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.
Literature and Philosophy
- Matthew 4:16, King James Version (1.41)
- Proverbs 9:10, King James Version (1.48)
- T.S. Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (2.25)
- Isaiah 7:3 (3.39)
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" (3.48)
- Graham Greene, Tutuola (5.4)
- Graham Greene, The Heart of the Matter (5.5 & 5.8)
- W.H. Auden (5.11)
- Evelyn Waugh, A Handful of Dust (5.11)
- An excerpt from the Gloria Patri, sometimes referred to as the Doxology (5.88; 5.90)
- Matthew 25.1-13, Parable of the Ten Virgins (6.49)
- Psalm 133.1 (8.30)
- The Book of Joel, Bible (10.2)
- Phrase "the day of the Lord": Isaiah 2:12; 13:6, 9; Ezekiel 13:5, 30:3; Joel 1:15, 2:1,11,31; 3:14; Amos 5:18,20; Obadiah 15; Zephaniah 1:7,14; Zechariah 14:1; Malachi. 4:5; Acts 2:20; 2 Thessalonians 2:2; 2 Peter 3:10. (10.3)
- A.E. Housman, Collected Poems (10.56; 16.28)
- Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (11.12)
- Galatians 3.28 (14.33)
- 2 Kings 5:1-14 (14.36)
- Matthew 26:52 (14.60)
- 2 Samuel 12:15-20 (18.47)
- Philippians 4:7 (18.47)
Historical Figures
- Adolf Hitler (1.40, 4.61-62)
- Kaiser's war, i.e., World War I (7.2)