Some of the most influential and interesting people in the world are fictional. Sherlock Holmes, Huck Finn, Pinocchio, Anna Karenina, Genji, and Superman, to name a few, may not have walked the Earth (or flown, in Superman's case), but they certainly stride through our lives. They influence us personally: as childhood friends, catalysts to our dreams, or even fantasy lovers. Peruvian author and presidential candidate Mario Vargas Llosa, for one, confessed to a lifelong passion for Flaubert's Madame Bovary. Characters can change the world. Witness the impact of Solzhenitsyn's Ivan Denisovich, in exposing the conditions of the Soviet Gulag, or Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom, in arousing anti-slavery feeling in America. Words such as quixotic, oedipal, and herculean show how fictional characters permeate our language. This list of the Fictional 100 ranks the most influential fictional persons in world literature and legend, from all time periods and from all over the world, ranging from Shakespeare's Hamlet [1] to Toni Morrison's Beloved [100]. By tracing characters' varied incarnations in literature, art, music, and film, we gain a sense of their shape-shifting potential in the culture at large. Although not of flesh and blood, fictional characters have a life and history of their own. Meet these diverse and fascinating people. From the brash Hercules to the troubled Holden Caulfield, from the menacing plots of Medea to the misguided schemes of Don Quixote, The Fictional 100 runs the gamut of heroes and villains, young and old, saints and sinners. Ponder them, fall in love with them, learn from their stories the varieties of human experience--let them live in you.
Also new to this edition is the addition of an Online study resource--The COMPANION WEBSITE(TM) www.prenhall.com/pickering This site is a comprehensive resource that is organized alphabetically by the author's last name and features a ...
This book does not claim to be definitive; what it does offer is an accessible view of the impressive spectrum of imaginative writing which the genre's classic period has to offer.
Thanks to my editor at MIT Press , Susan Buckley , for her invaluable advice , and the editors of the first edition , Richard Dennis and Andrea Phillips . And thanks to my agent , Veronique Baxter . Thanks to my family , especially to ...
Included in this special edition is a detailed chronicle of the 20 most iconic movies that helped forge a new identity for a new genre.
Mr. Sweet was a diabetic and an alcoholic and a guitar player and lived down the road from us on a neglected cotton farm . My older brothers and sisters got the most benefit from Mr. Sweet , for when they were growing up he had quite a ...
One evening at his club, Cole clocks a striking, trenchcoated figure standing motionless at the bar, impassive behind his shades. Cole asks Catz, a mildly telepathic singer with the night's band, to scan the individual for information.
Bibliography Fahrenheit 451 (1953) Works Cited Bradbury, Ray. Interview by Dana Gioia. “Creating Fahrenheit 451.” National Endowment for the Arts Magazine, 3, 2006. “Bradbury on Censorship/Television.” Video clip. RayBradbury.com.
Though born out of exhaustion, fear, and despair, these stories are also fueled by themes of love, family, and endurance, and woven through with a delicate thread of hope for the future.
Inspired by surrealism and pop art, and charting science fiction’s emergence as a literary force, the postcards in this collection will appeal to legions of sci-fi devotees and design fans alike.
Down from the rarefied heights of academe and into the everyday discourse of ordinary readers, who bring their own expertise to bear on these novels.