”?
(A) Matthew Arnold
(B) F.R. Leavis
(C) I.A. Richards
(D) T.S. Eliot
Little Nell is a character in Dickens’s
(A) Hard Times
(B) Great Expectations
(C) Oliver Twist
(D) The Old Curiosity Shop

Charles Dickens caricatured utilitarian thinking with telling

directness in his portrayal of
(A) Paul Dombey
(B) Thomas Gradgrind
(C) Philip Pirrip
(D) Harold Skimpole

Charles Dickens’s visit to the United States produced

_________.
(A) Hard Times
(B) Nicholas Nickleby
(C) Martin Chuzzlewit
(D) Oliver Twist

“The great humorists of the world can be counted on the

fingers of a hand, and
Dickens is of that choice company.” Who says this?
(A) George Sampson
(B) Saintsbury
(C) W.H. Hudson
(D) T.S. Eliot
Dickens treats with the idea/theme of “the laws’s delay” in:
(A) Little Dorrit
(B) Oliver Twist
(C) Hard Times
(D) Nicholas Nickleby
Dickens portrays the degradations and sufferings of the
poor in English workhouses. In
Which novels does he do so?
(A) Little Dorrit
(B) Great Expectations
(C) Oliver Twist
(D) David Coppefield
Which of Dickens’s novels deals with the life of a circus child
named Sissy Jupe?
(A) Martin Chuzzlewit
(B) Hard Times
(C) Little Dorrit
(D) Bleak House
Dickens was the first editor of one of the following
newspapers. Of which?
(A) The Quarterly Review
(B) The London Magazine
(C) The Daily News
(D) Blackwood’s Magazine
Lady Dedlock is a character in Dickens’s
(A) Bleak House
(B) Great Expectations
(C) David Copperfield
(D) Hard Times

Which novels opens thus:

“Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or
whether that station will be held by anyone else, these pages
must show.”
(A) Tristram Shandy
(B) Lady Audley’s Secret
(C) David Copperfield
(D) Fitz-Boodle’s Confessions

Identify the character, a black-eyed dwarf who “constantly

revealed a few discoloured fangs that were yet scattered in
his mouth, and gave him the aspect of a panting dog”.
(A) Mulberry Hawk in Nicholas Nickleby
(B) Rigand in Little Dorrit
(C) Mr. Crook in Bleak House
(D) Daniel Quilp in The Old Curiosity Shop

“His novels belong entirely to the humanitarian movement

of the Victorian era.” Who holds this view?
(A) F.R. Leavis
(B) LA. Richards
(C) W.H. Hudson
(D) George Sampson
Dickens left one novel unfinished. Which of these?
(A) Dombey and Son
(B) Edwin Drood
(C) Our Mutual Friend
(D) Little Dorrit

Considering the story of the novel, what does the title

Dombey and Son stand for?
(A) It suggests the choice between a son and a daughter
(B) It suggests the commercial aspect of life
(C) It suggests the opposition between a father and a son
(D) It suggests the importance of a dynasty

Character Novel
(a) Kate (i) Great Expectations
(b) Florence (ii) Nicholas Nickleby
(c) Miss Havisham (iii) David Copperfield
(d) Agnes (iv) Dombey and Son

Choose the correct option from those given below :

(A) (a)-(i); (b)-(iii); (c)-(iv); (d)-(ii)

(B) (a)-(ii); (b)-(iv); (c)-(i); (d)-(iii)
(C) (a)- (iii); (b)-(i); (c)-(ii); (d)-(iv)
(D) (a-iv); (b)-(ii); (c)-(iii); (d)-(i)

Literary works such as Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield,

Samuel Butler’s The Way of All Flesh and James Joyce’s A
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man provide examples of
which following novelistic form?
(A) Nouveau roman or new novel
(B) Epistolary novel
(C) Bildugsroman
(D) Historical novel

In which of Dickens’s novels do we find a character named

Miss Pross?
(A) David Copperfield
(B) Hard Times
(C) A Tale of Two Cities
(D) Dombey and Son
Harold Skimpole is a character in:
(A) Bleak House
(B) Dombey and Son
(C) Great Expectations
(D) Oliver Twist

Match the imaginary location with its creator :

1. Emily Bronte 5. Wessex

2. Thomas Hardy 6 Egdon Heath
3. Lowood Parsonage 7. Coketown
4. Charles Dickens 8 Charlotte Bronte

(A) 1-7 2-5 4-6 3-8

(B) 1-6 2-5 3-8 4-7
(C) 1-5 2-6 3-8 4-7
(D) 2-5 1-7 3-4 6-8

What is “Forster Collection” ?

(A) Memorabilia and documents related to the Scottish War
of Independence (1296-1328) housed in Glasgow Museum
(B) The special collection of E. M. Forster effects housed in
King’s College, Cambridge
(C) The largest collection of Charles Dickens manuscripts and
proofs curated by John Forster
(D) The collection of political and military documents named
after the liberal M. P., W. E. Forster reputed for the Forster
Education Act

Assertion(A) : Dickens’s novels are called ‘Newgate Novels’.

Reason (R) : They are called so, because Dickens adulates in
these novels the careers and adventures of criminals.
(A) Both (A) and (R) are true and(R) is the correct
explanation.
(B) Both (A) and (R) are true, but (R) is not the correct
explanation.
(C) (A) is true, but (R) is false.
(D) (A) is false, but (R) is true.

