[Satire] Cackling publisher translates all of book except title

[ownedbycats]

https://www.thebeaverton.com/2026/07...-except-title/

A SECRET SUBTERRANEAN LAIR IN AN UNSPECIFIED PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE OFFICE ― Stifling maniacal shouts of dastardly glee and stroking a white cat on his lap, editor Iago Heep sent the final copy to print of a newly translated Penguin Classics edition of the 1782 epistolary novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Choderlos de Laclos Monday, having intentionally reverted the translator’s English rendering of the title.

“This is my favourite part of the job,” explained Heep, which is an alias that he adopted at fourteen when he first decided he wanted to grow up into a literal literary supervillain. “There’s so much distasteful labour you have to do as an editor, reworking awkward sentences, catching grammar mistakes, bitterly watching authors succeed at what you always dreamed of doing and knowing it was you who gave them their first chance. But this makes it all worth it.”