Getting reading ideas from allusions in other books

[Dark Muse]

There has been more than one occasion when a book which I have not previously heard of before has been alluded to within a novel I was reading, or in some cases referenced within an essay, that I will then be compelled to look up to see if does in fact sound interesting, and like something I might want to read.

I was just reading a book called "The Book Thief" and it made mention of a book of which I wasn't familiar with, so I decided to look it up, though in this case it turned out that the book was completely fictitious, and the title just made up by the author of "The Book Thief"

But has anyone ever bought or read a book because it was alluded to in something else you were reading?

[JBI]

That's how I get the bulk of my recommendations - generally, I'm a poetry reader though, so intertext is essentially everywhere (especially in Japanese and Chinese poetry). But when you read criticism in particular, it can send you on a crazy web of reading - all sorts of texts from everywhere some times.

That being said, I get quite a few allusions (generally most of the general English poetry ones) which is one of the great feelings of literature - I think, when you can read an allusion and get it, it adds a little bit of pleasure to the reading, almost like a pat on the back.

[Dark Muse]

That being said, I get quite a few allusions (generally most of the general English poetry ones) which is one of the great feelings of literature - I think, when you can read an allusion and get it, it adds a little bit of pleasure to the reading, almost like a pat on the back.

Yes I agree with that, I am reading Possession right now by A.S. Byatt, and it is jam packed full of illusions to Victorian poetry as well as the romantics, and it is very inverwoven and complex and dense, and reading the book is sending me off to read all sorts of other things, or referesh my memory about some things. It can be quite a fun experince though.

I am also a big one about looking up paintings and artworks that are mentioned in books.

[mayneverhave]

The two major books for me (in that regard) are, without a doubt, Ulysses and The Waste Land.

Ulysses fed my interest in opera, Irish history, Greek mythology, Giambattista Vico, Shakespeare, Yeats, physics, eytmologies, ad infinitum. The reading may be a chore, but it forces you to learn a great deal very quickly.

The Waste Land made it so that I read fertility, agricultural cylces into everything else I read.

[JBI]

The Waste Land though isn't really dealing with it in the same way - it is designed to allow the other texts to speak, so as to change one's perception on the alluded to text, as well as The Waste Land itself - or, at least that is the goal with the allusion structure - the ability to change the original text from the future is actually kind of interesting - it takes intertext to a whole new level.

[dfloyd]

are good, especially for the younger reader. I rmember when reding Catcher in the Rye over 45 years ago that Holden Caulfield alluded to Return of the Native. The allusion introduced me to Thomas Hardy and the many Hardy books I have read.

[kelby_lake]

I got some in Lolita, some from The Waste Land.

I've borrowed books before because their title is an allusion (like Tender is The Night).

[Manchegan]

This might be a bit of a stretch from the topic, but does anyone know if the book alluded to in The Picture of Dorian Gray is actually a real book, and if so, the title?

It would be interesting to read the book that so corrupted Dorian.

[Barbarous]

definitely Finnegans Wake by Joyce. Fantastic works all woven in one awesome power.

[prendrelemick]

Many times.

I ordered Anne Radcliffe's Mysteries of Udolpho from my library after reading Northanger Abbey

You really need to know something of Homer if you have an interest in English literature.
Once I'd become familiar with him (and other greeks) things began to make more sense.

[JBI]

This might be a bit of a stretch from the topic, but does anyone know if the book alluded to in The Picture of Dorian Gray is actually a real book, and if so, the title?

It would be interesting to read the book that so corrupted Dorian.

If I remember correctly, the actual text was a general reference to cultural publications of secular literature at the time - namely poetry, which were distributed in similar yellow books - I remember reading an essay about it somewhere, but that was a long time ago, so I can't come up with a definite answer.

edit - flipping on wiki now, they say it could possibly be traced to a French novel A' Rebours - I haven't read that, so cannot comment further.

[mortalterror]

edit - flipping on wiki now, they say it could possibly be traced to a French novel A' Rebours - I haven't read that, so cannot comment further.
I read it recently. It started strong but finished weak. It felt revolutionary and decadent but then got very repetitious.

[Manchegan]

Thanks guys! I'll have to find a translation and give it a read.

[Dark Muse]

Many times.

I ordered Anne Radcliffe's Mysteries of Udolpho from my library after reading Northanger Abbey

I have been wanting to read that, Radcliffe that is.

[Three Sparrows]

Not only Austen, but Dostoevsky mentions Udolphu in his book The Brothers Karamazov. Brave New World is filled with Shakespeare, but maybe that doesn't count since it was so inspirational to his book. I usually just look in the back of my cheap paper backs for additional info, and occasionally find titles that sound interesting, but I never heard of. I do love allusions to other books in literature though, its so much fun.:goof:

[Pecksie]

This might be a bit of a stretch from the topic, but does anyone know if the book alluded to in The Picture of Dorian Gray is actually a real book, and if so, the title?

It would be interesting to read the book that so corrupted Dorian.

Could that be Joris Karl Huysmans' 'À Rebours' ('Against Nature')? I remember that book being quoted in the Wilde trial as an example of 'immoral literature', but I don't remember if it's alluded to in 'Dorian Gray'. In any case, it's a real book.

[Pecksie]

I love finding clues, suggestions and interesting ideas about other books in a book I'm reading. I read Paul West's harrowing 'The Very Rich Hours of Count von Stauffenberg' due to its being mentioned in Coetzee's 'Elizabeth Costello' (which, BTW, I found disappointing). Coetzee's Elizabeth describes the book during a lecture she gives, making it sound like a terrifying, macabre read, which is why I read it with some trepidation --- and found it not macabre at all, but instead very beautiful and very moving :)