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Quiz about Literary Allusions in Literary Titles

Literary Allusions in Literary Titles Quiz

Sometimes an author thinks up the title for a literary work "from scratch." Other times, a phrase from another's work of literature may be adopted and/or adapted to provide just the right title. Can you identify the sources of the titles in this quiz?

A multiple-choice quiz by FatherSteve. Estimated time: 5 mins.

Author
FatherSteve

Time
5 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
311,475

Updated
Dec 03 21

# Qns
10

Difficulty
Tough

Avg Score
6 / 10

Plays
4312

Awards
Editor's Choice

Last 3 plays: Lord_Digby (9/10), Dorsetmaid (10/10), Guest 129 (5/10).

Question 1 of 10

1. In 1955, Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee wrote the play "Inherit the Wind" which described the 1925 "Monkey Trial" of schoolteacher John T. Scopes for teaching evolution in a Tennessee public school. On what was the play's title based? Hint

The court's opinion in Tennessee v. Scopes, 152 Tenn. 424, 278 S.W. 57 (Tenn. 1926)

The Old Testament Book of Proverbs

The poem "Who Has Seen the Wind?" by Christina Rossetti

Kenneth Grahame's book "Wind in the Willows"

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Question 2 of 10

2. British writer Mark Haddon's first adult novel is entitled "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time." It tells the story of a 15-year old boy with high-functioning autism who excels in mathematics. On what is the title based? Hint

An 1894 Sherlock Holmes short story by Arthur Conan Doyle entitled "Silver Blaze"

"The Sirens of Titan" by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

A story in James Thurber's 1942 collection of short stories "My World and Welcome to It"

"Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats" by T. S. Eliot

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Question 3 of 10

3. Allen Drury wrote the political novel "Advise and Consent" in 1959 and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1960. On what was the title based? Hint

Takiji Kobayashi's 1929 novella "Kanikosen"

Aristophanes' play "Lysistrata" translated by Germaine Greer

The novel "Seven Days in May" by Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Bailey II

The Constitution of the United States

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Question 4 of 10

4. Southern American poet, novelist and literary critic Robert Penn Warren wrote "All the King's Men" in 1946. The novel won the 1947 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. On what is the book's title based? Hint

William Shakespeare's play "Richard III"

Oscar Wilde's short story "The Young King"

Joyce Kilmer's poem "Kings"

A verse in the nursery rhyme "Humpty Dumpty"

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Question 5 of 10

5. Cormac McCarthy's 2005 novel "No Country for Old Men" was made into an Academy-Award winning movie in 2007. On what was the title (of both) based? Hint

a line of dialogue in the 1985 Ron Howard film "Cocoon"

a line in Ernest Hemingway's 1952 novella "The Old Man and the Sea"

a line of dialogue in the 1993 romantic comedy film "Grumpy Old Men"

William Butler Yeats' poem "Sailing to Byzantium"

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Question 6 of 10

6. "Cabbages and Kings" (1904) is either a novel or a collection of related short stories written by O. Henry. In it, he coined the phrase "banana republic." On what was his title based? Hint

Mark Twain's "The Prince and the Pauper"

Alice Hegan Rice's "Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch"

Lewis Carroll's poem "The Walrus and the Carpenter"

"The Shahnameh" -- an 11th Century Persian epic poem

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Question 7 of 10

7. Noel Coward wrote his play "Blithe Spirit" in seven days, staying in a hotel room in Wales after his own London apartment and office were destroyed in the Blitz. On what did he base this title? Hint

Thorne Smith's novel "Topper" (1926)

Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem "To a Skylark"

William Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream"

H.G. Wells' short story "The Red Room" (1896)

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Question 8 of 10

8. Susan Sheehan told the story of one young woman's difficult passage through the New York Child Welfare System in her 1994 book "Life for Me Ain't Been No Crystal Stair." On what did she base the title? Hint

Langston Hughes' poem "Mother to Son"

