What happens when you de-pluralize a book title? As members of our Facebook group discovered, if you make the plurals in the name of a book singular, you can come up with some interesting plot lines. For example, John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath (Bookshop|Amazon) becomes the story of a giant dangerous fruit:The Grape of Wrath. Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (Bookshop|Amazon) is reduced to Lion and Prejudice, and Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women (Bookshop|Amazon) becomes the story of one Little Woman, which is either a fellow’s domestic tales about his wife, or a tell-all about what’s like to be much shorter than average. And, with a nod to a collective noun, a twist on an Agatha Christie novel becomes A Crow on the Orient Express. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Charles Dickens Did “Hard Time”? Fun Transformation of Plural Book Titles to Singular”
You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it. I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette. What happens if you depluralize the title of a book?
You get some pretty intriguing titles that suggest some stories that could be really interesting to read. For example, you take Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, and that becomes Little Woman. So it’s more than just dropping off the S. That makes me think of Ralph Cramden talking about his wife.
Oh, the little woman.
The grapes of wrath become the grape of wrath, you know, just one very angry grape.
Right, a giant grape that took over Hoboken.
Exactly.
Well, listeners on our Facebook group were talking about this, and they came up with a lot of great examples.
One of my favorites is a crow on the Orient Express.
Oh, clever. A crow on the Orient Express. What would that be about?
That would be about a crow in a little top hat and a cane seeking passage and being refused a dining car.
Walking down the aisle. I can see it.
And how about where the wild thing is?
That’s like something you go to your dermatologist. I’ve got this hair that just itches and I can’t reach it.
Very good.
And how about this one, Lion and Prejudice?
Oh, Lion, instead of Pride and Prejudice, kind of like the Murder Crow thing.
Mm—
Lion and Prejudice, this is sequel number 15 for The Lion King.
Right.
The Lion runs into Prejudice.
Right, and deals with it on this very special ABC episode.
We’d love to hear what books you’ve invented when you make them singular instead of plural.
You can let us know in email words@waywordradio.org.
And heck, we’d love to talk to you about books and language and slang and new words and old.
You can find tons of ways to reach us on our website.
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