Brewer's Curious Titles

Ian Crofton

Cassell, 2002 - 548 Seiten

Find the origins of obscure titles of over 1,500 films, novels, plays, paintings, and musical compositions. Some are humorous or ironic, others risqué or purposely baffling. "All Quiet on the Western Front" is an ironic reference to blacked-out news reports while thousands of soldiers were dying. "Hobson's Choice," a 1916 play, comes from liveryman Thomas Hobson (c.1544-1631) who always offered customers the horse nearest the door of the stable, and no other. A "Yankee Doodle" comes from the Dutch pejorative, a Jan Kees (John Cheese), meaning an arrogant fellow. See how many films and books you can list with insects in the title, or that start with "I Was a..." or "I Married a...". Then see how many you missed.

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Brewer's curious titles

Nutzerbericht  - Not Available - Book Verdict

In selecting the novels, plays, paintings, and musical works whose titles he explains here, Crofton (A Dictionary of Art Quotations) acknowledges that keeping the volume to a manageable length made it ...

LibraryThing Review

Nutzerbericht  - MerryMary - LibraryThing

Nice fat book full of titles, and the background story that explains the reasons behind those titles. Fun.

Über den Autor

Ian Crofton is a freelance writer and editor. His publications include A DICTIONARY OF MUSICAL QUOTATIONS (with Donald Fraser) and A DICTIONARY OF ART QUOTATIONS, and he was editor-in-chief of THE GUINNESS ENCYCLOPEDIA. He contributed entries on history, music and art to BREWER'S DICTIONARY OF MODERN PHRASE AND FABLE, and has written articles for a number of other children's and adults' reference books.

Bibliografische Informationen

• Titel: Brewer's Curious Titles; Brewer's ... Series
• Herausgeber: Ian Crofton
• Zusammengestellt von: Ian Crofton
• Verlag: Cassell, 2002
• ISBN: 0304361305, 9780304361304
• Länge: 548 Seiten