Brewer's Curious Titles (Brewer's S.) - Hardcover

BREWER'S CURIOUS TITLES tells the often intriguing, and sometimes surprising, stories behind an array of titles of works of literature, music and the visual arts. Arranged in simple A-Z order by title, it explains the meanings of, and reasons for, the titles of more than 1500 famous and not-so-famous novels, films, poems, plays, paintings and works of classical music. Embracing titles as diverse and as baffling as Flann O'Brien's AT SWIM TWO-BIRDS and Salvador Dali's ATMOSPHERIC SKULL SODOMIZING A GRAND PIANO, BREWER'S CURIOUS TITLES serves up a feast of explanation, allusion, quotation and hidden meaning that will satisfy the appetite of the most inquisitive of cultural magpies.

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.