102
votes
Was the title "The Lord of the Rings" picked on purpose to be ambiguous?
The phrase “the Lord of the Rings” is ambiguous in the same way in English: it might, in theory, refer either to the One Ring, which rules the other rings, or to Sauron, who can use it to rule all the ...
- 51.8k
84
votes
Accepted
Why is The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy referred to as H2G2?
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" is a pretty long mouthful of a name. Imagine having to say all that every time you wanted to talk to fellow fans about the franchise.
The most obvious way to ...
- 70.6k
39
votes
Why is The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy referred to as H2G2?
It was the title given to the "Earth Edition" on the web:
H2G2.com
This was founded - and named - in 1999 by Douglas Adams himself.
Clearly taken from The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy. This ...
- 2,307
39
votes
Accepted
Meaning/translation of title "The Light Fantastic" by Terry Pratchett
In-universe the "light fantastic" is an actual, factual thing.
There was no real need for the torches. The Octavo filled the room with a dull, sullen light, which wasn’t strictly light at ...
- 4,586
35
votes
Meaning/translation of title "The Light Fantastic" by Terry Pratchett
It is a punning reference to the phrase ‘trip the light fantastic’, which means (per The Phrase Finder)
To dance, especially in an imaginative or 'fantastic' manner.
The phrase seems to arise from ...
- 18.4k
31
votes
Accepted
Why is Dante's Magnum Opus Called a 'Divine Comedy'?
The question can be broken down into two subquestions: one about the term "comedy" and one about the adjective "divine". Dante never referred to his own work as the "Divine ...
- 43.8k
27
votes
What is meant by the title "The Color of Money"?
In the novel, Tevis writes:
His skill on the arena of green cloth—cloth that was itself the color of money—could never be only pretense.
So the idea is making the connection between the green baize ...
- 2,985
25
votes
Why is it called Watership Down?
Watership Down is a real place in Hampshire that just happens to sound as if there is some connection to water.
(image by Loganberry of Wikipedia; public domain)
It's not a fictitious name invented ...
- 1,354
22
votes
Accepted
Why is Gatsby great?
It seems to have been the editor who proposed the title, and the author didn't like it much.
The original suggestion seems to have come from Fitzgerald's editor and friend, Maxwell Perkins:
I ...
- 70.6k
14
votes
Accepted
Why is Pechorin a hero of our time?
It's intended to be ironic.
In his preface to the second edition, Lermontov criticises the readers who - like you - took the title at face value and interpreted it to mean Pechorin was really being ...
- 70.6k
13
votes
Accepted
Why is it called Watership Down?
As Aurorar0001 says, Watership Down is a real place name in Hampshire, England. The following comments are meant to shed some light on the origin of this place name.
The second part, Down, is a noun ...
- 246
12
votes
Accepted
Why is the Agatha Christie play called "The Mousetrap"?
As @yannis and @Valorum have said in the comments, the play's original title Three Blind Mice had to be changed because there was an earlier play with the same title. Yannis shared this information ...
- 21.1k
12
votes
Accepted
Why has this Premchand story been translated as both "Catastrophe" and "A Positive Change"?
The Hindi title "विध्वंस" (transliterated as "Vidhwans") means "catastrophe" or "destruction". I am not too familiar with Urdu, but Google Translate says that &...
- 919
12
votes
Accepted
Why are so many Agatha Christie novels published with multiple titles?
This is because Christie was published in both the United States and the United Kingdom. These are the two largest markets for English-language books, and in the mid-20th century when Christie was ...
- 51.8k
10
votes
Why is the title of "Le Morte d'Arthur" in French if the book is in English?
We don't know very much about the life of Thomas Malory, but it is clear that Le Morte Darthur draws on French sources. For example, in "Capitulum tercium" (in the version printed by Caxton, which is ...
- 43.8k
10
votes
What is meant by the title "The Color of Money"?
Hosek is right, but further connotations of the color of money refer to the fact that profit and gain are powerful, perhaps the most powerful, driving forces behind human behaviour (often at its worst)...
- 217
10
votes
Why is Dante's Magnum Opus Called a 'Divine Comedy'?
In the introduction by Bianca Garavelli to the Inferno there is a section titled "Il valore del titolo", that is, "The value of the title", in which this is explained in detail:
...
- 1,994
9
votes
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 Recomposing the Past: Representations of Early Music on Stage and Screen, it's claimed that:
The original title of Hugo's work was Notre Dame de Paris, making no mention of the disfigurement of ...
- 6,802
9
votes
Accepted
Why is Roald Dahl's short story called "Nunc Dimittis"?
Note that the translation of the opening of the prayer in the King James version and the English Book of Common Prayer is:
Lord, now lettest thy servant depart in peace
and "depart" refers ...
- 469
8
votes
Accepted
Are the numerous hunger references attributed to the title of A Moveable Feast?
The final choice to make "A Moveable Feast" the title was made by Hemingway's fourth wife, Mary. It was supposedly suggested by Hemingway's friend, A. E. Hostner.
While the Hemingway quote is ...
- 5,864
8
votes
What is the literary effect of dropping articles from titles?
Originally, what follows was a section of the question. However, at the suggestion of Gallifreyan, I've migrated it to this answer. It's quite long, and it includes works by others as well as a little ...
- 305
8
votes
Accepted
What is the original Korean title of "The Tiger and the Persimmon"?
In Korean, the story is called 호랑이와 곶감. I would personally go with the translation: “The Tiger and the Dried Persimmons", but this isn't the exact translation.
First, I’ll address the food, ...
- 2,216
8
votes
Significance of the title of "Corn-Grinders" by Sarojini Naidu
Naidu's title "Corn-Grinders" draws upon a metaphor common in the Indian subcontinent, where a grinding mill symbolizes the pitilessness of existence.
As Spagirl writes in her answer, corn ...
- 21.1k
7
votes
Why is The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy referred to as H2G2?
You already know what H2G2 stands for, and that it is a type of acronym to avoid having to write or say the whole name. I think you are asking why the acronym is H2G2 instead of HHGG, which is the ...
- 179
7
votes
Meaning/translation of title "The Light Fantastic" by Terry Pratchett
The light that Pratchett refers to is Octarine.
This is defined in the Discworld books as the eighth colour of the spectrum and the colour of magic. "The Colour Of Magic" itself being a title of ...
- 2,307
7
votes
Accepted
What inspired the title of "Why Didn't They Ask Evans?"?
I'm wondering if the claim you heard was a conflation of a few things.
I could find two sources online stating that the title of Why Didn't They Ask Evans was something Christie overheard. The first ...
- 724
7
votes
Why is Amy Chua's book called "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother" instead of "Battle Hymn of the Mother-Tigress"?
There are a couple reasons: first and foremost, the term “Tiger Mother” was already in common use, particularly among Chinese-Americans to describe the kind of parenting style that Chua writes about ...
- 2,985
7
votes
Accepted
Where was the story first told that the title of Vanity Fair come to Thackeray in a "eureka moment" in bed?
This is from the recollections of Thackeray’s friend Kate Perry:
He told me, some time afterward, that, after ransacking his brain for a name for his novel, it came upon him unawares, in the middle ...
- 51.8k
6
votes
Meaning of the title "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?"
As suggested in a comment, it is a reference to the normal practice of putting injured horses out of their misery.
Gloria feels her life is hopeless and has attempted suicide in the past. During the ...
- 2,307
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible