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. (Titles taken from works by William Shakespeare do not appear here: see List of titles of works based on Shakespearean phrases.)
| Work |
Author |
Literary Reference |
| Absalom, Absalom! |
William Faulkner |
2 Samuel 19:4 |
| A che punto è la notte |
Carlo Fruttero and Franco Lucentini (literally, "What of the night") |
Isaiah 21:11 |
| After Many a Summer Dies the Swan |
Aldous Huxley |
Tithonus, Alfred, Lord Tennyson |
| Ah, Wilderness! |
Eugene O'Neill |
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, trans. Edward FitzGerald |
| Alien Corn (play) |
Sidney Howard |
Ode to a Nightingale, John Keats |
| The Alien Corn (short story) |
W. Somerset Maugham |
Ode to a Nightingale, John Keats |
| All Passion Spent |
Vita Sackville-West |
Samson Agonistes, John Milton |
| All the King's Men |
Robert Penn Warren |
Humpty Dumpty |
| Alone on a Wide, Wide Sea |
Michael Morpurgo |
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Samuel Taylor Coleridge |
| Antic Hay |
Aldous Huxley |
Edward II, Christopher Marlowe |
| An Evil Cradling |
Brian Keenan |
Qur'an 13:18, Arthur John Arberry translation |
| Arms and the Man |
George Bernard Shaw |
The Aeneid, Virgil |
| As I Lay Dying |
William Faulkner |
The Odyssey, Homer |
| A Time to Kill |
John Grisham |
Ecclesiastes 3:3 |
| Behold the Man |
Michael Moorcock |
John 19:5 |
| Beyond the Mexique Bay |
Aldous Huxley |
Bermudas, Andrew Marvell |
| Blithe Spirit |
Noel Coward |
To a Skylark, Percy Bysshe Shelley |
| Bonjour Tristesse |
Françoise Sagan |
À Peine Défigurée, Paul Éluard |
| Brandy of the Damned |
Colin Wilson |
Man and Superman, George Bernard Shaw |
| Butter In a Lordly Dish |
Agatha Christie |
Judges 5:25 |
| Cabbages and Kings |
O. Henry |
The Walrus and the Carpenter, Lewis Carroll |
| Clouds of Witness |
Dorothy L. Sayers |
Hebrews 12:1 |
| A Confederacy of Dunces |
John Kennedy Toole |
Thoughts on Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting, Jonathan Swift |
| Consider Phlebas |
Iain M. Banks |
The Waste Land, T. S. Eliot |
| Consider the Lilies |
Iain Crichton Smith |
Matthew 6:28 |
| Cover Her Face |
P. D. James |
The Duchess of Malfi, John Webster |
| The Cricket on the Hearth |
Charles Dickens |
Il Penseroso, John Milton |
| The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time |
Mark Haddon |
Silver Blaze, Arthur Conan Doyle |
| The Daffodil Sky |
H. E. Bates |
Maud, Alfred, Lord Tennyson |
| A Darkling Plain |
Philip Reeve |
Dover Beach, Matthew Arnold |
| The Doors of Perception |
Aldous Huxley |
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, William Blake |
| Down to a Sunless Sea |
David Graham |
Kubla Khan, Samuel Taylor Coleridge |
| Dulce et Decorum Est |
Wilfred Owen |
Odes iii 2.13, Horace |
| Dying of the Light |
George R. R. Martin |
Do not go gentle into that good night, Dylan Thomas |
| East of Eden |
John Steinbeck |
Genesis 4:16 |
| Ego Dominus Tuus |
William Butler Yeats |
La Vita Nuova Dante |
| Endless Night |
Agatha Christie |
Auguries of Innocence William Blake |
| Eyeless in Gaza |
Aldous Huxley |
Samson Agonistes, John Milton |
| Fair Stood the Wind for France |
H. E. Bates |
Ballad of Agincourt, Michael Drayton |
| Fame Is the Spur |
Howard Spring |
Lycidas, John Milton |
| A Fanatic Heart |
Edna O'Brien |
Remorse for Intemperate Speech, William Butler Yeats |
| The Far-Distant Oxus |
Katharine Hull and Pamela Whitlock |
Sohrab and Rustum, Matthew Arnold |
| Far From the Madding Crowd |
Thomas Hardy |
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, Thomas Gray |
| Fear and Trembling |
Søren Kierkegaard |
Philippians 2:12 |
| For a Breath I Tarry |
Roger Zelazny |
A Shropshire Lad, A. E. Housman |
| For Whom the Bell Tolls |
Ernest Hemingway |
Meditation XVII, John Donne |
| A Glass of Blessings |
Barbara Pym |
The Pully, George Herbert |
| The Golden Apples of the Sun |
Ray Bradbury |
The Song of the Wandering Angus, W. B. Yeats |
