DICTIONARY OF LITERARY CHARACTERS

Sep 20, 2026

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Reference dictionary compiling more than 40,000 literary figures from novels, short stories, and plays across the United States, Great Britain, and worldwide literature. Entries are organized alphabetically by characters’ last names, with conventions for ambiguous surnames, foreign-language particles, and anonymous narrators. The preface explains selection criteria using curriculum lists, major prizes, contributor suggestions, and notes that not every work by an author is included. Includes indexes and lists of authors, titles, and contributors.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages2537

Reading Time65 h 7 min

AccessFree to download

Preface

Entries A–Z

List of Authors, Titles, and Characters Included

List of Titles Included

List of Contributors

Dictionary of Literary characters * Dictionary of Literary characters * Michael D. Sollars DICTIONARY OF LITERARY CHARACTERS Copyright © 2011 by Michael D. Sollars All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information contact: Facts On File, Inc. An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Sollars, Michael David. Dictionary of literary characters / Michael D. Sollars. [p. cm](p. cm). Includes bibliographical references and indexes. ISBN 978-0-8160-7379-5 (hc : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-4381-3289-1 (e-book) 1. Characters and characteristics in literature—Dictionaries. I. Title. PN56 .4.S66 2010 809' .92703—dc22 2009042853 Facts On File books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please call our Special Sales Department in New York at (212) 967-8800 or (800) 322-8755. You can find Facts On File on the World Wide Web at [http://www.factsonfile.com](http://www.factsonfile.com) Excerpts included herewith have been reprinted by permission of the copyright holders; the author has made every effort to contact copyright holders. The publishers will be glad to rectify, in future editions, any errors or omissions brought to their notice. Text design adapted by Kerry Casey Composition by Hermitage Publishing Services Cover printed by Sheridan Books, Ann Arbor, Mich. Book printed and bound by Sheridan Books, Ann Arbor, Mich. Date printed: November 2010 Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This book is printed on acid-free paper. Contents * Preface vii Entries A–Z 1 List of Authors, Titles, 2155 and Characters Included List of Titles Included 2494 List of Contributors 2525 PrefaCe * Welcome to the Dictionary of Literary Characters, an immense and unique collection of more than 40,000 literary figures found in novels, short stories, and plays from the United States, Great Britain, and all over the world. The literary works examined here range from ancient Greek classics such as Euripides’ Medea and Sophocles’ Antigone to 21st-century prizewinners such as Jeffrey Eugenides’ Middlesex. No other reference covers so many characters in so many different works. This set contains all the character entries published previously in Facts On File’s Dictionary of American Literary Characters and the Dictionary of British Literary Characters, both of which focused exclusively on novels. To those thousands of characters have been added many thousands more, from British and American novels published in the last 20 years, from classics of world literature, and from short stories and plays of all periods and places of origin. The result is a truly comprehensive collection of characters from the world’s greatest literature. The body of this dictionary consists of literary characters listed alphabetically (letter by letter) according to the character’s last name, ifa last name is available. Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, for example, is listed under the Fs. Huck’s companion Jim, however, whose last name is ambiguous, is listed under the Js. Foreign-language surnames beginning in a particle such as“de” are filed per the convention of the language in which the work the character figures in was originally published. Anonymous narrators are listed under the work they narrate. An extensive appendix lists all authors included in the dictionary in alphabetical order, in addition to the works included and the characters that have entries here. A briefer appendix lists all the works included in the set in alphabetical order. Readers who cannot recall the exact name of the chara

FAQs

How are character entries organized in the dictionary?

Entries are listed alphabetically letter by letter according to the character’s last name when available. Characters with ambiguous last names are filed under the next applicable letter, and anonymous narrators are listed under the work they narrate.

What kinds of works and authors are included?

The dictionary covers literary characters from novels, short stories, and plays from the United States, Great Britain, and around the world, ranging from ancient classics to modern prizewinning works. It also incorporates works that may be rarely anthologized.

Does the dictionary include every character from each included author’s works?

No. Being included as an author does not automatically mean that characters from all of their fictional works are included; some authors are represented by many works, while others are represented by a single major work.

Sep 20, 2026

Uploaded by Ivy