Books and Authors question: Consider the pair The Republic and Symposium. Which author is associated with both works?

The verified answer to “Books and Authors question: Consider the pair The Republic and Symposium. The source-backed, question-specific record explains: The Republic is correctly associated with Plato. The work’s first publication is conventionally dated to 375 BCE (traditional dating), and its original language is Ancient Greek. These three details—title, author, and language—form the decisive bibliographical combination required here. Plato, a major ancient Greek literary figure, is also associated with Symposium; that companion title helps confirm the authorship independently rather than through guesswork. The distractor set (Amitav Ghosh; William Dalrymple; Adam Smith) must therefore be tested as complete statements: one true fragment cannot make an entire option correct. A candidate should first lock the title to its writer, then check the language, and finally use 375 BCE (traditional dating) as a chronological cross-check. A common examination trap is to confuse an author’s nationality with the language of composition, or a translation date with first publication. Revision takeaway: remember the compact chain “The Republic — Plato — Ancient Greek — 375 BCE (traditional dating),” and connect it with Symposium for stronger recall. This evidence establishes the bibliographic relationship required in this Books and Authors item. A correct solution must preserve the exact title, author, publication context, language, award or comparison requested by the stem. Similar periods, genres or national traditions do not make two book–author pairs interchangeable. Option D gives Plato and satisfies the wording of the question. The remaining choices—Amitav Ghosh, William Dalrymple and Adam Smith—do not satisfy the complete requirement.