As much as I’m treating this as a title “trend,” having found a clustering of similarly titled works throughout the last couple decades or so, it is by no means an exclusively modern phenomenon.
The titling of classic works frequently followed a similar formula—for instance, the full title of the Dickens novel commonly called Nicholas Nickleby is actually properly titled The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, as the work by Lawrence Sterne known as Tristram Shandy is actually fully titled The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman.
Such “Life and Adventures” or “Life and Times/Opinions/Works” followed by a full proper name were common enough in the eighteenth and nineteenth century that including them all would simply fill up a list like this. So, while acknowledging their importance in setting precedent, we’ll steer away from most of those for the sake of brevity and variety.
I was still considering including several from the early twentieth century, but as two of them were short stories, I thought it better to give it a miss and keep my list to more current novels.
The earliest I go back is near the end of the twentieth century, which, really, is quite far enough, yielding already a list of–well, an indeterminate number, much like some of the lives and deaths of the titles themselves.
1. The Secret Life of… by Various Authors
There are a lot of secret lives, apparently, and authors who feel the need to expose them. I lumped them all together for the sake of… well, because I wanted to. Brevity, I suppose, is the usual completion of that phrase.
1a. …Laszlo, Count Dracula (1994) by Roderick Anscombe
Just last week I picked this up randomly in a thrift store because of the familiar formulaic title, only to soon put it down again. The story isn’t about Dracula at all, just some pervy med student in the late nineteenth century who happens to have the name Dracula and turns into a vampire-adjacent predator. A secret life that should have stayed secret, to my mind. Not likely to make it to my TBR anytime soon.
1b. …Ceecee Wilkes (2006) by Diane Chamberlain
I can’t recall where I came across this one, but a missing child and kidnapped woman combine to make this a thriller type story where the secret life is secret in the realest and most literal sense. I would be interested to read this one.
1c. …Violet Grant (2014) by Beatriz Williams
We know how I feel about historical novels that involve someone from one time period learning things about someone from another time period and having it affect them in their current life situation? No? I guess it bears repeating. This one is a novel of a niece finding out the carryings-on of her aunt during the era of World War I, and judging solely on that premise, I can’t say that it interests me. I can be convinced, but for now it’s a miss.
2. The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (2002) by Rebecca Miller
Also recently encountered in a thrift store, apparently this was made into a movie and now it’s hard to find anything resembling a decent story synopsis of the actual novel. Regardless, I gather it is a type of restrospective of the various lives one woman has had to lead in order to build her current situation. Was it worth it? Is she happy with her current life? Do her other lives stay private? I couldn’t say.
3. The Nine Lives of Charlotte Taylor (2007) by Sally Armstrong
I came across this recently in a Chapters: a fictionalized account of a real woman put together by her descendant, this story takes place in the 1770s and roams from Jamaica to what is now New Brunswick. It might make it to my TBR as it sounds like a fascinating story and I always appreciate a blend of fact and fiction. It is the most entertaining way to be educated.
4. The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells (2013) by Andrew Sean Greer
Facing an emotional crisis, a woman tries electroshock therapy only to find it transports her to alternate timelines and lives she might have lived in them. Variations of her own lived time and people she knows occur in infinite possibilities of might-have-beens. Or is she finding herself able to skip into alternate universes? I’m not sure what’s going on in this one, but it could be right up my alley, or not even in the same neighbourhood as my alley. Infinite possibilites, to be honest.
5. The Accidental Afterlife of Thomas Marsden (2015) by Emma Trevayne
A fantastical story about grave-robbing and faeries in Victorian London, this gives me strong The Good Thief vibes because of the grave-robbing… combined with Artemis Fowl, perhaps? Also, grim, Dickensian stories like The Convicts by Iain Lawrence come to mind, though I am quite sure that this one is a little more firmly in the middle-grade level for content, judging by its cover and a comparison to Coraline. It looks charming is all I can say, and fits the list though it probably won’t make it to my TBR.
6. The Afterlife of Holly Chase (2017) by Cynthia Hand (submitted by Becca)
This one was suggested on my last list by Becca Mionis, blogger at Words and Other Malarky and author of The Last Celestials and An Ocean of Stars. It’s seemingly a loose retelling of A Christmas Carol, in which the titular character is the Scrooge who has to take stock of her life, perhaps getting a second chance? Marketed as young adult, I don’t know whether I will make a point of reading this one, though I certainly thought I should back two Christmases ago when Becca suggested it. But who knows what future holiday times might hold (besides the Ghost of Christmas Future, obviously)?
7. The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna (2019) by Juliet Grames
The story of family, war, and generational rifts and bonds in an Italian immigrant family. It seems like it would be complex and rich, but the multigenerational aspect gives me pause. It is another family history told by someone in the “present,” which leads me to believe it treads dangerously close to the dual-timeline branch of historical novels. Not that they are always bad, mind you, I just habitually avoid them, in the same way I habitually avoid undercooked meat or small talk with my boss.
There are obviously other books and stories that follow this naming pattern, the aforementioned short stories, and even some movies. They didn’t make it into this list, but let me know if you’re interested in more of my findings!
You can check out my previous post on this title trend and please comment what books you’ve read on this list, or others you know of that fit the trend!
Fictitiously Yours 
Thank you for sharing.
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