A book like “The Stepford Wives.” “Stepford wife” now means a wife who acts subservient to her husband. Or like a perfect robot.
Are there any other book titles that bcame a part of the language?
Well there’s always Catch 22
Of course, if I have to explain what Catch 22 means, that defeats the purpose of the thread.
The Bible. Books, movies and all sorts of things are refered to as 'The bible of (insert name here).
Both the word “wonderland” in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and the phrase “through the looking glass” in Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There have become phrases in their own right, disassociated from reference (if not allusion) to the books.
1984
Stranger in a Strange Land has been used to describe a newcomer out of his depth for a long time.
Pamela by Samuel Richardson is responsible for that name being added to the language.
All’s Well that Ends Well is a common phrase now divorced from the Shakespeare play.
How the Other Half Lives by Jacob Riis is used from time to time, usually in a completely opposite meaning as he used (the book was about poverty; it’s now more often used to refer to the rich).
You Can’t Go Home Again is one I’ve heard a few times. Those words are so sad.
Peyton Place – describing small town bigotry, pettiness, hypocrisy
Odyssey, from Homer.
In Czech, švejkovat, or “to švejk,” from The Good Soldier Švejk
They’re not titles, but I’d throw in “Dickensian” and “Kafkaesque.”
Uncle Tom, from “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”
Lolita
quixotic from Don Quixote
And Heinlein took the title from another book, don’t you know.
“I have been a stranger in a strange land.” Exodus 2:22
The use of the term “gray flannel suit” to describe conformity, especially in business, comes from the Sloan Wilson novel The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, and the phrase “games people play” (whether used in terms of personal relationships or not) seems to owe its popularization to the Eric Berne book of the same name.
*Jaws * comes to mind
Fahrenheit 451
The Ugly American
Was the phrase “time machine” in use before H. G. Wells’s novel?
Pollyanna.
“Scarlet letter” can be used to mean any emblem of dishonor.
“Cinderella” is used to describe any successful underdog.
Someone may have a “Jekyll and Hyde” personality.
Aristotle’s Metaphysics, although he never called it by that title.
More’s Utopia
It’s not a book, but Karel Čapek’s play R.U.R. introduced the word robot.
I always thought Catch-22 was a real military regultion. I had no idea Heller made it up!
Rosemary’s Baby is another Levin creation, used to describe a bad child.