Joel Chandler Harris' "Tales of Uncle Remus"

Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn"

Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man"

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Question 9 of 10

9. John Kennedy Toole's novel, "A Confederacy of Dunces," was published posthumously and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction twelve years after Toole's suicide. What is the source of its title? Hint

Walker Percy, "Love in the Ruins; The Adventures of a Bad Catholic at a Time Near the End of the World"

Jonathan Swift's "Thoughts on Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting"

William Faulkner's novel "As I Lay Dying"

The short story "A Late Encounter with the Enemy" in Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories"

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Question 10 of 10

10. Two versions of Robert A. Heinlein's novel "Stranger in a Strange Land" have been published: the edited version first published in 1961 and the original full-length (60,000 words longer) published posthumously in 1991. From what does the title derive? Hint

The Old Testament Book of Exodus

The novel "Gulliver's Travels" by Jonathan Swift

The play "Antony and Cleopatra" by William Shakespeare

The book "Utopia" by Sir Thomas More

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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

Answer: The Old Testament Book of Proverbs

In the Authorized (King James) Version, Proverbs 11:29 reads: "He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind: and the fool shall be servant to the wise of heart." The play has been produced on Broadway several times and has been adapted in four movie versions.

Answer: An 1894 Sherlock Holmes short story by Arthur Conan Doyle entitled "Silver Blaze"

The "Silver Blaze" is a short story about the disappearance of a race horse and the apparent murder of its trainer just before a race. It contains the following dialogue:

Detective Gregory: "Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?"
Holmes: "To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time."
Gregory: "The dog did nothing in the night-time."
Holmes: "That was the curious incident."

3. Allen Drury wrote the political novel "Advise and Consent" in 1959 and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1960. On what was the title based?

Answer: The Constitution of the United States

Article II, Sec. 2, cl. 2, of the U.S. Constitution provides that the President of the United States "shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consults, Judges of the Supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States ..." This novel is about the nomination of a former member of the Communist Party to be Secretary of State and the hearings in the U.S. Senate on the motion to confirm the President's nomination.

Answer: A verse in the nursery rhyme "Humpty Dumpty"

Robert Penn Warren is the only person to have won Pulitzer Prizes for both fiction and poetry. A commemorative postage stamp was issued in the United States in 2005 to honor the 100th anniversary of his birth. Stage plays, television versions, several movies and even a grand opera have been based on Warren's novel.

5. Cormac McCarthy's 2005 novel "No Country for Old Men" was made into an Academy-Award winning movie in 2007. On what was the title (of both) based?

Answer: William Butler Yeats' poem "Sailing to Byzantium"

The first stanza of Yeats' poem begins "That is no country for old men. The young in one another's arms, birds in the trees ..."

6. "Cabbages and Kings" (1904) is either a novel or a collection of related short stories written by O. Henry. In it, he coined the phrase "banana republic." On what was his title based?

Answer: Lewis Carroll's poem "The Walrus and the Carpenter"

Much of the author's experience of Latin America was gained while he was a fugitive from justice in Mexico and Honduras.

Answer: Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem "To a Skylark"

The verses in Shelley's poem are:

"Hail to thee, blithe spirit! Bird thou never wert,
That from heaven, or near it; Pourest thy full heart;"

Answer: Langston Hughes' poem "Mother to Son"

Hughes' poem begins:

"Well, son, I'll tell you:
Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
It's had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor."

9. John Kennedy Toole's novel, "A Confederacy of Dunces," was published posthumously and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction twelve years after Toole's suicide. What is the source of its title?

Answer: Jonathan Swift's "Thoughts on Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting"

The quotation from Swift is:
"When a true genius appears in the world,
You may know him by this sign, that the dunces
Are all in confederacy against him."

Answer: The Old Testament Book of Exodus

Moses fled Egypt and married Zipporah. "And she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land." Exodus 2:22 Authorized (King James) Version.

Source: Author FatherSteve

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