Reading the titles of Georges Simenon's novels: an exercise in titology

Titles are distinctive features and usually the first contact the prospective reader makes with any kind of text. In line with Nord’s recipient-oriented concept of text function,this paper sets out first to investigate the function(s) and purpose(s) of the titles of Georges Simenon’s fiction in general. It then intends to establish to what extent the English and Italian titles of Simenon’s novels reiterate the function(s) of the original and their intended meaning with respect to the prospective reader. Furthermore, using a qualitative analysis, this contribution attempts to identify recurrent patterning in the structure of the titles characteristic of Simenon’s work (e.g. morphosyntactic structuring, noun grouping, inclusion/omission of particular elements) across the languages.