Many authors will use quotations from literature as the title for their works. This may be done as a conscious allusion to the themes of the older work or simply because the phrase seems memorable. The following is a partial list of book titles taken from literature. It does not include phrases altered for parody.
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! Work !! Author !! Literary reference
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|Absalom, Absalom!
|
|Bible: 2 Samuel
|-
|'
|
|Bible: Psalm 66:13
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|A che punto è la notte <br>(literally, "At which point is the night")
| and Franco Lucentini
|Bible: Isaiah
|-
|After Many a Summer Dies the Swan
|
|,
|-
|Ah, Wilderness!
|
| (), Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
|-
|Alien Corn (play)
|
|, "Ode to a Nightingale"
|-
| (short story)
|
|, "Ode to a Nightingale"
|-
|All the King's Men
|
|, "Humpty Dumpty"
|-
|All Passion Spent
|
|, Samson Agonistes
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|Alone on a Wide, Wide Sea
|
|,
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|Anglo-Saxon Attitudes
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|, Through the Looking-Glass
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|Antic Hay
|
|, Edward II
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|Arms and the Man
|
|Virgil, Aeneid
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|As I Lay Dying
|
|Homer, Odyssey
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|Beautiful World, Where Are You
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|, "The Gods of Greece"
|-
|Behold the Man
|
|Bible: John
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|Beneath the Bleeding
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|, East Coker
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|Beyond the Mexique Bay
|
|, "Bermudas"
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|Blithe Spirit
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|, "To a Skylark"
|-
|Blood's a Rover
|
|, A Shropshire Lad, Poem ("Reveille")
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|Blue Remembered Earth
|
|, A Shropshire Lad, Poem
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|Blue Remembered Hills
|
|, A Shropshire Lad, Poem
|-
|Bonjour Tristesse
|
|, "À Peine Défigurée"
|-
|Brandy of the Damned
|
|, Man and Superman
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|Burning Bright
|
|,
|-
|Burning Bright
|
|,
|-
|Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
|
|, "American Names"
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|Butter In a Lordly Dish
|
|Bible: Judges
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|By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept
|
|Bible: Psalm 137:1
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|Cabbages and Kings
|
|, Through the Looking-Glass ("The Walrus and the Carpenter")
|-
|Captains Courageous
|
|traditional "The ballad of Mary Ambree"
|-
|Carrion Comfort
|
|, "Carrion Comfort"
|-
|'
|
|, Moby-Dick
|-
|'
|
|Bible: Psalm 90:3
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|Clouds of Witness
|
|Bible: Hebrews
|-
|'
|
|, Thoughts on Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting
|-
|Consider the Lilies
|
|Bible: Matthew
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|Consider Phlebas
|
|, '
|-
|Cover Her Face
|
|, The Duchess of Malfi
|-
|'
|
|, Il Penseroso
|-
|'
|
|, "The Adventure of Silver Blaze"
|-
|'
|
|,
|-
|Dance Dance Dance
|
|, "Death's Echo"
|-
|'
|
|, "Dover Beach"
|-
|Darkness Visible
|
|, Paradise Lost
|-
|Darkness Visible
|
|, Paradise Lost
|-
|Darkness Visible: A Study of Vergil's Aeneid
|
|, Paradise Lost
|-
|Darkness Visible
|
|, Paradise Lost
|-
|Death Be Not Proud
|
|, Holy Sonnets X
|-
|'
|
|,
|-
|Down to a Sunless Sea
|
||, Kubla Khan
|-
|Down to a Sunless Sea
|
|, Kubla Khan
|-
|Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
|
|,
|-
|
|
|Horace, Odes iii 2.13
|-
|Dying of the Light
|
|, "Do not go gentle into that good night"
|-
|East Is East
|
|,
|-
|East of Eden
|
|Bible: Genesis
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|Ego Dominus Tuus
|
|Dante, La Vita Nuova
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|Endless Night
|
|,
|-
|England's Green
|
|,
|-
|Everything is Illuminated
|
|, The Unbearable Lightness of Being
|-
|'
|
|Quran 13:18 ( Arthur John Arberry)
|-
|Except the Lord
|
|Bible: Psalm 127:1
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|Eyeless in Gaza
|
|, Samson Agonistes
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|Fair Stood the Wind for France
|
|, Ballad of Agincourt
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|Fame Is the Spur
|
|,
|-
|'
|
|, "Remorse for Intemperate Speech"
|-
|'
|
|, A Tale of Two Cities
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|Far From the Madding Crowd
|
|, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
|-
|'
| and Pamela Whitlock
|, Sohrab and Rustum
|-
|'
|
|, "A Farewell to Arms (To Queen Elizabeth)"
|-
|Fear and Trembling
|
|Bible: Philippians
|-
|Fearful Symmetry
|
|,
|-
|'
|
|,
|-
|For a Breath I Tarry
|
|, A Shropshire Lad, Poem
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|For Whom the Bell Tolls
|
|, Meditation XVII
|-
|Frequent Hearses
|
|,
|-
|From Here to Eternity
|
|, "Gentlemen-Rankers"
|-
|'
|
|Bible: Proverbs
|-
|'
|
|, "The Pulley"
|-
|'
|
|, "Ode: Intimations of Immortality"
|-
|'
|
|, The Maid of Orleans
|-
|'
|
|, "The Song of the Wandering Angus"
|-
|'
|
|Bible: Ecclesiastes
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|Gone with the Wind
|
|, "Non sum qualis eram bonae sub regno Cynara"
|-
|'
|
|, "Battle Hymn of the Republic"
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|Great Work of Time
|
|, "An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland"
|-
|'
|
|Bible: Psalm 37:35
|-
|'
|
|, '
|-
|Happy Families Are All Alike
|
|, Anna Karenina
|-
|Have His Carcase
|
|Homer, Iliad ( William Cowper)
|-
|'
|
|Bible: Jeremiah
|-
|'
|
|, "The Lonely Hunter"
|-
|His Dark Materials
|
|, Paradise Lost
|-
|Horseman, Pass By
|
|, "Under Ben Bulben"
|-
|'
|
|Bible: Ecclesiastes
|-
|How Doth the Little Crocodile?
