My pal, Jane Finnis, was talking about titles on her blog this week (see for yourself – it’s at
http://janefinnisblog.wordpress.com/)
The reason why Jane is pondering about titles is because Jane’s working on the fourth of her mysteries set in Roman Yorkshire (Yo!) and her publisher, not unreasonably you may feel, wants to know what the book’s going to be called. Jane eventually decided on Danger in the Wind which gives a nice frisson of lurking menace.
It’s amazing how hard it can be to come up with the right title. It has to be pithy, memorable, relevant to the book, a few words – maybe one word - that will jump out at the reader from the bookshop shelf and inspire them to part with hard-earned cash. Geez.
Names are often a good bet and carry their own baggage of expectation. You don’t pick up Emma, for instance thinking she’s going to turn into Dracula. (Which would be confusing but fun.) Or it may reflect the book’s theme: Pride and Prejudice or Death on the Nile.
In the heyday of the gothic novel, you could get away with titles such as Geralda, The Demon Nun, which could still be – just about – be used today. Joanna Polenipper, Female Horse Stealer, Foot-Pad, Smuggler, Prison Breaker and Murderer is probably too wordy for modern tastes but you’d be wrong in thinking that Joanna came to a bad end. At the end of the book, “Joanna was transported for her crimes, retrieved her character in Australia, married a rich settler and lived for many years respected and beloved by all who knew her.”
If you found Joanna’s unexpected embrace of virtue unsettling, you’d probably be better sticking to another novel of the 1830’s, Lovel Castle, where the anxious author told his readers exactly what they were getting: Lovel Castle, or The Rightful Heir Restored, a Gothic Tale Narrating how a Young Man, the supposed son of a Peasant, by a train of Unparalleled Circumstances, not only discovered who were his Real Parents, but that they came to Untimely Deaths; with his Adventures in the Haunted Apartment, Discovery of the Fatal Closet, and the Appearance of the Ghost of his murdered Father; relating also how the Murderer was brought to Justice, with his Confession and the restoration to the Injured Orphan of his title and estates.
They don’t write them like that any more.
I must, I really must, track down "Geralda the Demon Nun" - a can't-resist title, that one. Don't think I'll bother with Lovel Castle though; too much information! We writers are sometimes heard to moan about reviewers giving away too much about our plots, especially in a mystery - but for an author to supply his own spoilers like that is weird. Thinking about titles, I wonder why chapter titles went out of fashion? They used to be rather fun. I've read a couple of Golden Age Agatha Christies recently and been entertained to find each chapter called something like "Miss Marple Intervenes" or "The Plot Thickens" (perhaps that cliche even came from a chapter heading somewhere.) Do children's books still have chapters with titles, I wonder?
ReplyDelete"Geralda the Demon Nun" is a star title, isn't it? Oddly enough, "Lovel Castle" isn't at all unusual for the 1820's and 30's in detailing its plot. I think the reader wanted to be reassured they were getting the mixture as before.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it's a shame that chapter titles have gone out of fashion. Dorothy L Sayers used to go to town with her chapter titles, quoting great masses of poetry in them, which was always out of the way and unusual. I suspect she was showing off her erudition, but I like them all the same.
I don't know about children's books in general, but Harry Potter has chapter titles - and my daughter Lucy, a confirmed HP nut, can recite them all!
Oh, I adore Victorian titles. I remember laughing to the point of tears streaming down my face when reading lists of Victorian charities such as for the Relief of Decrepit Gentlewomen Who have Seen Better Days. And let's all give a shout for Joanna. She sounds quite a modern heroine. But, I'm afraid that in today's market one might, indeed, pick up Emma and expecrt Dracula. Have you seen Pride and Prejudice and the Zombies???
ReplyDeleteVictorian titles are so magnificently wordy, aren't they? I remember a friend at Uni whose aunty was approached by the League Of Distressed Gentlewomen and asked if she needed assistance!
ReplyDeleteP.P. and the Zombies - yes, I did see it, but (and I admit, I might be missing out here) thought that once you'd read the title, you sort of knew what would happen in the book.