# Book Titles that reference other Literature **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 17, 2007, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-titles-that-reference-other-literature/396336 "2007-03-17T14:23:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-titles-that-reference-other-literature/396336/21 "2007-03-17T16:28:17Z")
Mary Higgins Clark wrote four Christmas mysteries (two with daughter Carol) called: **Silent Night All Throught the Night Deck The Halls He Sees You When You’re Sleeping** ---
**Author:** ![ErinPuff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dbc845/32.png) [@ErinPuff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ErinPuff)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-titles-that-reference-other-literature/396336/22 "2007-03-17T16:32:01Z")
Stephen Fry’s autobiography is called _Moab is my Washpot_, which is a line from one of the Psalms (actually, Google tells me it’s in both 60 and 108). ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-titles-that-reference-other-literature/396336/23 "2007-03-17T16:34:54Z")
[QUOTE=ErinPuff] Stephen Fry’s autobiography is called _Moab is my Washpot_, which is a line from one of the Psalms (actually, Google tells me it’s in both 60 and 108). [/QUOTE] Amazing and amusing. Reminds me of the days when I and smoking buddies would say “the world is my ashtray.” ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-titles-that-reference-other-literature/396336/24 "2007-03-17T16:38:35Z")
[The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time](http://www.amazon.com/Curious-Incident-Dog-Night-Time/dp/1400032717/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-4071462-4793634?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1174149436&sr=1-1) by Mark Haddon references Sherlock Holmes. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-titles-that-reference-other-literature/396336/25 "2007-03-17T17:10:48Z")
Patrick O’Brian’s \*The Wine-Dark Sea \*(part of the _Master and Commander_ series) takes its title from Homer (or an English translation therof). ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-titles-that-reference-other-literature/396336/26 "2007-03-17T17:12:02Z")
**Lord of the Flies** is a Biblical reference, being a literal translation of the name [Beelzebub](http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02388c.htm) (a god of the Philistines), also later used as another name for Satan. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-titles-that-reference-other-literature/396336/27 "2007-03-17T17:51:56Z")
James Heriot’s stories of his life as a vet were marketed in the US using lines from an English Hymn, the titles taken from the lyrics: **All Things Bright and Beautiful All Creatures Great and Small All Things Wise and Wonderful** (as the lines appear in the song; the books were issued in a different order). ---
**Author:** ![Mrs.Millamant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@Mrs.Millamant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mrs.Millamant)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-titles-that-reference-other-literature/396336/28 "2007-03-17T18:02:57Z")
Achebe’s _Things Fall Apart_ takes its title from Yeats’s “The Second Coming.” ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-titles-that-reference-other-literature/396336/29 "2007-03-17T18:13:27Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck] James Heriot’s stories of his life as a vet were marketed in the US using lines from an English Hymn, the titles taken from the lyrics: **All Things Bright and Beautiful All Creatures Great and Small All Things Wise and Wonderful** (as the lines appear in the song; the books were issued in a different order). [/QUOTE] There was also a 4th book, **The Lord God Made Them All**. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-titles-that-reference-other-literature/396336/30 "2007-03-17T18:38:37Z")
[QUOTE=Zeldar] There may be another source beyond _The Battle Hymn of the Republic_ for Steinbeck’s [The Grapes of Wrath](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grapes_of_wrath#Explanation_of_the_novel.27s_title), but at least there’s another that borrows from the “literature” of a song. [/QUOTE] The “Battle Hymn of the Republic” presumably got the image (if not the exact words) from [the Book of Revelation](http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation%2014:14-20;&version=31;): > [@](#): > > The angel swung his sickle on the earth, gathered its grapes and threw them into the great winepress of God’s wrath. And Revelation in turn seems to have been referring back to [the 63rd chapter of Isaiah](http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Is%2063:1-6;&version=31;;): > [@](#): > > I have trodden the winepress alone; > from the nations no one was with me. > I trampled them in my anger > and trod them down in my wrath; > their blood spattered my garments, > and I stained all my clothing. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-titles-that-reference-other-literature/396336/31 "2007-03-17T18:45:04Z")
