Jane Austen Quiz
Darcy, Emma, Anne Elliot and Bath: 15 questions on the six novels and the quiet genius who wrote them.
Which Jane Austen novel opens with the line "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife"?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Pride and Prejudice
The line opens Pride and Prejudice, published in 1813, and sets up the Bennet family's hunt for husbands with the ironic tone that runs through the whole novel.
Austen drafted the book in the 1790s under the title First Impressions, and her father offered it to a publisher who turned it down unread.
What is the name of the proud, wealthy gentleman that Elizabeth Bennet eventually marries?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Mr Darcy
Fitzwilliam Darcy insults Elizabeth at their first ball, proposes badly, and is refused before his quiet good deeds change her mind, giving the novel its pride and prejudice.
Darcy's annual income of ten thousand pounds would have placed him among the richest few hundred men in Regency England.
How many Bennet sisters are there in Pride and Prejudice?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Five
Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty and Lydia make five daughters, and because the Longbourn estate is entailed to a male heir, Mrs Bennet is desperate to marry them off.
Lydia, the youngest at fifteen, causes the novel's crisis by running away with Wickham, a scandal that threatened the marriage prospects of all her sisters.
The 1995 teen comedy Clueless is a modern Beverly Hills retelling of which Austen novel?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Emma
Alicia Silverstone's Cher Horowitz is a Californian Emma Woodhouse: a rich, well meaning matchmaker who meddles in a friend's love life and only slowly notices her own feelings.
Writer and director Amy Heckerling reread Emma for the project and kept the novel's structure, including the ill judged makeover of a less privileged friend.
Which two sisters are at the heart of Sense and Sensibility?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Elinor and Marianne
Elinor Dashwood is the sensible, self controlled sister and Marianne the passionate romantic, and the novel follows both as they lose their home and fall in love.
Austen first wrote the story as an exchange of letters called Elinor and Marianne before reworking it into the novel published in 1811.
In Persuasion, which naval officer does Anne Elliot turn down at nineteen and meet again eight years later?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Captain Wentworth
Anne was persuaded to break off her engagement to the then penniless Frederick Wentworth, who returns from the Napoleonic Wars rich and apparently indifferent to her.
Two of Austen's brothers, Francis and Charles, became admirals in the Royal Navy, which is why her naval characters are drawn with such warmth.
What is the name of Mr Darcy's grand estate in Derbyshire?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Pemberley
Elizabeth's tour of Pemberley with her aunt and uncle, where the housekeeper praises her master, is the turning point at which she begins to see Darcy differently.
Chatsworth House and Lyme Park have both doubled as Pemberley on screen, and Chatsworth is often suggested as a model for the fictional house.
Which Austen novel is a satire of the Gothic horror novels that were fashionable in her youth?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Northanger Abbey
Heroine Catherine Morland has read too much Ann Radcliffe and imagines dark secrets in the Tilney family home, only to be embarrassed by perfectly ordinary explanations.
Austen sold the manuscript to a publisher in 1803 for ten pounds, but he never printed it and her brother bought it back years later.
Fanny Price, a poor relation raised in her wealthy uncle's house, is the heroine of which novel?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Mansfield Park
Fanny is sent from Portsmouth at ten to live with the Bertrams at Mansfield Park, where she quietly loves her cousin Edmund while resisting the charming Henry Crawford.
Mansfield Park is the only Austen novel to mention slavery, as Sir Thomas Bertram's fortune depends on a plantation in Antigua.
In which English city did Austen live from 1801 to 1806, later using it as a setting in Northanger Abbey and Persuasion?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Bath
The Austens moved to Bath when her father retired, and the spa city's assembly rooms, Pump Room and crescents feature heavily in both novels set there.
Family tradition says Jane fainted when told of the move, and she wrote almost nothing new during her five unhappy years in the city.
What byline appeared on the title page of Sense and Sensibility when it was published in 1811?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
By a Lady
Austen never put her name on a novel in her lifetime. Her later books were credited to the author of her previous works, and her identity was revealed only after her death.
