Before William Golding named his novel Lord of the Flies, based on a reference to Beelzebub, the book’s working title was Strangers From Within. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Strangers From Within”
Grant, here’s another quiz question about a book title.
The original title of this book, which was published in 1954, was Strangers From Within.
And I will tell you that the author and publisher then went through 18 different titles before settling on a four-word title.
The title is a reference to Beelzebub, which is a name for the devil.
I don’t know.
It’s going to need more on that one.
I have no idea.
Okay.
Beelzebub is from Hebrew that probably means Lord of Flies.
Oh, Lord of the Flies.
Isn’t that something?
It was originally called Strangers from Within.
And I love that this title and Catch-22 and some of the others are so ensconced in English that they become idiomatic all on their own, even sometimes disconnected from the novel.
Well said, yeah.
Especially with Catch-22.
That’s just a thing that many people don’t even realize was a book.
Exactly.
Yeah, Strangers from Within.
It just doesn’t have the same ring as Lord of the Flies.
No, but maybe it would have.
Maybe it would have had it been.
Had that been the title.
Who knows?
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