What is the purpose of some books having “A Novel” after the title? I was perusing a list of Amazon books and came across this quite a few times.
Examples:
The Address: A Novel
The Orphan’s Tale: A Novel.
Wow, I never knew that “A Novel” would be in the main title of books, haha. That is so odd.
I’m definitely fine with it if it’s the subtitle for a novel, and not part of the main title.
-Baleaf
It’s annoying on my audiobook player, because those two words often make the title too long and it tries to do a little scrolling thing where it stutters across the (small) screen. Makes it really hard to read.
I sometimes spend time in the evening (while my wife thinks I’m watching TV with her) editing the data on my audiobooks.
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes: a Hunger Games Novel
is now t ß o∫ +∫
Previous thread
I was going to answer, “pretension”. It wouldn’t be there to ward off possible legal action, would it?
I’ll say what I said before: It makes a librarian’s job a lot easier. It’s not always easy to tell, from a casual handling of a book, whether it’s fiction or nonfiction (such as a memoir). Putting “a novel” on the cover immediately dispels all doubt.
I noticed this myself a while back. Not always part of the title, but often in smaller print under the title or near the bottom of the cover. It’s one of those things that, once you notice it, you notice it A LOT. As @Chronos says, it makes it easily identifiable as fiction, although I assumed it was more for bookstore customers.
So you don’t mistake it for :The Breakfast Cereal or :The Broadway Cast Album.
I’ve been noticing a lot of "A Novel"s, and they remind me of warning labels. So many cautions are due to someone suing, or threatening to sue. And you end up with silly “Caution: This cigarette lighter may cause a flame hot enough to burn.”
So I always picture an irate biddy storming into a Barnes and Noble.
“I bought this book, and NONE of it is TRUE at ALL! I’m suing for breach of public trust!”
And then I picture a publishing meeting:
“We need to add ‘A Novel’ to the end of this title.”
“So people know it’s fiction?”
“Well, of course! Didn’t you see the viral video of that biddy storming into a Barnes and Noble?”
"Okay, J.B., it now reads Were-Jaguar Wizard Women of Ganymede: A Novel."
“Fabulous!”
It’s part of the literary mainstream’s never-tiring efforts to distinguish itself from books that sell.
Few genre titles ever say “A Novel”. Few blockbuster bestseller writers ever get tagged with “A Novel”. Stephen King was a major name for 30 years before he rose high enough for his titles to claim “A Novel”.
The vast majority of literary fiction is written by people 99% of book buyers have never heard of. They get small advances and smaller advertising. Having “A Novel” on their covers is a nice little pat on the head to confirm that they’ve made the big time.
A Novel is meant first for the author, second for the publisher, and third for the 1% of buyers who read the stuff. Like being famous for being famous, it’s important for being important. The rest of us peasants can not give a damn. Or can, depending. No one else will notice.
I made that mistake with Sally Rooney’s new book. Didn’t figure it out until my Amazon account questioned why I was buying my third copy. I enjoyed the work but I kept pooping adverbs.
Joking aside, I did learn something as a result of this thread. Those extra words in smaller print after the title are called the reading line. I encounter them all the time in works of history (for example, I’m currently reading Ian Toll’s Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945 and Andrew Nagorski’s 1941: The Year Germany Lost the War) but I never knew what they were called.
“Reading Line”… thanks! They were my pet peeve for a long time, when it seemed like every book was getting really long titles.
Back in the day, you’d get a biography titled “Millard Fillmore”.
Suddenly, it had to be expanded to “A Definitive Turn of Phrase: the Presidential Aspirations and Disappointments of Millard Powers Fillmore, 1847-1853”.
Forget that. What I want to to know is why Lad: a Dog?
Were they too lazy to write out something like Lad, the Story of a Dog ? Did they want the title to be short so it would stand out in advertising, like those bands that deliberately kept their names short?
And when they turned it into a movie in 1960, why wasn’t it titled Lad: A Movie ?
The sequel book did without the colon and the “reading line” and was just Further Adventures of Lad
Right, why not a duck?
Why-a no chicken?
Reading the Wikipedia entry, I was shocked to learn that the movie Lad, a Dog was considered a box office flop. Growing up in Chicago, I remember that movie playing constantly on WGN’s Family Classics. I much preferred Lassie Come Home.
If you enjoyed Why: A Novel, consider picking up Wherefore: A Narrative and Whence: A Romance.
Actually long titles were the original.
Some early English novels:
The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner: Who Lived Eight and Twenty Years, All Alone in an Un-inhabited Island on the Coast of America, Near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having Been Cast on Shore by Shipwreck, Wherein All the Men Perished but Himself. With an Account how he was at last as Strangely Deliver’d by Pyrates. Written by Himself. by Daniel Defoe (1719)
Gulliver’s Travels, or Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships by Jonathan Swift (1726)
Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady by Samuel Richardson (1748)
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding (1749)
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne (1759)
The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story by Horace Walpole (1764)
The Vicar of Wakefield: A Tale, Supposed to be written by Himself by Oliver Goldsmith (1766)
Evelina, or the History of a Young Lady’s Entrance into the World by Fanny Burney (1778)
The Mysteries of Udolpho: A Romance Interspersed With Some Pieces of Poetry by Ann Radcliffe (1794)
The Monk: A Romance by Matthew Gregory Lewis (1796)
Frankenstein: or, the Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelly (1818)
Oliver Twist: or, The Parish Boy’s Progress by Charles Dickens (1838)
Jane Eyre: An Autobiography by Charlotte Bronte (1847)
Moby-Dick: or, The Whale by Herman Melville (1851)