Edgar Allan Poe Quiz
The Raven, the Usher twins, Fortunato in the catacombs: 15 questions on the master of the macabre.
In which American city was Edgar Allan Poe born in 1809?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Boston
Poe was born in Boston on 19 January 1809 to two travelling actors. His father abandoned the family and his mother died of tuberculosis before he turned three, after which he was taken in by the Allan family of Richmond, Virginia.
Poe's first book, Tamerlane and Other Poems, was published anonymously in Boston in 1827, credited only to a Bostonian.
In which Poe story does the narrator hear the beating of a heart beneath the floorboards?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
The Tell-Tale Heart
The narrator of The Tell-Tale Heart murders an old man because of his pale vulture eye, hides the dismembered body under the floor, then confesses to the police when he becomes convinced he can hear the dead man's heart still beating.
The story runs to barely 2,000 words and opens with the narrator insisting he is not mad, which is exactly what persuades the reader otherwise.
In The Raven, what is the name of the narrator's lost love whom he mourns?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Lenore
The narrator grieves for the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore, and torments himself by asking the raven whether he will ever hold her again in the afterlife. The bird answers only Nevermore.
Poe reused the name from an earlier poem called Lenore, and he argued in his essay The Philosophy of Composition that the death of a beautiful woman is the most poetical topic in the world.
In The Raven, the bird perches on a bust of which classical goddess above the chamber door?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Pallas
The raven settles on a pallid bust of Pallas, another name for Athena, goddess of wisdom, just above the narrator's door. Poe chose the bust so the bird of ill omen would sit in ironic contrast with the symbol of reason.
Minerva is the Roman equivalent of Athena, but the poem names the Greek Pallas, which Poe also picked for the sonorous sound of the word.
In The Cask of Amontillado, what is the name of the man whom Montresor walls up alive in the catacombs?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Fortunato
Montresor lures his drunken rival Fortunato into the family catacombs during carnival with the promise of a rare cask of Amontillado sherry, chains him in a niche and bricks him in. Fortunato's last words are For the love of God, Montresor.
Montresor never explains the thousand injuries that drove him to murder, and he tells the story fifty years later with no sign of regret.
Which Poe poem begins with the line It was many and many a year ago, in a kingdom by the sea?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Annabel Lee
Annabel Lee, the last poem Poe completed, tells of a childhood love so strong that the angels grew jealous and killed the girl. It was published in 1849, two days after his death, and is widely read as an elegy for his wife Virginia.
The narrator ends the poem lying every night beside Annabel Lee in her tomb by the sounding sea.
Which 1841 Poe story, featuring the detective C. Auguste Dupin, is often called the first modern detective story?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
The Murders in the Rue Morgue, published in Graham's Magazine in April 1841, introduced the brilliant amateur Dupin, who solves a locked room double murder in Paris through pure reasoning. Arthur Conan Doyle acknowledged it as the model for Sherlock Holmes.
The Mystery Writers of America named their annual awards the Edgars in Poe's honour, and the statuette is a small bust of him.
In The Fall of the House of Usher, what is the name of Roderick Usher's twin sister?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Madeline
Madeline Usher suffers from a wasting illness and cataleptic trances, and Roderick entombs her in the family vault while she is still alive. She claws her way out and collapses on her brother, and the house itself splits and sinks into the tarn.
Mike Flanagan's 2023 Netflix series The Fall of the House of Usher reworked the Ushers as a corrupt pharmaceutical dynasty, with each episode named after a Poe story.
Which NFL team is named in honour of Poe's most famous poem?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Baltimore Ravens
When Baltimore regained an NFL team in 1996, fans voted in a telephone poll to name it the Ravens after The Raven, because Poe lived and worked in the city and is buried there. The team's costumed mascot is simply named Poe.
The Ravens won the Super Bowl in their fifth season, in January 2001, and again in February 2013.
In which year did Poe die, aged 40, after being found delirious on the streets of Baltimore?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
1849
Poe was found semi-conscious outside a Baltimore tavern on 3 October 1849, wearing clothes that were not his own, and died in hospital on 7 October without ever explaining what had happened. His medical records and death certificate have been lost.
One popular theory is that he was a victim of cooping, in which gangs kidnapped men, drugged them and marched them round the polls to vote repeatedly on election day.
In The Pit and the Pendulum, the narrator is a prisoner of which institution?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
The Spanish Inquisition
The unnamed narrator has been sentenced to death by the Spanish Inquisition in Toledo and wakes in a pitch black cell with a pit at its centre and a razor sharp pendulum descending toward his chest. He is rescued at the last moment by the French army.
The story is one of the few Poe tales with a happy ending, as General Lasalle's forces enter Toledo just as the walls close in.