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s **Tender Is the Night** comes from the Keats poem [Ode to a Nightingale](http://www.bartleby.com/101/624.html): …Away! away! for I will fly to thee, Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards, But on the viewless wings of Poesy, Though the dull brain perplexes and retards: Already with thee! **tender is the night** , And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne, Cluster’d around by all her starry Fays But here there is no light, Save what from heaven is with the breezes blown Through verdurous glooms and winding mossy ways… ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-titles-that-reference-other-literature/396336/32 "2007-03-17T18:46:17Z")
Oh, and _All the King’s Men_ by Robert Penn Warren is from “Humpty-Dumpty”. > [@](#): > > Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. > Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. > All the king’s horses and all the king’s men > Couldn’t put Humpty together again. Later, the book and subsequent movie _All the President’s Men_, about Watergate, also alluded to the old nursery rhyme. ---
**Author:** ![Ragiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6de8d8/32.png) [@Ragiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ragiel)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-titles-that-reference-other-literature/396336/33 "2007-03-17T18:55:36Z")
[QUOTE=Katriona] Gone with the Wind was taken from a poem - I want to say Whitman, but I could be wrong. … [/QUOTE] Ernest Dowson, _Non sum qualis eram bonae sub regno Cynarae_ Dowson also graced us with _Days of Wine and Roses_ ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-titles-that-reference-other-literature/396336/34 "2007-03-17T19:04:36Z")
An instance of a movie title coming from a poem is [Splendor in the Grass](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splendor_in_the_Grass). ---
**Author:** ![Julius\_Henry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8797f3/32.png) [@Julius\_Henry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Julius_Henry)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-titles-that-reference-other-literature/396336/35 "2007-03-17T19:08:47Z")
Mark Harris’ \*\*Bang the Drum Slowly \*\* takes it’s title from the western folk song that’s used in the novel. ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-titles-that-reference-other-literature/396336/36 "2007-03-17T19:14:38Z")
The title of William Styron’s _Darkness Visible_ comes from Milton’s “Paradise Lost.” _Darkness Visible_ is about Styron’s battle with depression, and the quote from “Paradise Lost,” which is a description of hell, is quite appropriate: A dungeon horrible, on all sides round, As one great furnace flamed; yet from those flames No light; but rather darkness visible Served only to discover sights of woe, Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace And rest can never dwell, hope never comes That comes to all, but torture without end… ---
**Author:** ![Ragiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6de8d8/32.png) [@Ragiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ragiel)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-titles-that-reference-other-literature/396336/37 "2007-03-17T20:16:01Z")
Robert Penn Warren’s novel _World Enough and Time_ echoes the poem _To His Coy Mistress_ by Andrew Marvell. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-titles-that-reference-other-literature/396336/38 "2007-03-17T20:52:33Z")
Just from Shakespeare alone, I get… 1. Stephen AMbrose’s “Band of Brothers” 2. Frederick Forsyth’s “The Dogs of War” 3. Anthony Burgess’ “Nothing Like the Sun” 4. Faulkner’s “The Sound and the Fury” (from Macbeth’s soliloquy on life: “It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” 5. John Steinbeck’s “Winter of Our Discontent” 6. Alistair McLean’s “Where Eagles Dare” For that matter, Robert B. Parker’s Spenser novels often have literary titles. 1. “A Catskill Eagle” is from a passage in Melville’s “Moby Dick.” 2. “Pale Kings and Princes” comes from Keats’ poem “La Belle Dame San Merci” ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-titles-that-reference-other-literature/396336/39 "2007-03-17T21:35:25Z")
“Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” is taken from Tolstoy 'Cept for the Vegas part. I don’t thing Tolstoy had been to Vegas. ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-titles-that-reference-other-literature/396336/40 "2007-03-17T21:40:49Z")
Thomas Gray is hardly remenbered but for his “Elegy written in a Country Church-yard”, which yielded two titles : The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, And all that beauty, all that wealth e’er gave, Awaits alike th’ inevitable hour:- The **paths of glory** lead but to the grave. … **Far from the madding crowd** ’s ignoble strife, Their sober wishes never learn’d to stray; Along the cool sequester’d vale of life They kept the noiseless tenour of their way. The first was used for Humphrey Cobb’s book (later made into a movie), and the second by Thomas Hardy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-titles-that-reference-other-literature/396336.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-titles-that-reference-other-literature/396336.md?page=3)