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What the Dickens?

Can you answer these questions about the life and works of the great author Charles Dickens?
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: August 8, 2020
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First submittedAugust 8, 2020
Times taken7,758
Average score68.2%
Rating4.38
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Hint
Answer
Who was Queen of England during the writing career of Charles Dickens?
Queen Victoria
What type of dress did Miss Havisham wear every day?
Wedding Dress
What was Scrooge's first name?
Ebenezer
What was the "profession" of the Artful Dodger? (be specific)
Pickpocket
What famous magician takes his name from the title of a Charles Dickens novel?
David Copperfield
To what type of prison was Dickens' father sent, inspiring many of his novels?
Debtors' Prison
What type of food did Oliver ask for some more of?
Gruel
Who says "God bless us, every one" at the end of "A Christmas Carol"?
Tiny Tim
What were the the two cities in "A Tale of Two Cities"?
London
Paris
What dangerous (and dirty) profession was Oliver Twist nearly forced into?
Chimney Sweep
To what country was Abel Magwitch exiled in "Great Expectations"?
Australia
What time-passing activity did the bloodthirsty Madame Dafarge do while sitting and
plotting in the corner of her wine shop?
Knitting
Who was the main character of "Great Expectations"?
Pip (Philip Pirrip)
What are the first six words in "A Tale of Two Cities"?
It was the best of times
What was Dickens' first novel?
The Pickwick Papers
What was Dickens' final unfinished novel?
The Mystery of
Edwin Drood
What two words did Scrooge say when someone wished him a merry Christmas?
Bah! Humbug!
Fill the blanks in the titles of these Dickens novels
Hard Times
Bleak House
Martin Chuzzlewit
The Old Curiosity Shop
37 Comments
+1
Level 88
Aug 10, 2020
Should the name in question 1 be Charles Dickens as opposed to Charles Darwin?
+1
Level ∞
Aug 10, 2020
Yes, fixed
+1
Level 87
Aug 10, 2020
Actually, it's also true for Darwin.
+2
Level 75
Aug 10, 2020
I think you can accept "Wedding" for type of dress.
+1
Level ∞
Aug 10, 2020
Fixed, thanks!
+1
Level 62
Aug 10, 2020
This guy was the bane of my existence in Middle School. I tried for 2 years but could not get myself to read beyond 15 pages of "Great Expectations"
+10
Level 67
Aug 24, 2020
Ah, but it's page 16 where it all gets going....
+2
Level 75
Aug 24, 2020
Give it another go sometime. But read The Pickwick Papers first!
+3
Level 69
Aug 10, 2020
Great Quiz! 100%! "Great Expectations" is my favorite... read if many times.
+1
Level 75
Aug 24, 2020
Bleak Expectations?
+2
Level 85
Aug 10, 2020
Ugh. This was the worst of times. 12-of-22.
+1
Level 86
Aug 10, 2020
I think it's important that Australia was not a separate country and Magwitch's exile was an internal exile.
+1
Level 63
Feb 17, 2024
I think that you might be exaggerating the pace of continental drift since Dickens.
+1
Level 85
Aug 10, 2020
Got 14 - but ok with that, having never read a word of Dickens' works...
+6
Level 84
Aug 10, 2020
Perhaps "knit" is acceptable enough?
+1
Level 75
Aug 24, 2020
"k" should do it.
+1
Level 78
Aug 25, 2020
I second this. If "debt" is enough to get "debtors' prison," surely "knit" (as in, "She would knit") is enough to get "knitting"?
+2
Level 80
Jun 15, 2021
I third this. What did she do? knit.
+1
Level 72
Aug 17, 2023
I did try "knit" and then assumed it was wrong.

If you actually know, you'd try "knitting" I think, but if you're just guessing, you might stop at "knit", like I did.

+3
Level 85
Aug 11, 2020
Don't know whether I should be emberrased or not. I got the Madame Dafarge question right from watching Mel Brooks' "History of the World, Part I".

"We are so poor, we don't even have a language! Just a stupid accent!"

+4
Level 84
Aug 12, 2020
If we're nitpicking, the narrator says "God bless us, everyone" at the end of A Christmas Carol. Tiny Tim says it in the middle, he is only referenced at the end.
+2
Level 78
Aug 25, 2020
True, though since the narrator is explicitly repeating Tiny Tim's words with credit, I think he's a fair answer.
+1
Level 66
Aug 24, 2020
Would you consider accepting oatmeal for gruel?
+3
Level 66
Aug 24, 2020
Yea, I tried oatmeal and porridge to no avail. I googled gruel and learned something, I guess. I'm cool with QM not affording that much latitude on this one.
+1
Level 47
Aug 24, 2020
I can't believe that only 48% of the people who took this quiz knew that Pip was the main character of Great Expectations, yet somehow 71% knew the first six words of A Tale of Two Cities.
+2
Level 77
Aug 24, 2020
ATOTC is one of the best-selling books of all time and it’s a very famous first line. unless you’ve read great expectations, you could very easily not know the character’s name (and 48% having read it is actually very impressive)
+1
Level 47
Aug 25, 2020
Yes, but Great Expectations is easily one of Dickens most popular novels as well. Shouldn't more people know the main character of a novel, rather than the first few lines (even if they're famous)? Plus, I should also point out that 51% of people know about Madame Dafarge passing time by knitting, compared to 50% who know about Pip. So the main character of Great Expectations is about as known as a small detail about a minor character in A Tale of Two Cities. That just baffles me. By the way, I haven't read Great Expectations, and I still know the main character.
+3
Level 57
Jan 20, 2021
I must say I got the knitting one just by guessing. I doubt very many people manage to guess Pip though.
+3
Level 85
Aug 24, 2020
Please consider adding "knit". When that was not accepted I went on to try crochet, whittle, and a few others and never did get that one.
+1
Level 75
Aug 24, 2020
Then the people who speak English all get left with "ting" hanging for the next answer.
+1
Level 78
Aug 25, 2020
Accepting a short but still correct version of the full answer is extremely common on this site. For instance, on this very quiz you can get "Debtors' prison" just by typing in "debt." Even though "debt prison" is not a correct term, answering "debt" demonstrates fully that you know the correct answer, as you are essentially saying "He went to prison for having debt." Similarly, this question is basically asking "What would Madame Dafarge do while sitting, etc.?" to which a perfectly reasonable answer is "She would knit."
+1
Level 74
Aug 24, 2020
Edwin Brude? Boothe? Crood? Druthe? I tried all of those. I hate it when the answer floats in my brain just out of reach. It's been decades since I last read Dickens - it may be time to dust off the old boy's tomes.
+1
Level 76
Aug 24, 2020
I started writing Timmy O'Toole before catching myself. British connection - Sting was a good digger.
+1
Level 67
Aug 25, 2020
No, no, no. Dig *up,* stupid.
+2
Level 81
Aug 24, 2020
Aw, poor Pip. I forgot him. He always gets overlooked, even before he got stomped to death by Mecha-Streisand.
+1
Level 72
Aug 26, 2020
100% - but I do love Dickens - especially his creative character names. For those who struggle to read his books, you should try watching any of the BBC productions of them. Most are well done, with plots and characters intact.
+3
Level 49
Jun 10, 2021
There was no Queen of England when Dickens was alive