She paid for the first printing herself and feared a loss, but the run sold out and earned her about 140 pounds.
Who wrote the Academy Award winning screenplay for the 1995 film of Sense and Sensibility?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Emma Thompson
Emma Thompson spent about five years adapting the novel, won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, and also played Elinor Dashwood opposite Kate Winslet's Marianne.
Thompson remains the only person to have won Academy Awards for both acting and writing, her acting Oscar having come for Howards End.
Which man does Emma Woodhouse first try to pair with her friend Harriet Smith?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Mr Elton
Emma persuades Harriet to refuse the farmer Robert Martin and sets her sights on the vicar Mr Elton, who turns out to be courting Emma herself.
Before starting the novel Austen told her family she would write a heroine whom no one but herself would much like.
Where is Jane Austen buried?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Winchester Cathedral
Austen died in lodgings in Winchester on 18 July 1817, aged 41, after moving there for medical treatment, and was buried in the cathedral's north aisle six days later.
Her original gravestone praises her mind and character but never mentions that she wrote novels; a brass plaque added in 1872 corrected the omission.
What was the title of the novel Austen was working on when illness forced her to stop writing in 1817?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Sanditon
Austen wrote twelve chapters of Sanditon, a comedy about a would be seaside resort and its hypochondriac residents, before abandoning it in March 1817, four months before her death.
The fragment was not published until 1925, and ITV's 2019 television series invented an ending for it.
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All Literature quizzes →About the Jane Austen Quiz
Jane Austen published just six novels, the first of them credited only to A Lady, yet two centuries later her heroines are still being argued over in book clubs and reworked into films. Pride and Prejudice alone has sold an estimated 20 million copies, and the 1995 film of Sense and Sensibility won an Academy Award for its screenplay.
These 15 questions move from the opening lines everyone knows to the estates, suitors and sisters of all six books, then finish with the places Austen lived and the novel she never got to finish. It suits anyone who has read even one Austen novel or watched the adaptations, with a few deeper cuts for the devoted Janeite.
You will find 15 multiple choice questions here, each with four options. Difficulty: Medium. 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
How many novels did Jane Austen complete?
Six: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. The last two were published after her death in 1817.
Which Jane Austen novel should I read first?
Pride and Prejudice is the usual starting point because it is the funniest and fastest moving. Emma and Persuasion are the favourites of many long time readers.
Is this quiz about the books or the film adaptations?
Mostly the books, but two questions touch on famous screen versions, so fans of the films will still score well.
Answer key: all 15 questions with explanations
- Which Jane Austen novel opens with the line "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife"?
Pride and Prejudice The line opens Pride and Prejudice, published in 1813, and sets up the Bennet family's hunt for husbands with the ironic tone that runs through the whole novel. Austen drafted the book in the 1790s under the title First Impressions, and her father offered it to a publisher who turned it down unread. - What is the name of the proud, wealthy gentleman that Elizabeth Bennet eventually marries?
Mr Darcy Fitzwilliam Darcy insults Elizabeth at their first ball, proposes badly, and is refused before his quiet good deeds change her mind, giving the novel its pride and prejudice. Darcy's annual income of ten thousand pounds would have placed him among the richest few hundred men in Regency England. - How many Bennet sisters are there in Pride and Prejudice?
Five Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty and Lydia make five daughters, and because the Longbourn estate is entailed to a male heir, Mrs Bennet is desperate to marry them off. Lydia, the youngest at fifteen, causes the novel's crisis by running away with Wickham, a scandal that threatened the marriage prospects of all her sisters. - The 1995 teen comedy Clueless is a modern Beverly Hills retelling of which Austen novel?
