Charles Lamb – Essays of Elia – “New Year’s Eve” – Exam Based MCQs
1. “New Year’s Eve” is an essay by: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) William Hazlitt
B) Thomas De Quincey
C) Charles Lamb
D) Francis Bacon
Ans: C) Charles Lamb
2. The essay “New Year’s Eve” first appeared in: (SET 2019; PGTRB 2020; UGC NET 2021)
A) The London Magazine (January 1821)
B) The Spectator (1711)
C) The Tatler (1709)
D) The Times (daily newspaper)
Ans: A) The London Magazine (January 1821)
3. Lamb’s “Elia” essays began appearing in The London Magazine in: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) 1789
B) 1750
C) 1840
D) 1820
Ans: D) 1820
4. Essays of Elia was first published in book form in: (UGC NET 2020; SET 2021; PGTRB 2022)
A) 1800
B) 1823
C) 1798
D) 1838
Ans: B) 1823
5. The persona/narrator name used by Lamb in these essays is: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) Tristram
B) Addison
C) Elia
D) Gulliver
Ans: C) Elia
6. In the Elia essays, “Cousin Bridget” commonly refers to: (SET 2020; PGTRB 2021; UGC NET 2022)
A) Mary Lamb (his sister)
B) Dorothy Wordsworth
C) Jane Austen
D) Mary Shelley
Ans: A) Mary Lamb (his sister)
7. The central mood of “New Year’s Eve” is best described as: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) Pure satire
B) Epic celebration
C) Scientific optimism
D) Reflective and melancholy (mortality & time)
Ans: D) Reflective and melancholy (mortality & time)
8. The essay mainly treats New Year’s Eve as a time for: (UGC NET 2020; SET 2021; PGTRB 2022)
A) Planning wars
B) Meditation on time, aging, and death
C) Writing travel notes
D) Mocking romantic poetry
Ans: B) Meditation on time, aging, and death
9. A striking feature of Lamb’s essay style is: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) Long epic similes only
B) Purely objective reporting
C) Conversational, personal tone with wit and pathos
D) Strict legal language throughout
Ans: C) Conversational, personal tone with wit and pathos
10. In “New Year’s Eve,” the speaker’s strongest fear is: (SET 2019; PGTRB 2020; UGC NET 2021)
A) Death and the extinction of familiar life
B) Becoming a king
C) Learning mathematics
D) Writing poetry
Ans: A) Death and the extinction of familiar life
11. The essay belongs mainly to the genre of: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) Tragedy (drama)
B) Epic poem
C) Gothic novel
D) Familiar/personal essay
Ans: D) Familiar/personal essay
12. “New Year’s Eve” is included in Essays of Elia among other famous essays like: (UGC NET 2020; SET 2021; PGTRB 2022)
A) “A Room of One’s Own”
B) “A Dissertation upon Roast Pig”
C) “Of Studies”
D) “The Waste Land”
Ans: B) “A Dissertation upon Roast Pig”
13. The “Elia” essays were originally published mainly between: (SET 2020; PGTRB 2021; UGC NET 2022)
A) 1700–1715
B) 1900–1915
C) 1820–1825
D) 1600–1620
Ans: C) 1820–1825
14. The “New Year’s Eve” essay is especially known for its: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) Philosophical reflection mixed with personal memories
B) Detective plot twist
C) Military chronicle
D) Pure nature description with no emotion
Ans: A) Philosophical reflection mixed with personal memories
15. The speaker’s attitude to life in the essay is best summarized as: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) He hates life completely
B) He is indifferent to living
C) He welcomes death eagerly
D) He clings intensely to life and familiar joys
Ans: D) He clings intensely to life and familiar joys
16. The essay uses New Year’s Eve mainly as a symbol of: (UGC NET 2020; SET 2021; PGTRB 2022)
A) A harvest festival
B) The passage of time and human mortality
C) A court trial
D) A political revolution
Ans: B) The passage of time and human mortality
17. Lamb’s essay “New Year’s Eve” is typically studied under: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) Victorian detective fiction
B) Restoration drama
C) Romantic prose/essay tradition
D) Medieval allegory
Ans: C) Romantic prose/essay tradition
18. The narrator’s voice in the essay is mainly: (SET 2019; PGTRB 2020; UGC NET 2021)
A) Intimate, self-revealing, and reflective
B) Cold and scientific
C) Purely heroic and epic
D) Fully dramatic with stage directions
Ans: A) Intimate, self-revealing, and reflective
19. The essay’s main conflict is between: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) King and rebel
