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Book title origins

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annis
Bibliomaniac
Posts: 4585
Joined: August 2008

Book title origins

Post by annis » Fri June 24th, 2011, 11:28 pm

As I unpacked my copy of Simon Acland's Flowers of Evil (sequel to The Waste Land), I got to pondering over the title. I knew Acland must have taken it from Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du Mal, but what did Baudelaire originally take his title from? My hunt led me to this interesting blog with posts about the origins of book titles, called How Books Got their Titles - fun to browse if you're in a train-spotting mood :)

And where did Baudelaire get his title Fleurs du Mal/Flowers of Evil? No exotic quotation was involved. Baudelaire chose two different titles for his book of poems, neither of which worked out. Frustrated, he ran an informal naming competition while he was at a cafe with some friends and Fleurs du Mal was the unanimous winner!
Last edited by annis on Fri June 24th, 2011, 11:39 pm, edited 6 times in total.

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