Which Poe story is set at a masked ball in the abbey of Prince Prospero?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
The Masque of the Red Death
Prince Prospero locks himself and a thousand nobles inside his abbey to escape a plague called the Red Death, then throws a masquerade through seven coloured rooms. A guest dressed as a plague victim turns out to be the disease itself.
The final room is draped in black with blood red windows and an ebony clock whose chimes stop the dancing every hour.
In The Murders in the Rue Morgue, who or what turns out to have killed Madame L'Espanaye and her daughter?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
An orangutan
Dupin deduces from the inhuman strength, the tuft of coarse hair and the witnesses' inability to agree on the killer's language that the murderer was an escaped orangutan brought from Borneo by a sailor. No human could have forced the body up the chimney.
The impossible crime in a sealed room became a staple of the genre, later perfected by John Dickson Carr and Agatha Christie.
What is the title of Poe's only complete novel, published in 1838?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket follows a stowaway through mutiny, shipwreck, cannibalism and a voyage toward the South Pole, ending abruptly before a giant shrouded white figure. Poe later dismissed it as a very silly book.
Jules Verne was so taken with the unfinished ending that he wrote a sequel, An Antarctic Mystery, in 1897.
Poe's wife Virginia Clemm, whom he married in 1836 when she was thirteen, was also his what?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
First cousin
Virginia Clemm was the daughter of Poe's aunt Maria Clemm, making her his first cousin. Their marriage licence listed her age as twenty-one, and she died of tuberculosis in 1847 at twenty-four, two years before Poe himself.
Virginia's slow death is thought to have inspired the dying heroines of Annabel Lee, Ligeia and Eleonora.
Your results
More to explore
All Literature quizzes →About the Edgar Allan Poe Quiz
Edgar Allan Poe invented the detective story, wrote the most famous American poem of the nineteenth century and was paid about nine dollars for it. He married his thirteen-year-old cousin, was expelled from West Point and died at forty in circumstances that are still argued over today.
These 15 questions cover the poems and tales people actually remember, from the bust of Pallas and the lost Lenore to the heart under the floorboards and the wall in the wine cellar, then move into his life, his only novel and the football team that carries his bird's name. It suits anyone who met Poe at school and never quite shook him off.
You will find 15 multiple choice questions here, each with four options. Difficulty: Hard. Most people finish in about 6 minutes, and every answer comes with a short explanation and one extra fact worth keeping.
How to play
Read the question and pick one of the four answers. The correct answer is revealed straight away with a short explanation, then press Next question to keep going. At the end you get your score out of 15 and a full review of your round. Play again any time and the questions arrive in a fresh order. There is no timer and no account.
Good to know before you play
What is Edgar Allan Poe most famous for?
The Raven, his 1845 poem with the refrain Nevermore, plus gothic tales such as The Tell-Tale Heart, The Fall of the House of Usher and The Cask of Amontillado, and for inventing the detective story with The Murders in the Rue Morgue.
How did Edgar Allan Poe die?
He was found delirious on the streets of Baltimore in October 1849 and died four days later aged 40. The cause was never established, and theories range from alcohol and rabies to election day voting fraud.
Is this quiz suitable for students studying Poe?
Yes. It covers the poems and stories most often taught in school, along with key facts about his life, and every answer comes with an explanation you can use for revision.
Answer key: all 15 questions with explanations
- In which American city was Edgar Allan Poe born in 1809?
Boston Poe was born in Boston on 19 January 1809 to two travelling actors. His father abandoned the family and his mother died of tuberculosis before he turned three, after which he was taken in by the Allan family of Richmond, Virginia. Poe's first book, Tamerlane and Other Poems, was published anonymously in Boston in 1827, credited only to a Bostonian. - In which Poe story does the narrator hear the beating of a heart beneath the floorboards?
The Tell-Tale Heart The narrator of The Tell-Tale Heart murders an old man because of his pale vulture eye, hides the dismembered body under the floor, then confesses to the police when he becomes convinced he can hear the dead man's heart still beating. The story runs to barely 2,000 words and opens with the narrator insisting he is not mad, which is exactly what persuades the reader otherwise. - In The Raven, what is the name of the narrator's lost love whom he mourns?
Lenore The narrator grieves for the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore, and torments himself by asking the raven whether he will ever hold her again in the afterlife. The bird answers only Nevermore. Poe reused the name from an earlier poem called Lenore, and he argued in his essay The Philosophy of Composition that the death of a beautiful woman is the most poetical topic in the world. - In The Raven, the bird perches on a bust of which classical goddess above the chamber door?
Pallas The raven settles on a pallid bust of Pallas, another name for Athena, goddess of wisdom, just above the narrator's door. Poe chose the bust so the bird of ill omen would sit in ironic contrast with the symbol of reason. Minerva is the Roman equivalent of Athena, but the poem names the Greek Pallas, which Poe also picked for the sonorous sound of the word. - In The Cask of Amontillado, what is the name of the man whom Montresor walls up alive in the catacombs?