B) Farmer and city
C) Science and religion
D) Love of life and fear of death
Ans: D) Love of life and fear of death
20. Which is TRUE about the essay’s publication context? (UGC NET 2020; SET 2021; PGTRB 2022)
A) It was first printed in 1711
B) It appeared in The London Magazine as an Elia essay
C) It was first published as a 20th-century radio talk
D) It began as a stage play
Ans: B) It appeared in The London Magazine as an Elia essay
21. A key stylistic blend in “New Year’s Eve” is: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) Only comedy with no seriousness
B) Only tragedy with no humour
C) Wit + tenderness + moral reflection
D) Only technical argumentation
Ans: C) Wit + tenderness + moral reflection
22. The essay is often read as a meditation on: (SET 2020; PGTRB 2021; UGC NET 2022)
A) Time and human consciousness
B) Naval warfare
C) Astronomy formulas
D) Gardening techniques
Ans: A) Time and human consciousness
23. Lamb’s Elia essays are best known for being: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) Purely historical documents
B) Scientific reports
C) Court transcripts
D) Personal, humorous, and nostalgic prose pieces
Ans: D) Personal, humorous, and nostalgic prose pieces
24. The essay “New Year’s Eve” fits the “familiar essay” tradition because it: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) Avoids the self completely
B) Uses personal voice and everyday reflection
C) Uses only formal academic citations
D) Is written as a courtroom judgment
Ans: B) Uses personal voice and everyday reflection
25. In “New Year’s Eve,” the speaker’s memory frequently turns back to: (UGC NET 2020; SET 2021; PGTRB 2022)
A) Childhood and earlier stages of life
B) Future space travel
C) Ancient Greek wars
D) Political elections
Ans: A) Childhood and earlier stages of life
26. The emotional tension in the essay is strengthened by the contrast between: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) City and village
B) War and peace
C) Festive occasion and private dread
D) Rich and poor only
Ans: C) Festive occasion and private dread
27. Which statement best suits Lamb’s idea in “New Year’s Eve”? (SET 2019; PGTRB 2020; UGC NET 2021)
A) The speaker celebrates death as liberation
B) The speaker is indifferent to the future
C) The speaker rejects memory
D) The speaker values “old familiar” joys and fears losing them
Ans: D) The speaker values “old familiar” joys and fears losing them
28. The essay often shifts between reflection and: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) Anecdote and personal memory
B) Scientific experiment reports
C) Stage combat
D) Newspaper headlines
Ans: A) Anecdote and personal memory
29. The essay’s speaker can be described as: (UGC NET 2020; SET 2021; PGTRB 2022)
A) A heroic warrior
B) A sensitive, self-questioning urban intellectual
C) A strict scientist
D) A medieval knight
Ans: B) A sensitive, self-questioning urban intellectual
30. In the wider Elia series, Lamb frequently blends autobiography with: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) Pure fantasy worldbuilding only
B) Legal writing only
C) Literary allusion and humour
D) Mathematical proofs
Ans: C) Literary allusion and humour
31. “New Year’s Eve” is most likely used in exams to test: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) Battle scenes
B) Scientific terminology
C) Epic conventions
D) Theme of time, memory, and mortality in prose
Ans: D) Theme of time, memory, and mortality in prose
32. The essay’s dominant rhetorical method is: (SET 2020; PGTRB 2021; UGC NET 2022)
A) Meditation (reflective prose)
B) Dramatic dialogue with acts
C) Scientific hypothesis testing
D) Pure travel itinerary
Ans: A) Meditation (reflective prose)
33. The emotional effect of the essay is closest to: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) Triumph
B) Tender melancholy
C) Pure terror
D) Indifference
Ans: B) Tender melancholy
34. The essay is NOT mainly an example of: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) Reflective prose
B) Personal essay
C) Formal scientific treatise
D) Romantic-period essay writing
Ans: C) Formal scientific treatise
35. The essay often implies that time “steals” primarily: (UGC NET 2020; SET 2021; PGTRB 2022)
A) Only money
B) Only property
C) Only books
D) People, habits, and familiar pleasures
Ans: D) People, habits, and familiar pleasures
