I. Introduction

David Copperfield, which is regarded as Charles Dickens’ autobiographical novel, had been translated into Chinese as << 块肉余生述 >> by Mr. Lin Shu. “ 余生 ” means a narrow escape in Chinese, and “ 块肉 ” appeals to the images of feebleness and solitude in Chinese, so the Chinese version title << 块肉余生述 >>, leads its readers to imagine naturally that this novel deals with a survivor''s experiences, which has nothing to do with the theme of this book. The fact that it has been retranslated as << 大卫 . 科波菲尔 >>proves that this version is not available. One should not translate a source book title into target title unrestrictively. There are premises that translation of a book title should work on. And there are also guidelines that one should obey while committing translation of a book title. Short as book title is, it is crucial to the entire book.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss three guidelines of translation a book title, namely, cultural exchange principle, cultural recasting principle ① , and the aesthetic principle.

II. The Premises to Translate a Book Title

Title is one of the most essential components of a book. It is the “eye” of the book, which appeals readers, and implies, maybe, the theme of the story that the book tells, or what kind of book it is. A successful translation of a book title is a wonderful beginning, and in a sense, a perfect result as well. How to translate a book title into target language successfully? What should one concern about? What are the premises to translate a book title? Comprehension, at least, of the book''s abstract is the first step. Thorough comprehension of the book''s theme is the second. Without these, the translation of its title is a lost one, or even a wrong one, which can not connect with its source title at all.

David Copperfield, which appeared between 1849 and 1850, is an apple of Dickens’ eye. “Many of the events of its hero''s childhood and his romances with Dora are clearly reminiscences of Dickens’ youth.” ( 吴伟仁 ,1988:159) “In ‘David Copperfield’ Dickens has made good use of his own life experience to expose the social evils of the day, such as the miseries of child-labor, the tyranny in schools, the debtors'' prison, as well as the cruelty, the immorality and the treachery that are prevalent in the English bourgeois world.” (