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A title has to do a lot of work. At the least, it should entice readers and encapsulate the spirit of the text. So it’s no surprise even the greatest authors have struggled to craft the perfect one.
一个书名需要实现很多功能。它至少应当吸引读者，并概括全书的要义。因此，即便是最伟大的作家也曾为取一个完美的书名而苦苦挣扎，这不足为奇。
Who are the rest of us to judge? Heck, some of us can’t even settle on a useful subject line for an email nine times out of 10. (Does “Hey” even count as a subject line? But we digress (离题).)
我们这些普通人自以为是谁，要去评判作家?见鬼，我们有些人在写电子邮件时，十次得有九次，连一个有用的主题都敲不定。(难道“嘿”也可以算作一个主题?不过我们跑题了。)
Though some book titles seem so iconic now that it’s hard to imagine they ever had to be dreamt up to begin with, many of those classic works featured completely different working titles (暂定标题) prior to their publication. This fascinating infographic from Jonkers Rare Books unearths the unpublished appellations (名称) of some of the most famous books of Western fiction (and Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf (《我的奋斗》), and throws in the backstories behind the title changes for good measure (附加的).
有些书名如今看来极令人膜拜，让人难以想象当初这些书名也是构思出来的，然而很多经典著作在出版之前，都有过与后来的书名完全不一样的曾用名。琼克斯稀缺版本书店推出了一本引人入胜的图册，挖掘出了一些西方著名小说(以及阿道夫·希特勒的《我的奋斗》)未曾公开过的名字，另外还讲述了书名变更背后的故事。
First Impressions /
Pride and Prejudice
《第一印象》/
《傲慢与偏见》
Although First Impressions was completed in 1796, Austen couldn’t find a publisher until she wrote Sense & Sensibility which was published in 1811. First Impressions was significantly revised in 1811 and 1812, so the title probably changed then in order to reflect the new storyline.
奥斯汀在1796年就完成了《第一印象》的创作，但她找不到出版商，直到她创作了《理智与情感》并于1811年出版。在1811年和1812年，《第一印象》经历了大幅修改，可能就是在那个时候，为了体现新的故事情节，书名改了。
Trimalchio in West Egg /
The Great Gatsby
《西卵的特里马尔乔》/
《了不起的盖茨比》
It was thought that the original title made a reference that was too obscure for people to understand—Trimalchio being a lead character in Petronius’ Satyricon. Fitzgerald does still include a quote about Trimalchio in the novel, but agreed to change the title.
原来的书名引用了一个典故：特里马尔乔是佩特洛尼乌斯所著《萨蒂利卡》的主人公。但这个典故太鲜为人知，会让人觉得摸不着头脑。菲茨杰拉德还是在小说中的一处引用了特里马尔乔的典故，但他同意更改书名。
Strangers from Within /
Lord of the Flies
《内心深处的陌生人》/
《蝇王》
It was originally thought that the working title was too explicit and too absurd by one of the publishers, so an editor came up with the idea of Lord of the Flies which is a translation of the Hebrew for “Beelzebub”—a contemporary name for the devil.
一个出版商最初觉得这部小说的曾用名过于直白、过于荒诞，于是一位编辑想出了《蝇王》这个书名，该词译自希伯来语“Beelzebub”，是魔鬼的当代称呼。
Four and a Half Years of Struggle Against Lies, Stupidity and Cowardice /
Mein Kampf
《四年半来同谎言、愚蠢和胆怯的斗争》/
《我的奋斗》
Hitler’s publisher suggested the much shorter and more succinct title of Mein Kampfwhich translates as My Struggle, rather than the long and wordy (啰嗦的) original title for his autobiography which he started to write while in prison.
希特勒的出版商建议他的自传使用更简短扼要的书名Mein Kampf，翻译过来就是《我的奋斗》，而非原来那个冗长、啰嗦的书名。希特勒是在狱中开始撰写此书的。
Atticus /
To Ki
《阿蒂克斯》/
《杀死一只知更鸟》
Even though Atticus is one of the most prominent characters in To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee decided that she didn’t want her novel to be named after just one character, and instead changed it to a reference from the book.
尽管阿蒂克斯是《杀死一只知更鸟》中最重要的人物之一，但李又觉得不应仅以一个人物的名字来命名这部小说，于是将书名改为了书中的一处引用。
Tomorrow Is Another Day /
Gone With the Wind
《明天是新的一天》/
《飘》
The initial title is the last line of the novel, however, Mitchell decided that she wanted to instead take the title from the first line of the third stanza (诗节) of the poem Non Sum Qualis Eram Bonae sub Regno Cynarae by Ernest Dowson.
这本书最初的书名是小说的最后一句话，但米切尔决定，还是根据欧内斯特·道生的诗作《我一直按自己的方式对你忠诚，西纳拉!》第三诗节的第一行来取名。
The Kingdom by the Sea/
Lolita
《海边的王国》/
《洛丽塔》
Nabokov was heavily influenced by Poe’s poem Annabel Lee, and the working title of The Kingdom by the Sea was taken from this poem. The title Lolita, which he eventually settled on, was again influenced by this poem.
纳博科夫深受爱伦·坡诗作《安娜贝尔·李》的影响。小说的曾用名《海边的王国》即出自该诗。他最终选定的书名《洛丽塔》也受到了该诗的影响。
The Last Man in Europe/1984
《欧洲的最后一个人》
/《1984》
There are many different theories as to why Orwell’s famous novel was finally titled 1984, but it was originally called The Last Man in Europe because of how isolated Orwell felt while writing it, and his physical loneliness as he was living on the isle of Jura at the time, as well as how isolated the character Winston feels in the novel.
关于奥威尔著名的小说为何最终定名为《1984》有很多种不同的说法，但该书最初名叫《欧洲的最后一个人》，是因为奥威尔在写作该书时感到非常孤独，也因为他当时住在侏罗岛上，与世隔绝，还因为小说中的人物温斯顿深感孤独。
All’s Well That Ends Well /
War and Peace
《皆大欢喜》/
《战争与和平》
After deciding on the original title, Tolstoy then wanted to include more of a background to the wars that took place before 1863, such as the Crimean War and Napoleon’s invasion of Russia, and thus War and Peace seemed more fitting.
在确定了最初的书名之后，托尔斯泰又打算增加一些1863年之前的战争背景，例如克里米亚战争以及拿破仑对俄国的入侵，因此，《战争与和平》这个书名显得更合适。
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