36. The essay’s speaker is best understood as a voice shaped by: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) Urban life, memory, and reading
B) Only rural farming
C) Only military campaigns
D) Only seafaring travel
Ans: A) Urban life, memory, and reading
37. The “Elia” persona is important because it allows Lamb to: (SET 2019; PGTRB 2020; UGC NET 2021)
A) Write as a king
B) Mix autobiography with a crafted literary self
C) Avoid humour completely
D) Write only in verse
Ans: B) Mix autobiography with a crafted literary self
38. In many readings, “New Year’s Eve” reveals Lamb’s: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) Hatred of memory
B) Love of war narratives
C) Deep attachment to the ordinary “this-worldly” life
D) Complete rejection of the past
Ans: C) Deep attachment to the ordinary “this-worldly” life
39. The essay is important in Lamb’s career because it shows: (UGC NET 2020; SET 2021; PGTRB 2022)
A) Pure political propaganda
B) Only scientific thinking
C) Epic heroic ideals
D) Mature Elia voice (humour + seriousness + self-analysis)
Ans: D) Mature Elia voice (humour + seriousness + self-analysis)
40. The essay most strongly belongs to the tradition of: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) The English familiar essay
B) The epic
C) The detective story
D) The pastoral drama
Ans: A) The English familiar essay
41. The tone of “New Year’s Eve” can be called “Romantic” mainly because it: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) Rejects emotion
B) Centers subjective feeling and memory
C) Uses only classical mythology
D) Avoids personal voice
Ans: B) Centers subjective feeling and memory
42. A key idea repeatedly felt in the essay is the value of: (SET 2020; PGTRB 2021; UGC NET 2022)
A) Imperial conquest
B) Legal victory
C) Mechanical progress
D) “Old familiar faces” and familiar habits
Ans: D) “Old familiar faces” and familiar habits
43. In the Elia essays, the “I” voice is best seen as: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) A crafted persona close to Lamb but not identical in every detail
B) A completely fictional wizard
C) A purely objective narrator
D) A newspaper editor only
Ans: A) A crafted persona close to Lamb but not identical in every detail
44. The essay often uses the turning of the year to highlight: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) Sporting victories
B) Cooking recipes
C) Human life as passing and fragile
D) Courtship rituals only
Ans: C) Human life as passing and fragile
45. Which statement is TRUE about Essays of Elia? (UGC NET 2020; SET 2021; PGTRB 2022)
A) They were first printed in a medieval manuscript
B) They were first published as periodical essays in The London Magazine
C) They were first published as a 20th-century television series
D) They were originally written in Latin
Ans: B) They were first published as periodical essays in The London Magazine
46. “New Year’s Eve” mainly supports which theme? (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) Colonial travel
B) Scientific discovery
C) Court politics
D) Time, memory, mortality, attachment to life
Ans: D) Time, memory, mortality, attachment to life
47. The essay is admired mainly for combining: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) Humour with deep feeling
B) Only violence with action
C) Only scientific proof with equations
D) Only dialogue with scenes
Ans: A) Humour with deep feeling
48. The essay’s reflections are triggered by the calendar moment of: (SET 2019; PGTRB 2020; UGC NET 2021)
A) Midsummer
B) Harvest time
C) The last night of the year (New Year’s Eve)
D) Easter morning
Ans: C) The last night of the year (New Year’s Eve)
49. The essay is especially useful in exam questions on: (UGC NET 2020; SET 2021; PGTRB 2022)
A) Renaissance stagecraft
B) The familiar essay and Romantic sensibility
C) Epic simile conventions only
D) Metaphysical conceits only
Ans: B) The familiar essay and Romantic sensibility
50. Which is the best one-line summary of “New Year’s Eve”? (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) A comic essay teaching card games
B) A travel guide to London
C) A political pamphlet on reform
D) A personal meditation on time passing and fear of death
Ans: D) A personal meditation on time passing and fear of death
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