# 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:** 8\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2007, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-titles-that-reference-other-literature/396336/61 "2007-03-19T19:16:42Z")
[QUOTE=Mrs. Millamant] Achebe’s _Things Fall Apart_ takes its title from Yeats’s “The Second Coming.” [/QUOTE] Writers have gotten lots of mileage out of that Yeats poem… > [@](#): > > Wilfred Owen’s poem “S.I.W.” > > Joni Mitchell’s song “Slouching toward Bethlehem”. > > Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart. > > Joan Didion’s book of essays Slouching Towards Bethlehem. > > The Angel episode Slouching towards Bethlehem. > > The Andromeda episodes It’s Hour Come 'Round At Last and The Widening Gyre. > > Plays a major, often cited role in Margaret Weiss novel cycle “Star of the Guardians”. > > The same poem has been quoted in Dan Simmons’ Hyperion Cantos, Stephen King’s The Stand, Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s graphic novel V for Vendetta, the Babylon 5 episode “Revelations”, The Sopranos episode “Cold Cuts,” in Oliver Stone’s movie Nixon (quoted by Sam Waterston’s character CIA director Richard Helms), and in X-Factor #70 > **[Wilfred Owen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilfred_Owen#Literary_output)** > > Wilfred Edward Salter Owen (18 March 1893 – 4 November 1918) was an English poet and soldier. He was one of the leading poets of the First World War. His war poetry on the horrors of trenches and gas warfare was much influenced by his mentor Siegfried Sassoon and stood in contrast to the public perception of war at the time and to the confidently patriotic verse written by earlier war poets such as Rupert Brooke. Among his best-known works – most of which were published posthumously – are "Dulc... ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2007, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-titles-that-reference-other-literature/396336/62 "2007-03-19T21:48:31Z")
[QUOTE=Max Torque] Apparently, this movie coming out soon called **The Last Mimzy** got its title from the story it’s based upon, **Mimsy Were The Borogoves** , which is a line from Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky” [/QUOTE] I didn’t know that. Makes me want to go see it. But mimsy is an adjective. Shouldn’t it be “The Last Borogrove”? ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2007, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-titles-that-reference-other-literature/396336/63 "2007-03-19T22:03:58Z")
\*\*Through a Glass Darkly \*\* is from 1 Corinthians 13:12. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. That chapter is chockful of notable quotes so others may have been used elsewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-titles-that-reference-other-literature/396336/64 "2007-03-20T13:09:54Z")
[QUOTE=Bridget Burke] Writers have gotten lots of mileage out of that Yeats poem… [/QUOTE] Even Robert Bork! [Slouching Towards Gomorrah: Modern Liberalism and American Decline: Bork, Robert H.: 9780060573119: Amazon.com: Books](http://www.amazon.com/Slouching-Towards-Gomorrah-Liberalism-American/dp/0060573112/ref=sr_1_1/002-0433889-9797621?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1174396117&sr=8-1) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-titles-that-reference-other-literature/396336/65 "2007-03-20T13:11:27Z")
[QUOTE=betenoir] I didn’t know that. Makes me want to go see it. But mimsy is an adjective. Shouldn’t it be “The Last Borogrove”? [/QUOTE] The Borogroves are notoriously shy. Probably wouldn’t play ball with the studio. ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2007, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-titles-that-reference-other-literature/396336/66 "2007-03-28T12:26:43Z")
One I should have remember but didn’t so I am bringing this back. The longest running play in history Agatha Christie’s **Mousetrap** was taken from **Hamlet**. When the king asked Hamlet what the name of the play that was going to be performed was, Hamlet said “Mousetrap”, so Christie took the title and put it to her play. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2007, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-titles-that-reference-other-literature/396336/67 "2007-03-28T15:10:25Z")
Ben Bova’s “As on a Darkling Plain” comes from a line in the poem [Dover Beach](http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/arnold/writings/doverbeach.html) by Matthew Arnold. ETA: D.G. Compton’s “Farewell, Earth’s Bliss” comes from the poem [In Times of Pestilence](http://www.web-books.com/classics/Poetry/Anthology/Nashe/Adieu.htm) by Thomas Nashe. This poem was also referenced in the Martin Cruz Smith novel “Nightwing.” ---
**Author:** ![Amok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f17d59/32.png) [@Amok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amok)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2007, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-titles-that-reference-other-literature/396336/68 "2007-03-28T21:05:39Z")
[QUOTE=Bridget Burke] Wilfred Owen’s poem “S.I.W.” [/QUOTE] Owen’s (arguably) most famous poem, Dulce et Decorum Est, is a reference to Horace. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-titles-that-reference-other-literature/396336.md?page=3)