Q 01/05

What was Mark Twain's real name?

A) Henry Wheeler Shaw

B) Charles Farrar Browne

C) Samuel Langhorne Clemens

D) William Sydney Porter

Answer · why

C) Samuel Langhorne Clemens

Samuel Langhorne Clemens said he took 'Mark Twain', a river call for two fathoms, from an old captain who had signed river notes with it.

Q 02/05

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was among the first major American novels written throughout in what kind of English?

A) Vernacular

B) Elizabethan

C) Latinate

D) Pidgin

Answer · why

A) Vernacular

Vernacular: Twain added a note insisting the book's many dialects were not done 'by guesswork', so readers would not think the characters were failing...

Q 03/05

Twain's opening notice says anyone seeking a plot in Huckleberry Finn will be what?

A) Prosecuted

B) Banished

C) Shot

D) Hanged

Answer · why

C) Shot

Shot, says the mock notice, which Twain later quoted as proof that the public must not take his books too seriously.

Q 04/05

In which fictional Missouri town does Adventures of Huckleberry Finn begin?

A) St. Petersburg

B) Goshen

C) Pikesville Landing

D) Dawson's Landing

Answer · why

A) St. Petersburg

St. Petersburg is where Tom Sawyer's gang swears an oath signed in blood, though Huck soon quits because they never actually rob anybody.

Q 05/05

Which dead creature does Huck leave on Jim's bed as a prank?

A) A river catfish

B) A rattlesnake

C) A hairy spider

D) A drowned rat

Answer · why

B) A rattlesnake

A rattlesnake: its mate was there that night and bit Jim, and Huck quietly threw both snakes away so Jim wouldn't learn it was his fault.