Questions tagged [title]
Questions specifically about the titles of literary works: their meaning, purpose, reception, significance, etc. Do not use to ask for the title of a work you partially remember; use [identification-request] instead
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Why is the book called Lorna Doone?
In the book we learn that
So I was wondering, couldn't they have come up with a better name for the book? Or was the whole theme of the title supposed to be a mystery?
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Why was The Bastard of Istanbul translated into Turkish as "Father and Bastard"?
The novel The Bastard of Istanbul was originally written in English (by a Turkish author, and set largely in the eponymous city in Turkey). It's been translated into various other languages, as listed ...
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Why the title Far From the Madding Crowd for the Thomas Hardy novel?
The title of Thomas Hardy's novel Far From the Madding Crowd presumably comes from this famous phrase in Thomas Gray's poem "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard", but I can't really see the ...
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What's with the reference to "Alice in Wonderland" in Nalo Hopkinson's "The Reverse Cheshire Cat"?
Nalo Hopkinson's "The Reverse Cheshire Cat" is obviously making a reference to Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, with the Cheshire Cat. The two protagonists enter a shop named "The Reverse Cheshire ...
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What is the relevance of the title of Nalo Hopkinson's "A Raggy Dog, a Shaggy Dog"?
I've just read Nalo Hopkinson's short story "A Raggy Dog, a Shaggy Dog" (available for free online from Apex Magazine). It's an odd, quirky tale about an orchid-loving lady who's constantly setting ...
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Why was "Notre Dame de Paris" changed from "Notre Dame of Paris" to "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" when it was re-published in English?
In the foreword to my copy of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Elizabeth Massie writes this:
Victor Hugo's early novel, Notre Dame de Paris, published in 1831 and set in medieval Paris of 1482, was the ...
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Savantism by Whitman
The poem
I'm trying to understand the following poem by Whitman, called Savantism.
THITHER, as I look, I see each result and glory retracing itself and
nestling close, always obligated;
...
user1630
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What is the significance of the title "You Should Have Seen the Mess" by Muriel Spark?
What is the significance of the title of Muriel Spark's short story "You Should Have Seen the Mess"?
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Was Pechorin really "not a hero"? [duplicate]
In the famous novel by Mikhail Lermontov "Hero of our time" Pechorin, the main hero of the novel is presented to have all the vices of human-kind. The prologue Lermontov says that, I paraphrase, the ...
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Does the title of "The Neverending Story" have a double meaning?
I only recently started the book, so forgive me if I'm missing something that's made obvious later in the book, but does the title of The Neverending Story have a double meaning? Bastian assumes when ...
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Are Songs of Experience and Songs of Innocence actually songs? Or is the word song a metaphor?
William Blake's Songs of Experience and Songs of Innocence have the word "song" in their title. Why is that? Are they actually songs? Or is the word "song" a metaphor for something else.
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What is the meaning of "hearth" in Charles Reade's work The Cloister and the Hearth?
I haven't read the book. The author of the article I'm translating mentions him and his novel, I need to include the exact translation of the title but I'm not sure what he meant. Is it a home, a ...
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Why is this poem by Paul Auster entitled "Spokes"?
The poem "Spokes" by Paul Auster (of which you can read the first few verses here, or the whole poem here if you have Jstor access) seems to be about things in nature - birds, plants, eggs. The only ...
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Why is the last title in Proust's "Search For Lost Time" not consistently translated as "Time Found Again"?
Marcel Proust wrote a seven-volume French novel called A la Recherche du Temps Perdu. The original French title of the last volume was Le Temps Retrouvé.
It seems to me that in these titles Proust ...
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Why rename Kipling's poem "The Beginnings" to “The Wrath of the Awakened Saxon”?
Several white nationalist and neo-Nazi websites have published a modified version of Kipling's poem "The Beginnings." In the new version of the poem, the title was renamed to "THE WRATH ...
user111
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Why is "On Most Surfaces" titled the way that it is given that only one surface appears in the song itself?
Loosely related: Are there two separate narrators in "On Most Surfaces" by The Gathering?
The song On Most Surfaces by The Gathering (on their Nighttime Birds album) has the following ...
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Why is The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy referred to as H2G2?
I've often heard The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy referred to as H2G2 but never really understood why. I wondered whether anyone actually knew or whether it was just adopted unquestioningly.
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Why does the Czech translation of "Till we have faces" mean the opposite?
The title of the book Till we have faces by C. S. Lewis is translated into Czech language as Dokud nemáme tvář. I would translate that into English literally as "While we don't have a face" or "Until ...
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Why is Gatsby great?
Jay Gatsby in Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby is no doubt smart, talented, and brave. But he only pursues his own egoistic desires, is quite delusional in his love affairs, does not hesitate to ...
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Why is Pechorin a hero of our time?
In Mikhail Lermontov's A Hero of Our Time (Герой нашего времени), the main hero is Grigory Pechorin, a cynical noble army man, an example of superfluous Byronic hero.
The title of the novel has to ...
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Why is the Agatha Christie play called "The Mousetrap"?
The Agatha Christie play The Mousetrap has not only the longest initial run of any play in history (it's been running continuously for nearly 65 years, mostly in the very same building in London), but ...
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Why is it called Watership Down?
I am an American, so to me the title "Watership Down" sounds like it is about a boat that is underwater, either a submarine or a sunken surface ship. I now understand that a down is a term for a hill ...
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Are the numerous hunger references attributed to the title of A Moveable Feast?
In Ernest Hemingway's memoir, A Moveable Feast, there are several references to hunger, both physically and metaphorically.
There are so many sorts of hunger. In the spring there are more.
But ...
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Meaning of the title "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?"
The title of Horace McCoy's novel They Shoot Horses, Don't They? is also
What is the meaning of this enigmatic sentence? How is the crime related to horses?
user227
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What is the significance of the title of the book Wool?
So far, the title doesn't seem to have a whole lot to do with the book content itself. The chapter titles are seemingly all knitting related, and I know the cleaners use wool pads to clean the lenses ...
user25
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Why are some people dissatisfied with the titling of "The Red Wheelbarrow"?
I have read that many critics have been dissatisfied with the modern titling of XXII from Spring and All by William Carlos Williams as "The Red Wheelbarrow". Neil Easterbrook was displeased with the ...
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