Why were some of Anita Brookner's novels published in the US with different titles? This seems at best a faintly disreputable practice, at worst an assault on the integrity of an already published text. I can think of other authors who have suffered the indignity, though it tends to be reserved for less thoroughgoingly literary writers (Agatha Christie, P. G. Wodehouse). Ivy Compton-Burnett's Manservant and Maidservant was, however, given the somewhat unwieldy US title Bullivant and the Lambs . I can't think of traffic in the opposite direction, but there are probably examples. Is it a case of US publishers asserting their authority? Or are there cultural or other reasons that certain titles 'work' in Britain but not in America? A Start in Life (UK) / The Debut (US) For a novel that references Balzac, The Debut is an interesting alternative, echoing Balzac's Un début dans la vie . A Misalliance (UK) / The Misalliance (US) Do Americans prefer t...
The life, work, novels and intertexts of Anita Brookner