Literary quotes as book titles: a trivia quiz

The Widening Gyre, Robert B. Parker.

I can’t believe it took me this long to think of it, but Infinite Jest gets its title from the graveyard scene in Hamlet.

And we could fill this thread with titles of TV show episodes.

Which is why they gave him a rose.

Several authors have written books called None But the Brave, including Lou Cameron, Joy Chambers, and Hamblen Sears. It’s from John Dryden’s poem “Alexander’s Feast”.

For no reason that I can think of, The Darling Buds Of May (book by HE Bates, plus 2 different TV series) popped into my mind. The title comes from Shakespeare’s 18th sonnet (“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day...”).

The Larkin family series of 5 books by Bates has three other titles whose literary origins are fairly googleable/obvious

The Darling Buds of May (above)
A Breath of French Air (?)
When the Green Woods Laugh (Laughing Song, a poem by William Blake)
Oh! To be in England (Robert Browning’s poem Home-Thoughts, from Abroad)
A Little of What You Fancy (a comic song, A Little Of What You Fancy Does You Good (I assume))

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Tennessee Williams’ play Sweet Bird of Youth takes half of its title from Sonnet 73 (“Bare ruin’d choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.”). (Bare Ruined Choirs was also the title of the title character’s smash-hit play in Barton Fink.)

On the same note, there’s a Larry Niven story called There is a Tide.