| The Golden Bowl |
Henry James |
Ecclesiastes 12:6 |
| Gone with the Wind |
Margaret Mitchell |
Non sum qualis eram bonae sub regno Cynarae, Ernest Dowson |
| The Grapes of Wrath |
John Steinbeck |
The Battle Hymn of the Republic, Julia Ward Howe |
| Great Work of Time |
John Crowley |
Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland, Andrew Marvell |
| The Green Bay Tree |
Louis Bromfield |
Psalms 37:35 |
| A Handful of Dust |
Evelyn Waugh |
The Waste Land, T. S. Eliot |
| The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter |
Carson McCullers |
The Lonely Hunter, William Sharp |
| His Dark Materials |
Philip Pullman |
Paradise Lost, John Milton |
| The House of Mirth |
Edith Wharton |
Ecclesiastes 7:4 |
| How Sleep the Brave |
H. E. Bates |
How Sleep the Brave, William Collins |
| If I Forget Thee Jerusalem |
William Faulkner |
Psalms 137:5 |
| If Not Now, When? |
Primo Levi |
Pirkei Avot 1:13 |
| In Dubious Battle |
John Steinbeck |
Paradise Lost, John Milton |
| I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings |
Maya Angelou |
Sympathy, Paul Laurence Dunbar |
| In a Dry Season |
Peter Robinson |
Gerontion, by T. S. Eliot |
| An Instant In The Wind |
André Brink |
The Broken Tower, Hart Crane |
| I Sing the Body Electric |
Ray Bradbury |
Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman |
| I Will Fear No Evil |
Robert A. Heinlein |
Psalms 23:4 |
| O Jerusalem! |
Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins |
Psalms 137:5 |
| Jesting Pilate |
Aldous Huxley |
Of Truth, Francis Bacon |
| The Lathe of Heaven |
Ursula K. Le Guin |
Zhuangzi, Book XXIII, paragraph 7 |
| Let Us Now Praise Famous Men |
James Agee |
Ecclesiasticus 44:1 |
| Lilies of the Field |
William Edmund Barrett |
Matthew 6:28 |
| The Line of Beauty |
Alan Hollinghurst |
The Analysis of Beauty, William Hogarth |
| The Little Foxes |
Lillian Hellman |
Songs 2:15 |
| Look Homeward, Angel |
Thomas Wolfe |
Lycidas, John Milton |
| Look to Windward |
Iain M. Banks |
The Waste Land, T. S. Eliot |
| A Many-Splendoured Thing |
Han Suyin |
The Kingdom of God, Francis Thompson |
| The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side |
Agatha Christie |
The Lady of Shalott, Alfred, Lord Tennyson |
| Moab Is My Washpot |
Stephen Fry |
Psalms 60:8 |
| The Monkey's Raincoat |
Robert Crais |
The Monkey's Raincoat, Matsuo Bashō |
| A Monstrous Regiment of Women |
Laurie R. King |
The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women, John Knox |
| The Moon by Night |
Madeleine L'Engle |
Psalms 121:6 |
| Mother Night |
Kurt Vonnegut |
Faust Part One, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe |
| The Moving Finger |
Agatha Christie |
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, trans. Edward FitzGerald |
| Mr Standfast |
John Buchan |
Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan |
| Nectar in a Sieve |
Kamala Markandaya |
Work Without Hope, Samuel Coleridge |
| No Country for Old Men |
Cormac McCarthy |
Sailing to Byzantium, William Butler Yeats |
| No Highway |
Nevil Shute |
The Wanderer, John Masefield |
| Noli Me Tangere |
José Rizal |
John 20:17 |
| No Longer at Ease |
Chinua Achebe |
The Journey of the Magi, T. S. Eliot |
| Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal |
H. E. Bates |
Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal, Alfred, Lord Tennyson |
| Number the Stars |
Lois Lowry |
Psalms 147:4 |
| Of Human Bondage |
W. Somerset Maugham |
Ethics, Baruch Spinoza |
| Of Mice and Men |
John Steinbeck |
To a Mouse, Robert Burns |
| Oh! To be in England |
H. E. Bates |
Home Thoughts, From Abroad, Robert Browning |
| The Other Side of Silence |
André Brink |
Middlemarch, George Eliot |
| The Painted Veil |
W. Somerset Maugham |
Lift Not The Painted Veil Which Those Who Live, sonnet by Percy Bysshe Shelley |
| The Parliament of Man |
Paul Kennedy |
Locksley Hall, Alfred Lord Tennyson |
| A Passage to India |
