When authors refer to other great works, people, and events, it’s usually not accidental. Put on your super-sleuth hat and figure out why.
Literary and Philosophical References
- "pilgrims in the valley," reference to Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan (5.1)
- Parsees, Zoroastrian sect (5.3)
- "sword [...] imaginative head," reference to the Greek myth of Damocles (8.15)
- "to bind and to lose," reference to Matthew 18:18 (8.16)
- "funny enough to make angels weep," reference to Measure for Measure, William Shakespeare (9.1)
- "one scolding desperately in a wilderness," reference to John 1:23 (18.7)
- "daily bread," allusion to The Lord's Prayer (19.1)
- "So halt' ich [...]" quote from Goethe's Tasso, which reads, "I hold it thus, at last, within my hands. And in an unambiguous sense can call it mine." (20.11)
- "my very young brother," reference to Genesis 4:9 (21.6)
- "snatched from the fire," reference to Jude 5:23 (27.7)
- "who once gives way [...]" quote from William Hazlitt (36.7)
- "who toys [...]" reference to Matthew 26:52 (36.8)
- Ramadan (43.4)
Historical References
- Otto von Bismarck, Chancellor of the German Empire (2.8)
- German Empire (5.4)
- "Red rag," reference to the red ensign of the British Merchant Navy (5.10)
- "occupation days," reference to the French imperial presence in North Vietnam in the 1880s (6.9)
- "revolutionary movement of 1848," political uprising in France (20.3)
- James I of England (22.1)
- Bully Hayes, aka Captain William Hayes, noted pirate (38.1)
- Ben Pease, US Naval Officer who became a pirate (38.1)
- Spanish-American War (38.1)
Geographic References
- Perim, island in the Red Sea (3.4)
- Wapping, London neighborhood (3.7)
- Suez Canal (10.24)
- Tower Hill and the Tower of London (14.1)
- Succadana, southwest Borneo (28.6)
- Clapham, London district (38.1)