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Hermione whispered, "Its bewitched to look like the sky outside. I read about it in Hogwarts: A History." (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone)
I think the name of the book would be better with ‘the’ instead of ‘a’, because the book is about the history of the specific school, Hogwarts. Now, why does the name have ‘a’?
Listenever
Posted 2013-05-04T02:54:53.397
Reputation: 25 811
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The colon is conventional, indicating that what follows is the subtitle. In English books this is often a generic description, allowing the author (or publisher) to put the topic first, in bigger letters:
Hogwarts: A History
Sardanapalus: A Tragedy
Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution
Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life
The subtitle may be an alternative title rather than a genre
Oliver Twist: The Parish Boy's Progress
Another strategy is to introduce the subtitle with or:
Leviathan, or the Matter, Forme, & Power of a Common-Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civill
The Hobbit, or There And Back Again
Frankenstein or, The Modern Prometheus
Kurt Vonnegut famously did both:
Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance With Death
StoneyB on hiatus
Posted 2013-05-04T02:54:53.397
Reputation: 176 469
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It's a because it's one account of history of Hogwart's – there could be many others.
Consider:
Hogwarts: The History
Using the instead of a might sound rather presumptuous of the author, don't you think? Almost as if no one else would ever be capable of putting together another account.
The practice of doing this in titles is rather common; have a look:
Each of these works is one biography (perhaps out of many) about each person in the title.
J.R.
Posted 2013-05-04T02:54:53.397
Reputation: 108 123
1This is exactly what the OP is asking. – kiamlaluno – 2013-05-05T20:44:22.383
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History is a noun that tells the reader what type of book Hogwarts: A History is. Because it's a noun, it requires an article in this context. See this Wikipedia article about Nehru's autobiography.
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One of the reasons I believe is that it isn't constant. History can be expanded as newer events take place(as they do in the seven years).
Using A History for the name/subtitle makes it like a log of all the events. These events can further be added to, edited and stuff similar to what Wikipedia entries are.
hjpotter92
Posted 2013-05-04T02:54:53.397
Reputation: 2 621
2This doesn't explain why it is "A History," and not "The History." It explains what "A History" is in the title, but not what the OP is asking. – kiamlaluno – 2013-05-05T20:43:21.863
2@kiamlaluno Because it is a genre description, not a name. "This book is a history". There are many histories of many topics, and this is just one of them. – StoneyB on hiatus – 2013-05-05T21:07:55.657