Remember when your high school summer reading list included Atticus, Fiesta, and The Last Man in Europe? You will once you see what these books were renamed before they hit bookshelves.
还记得高中暑假阅读书目里的《阿提克斯》(Atticus)、《嘉年华》(Fiesta)还有《最后一个欧洲人》(The Last Man in Europe)吗?不记得了?看到这些书在上架之前更换的书名你就会想起来了。
1. THE GREAT GATSBY
《了不起的盖茨比》
《了不起的盖茨比》是F•斯科特•菲茨杰拉德(F. Scott Fitzgerald)最负盛名的一本小说。其实菲茨杰拉德为这本书想了好多名字,最终决定采用《了不起的盖茨比》。如果他定下的不是这个书名,高中的孩子们所思索的就会是名为《西卵的特里马尔乔》(Trimalchio in West Egg)、《灰堆与百万富翁》(Among Ash-Heaps and Millionaires)、或是《在去西卵的路上》(On the Road to West Egg)、《在星条旗之下》(Under the Red, White, and Blue)、《戴金帽子的盖茨比》(Gold-Hatted Gatsby)亦或是《跳得高的爱人》(The High-Bouncing Lover)的作品的主题了。
2. 1984
《一九八四》
George Orwell's publisher didn't feel the title to his novel The Last Man in Europe was terribly commercial and recommended using the other title he had been kicking around - 1984.
乔治•奥威尔(George Orwell)的出版商觉得他的小说《最后一个欧洲人》的名字实在不够商业化,建议使用他考虑过的另一个书名——《一九八四》。
3. ATLAS SHRUGGED
《阿特拉斯耸耸肩》
Ayn Rand referred to her magnum opus as The Strike for quite some time. In 1956, a year before the book was released, she decided the title gave away too much plot detail. Her husband suggested Atlas Shrugged, and it stuck.
在很长一段时间里,安•兰德(Ayn Rand)一直将她的代表作称为《大罢工》(The Strike)。1956年,也就是这本书出版的前一年,她觉得这个书名深度剧透了。她的丈夫建议换成《阿特拉斯耸耸肩》,于是这个书名就这么流传下来了。
4. DRACULA
《德古拉》
The title of Bram Stoker's famous Gothic novel sounded more like a spoof before he landed on Dracula - one of the names Stoker considered was The Dead Un-Dead.
在定名为《德古拉》之前,布莱姆•斯托克(Bram Stoker)写作的这部著名哥特小说的名字听起来像是恶搞,斯托克曾考虑过的名字之一是《已死的不死者》(The Dead Un-Dead)。
5. THE SUN ALSO RISES
《太阳照常升起》
Ernest Hemingway's original title for The Sun Also Rises - Fiesta - was used for foreign-language editions. But he changed the American English version to The Sun Also Rises at the behest of his publisher.
欧内斯特•海明威(Ernest Hemingway)所著的《太阳照常升起》最开始的名字是《嘉年华》,这也是这部小说的外文版本的名字。但是应出版商的要求,他将美国版的书名改为《太阳照常升起》。
6. CATCH-22
《第二十二条军规》
It's because of Frank Sinatra that we use the phrase "catch-22" today. Well, sort of. Author Joseph Heller tried out Catch-11, but because the original Ocean's Eleven movie was newly in theaters, it was scrapped to avoid confusion. He also wanted Catch-18, but, again, the recent publication of Leon Uris' Mila 18 made him switch titles to avoid confusion. The number 22 was finally chosen because it was 11 doubled.
我们现在使用短语catch-22(意为“自相矛盾的规定)都是因为弗兰克•辛纳屈(Frank Sinatra)。呃,在一定程度上是这样的。《第二十二条军规》的作者约瑟夫•海勒(Joseph Heller)曾一度想用《第十一条军规》(Catch-11)作为书名,但因为当时第一版的《十一罗汉》(Ocean's Eleven)电影刚刚上映,为避免混淆他放弃了这个名字。他还考虑过《第十八条军规》(Catch-18),但不巧的是又撞上列昂•乌里斯(Leon Uris)的《米勒18》出版,为了避免大家误会,他再次换了名字。最后选择了22这个数字是因为它是11的两倍。
7. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
《杀死一只知更鸟》
To Kill a Mockingbird was simply Atticus before Harper Lee decided the title focused too narrowly on one character.
《杀死一只知更鸟》原来就简简单单地以《阿提克斯》为书名,但哈珀•李(Harper Lee)后来发现这个名字太局限于一个角色了,于是便换了书名。
8. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
《傲慢与偏见》
An apt precursor to the title Jane Austen finally decided on for her most beloved novel was First Impressions.
《傲慢与偏见》是简•奥斯汀(Jane Austen)最为大众钟爱的小说,在此之前她给这部小说起的名字是《第一印象》(First Impressions),还是挺贴切的。
9. THE SECRET GARDEN
《秘密花园》
"Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?" Secretly, apparently. Mistress Mary, taken from the classic nursery rhyme, was the working title for Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden.
“玛丽,倔强的玛丽,你的花草长得怎么样?《玛丽小姐》(Mistress Mary)是弗朗西丝•霍奇森•伯内特(Frances Hodgson Burnett)的《秘密花园》的暂定名,取自经典儿歌《玛丽,玛丽》,既隐秘又明显。
10. DUBLINERS
《都柏林人》
Originally called Ulysses in Dublin, James Joyce's book of short stories, Dubliners, featured characters that would later appear in his epic Ulysses a few years later.
詹姆斯•乔伊斯(James Joyce)的短篇小说集《都柏林人》最初叫做《尤利西斯在都柏林》(Ulysses in Dublin),其中描写了一些在他数年后的史诗巨著《尤利西斯》(Ulysses)中出现的人物。
Vocabulary
magnum opus:代表作
spoof:恶作剧,嘲弄性的模仿
behest:要求
scrap:废弃
precursor:前辈,前任者
contrary:固执的,执拗的