Music in

Fiction

Rocker Bruce Springsteen’s song “The Ghost of Tom Joad” was inspired by the hero of John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath.

Rewind…The title of the novel Wolf in White Van by John Darnielle comes from the lyrics of a rock song played backwards.

David Bowie’s classic album Diamond Dogs is set in a largely ruined dystopian future and was partly inspired by George Orwell’s classic 1984.

When Michael Connelly writes a Harry Bosch novel he is usually listening to jazz. “Invariably,” he says, “the music I am listening to ends up in the books—usually on Harry Bosch’s CD player”.

Ernest Hemingway’s mother forced all of her children to play an instrument; young Ernest grew up learning the cello.

Down the rabbit hole:

The psychedelic rock song “White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane draws heavily on Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

The structure of A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, which is divided into three parts of seven chapters each, is patterned after an operatic aria.

Nick Hornby's novel High Fidelity is almost all about music. The book’s title is also the title of a song by Elvis Costello.

English writer Charles Dickens (A Christmas Carol, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations) played the accordion.