E. M. Forster |
Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman |
| O Pioneers! |
Willa Cather |
Pioneers! O Pioneers!, Walt Whitman |
| Postern of Fate |
Agatha Christie |
Gates of Damascus, James Elroy Flecker |
| Precious Bane |
Mary Webb |
Paradise Lost, John Milton |
| The Proper Study |
Isaac Asimov |
An Essay on Man, Alexander Pope |
| Quo Vadis |
Henryk Sienkiewicz |
John 13:36 |
| Recalled to Life |
Reginald Hill |
A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens |
| Recalled to Life |
Robert Silverberg |
A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens |
| Ring of Bright Water |
Gavin Maxwell |
The Marriage of Psyche, Kathleen Raine |
| The Road Less Traveled |
M. Scott Peck |
The Road Not Taken, Robert Frost |
| Shall not Perish |
William Faulkner |
Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln |
| The Skull Beneath the Skin |
P. D. James |
Whispers of Immortality, T. S. Eliot |
| The Soldier's Art |
Anthony Powell |
Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, Robert Browning |
| Some Buried Caesar |
Rex Stout |
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, trans. Edward FitzGerald |
| Specimen Days |
Michael Cunningham |
Walt Whitman's prosework |
| The Stars' Tennis Balls |
Stephen Fry |
The Duchess of Malfi, John Webster |
| Stranger in a Strange Land |
Robert A. Heinlein |
Exodus 2:22 |
| Such, Such Were the Joys |
George Orwell |
The Echoing Green, William Blake |
| The Sun Also Rises |
Ernest Hemingway |
Ecclesiastes 1:5 |
| Surprised by Joy |
C. S. Lewis |
Surprised by Joy, William Wordsworth |
| A Swiftly Tilting Planet |
Madeleine L'Engle |
Morning Song of Senlin, Conrad Aiken |
| Tender Is the Night |
F. Scott Fitzgerald |
Ode to a Nightingale, John Keats |
| Terrible Swift Sword |
Bruce Catton |
The Battle Hymn of the Republic, Julia Ward Howe |
| Things Fall Apart |
Chinua Achebe |
The Second Coming, William Butler Yeats |
| This Side of Paradise |
F. Scott Fitzgerald |
Tiare Tahiti, Rupert Brooke |
| Those Barren Leaves |
Aldous Huxley |
The Tables Turned, William Wordsworth |
| Tiger! Tiger! - alternative title of The Stars My Destination |
Alfred Bester |
The Tyger, William Blake |
| Tiger! Tiger! |
Rudyard Kipling short story |
The Tyger, William Blake |
| Time of our Darkness |
Stephen Gray |
For the Fallen, Laurence Binyon |
| Time To Murder And Create |
Lawrence Block |
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, T. S. Eliot |
| To a God Unknown |
John Steinbeck |
Rig Veda Book X |
| To Sail Beyond the Sunset |
Robert A. Heinlein |
Ulysses, Alfred Lord Tennyson |
| To Say Nothing of the Dog |
Connie Willis |
Three Men in a Boat, Jerome K. Jerome |
| Vanity Fair |
William Makepeace Thackeray |
The Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan |
| Vile Bodies |
Evelyn Waugh |
Philippians 3:21 |
| The Violent Bear It Away |
Flannery O'Connor |
Matthew 11:12 (Douay translation) |
| Waiting for the Barbarians |
J.M. Coetzee |
Waiting for the Barbarians, Constantine P. Cavafy |
| The Waste Land |
T. S. Eliot |
From Ritual to Romance, Jessie L. Weston |
| The Way of All Flesh |
Samuel Butler |
Joshua 23:14 (as rephrased in Wesley's Notes} |
| The Way Through the Woods |
Colin Dexter |
The Way Through the Woods, Rudyard Kipling |
| The Wealth of Nations |
Adam Smith |
Isaiah 61:6 |
| What's Become of Waring |
Anthony Powell |
Waring from Dramatic Lyrics, Robert Browning |
| When the Green Woods Laugh |
H. E. Bates |
Songs of Innocence and of Experience, William Blake |
| Where Angels Fear to Tread |
E. M. Forster |
Essay on Criticism, Alexander Pope |
| The Wives of Bath |
Susan Swan |
The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale, Geoffrey Chaucer |
| The World, the Flesh and the Devil |
Mary Elizabeth Braddon |
Book of Common Prayer |
| The Yellow Meads of Asphodel |
H. E. Bates |
Ode on St. Cecilia's Day, Alexander Pope |
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