Thursday, August 8, 2019

War, What's it Good For

We all know that the original title of Tolstoy’s most famous work was War: What’s it Good For? and that it was only at the urging of his wife Sophia that it was changed to War and Peace.
However, this is not the only literary masterpiece that had the title changed from the author’s original intent. I wonder, if these works would have been as successful with their original titles?

PUBLISHED AS                                     ORIGINAL TITLE
War and Peace                                       War, What’s it Good For?
Gone with The Wind                               Well, That Just Happened
To Kill a Mockingbird                              People with Weird First Names
The Count of Monte Cristo                     I’m Gonna get you Sucka
The Lord of the Rings                            More About Hobbits
Anna Karenina                                       Triumph and Tragedy
Les Misérables                                       Les Comfortables
Death Comes for the Archbishop           Do You Know the Way to Santa Fe?
The Catcher in the Rye                          The Hatefulness of Cheap Suitcases
Animal Farm                                           Pigs 
Moby Dick                                              The Tale of the Essex…sort of
Ulysses                                                  An Arcane Retelling of The Odyssey
On the Road                                          The Odyssey
Remembrance of Things Past               The Longest Book You’ll Ever Read 
                                                              (except you won’t)


* No, not really

4 comments:

  1. Very funny! Actually, "The Hatefulness of Cheap Suitcases" to be an actual title some day. It has a nice ring to it! :D

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    Replies
    1. Yeah sort of The Elegance of the Hedghog ring to it.

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  2. These are great!

    I read The Lord of the Rings precisely because it was More About Hobbits so that would have worked for me.

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