Looking at the back matter to The Queen's Secret, I've noticed that some of the upcoming Plaidy reissues are getting new titles:
Myself My Enemy, about Henrietta Maria, is going to be entitled Loyal in Love.
The Pleasures of Love, about Catherine of Braganza, is becoming The Merry Monarch's Wife.
William's Wife, about Mary, wife of William the Orange, is becoming The Queen's Devotion.
What do you think of these new titles? I think Myself My Enemy was somewhat better suited than the new title for the Henrietta Maria book, given the mood of the book, which is that of someone looking back on her mistakes and regretting some of her actions. Still, Henrietta Maria was certainly loyal. I did think that The Pleasures of Love was somewhat misleading for the Catherine of Braganza book, since poor Catherine is one of the few people in the novel who isn't enjoying the pleasures of love all that much. (And there is the difficulty of walking into a bookstore and demanding The Pleasures of Love; unless one hastens to mention Jean Plaidy, goodness knows what the clerk might pull up on the computer.)
William's Wife is definitely a dud of a title, but I'm not sure The Queen's Devotion is much of an improvement. It has a certain yawn-inducing quality to it. Given that one of Sarah Churchill's nicknames for William was "Caliban," I would have called it Caliban's Wife. But alas, no one ever asks me about these things.
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4 comments:
What about Gay Lord Robert. Didn't that just get changed to Lord Robert or something like that?
I think The Merry Monarch's Wife is a pretty good title. Not mad about the other two (though anything's better than William's Wife).
Whatever name they come under, I'm absolutely dizzy with excitement about these reissues! But I did agree with the Catherine of Braganza title - I think Charles enjoyed the pleasures more than Catherine.
I find that as soon I as track down a Plaidy novel, that's when the publisher decides to reissue it. So I should do the Plaidy fans out there a favor and track down some of the really hard-to-find ones. Voila! Reissue time.
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