Dictionary of Literary Characters

2537 Pages·2010·19.04 MB·English

by  Sollars, Michael David.

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,
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sollars, Michael David.
Dictionary of literary characters / Michael D. Sollars.
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
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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.
C
ontents
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Preface vii
Entries A–Z 1
List of Authors, Titles, 2155
and Characters Included
List of Titles Included 2494
List of Contributors 2525

P
refaCe
*
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 Diction-
ary 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 clas-
sics 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 let-
ter) according to the character’s last name, if a 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
character they wish to research can therefore easily find it by consulting these appendixes.
The development of this collection involved a commitment of many years by many schol-
ars. Choosing which authors and works to include was the first challenge, and perhaps the
greatest. We examined curriculum lists, reference works, and textbooks as well as lists of win-
ners (and even short-lists of potential winners) of such major prizes as the Nobel and Pulitzer
Prizes, National Book Award, PEN/Faulkner Award, Edgar Allan Poe Award, O. Henry Prize,
and awards outside the United States such as the Prix Goncourt and George Büchner Prize.
Some acclaimed best-selling works of popular and genre fiction were also marked for inclu-
sion. Furthermore, suggestions from our contributors, editorial advisers, and other scholarly
supporters were considered. Because a writer is included does not mean that characters from
all of his or her fictional works are included. In some instances most of an author’s works
appear, while in other instances a writer’s fiction is represented by a single major work.
vii
viii  Preface
A further goal was to include works from every continent and as many languages as possi-
ble. Classic works often neglected in American classrooms are included here, such as Murasaki
Shikibu’s medieval The Tale of Genji; Shudraka’s Sanskrit play The Little Clay Cart; and the
classical Chinese play The Circle of Chalk, which spotlights the intriguing young heroine
Chang-hi-tang. Some important works that today are rarely anthologized, perhaps because of
changes in literary fashion, have been resurrected here. An example is Conrad Aiken’s “Silent
Snow, Secret Snow.”
The entries in the dictionary are brief but informative. They often include descriptions of
the significance of those characters in the plots of the works. Characters that are also historical
figures, such as Socrates, Abraham Lincoln, and Pancho Villa, are treated in the same manner
as solely fictional characters.
This compendium of characters will aid the reader in many pursuits, whether academic or
leisurely. We hope this reference will encourage readers to consider characters the primary
subject of literary works, as opposed to plot. Exploring characters is often the best way to seek
out the heart of any literary work, but too often we readers, no matter how experienced, focus
instead simply on what happens. In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart,” for example, we
should examine first the state of mind of the mad first-person narrator, whose inner life is
so much more dramatic and thrilling even than the story’s stunning plot. Furthermore, this
collection will be of use to students and scholars in providing an overview of how an author
treats characters over the span of his or her work, or how a number of related authors treat
their characters. Finally, by providing a global perspective, this collection enables students to
explore how different authors from different backgrounds create their characters—both the
similarities and the differences can be striking. Most important of all, we hope this reference
will encourage students and general readers to return to the great works in which these char-
acters are featured.
Michael D. Sollars, Editor
a
*
A Daughter of Nimni and Ohiro-Moldona-Fivona in Her- A—, M. French Academician, who dines with Mr. Home
man Melville’s Mardi. de Bassompierre in Charlotte Brontë’s Villette.
“A” Moribund woman at age 92, invalided, and facing A—, Marquis of Wily and successful statesman, who is a
death’s door; autocratic, proud, vain, and naturally mean- member of the Scottish Privy Council and a kinsman to Edgar
spirited nonagenarian; recalls to two other women named B Ravenswood; he aids Edgar in his struggle against Sir Wil-
and C at her bedside her past as once a poor young girl who liam Ashton in Sir Walter Scott’s The Bride of Lammermoor.
married into money; life filled with expensive jewelry, riding
horses, and love affairs; lost her husband to prostate cancer; Aardvaark, Captain (Aarfy) Fraternity man and navi-
her son seldom visits; attempts to put her will and papers in gator in Yossarian’s squadron; rapes an Italian chambermaid
order in Edward Albee’s play Three Tall Women and throws her out a window to her death to avoid a blot on
his reputation in Joseph Heller’s Catch-22.
A . . . Narrator’s young wife whose name is never given;
suspected by her husband of having an affair with Franck, Aaron Jewish moneychanger hired by the Prior of Saint
a neighboring plantation owner; her every gesture is Mary’s to testify against Hugh Woodreeve in Ann Radcliffe’s
minutely described in an accusatory manner, although no Gaston de Blondeville.
wrongdoing is ever confirmed; agitated by a centipede that
Franck crushes to death in her and her husband’s pres- Aaron Moorish lover of Tamora and father of her son;
ence; travels with Franck to the port, where they remain orchestrates the plot to kill Bassianus and rape and mutilate
together for a night, raising further suspicions in the mind Lavinia; kills his baby’s nurse; gleefully confesses his crimes
of the intensely observing narrator in Alain Robbe-Grillet’s to Lucius in exchange for his son’s life; buried up to his
Jealousy. neck to starve by Lucius in William Shakespeare’s play Titus
Andronicus.
A—, Lady Louisa Aristocratic recipient of Mrs. Darn-
ford’s letters on education; she seeks to hire Mrs. Darnford Aaron Hebrew son of Amram, brother of Miriam (and
as a governess for her daughters, who are to be educated at perhaps of Moses), and first high priest of the Israelites;
home in Clara Reeve’s Plans of Education. killed and entombed by Moses on Mount Hor in Zora Neale
Hurston’s Moses, Man of the Mountain.
A—, Lord Aristocratic husband of Lady A—; he once pro-
posed to Mrs. Darnford and occasionally comments on her Aaron, Jimmy Young black man who is murdered when
letters in Clara Reeve’s Plans of Education. he returns to the plantation to organize and lead his people