Create a custom practice set
Pick category, difficulty, number of questions, and time limit. Start instantly with your own quiz.
Generate QuizTrue/False – GK Questions
Free practice for SSC, UPSC, Banking & Railway exams. No login required.
Dom Moraes was the first Indian poet to win the Hawthornden Prize for his collection 'A Beginning'.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Dom Moraes won the prestigious Hawthornden Prize in 1958 for his debut poetry collection 'A Beginning', a rare feat for an Indian writing in English at the time.
Ruskin Bond, the celebrated author of 'The Room on the Roof', was born in England before moving to India.
- True
- False
Answer: False
Ruskin Bond was born in Kasauli, India, in 1934 to British parents. He has spent most of his life in the Indian Himalayas.
G. Sankara Kurup was the first recipient of the Jnanpith Award for his Malayalam poetry collection 'Odakkuzhal'.
- True
- False
Answer: True
He received the inaugural Jnanpith Award in 1965.
F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'Tender Is the Night' is largely autobiographical, reflecting his struggles with his wife Zelda's mental illness.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Published in 1934, the novel's portrayal of a psychiatrist and his wealthy, troubled patient mirrors the Fitzgeralds' real-life challenges.
Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay created the famous Bengali detective character Byomkesh Bakshi.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Byomkesh Bakshi, who calls himself a 'truth-seeker' (Satyanweshi), is one of the most beloved detectives in Indian literature.
George Saunders won the 2017 Booker Prize for 'Lincoln in the Bardo', his first full-length novel.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Saunders, previously known for short stories, won the Booker for this experimental novel set in a graveyard.
Edgar Allan Poe's famous poem 'The Raven' features a bird that repeatedly says the word 'Nevermore'.
- True
- False
Answer: True
The raven's single word 'Nevermore' drives the grieving narrator to madness.
Ashapoorna Devi's 'Pratham Pratisruti' is the first part of a trilogy focusing on women's struggle for education and equality.
- True
- False
Answer: True
The trilogy includes 'Pratham Pratisruti', 'Subarnalata', and 'Bakul Katha', tracing three generations of women.
The Sahitya Akademi Award does not recognize works written in the English language.
- True
- False
Answer: False
The Sahitya Akademi recognizes 24 languages, including English, Rajasthani, Bhojpuri, and the 22 scheduled languages.
George Eliot's 'Middlemarch' is subtitled 'A Study of Provincial Life'.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Published in 1871-72, 'Middlemarch' is widely considered one of the greatest novels in the English language.
Manik Bandyopadhyay's 'Padma Nadir Majhi' focuses on the lives of boatmen in rural Bengal.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Published in 1936, it is a classic of Bengali realism, depicting the struggles of fisherman Kubera.
Frank Herbert's 'Dune' won both the Hugo Award and the inaugural Nebula Award for Best Novel.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Published in 1965, 'Dune' is a landmark in science fiction, sweeping the major awards of its time.
Oscar Wilde's only published novel is 'The Picture of Dorian Gray'.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Though famous for his plays and essays, Wilde only wrote one full-length novel, published in 1890.
Rabindranath Tagore's novel 'Gora' deals with themes of caste, religious orthodoxy, and Indian nationalism.
- True
- False
Answer: True
'Gora' (1910) is considered Tagore's masterpiece, exploring the complex identity of its protagonist in colonial India.
Geetanjali Shree's 'Tomb of Sand' was the first Hindi novel to win the International Booker Prize.
- True
- False
Answer: True
In 2022, 'Tomb of Sand' (translated by Daisy Rockwell) became the first book in an Indian language to win the International Booker Prize.
In Fyodor Dostoevsky's 'The Idiot', the protagonist Prince Myshkin is considered an idiot because of his low intelligence.
- True
- False
Answer: False
Prince Myshkin is called an 'idiot' by society because of his extreme innocence, empathy, and lack of worldly cynicism, not because of low intelligence.
Ismat Chughtai faced an obscenity trial for her Urdu short story 'Lihaaf' (The Quilt).
- True
- False
Answer: True
Published in 1942, 'Lihaaf' explored female sexuality and homosexuality, leading to an obscenity trial in Lahore which Chughtai successfully fought.
Harivansh Rai Bachchan was the first recipient of the Saraswati Samman.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Instituted in 1991, the first Saraswati Samman was awarded to Harivansh Rai Bachchan for his four-volume autobiography.
Thomas Hardy's 'Tess of the d'Urbervilles' is set in the fictional region of Wessex.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Hardy set most of his major novels in Wessex, a semi-fictionalized representation of the south and west of England.
Muhammad Iqbal's 'Bang-e-Dara' (The Call of the Marching Bell) was his first major collection of poetry, written primarily in Urdu.
- True
- False
Answer: False
'Bang-e-Dara' was written primarily in Persian, though Iqbal is famous for his Urdu poetry as well. His later works like 'Bal-e-Jibril' are in Urdu/Persian.