But Where Did She Get Those Wonderful Titles?

15 Points Per Correct Answer - No time limit  

1. Whence did Christie take the title of ‘Taken at the Flood’? The poem ‘Enoch Arden’ by Alfred, Lord Tennyson The Book of Genesis ‘The Wasteland’ by T.S. Eliot Shakespeare’s ‘Julius Caesar’

2. Where did the title of ‘Postern of Fate’ come from? The Book of Revelations (The Revelation of St John) None of these Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’ A poem by James Elroy Flecker

3. The title of Christie’s novel ‘The Pale Horse’ provides a vital clue as to the nature of the murders contained therein. Where did she get the title? The Book of Job The Book of Revelations (The Revelation of St John) A nursery rhyme Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’

4. One of her most popular novels, ‘The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side’, takes its title from a well-known poem - but which one? ‘The Raven’ – Edgar Allan Poe ‘The Lady of Shalott’ – Alfred, Lord Tennyson ‘Stanzas Written in Dejection Near Naples’ – Percy Bysshe Shelley ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’ – John Keats

5. Dame Christie made enthusiastic use of nursery rhymes in choosing titles for her books. Which of these ‘playroom’ titles tells us nothing about either the characters or the plot? Five Little Pigs And Then There Were None Hickory Dickory Dock One, Two, Buckle My Shoe

6. ‘By the Pricking of My Thumbs’, another Tommy and Tuppence mystery, is one of Christie’s most chilling stories. It deals with a hidden room, a horrific murder and pure, cold-blooded insanity. Which theatrical source gave her the title? Webster’s ‘The Duchess of Malfi’ Goldsmith’s ‘She Stoops to Conquer’ Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’ Shaw’s ‘Saint Joan’

7. Christie took a phrase used several times in the Book of Ecclesiastes as the title of another of her novels. Which novel is this? Evil Under the Sun Murder is Easy Death Comes as the End Ordeal by Innocence

8. A Christie mystery which begins ‘In my end is my beginning…’ (a line also used as the ending of the poem 'East Coker' from 'The Four Quartets' by T.S. Eliot) takes its title from a poem by William Blake. What is the poem? Auguries of Innocence Intimations of Immortality Jerusalem Absent in the Spring

9. The Miss Marple book, ‘The Moving Finger’, is a tale of blackmail. A mysterious letter-writer points the accusing finger at several people in the book. Which source provides the title’s inspiration: ‘the moving finger writes; and, having writ, moves on’? The Book of Daniel Edward FitzGerald’s ‘The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam’ Coleridge’s ‘Kubla Khan’ We can't know - the line actually appears in all three

10. True or false: The title of ‘Sad Cypress’ is taken from a tragedy by William Shakespeare. True False