My post a couple of weeks ago on The Daughter of Time got me thinking about how much book titles have changed. At the era the book was written - during, and pre and post WWII - popular and genre fiction had much more 'flowery' titles. Quotations from literature - plays and poems. I'm thinking of the much loved Mary Stewart who often used Shakespeare or poetry - but also Jane Aiken Hodge, Agatha Christie, Evelyn Waugh, Earnest Hemingway ... to name a few. Now publisher seem to expect titles that are much more 'What it says on the tin.'
In the age of social and multi media, shorter attention spans and a plethora of book titles on offer I can understand the appeal of letting the reader know what to expect. And maybe we are not so well read in the classics these days, making those quotation titles less easy to relate to the content of the book? It does make me a little sad though when I see yet another 'signpost' title that could be applied to any number of genre offerings. Am I an old romantic? Yes, I think so. After a rummage on the Internet I found that poetry and the Bible are particular old time favourites and there are some more recent examples - P D James and Ruth Rendell used literary quotes as have Val McDermid, Tracey Chevalier and Sally Rooney. I have a particular weakness for Jacobean drama, but it is not to everyone's taste and maybe you do need to know where Cover Her Face (P D James) or Nine Coaches Waiting (Mary Stewart) actually come from and the sinister gothic horrors that lie behind them to fully understand. I suspect that in 2025 both authors would have been asked to chose something more prosaic - or have it chosen for them. Like covers, authors often don't have a lot of agency in these things. Unless you are self published of course. Then you can chose what you like - but I'm guessing that the choice would be more likely to be modelled on the top ten best sellers than what was appearing on stage in 1613.