|
|, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ("How Doth the Little Crocodile")
|-
|How Sleep the Brave
|
|, "How Sleep the Brave"
|-
|How Sleep the Brave
|
|, "How Sleep the Brave"
|-
|How Sleep the Brave
|
|, "How Sleep the Brave"
|-
|Human Voices
|
|,
|-
|I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
|
|, "Sympathy"
|-
|I Sing the Body Electric!
|
|, "I Sing the Body Electric"
|-
|I Will Fear No Evil
|
|Bible: Psalm 23:4
|-
|If I Forget Thee Jerusalem
|
|Bible: Psalm 137:5
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|If Not Now, When?
|
|Pirkei Avot 1:13
|-
|In Death Ground
| and Steve White
|Sun Tzu, The Art of War
|-
|In a Dry Season
|
|,
|-
|In Dubious Battle
|
|, Paradise Lost
|-
|In the Forests of the Night
|
|,
|-
|In a Glass Darkly
|
|Bible: 1 Corinthians
|-
|'
|
|, "The Broken Tower"
|-
|It's a Battlefield
|
|, The Invasion of the Crimea, Vol. 6
|-
|Jacob Have I Loved
|
|Bible: Romans
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|Jesting Pilate
|
|, Of Truth
|-
|'
|
|Bible: Luke 17:21
|-
|'
|
|Bible: 1 Corinthians
|-
|'
|
|, Murder in the Cathedral
|-
|'
|
|Zhuangzi, Book XXIII, paragraph 7
|-
|Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
|
|Bible: Ecclesiasticus
|-
|Lilies of the Field
|
|Bible: Matthew
|-
|This Lime Tree Bower
|
|,
|-
|'
|
|, The Analysis of Beauty
|-
|Little Boy Lost
|
|,
|-
|'
|
|Bible: Song of Songs
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|Little Hands Clapping
|
|, "The Pied Piper of Hamelin"
|-
|'
|
|, '
|-
|'
|
|, Epipsychidion
|-
|Look Homeward, Angel
|
|,
|-
|Look to Windward
|
|, '
|-
|'
|
|, The Birth of Tragedy
|-
|'
|
|, "Andrea del Sarto"
|-
|'
|
|, Religio Medici
|-
|Many Waters
|
|Bible: Song of Songs
|-
|'
|
|, "The Kingdom of God"
|-
|'
|
|,
|-
|'
|
|Bible: Matthew
|-
|'
|
|,
|-
|Moab Is My Washpot
|
|Bible: Psalm 60:8
|-
|'
|
|Matsuo Bashō, Sarumino
|-
|Monstrous Regiment
|
|, The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women
|-
|'
|
|, The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women
|-
|'
|
|Bible: Psalm 121:6
|-
|Mother Night
|
|, Faust, Part One
|-
|'
|
| (), Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
|-
|'
|
|, '
|-
|Mr Standfast
|
|, The Pilgrim's Progress
|-
|Nectar in a Sieve
|
|,
|-
|'
|
|Bible: Matthew
|-
|Nine Coaches Waiting
|
|, The Revenger's Tragedy
|-
|No Country for Old Men
|
|, "Sailing to Byzantium"
|-
|No Highway
|
|, The Wanderer
|-
|No Longer at Ease
|
|, Journey of the Magi
|-
|Noli Me Tangere
|
|Bible: John
|-
|Not Honour More
|
|, "To Lucasta, Going to the Warres"
|-
|'
|
|, From Ritual to Romance
|-
|'
|
|Bible: Joshua (as rephrased in John Wesley's Explanatory Notes)
|-
|'
|
|, "The Way Through the Woods"
|-
|'
|
|Bible: Isaiah
|-
|What's Become of Waring
|
|, "Waring"
|-
|When the Green Woods Laugh
|
|,
|-
|Where Angels Fear to Tread
|
|, '
|-
|'
|
|, "The Second Coming"
|-
|Wildfire at Midnight
|
|, The Revenger's Tragedy
|-
|'
|
|, A Shropshire Lad, Poem
|-
|'
||
|Bible: Psalm 55:6
|-
|'
|
|, The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale
|-
|'
|
|Book of Common Prayer
|-
|'
|
|,
|}