Fortunato Montresor lures his drunken rival Fortunato into the family catacombs during carnival with the promise of a rare cask of Amontillado sherry, chains him in a niche and bricks him in. Fortunato's last words are For the love of God, Montresor. Montresor never explains the thousand injuries that drove him to murder, and he tells the story fifty years later with no sign of regret. - Which Poe poem begins with the line It was many and many a year ago, in a kingdom by the sea?
Annabel Lee Annabel Lee, the last poem Poe completed, tells of a childhood love so strong that the angels grew jealous and killed the girl. It was published in 1849, two days after his death, and is widely read as an elegy for his wife Virginia. The narrator ends the poem lying every night beside Annabel Lee in her tomb by the sounding sea. - Which 1841 Poe story, featuring the detective C. Auguste Dupin, is often called the first modern detective story?
The Murders in the Rue Morgue The Murders in the Rue Morgue, published in Graham's Magazine in April 1841, introduced the brilliant amateur Dupin, who solves a locked room double murder in Paris through pure reasoning. Arthur Conan Doyle acknowledged it as the model for Sherlock Holmes. The Mystery Writers of America named their annual awards the Edgars in Poe's honour, and the statuette is a small bust of him. - In The Fall of the House of Usher, what is the name of Roderick Usher's twin sister?
Madeline Madeline Usher suffers from a wasting illness and cataleptic trances, and Roderick entombs her in the family vault while she is still alive. She claws her way out and collapses on her brother, and the house itself splits and sinks into the tarn. Mike Flanagan's 2023 Netflix series The Fall of the House of Usher reworked the Ushers as a corrupt pharmaceutical dynasty, with each episode named after a Poe story. - Which NFL team is named in honour of Poe's most famous poem?
Baltimore Ravens When Baltimore regained an NFL team in 1996, fans voted in a telephone poll to name it the Ravens after The Raven, because Poe lived and worked in the city and is buried there. The team's costumed mascot is simply named Poe. The Ravens won the Super Bowl in their fifth season, in January 2001, and again in February 2013. - In which year did Poe die, aged 40, after being found delirious on the streets of Baltimore?
1849 Poe was found semi-conscious outside a Baltimore tavern on 3 October 1849, wearing clothes that were not his own, and died in hospital on 7 October without ever explaining what had happened. His medical records and death certificate have been lost. One popular theory is that he was a victim of cooping, in which gangs kidnapped men, drugged them and marched them round the polls to vote repeatedly on election day. - In The Pit and the Pendulum, the narrator is a prisoner of which institution?
The Spanish Inquisition The unnamed narrator has been sentenced to death by the Spanish Inquisition in Toledo and wakes in a pitch black cell with a pit at its centre and a razor sharp pendulum descending toward his chest. He is rescued at the last moment by the French army. The story is one of the few Poe tales with a happy ending, as General Lasalle's forces enter Toledo just as the walls close in. - Which Poe story is set at a masked ball in the abbey of Prince Prospero?
The Masque of the Red Death Prince Prospero locks himself and a thousand nobles inside his abbey to escape a plague called the Red Death, then throws a masquerade through seven coloured rooms. A guest dressed as a plague victim turns out to be the disease itself. The final room is draped in black with blood red windows and an ebony clock whose chimes stop the dancing every hour. - In The Murders in the Rue Morgue, who or what turns out to have killed Madame L'Espanaye and her daughter?
An orangutan Dupin deduces from the inhuman strength, the tuft of coarse hair and the witnesses' inability to agree on the killer's language that the murderer was an escaped orangutan brought from Borneo by a sailor. No human could have forced the body up the chimney. The impossible crime in a sealed room became a staple of the genre, later perfected by John Dickson Carr and Agatha Christie. - What is the title of Poe's only complete novel, published in 1838?
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket follows a stowaway through mutiny, shipwreck, cannibalism and a voyage toward the South Pole, ending abruptly before a giant shrouded white figure. Poe later dismissed it as a very silly book. Jules Verne was so taken with the unfinished ending that he wrote a sequel, An Antarctic Mystery, in 1897. - Poe's wife Virginia Clemm, whom he married in 1836 when she was thirteen, was also his what?
First cousin Virginia Clemm was the daughter of Poe's aunt Maria Clemm, making her his first cousin. Their marriage licence listed her age as twenty-one, and she died of tuberculosis in 1847 at twenty-four, two years before Poe himself. Virginia's slow death is thought to have inspired the dying heroines of Annabel Lee, Ligeia and Eleonora.
Browse other categories
Every category has its own quizzes, each with instant explanations.