Emma Alicia Silverstone's Cher Horowitz is a Californian Emma Woodhouse: a rich, well meaning matchmaker who meddles in a friend's love life and only slowly notices her own feelings. Writer and director Amy Heckerling reread Emma for the project and kept the novel's structure, including the ill judged makeover of a less privileged friend. - Which two sisters are at the heart of Sense and Sensibility?
Elinor and Marianne Elinor Dashwood is the sensible, self controlled sister and Marianne the passionate romantic, and the novel follows both as they lose their home and fall in love. Austen first wrote the story as an exchange of letters called Elinor and Marianne before reworking it into the novel published in 1811. - In Persuasion, which naval officer does Anne Elliot turn down at nineteen and meet again eight years later?
Captain Wentworth Anne was persuaded to break off her engagement to the then penniless Frederick Wentworth, who returns from the Napoleonic Wars rich and apparently indifferent to her. Two of Austen's brothers, Francis and Charles, became admirals in the Royal Navy, which is why her naval characters are drawn with such warmth. - What is the name of Mr Darcy's grand estate in Derbyshire?
Pemberley Elizabeth's tour of Pemberley with her aunt and uncle, where the housekeeper praises her master, is the turning point at which she begins to see Darcy differently. Chatsworth House and Lyme Park have both doubled as Pemberley on screen, and Chatsworth is often suggested as a model for the fictional house. - Which Austen novel is a satire of the Gothic horror novels that were fashionable in her youth?
Northanger Abbey Heroine Catherine Morland has read too much Ann Radcliffe and imagines dark secrets in the Tilney family home, only to be embarrassed by perfectly ordinary explanations. Austen sold the manuscript to a publisher in 1803 for ten pounds, but he never printed it and her brother bought it back years later. - Fanny Price, a poor relation raised in her wealthy uncle's house, is the heroine of which novel?
Mansfield Park Fanny is sent from Portsmouth at ten to live with the Bertrams at Mansfield Park, where she quietly loves her cousin Edmund while resisting the charming Henry Crawford. Mansfield Park is the only Austen novel to mention slavery, as Sir Thomas Bertram's fortune depends on a plantation in Antigua. - In which English city did Austen live from 1801 to 1806, later using it as a setting in Northanger Abbey and Persuasion?
Bath The Austens moved to Bath when her father retired, and the spa city's assembly rooms, Pump Room and crescents feature heavily in both novels set there. Family tradition says Jane fainted when told of the move, and she wrote almost nothing new during her five unhappy years in the city. - What byline appeared on the title page of Sense and Sensibility when it was published in 1811?
By a Lady Austen never put her name on a novel in her lifetime. Her later books were credited to the author of her previous works, and her identity was revealed only after her death. She paid for the first printing herself and feared a loss, but the run sold out and earned her about 140 pounds. - Who wrote the Academy Award winning screenplay for the 1995 film of Sense and Sensibility?
Emma Thompson Emma Thompson spent about five years adapting the novel, won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, and also played Elinor Dashwood opposite Kate Winslet's Marianne. Thompson remains the only person to have won Academy Awards for both acting and writing, her acting Oscar having come for Howards End. - Which man does Emma Woodhouse first try to pair with her friend Harriet Smith?
Mr Elton Emma persuades Harriet to refuse the farmer Robert Martin and sets her sights on the vicar Mr Elton, who turns out to be courting Emma herself. Before starting the novel Austen told her family she would write a heroine whom no one but herself would much like. - Where is Jane Austen buried?
Winchester Cathedral Austen died in lodgings in Winchester on 18 July 1817, aged 41, after moving there for medical treatment, and was buried in the cathedral's north aisle six days later. Her original gravestone praises her mind and character but never mentions that she wrote novels; a brass plaque added in 1872 corrected the omission. - What was the title of the novel Austen was working on when illness forced her to stop writing in 1817?
Sanditon Austen wrote twelve chapters of Sanditon, a comedy about a would be seaside resort and its hypochondriac residents, before abandoning it in March 1817, four months before her death. The fragment was not published until 1925, and ITV's 2019 television series invented an ending for it.
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