It’s David Niven’s birthday. And while he did win an Academy Award in 1958, he will probably, be best remembered for his excellent autobiography, The Moon is a Balloon. Recently, when I read its preface more carefully, I realised it was from an e. e. cummings poem. So this week’s quiz is all about interesting titles and their origins.

Names

1Starters. What connect the books, Huxley’s Brave New World, Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past, Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury and Frederick Forsyth’s The Dogs of War? The list is by no means exhaustive.

2Which fascinating book’s title is a corruption by British soldiers of the cry “Ya Hasan! Ya Hosain!” repeated by Shias during a Muharram procession?

3Which ’80s Oscar-winning film gets its title from the way a certain Raymond Babbit was remembered by his younger brother?

4Which bestselling novel of 2003 derives its title from a quote from the Sherlock Holmes story Silver Blaze?

5Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 is an all-time classic. However, its original name was changed just a few weeks before production. What was the original title and why was it changed?

6Which classic rock album was originally titled Eclipse?

7This super group of the late ’80s and early ’90s, which featured the likes of Bob Dylan, George Harrison and Jeff Lynne, released an eponymous first album. Their second album was titled ________ III. Part II was cancelled after one of their iconic members passed away. Name the group. And whose unfortunate death caused them to skip to part II?

8In the US, why was the title of the film The Madness of King George III changed to The Madness of King George?

9Which critically acclaimed and commercially successful film released in 2006 was named after a contest where the voters had to chose between 3 names — the other two suggestions were Issak and O Saathi Re?

10The Last Man in Europe was strongly recommended as a title by the author. Thankfully, the editors went with a different name. The book and the author’s name?

Answers

1. Titles from Shakespeare: Brave New World (The Tempest); Remembrance of Things Past (The Sonnets); The Sound and the Fury (Macbeth); The Dogs of War (Julius Caesar)

2. Hobson Jobson, the iconic book of Indian and Anglo-Indian words and phrases

3. Rain Man, which won four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Dustin Hoffman

4. Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the dog in the Night Time

5. It was originally titled Catch-18, but Heller’s agent was worried that it would be confused with another World War II novel, Leon Uris’s Mila-18

6. Dark Side of the Moon

7. Traveling Wilburies, Roy Orbison

8. The studio was worried that audiences wouldn’t come in to watch as they had not seen part I and II

9. Omkara

10. 1984, George Orwell

Joy Bhattacharjyais, in this age of televisions pundits and Facebook gurus, simply grateful that facts are not opinions.

Follow Joy on Twitter >@joybhattacharj

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