In fairness, I think the first anyone heard of “Marvolo” as Riddle’s middle niddle—er, I mean name—was when he anagrammed it for Harry in the Chamber of Secrets. So it’s not a big surprise that no one else guessed the anagram.
Most of the stuff I was hoping for hasn’t panned out thus far. The ebook gets a few downloads each week, mostly as referrals from the HPMoR fan art page.
The American version definitely says in the flashback, “she lived just long enough to name me—Tom after my father, Marvolo after my grandfather.” (And the book introduced him as T.M. Riddle.) I have no reason to think the British version lacked this info.
Definitely not. First Riddle uses the diary as a Pensieve-style flashback machine and gives Harry this info, then Ginny steals the diary back, then we get to the CoS climax.
Oh yes, you’re right. So, yeah, a sufficiently ingenious reader might have noticed the (apparent) throwaway comment about the names, noticed that the letters of “Voldemort” are contained in “Tom Marvolo Riddle”, and worked out the rest before the big reveal fifty pages later. I remain of the opinion that it’s no big surprise if no one did.
In fairness, I think the first anyone heard of “Marvolo” as Riddle’s middle niddle—er, I mean name—was when he anagrammed it for Harry in the Chamber of Secrets. So it’s not a big surprise that no one else guessed the anagram.
Yeah, it was a total cheat. That’s why I put my anagram in the Dramatis Personae.
Incidentally, what’s happened with that play since I left my comment?
Most of the stuff I was hoping for hasn’t panned out thus far. The ebook gets a few downloads each week, mostly as referrals from the HPMoR fan art page.
That’s too bad. Maybe you should just re-release it for free so you at least get some readers?
The American version definitely says in the flashback, “she lived just long enough to name me—Tom after my father, Marvolo after my grandfather.” (And the book introduced him as T.M. Riddle.) I have no reason to think the British version lacked this info.
Am I misremembering? Isn’t that after the point where he anagrammatizes it for Harry in the CoS?
Definitely not. First Riddle uses the diary as a Pensieve-style flashback machine and gives Harry this info, then Ginny steals the diary back, then we get to the CoS climax.
Oh yes, you’re right. So, yeah, a sufficiently ingenious reader might have noticed the (apparent) throwaway comment about the names, noticed that the letters of “Voldemort” are contained in “Tom Marvolo Riddle”, and worked out the rest before the big reveal fifty pages later. I remain of the opinion that it’s no big surprise if no one did.