Subtitles: When One Title Just Isn't Enough
Deborah Friedell on subtitles, surprisingly
Recently published (and possibly available from the London Review Bookshop):
Fire: The Spark that Ignited Human Evolution
Potato: A History of the Propitious Esculent
The Secret Lives of Boys: Inside the Raw Emotional World of Male Teens
William Golding: The Man Who Wrote 'Lord of the Flies'
We Two: Victoria and Albert: Rulers, Partners, Rivals
The Eiger Obsession: Facing the Mountain that Killed My Father
Flotsametrics and the Floating World: How One Man's Obsession with Runaway Sneakers and Rubber Ducks Revolutionised Ocean Science
The Atmosphere of Heaven: The Unnatural Experiments of Dr Beddoes and his Sons of Genius
The Making of Miranda: From Gentleman to Gentlewoman in One Lifetime
Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities and Occasional Moments of Grace
Mr America: How Muscular Millionaire Bernarr Macfadden Transformed the Nation through Sex, Salad and the Ultimate Starvation Diet
The Whole Five Feet: What the Great Books Taught Me about Life, Death and Pretty Much Everything Else
Comments
'Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan'
Also, John Sutherland's LRB report on the 1993 MLA convention included some subtitular whoppers from the list of talks and panels.
‘Star Power: or, How to (De)Flower the Rectal Brain: the Increments and Excrements of “Influence” in Dorian Gray and Edward II’
Teledildonics: Virtual Lesbians in the Fiction of Jeanette Winterson’
Flattened Fauna: A Field Guide to Common Animals of Roads, Streets and Highways (1987)
Wall-to-Wall America: A Cultural History of Post-Office Murals in the Great Depression (1982)
Benedictine Maledictions: Liturgical Cursing in Romanesque France (1993)
and the unforgettable
Honor and Slavery: Lies, Duels, Noses, Masks, Dressing as a Woman, Gifts, Strangers, Humanitarianism, Death, Slave Rebellions, the Proslavery Argument, Baseball, Hunting, and Gambling in the Old South (1996).