Saturday 27 February 2021

obscure cultural reference

Lithub contributor Emily Temple has collected the hundred most quoted, remixed and generally famed passages from Western, mostly anglophile literary traditions and arranged them in incrementally tougher order and challenges the readership to see how many one can identify—for the laurels of honour and glory. How many can you recognise? Given the Mount Parnassus of books that we are heir to, it is surprising to see the bias of recency prevalent in what are considered the classics, with only a few venturing beyond the past couple of centuries.  Partial credit is of course awarded and many cite the answer in the quotation.