Blah, Blah, Blah: A Novel

9 years ago

I mentioned in the March Books - What Are You Reading? thread that I had read The Wonder by Emma Donoghue, but really the book is named The Wonder: A Novel.

Whenever I come across a novel with the subtitle "A Novel" I find it quite bizarre, and I wonder why an author or publisher would add it to a book title. Any ideas?

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annpanagain

9 years ago

I can think of a few reasons.

Possibly there is another book with the same or similar title that isn't a novel or so that it isn't confused with another genre?

The title made me think it could be one of those 'Think rich to become rich' books. (Did they ever work?)

However I did crave some Belgian chocolates once and found the local corner shop had massively over-ordered at Xmas by mistake and was selling boxes at the cheapest possible price to get rid of them!

Later on in the month it was even "Buy 2 and get 1 free."

Think hard about chocolates and get an abundance, perhaps?

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Comments (6)

vee_new
9 years ago
Perhaps the publisher thinks that by adding "A Novel" more people might buy the book. 'A Biography/ Autobiography/Memoir' is also often part of a title.

Sometimes you notice that a book title adds "the True Story of . . . " which often seems to mean that the story is far from true. ;-(
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vee_new
9 years ago
Just saw on TV the start of one of those TVM's claiming to have been taken from a 'True Story' and set around the Everglades. The 'voice over' at the start said something like "A Norwegian cargo boat making a regular trip to the US in 1942 found it was being tracked by a U boat . . . " I know U boats could be 'found' in most oceans and some were sunk off Florida but surely no Norwegian ships were involved as that country had been invaded by the Germans and no normal shipping routes remained 'open'?

BTW my late Mother had a b/f, a Norwegian merchant navy officer. When WW11 was declared his ship was in the Far East, They sailed to the nearest British Empire port and offered their services (and their ship) to the Allies.
ci_lantro
9 years ago
Vee--The Norwegian king and the Parliament escaped Norway after the Germans invaded and set up shop in England.

Found this little snippet on Wikipedia:

In June 1940, some 13 warships and 5 aircraft of the Royal Norwegian Navy, including their 500 operating personnel, followed the King and parliament to Britain. Throughout the war, some 118 ships had served the Royal Norwegian Navy, of which 58 were in active service by the war's end. By this time the Royal Norwegian Navy had continuously and actively served Allied forces since the summer of 1940, and had suffered the loss of 27 ships and 650 men.

Interesting bit of history. Wonder if/ what books have been written that tell more of this story?
vee_new
9 years ago
Thanks for the info ci. I expect you know that the royal family of the Netherlands also escaped to England for a time before settling in Ottawa. When they returned home they gave a gift of millions of tulip bulbs to the Canadian people of that city as a 'Thank you'.

And during WW1 the Belgium royal family lived in London . . . and their daughter Princess Marie José became a pupil at the school I much later attended (as the nuns never failed to remind us) she went on to an 'arranged marriage' with Umberto of Italy and was queen for a few weeks before the Italians kicked him out.

The Norwegian people still donate a huge Christmas tree each year which stands in London's Trafalgar Square in thanks for their time in England.

I don't know of any book on the subject; it would be worth looking in to.

Belgium Royals
ci_lantro
9 years ago
Interesting stuff, vee. No, I did not know that. Heck, I didn't even know that there was an Italian royal family!

I'm basically woefully uneducated about European stuff aside from getting caught up in the Napoleonic War via Aubry/ Maturin and Richard Sharpe via Patrick O'Brian and Bernard Cornwell. Have read a good bit on the Raj--fiction/ historical fiction. Oh, and Edward Rutherford. British centric for the most part.

Anyhoo, went wandering and got a bit sidetracked. Ended up ordering How We Lived Then: A History of Everyday Life During the Second World War by Norman Longmate. (Maybe there will some bits about the Norwegians in there.)