Put the following novels by Charles Dickens in a sequential

order with the help of the code :
1. Great Expectations
2. Hard Times
3. Bleak House
4. A Tale of Two Cities

Code :
(A) 3, 2, 4, 1
(B) 2, 4, 3, 1
(C) 1, 2, 4, 3
(D) 4, 2, 1, 3

Put the following novels by Charles Dickens in a sequential

order with the help of the code :
1. Great Expectations
2. Hard Times
3. Bleak House
4. A Tale of Two Cities

Code :
(A) 3, 2, 4, 1
(B) 2, 4, 3, 1
(C) 1, 2, 4, 3
(D) 4, 2, 1, 3
The Office of Circumlocution occurs in :
(A) Little Dorrit
(B) Bleak House
(C) Great Expectations
(D) Hard Times

Which of the following is not true of the novels of Charles

Dickens?
(A) They deal with the problems of the discontents of an
urban civilization.
(B) The plots are strikingly tight-knit.
(C) They share a sense of fun and determining optimism.
(D) They incorporate elements of popular contemporary
culture.

MCQs on Thomas Hardy

In which novel does Sue Bridehead appear as a character ?
(A) Far From the Madding Crowd
(B) The Mayor of Casterbridge
(C) Jude the Obscure
(D) The Return of the Native
In which novel does Giles Winterbourne appear as the
hero?
(A) The Woodlanders
(B) Far From the Madding Crowd
(C) A Pair of Blue Eyes
(D) Two on a Tower
Who is the rival of Michael Henchard in The Mayor of
Casterbridge?
(A) Wildeve
(B) Clym
(C) Gabriel Oak
(D) Donald Farfrae
How many Parts are there in Hardy’s Dynasts?
(A) Three
(B) Two
(C) Four
(D) Five
Hardy believed in the philosophy of which of the following?
(A) Man is the master of his own fate
(B) Character is destiny
(C) Free Will
(D) Immanent Will
Gabriel Oak is a character in :
(A) Desperate Remedies
(B) Under the Greenwood Tree
(C) Far From the Madding Crowd
(D) The Woodlanders
Who among the following protagonists of Thomas Hardy
feels his lot as akin to Job’s ?
(A) Clym Yeo bright
(B) Angel Clare
(C) Jude
(D) Troy

Abel Whittle is a character in:

(A) The Return of the Native
(B) The Mayor of Casterbridge
(C) Far from the Madding Crowd
(D) Tess of the D’Urbervilles

A protagonist writes a letter of confession, but it gets lost

under the carpet only to be found on the wedding day. Who
is the protagonist?
(A) Bathsheba
(B) Lucetta
(C) Sue
(D) Tess

Which is a poetical collection of Hardy?

(A) The Sphin

(B) Ballads and Poems
(C) Poems of the Past and the Present
(D) The Songs of the Cold
Thomas Hardy’s last major novel was _______.
(A) Tess of the D’urbervilles
(B) Jude the Obscure
(C) The Return of the Native
(D) The Trumpet Major

Hardy gives to one of his novels the title

“Far From the Madding Crowd.” From where has he
borrowed this
title ?
(A) From Collins’s Ode to Evening
(B) Shelley’s Adonais
(C) Matthew Arnold’s Thyrsis
(D) Gray’s Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
God is referred to as “The President of Immortals” in
(A) Paradise Lost
(B) Jude the Obscure
(C) Tess of the D’urbervilles
(D) The Mayor of Casterbridge

Which is a drama written by Hardy?

(A) The Famous Tragedy of the Queen of Cornwall
(B) Heartbreak House
(C) The Skin Game
(D) The Inn of Tranquillity
Clym Yeobright is a character in :
(A) Far From the Madding Crowd
(B) The Woodlanders
(C) Two on a Tower
(D) The Return of the Native
What is Hardy’s Dynasts ?
(A) An epic drama written by Hardy
(B) A Collection of Hardy’s short stories
(C) The last novel of Hardy
(D) A Collection of Hardy’s poems
“As flies to the wanton boys are we to the god,
They kill us for their sport.”
These lines of Shakespeare have been quoted by Hardy in
one of his novels. In which of the following novels?
(A) The Mayor of Casterbridge
(B) Tess
(C) Jude the Obscure
(D) The Return of the Native
Which novel of Thomas Hardy begins with the sombre
description of Egdon Heath ?
(A) Jude the Obscure
(B) The Return of the Native
(C) Far from the Madding Crowd
(D) Under the Greenwood Tree

Which of the following poems by Thomas Hardy was

originally titled By the Century’s Deathbed?
(A) The Minute Before Meeting
(B) Neutral Tones
(C) The Darkling Thrush
(D) The Oxen

In which of the novels Hardy says, “Happiness is but an

occasional episode in the general drama of pain. In Which
novels?
(A) The Mayor of Casterbridge
(B) Tess
(C) Jude the Obscure
(D) Return of the Native
Whom does Tess kill in an emotional fury?
(A) Alec D’ Urberville
(B) Clym
(C) Angel Clare
(D) Michael Henchard
Hardy’s characters are types, though not without
individuality. Whose view is this?
(A) H.C. Duffin
(B) D.H. Lawrence
(C) Jean Brooks
(D) David Cecil