In the page you are looking at now, the answer is generally the name of a character.
Author |
Title | | |
Character(s) |
(James Malcolm Rymer, Thomas Peckett Prest) |
The String of Pearls |
First appeared in this Victorian "penny dreadful" (1846–7) – subtitled,
when published in book form (1850), The Demon Barber of Fleet Street |
|
Sweeney Todd |
(Johnston McCulley) |
(The Curse of Capistrano) |
Secret identity of Don Diego de la Vega |
|
Zorro |
Douglas Adams |
The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy |
The hapless protagonist – who escapes the destruction of the Earth as it is demolished by the Vogons to make way
for a hyperspace bypass |
|
Arthur Dent |
The experienced galactic hitch–hiker (a field researcher for the Guide) who guides Arthur through the galaxy,
having rescued him after he lay down in front of a Vogon bulldozer |
|
Ford Prefect |
Ford Prefect's two–headed "semi–half–cousin", from a planet in the vicinity of
Betelgeuse – a former President of the Galaxy, and the inventor of the pan–galactic gargle blaster ("the alcoholic equivalent
of a mugging") |
|
Zaphod Beeblebrox |
Planet designer who won an award for his work on the fjords of Norway |
|
Slartibartfast |
The only surviving human (after the Earth is destroyed), apart from Arthur Dent |
|
Trillian
|
The 'Paranoid Android': a robot on board the starship Heart of Gold, with a "brain the size
of a planet" |
|
Marvin |
Based (according to Adams) on Andrew Marshall – a comedy scriptwriter, best known for the 1990s BBC sitcom
2point4 Children |
Richard Adams |
Watership Down |
The protagonist, who leads the rabbits to Watership Down from their old warren, and eventually becomes their Chief Rabbit
– voiced in the film by John Hurt, and elegised in the song Bright Eyes |
|
Hazel |
Younger brother of the above: a seer, who has visions and strong instincts; voiced in the film by Richard Briers |
|
Fiver |
The largest and bravest rabbit of the group: severely wounded in a battle with the antagonist (see below), but survives and
becomes the head of the Owsla (military caste) at Watership Down |
|
Bigwig |
Clever rabbit who rescues the above from the snare that almost kills him |
|
Blackberry |
The main antagonist: leads an attack on the Watership warren; dies in a fight with a farm dog, he lives on in rabbit legend
as a bogeyman |
|
General Woundwort |
The narrator |
|
Dandelion |
Joy Adamson |
Born Free |
Name of the lion |
|
Elsa |
Louisa May Alcott |
Little Women |
Surname of Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy |
|
March |
Dante Alighieri |
The Divine Comedy |
Roman poet who guided Dante through Hell and Purgatory |
|
Virgil |
Dante's inspiration, who guided him through Paradise |
|
Beatrice |
Kingsley Amis |
Lucky Jim |
Surname of Lucky Jim |
|
Dixon |
Jane Austen |
Emma |
Emma's surname (before she marries Mr. Knightley) |
|
Woodhouse |
Jane Austen |
Pride and Prejudice |
Surname of sisters Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Catherine (Kitty) and Lydia
|
|
Bennet |
Pompous clergyman, turned down by Elizabeth, marries Charlotte Lucas |
|
William Collins |
The
'single man in possession of a good fortune' who eventually marries Elizabeth |
|
Fitzwilliam Darcy |
Enemy of Mr. Darcy, who marries Elizabeth's youngest sister Lydia |
|
George Wickham |
Friend of Mr. Darcy, who marries Elizabeth's beloved elder sister Jane |
|
Charles Bingley |
H. E. Bates |
The Darling Buds of May |
Family |
|
Larkin |
Harriet Beecher Stowe |
Uncle Tom's Cabin |
"Never had no father, nor mother, nor nothin'. I
'spect I just growed" |
|
Topsy |
R. D. Blackmore |
Lorna Doone |
Name of the narrator |
|
John (Jan) Ridd |
The violent and uncontrollable heir of the Doones – the 'foil' to the narrator |
|
Carver Doone |
John Braine |
Room at the Top |
Hero |
|
Joe Lampton |
Charlotte Bronte |
Jane Eyre |
"Reader, I married him": whom did she marry? |
|
Mr. Rochester |
Mr. Rochester's first names |
|
Edward Fairfax |
Emily Bronte |
Wuthering Heights |
The principal male character: an orphaned gypsy boy,
who loves Catherine; played in the 1939 film by Laurence Olivier |
|
Heathcliff |
Catherine's surname (before she married) |
|
Earnshaw |
Son of a neighbouring family, whom Catherine marries |
|
Edgar Linton |
Edgar's sister, whom Heathcliff marries |
|
Isabella |
Catherine's brother |
|
Hindley |
John Buchan |
The Thirty–Nine Steps |
Hero |
|
Richard Hannay |
John Bunyan |
Pilgrim's Progress |
Central character |
|
Christian |
Anthony Burgess |
A Clockwork Orange |
Central character |
|
Alex DeLarge |
Francis Hodgson Burnett |
Little Lord Fauntleroy |
Little Lord Fauntleroy was the heir to the |
|
Earl of Dorincourt |
Edgar Rice Burroughs |
(Tarzan stories) |
John Clayton, Viscount Greystoke (known in some later adaptations as Earl of
Greystoke) is better known as |
|
Tarzan |
Miguel de Cervantes |
Don Quixote |
Described by his companion (squire) as 'knight of the sorrowful countenance';
tilted at windmills, mistaking them for giants |
|
Don Quixote |
Leslie Charteris |
(various) |
Character uses several aliases including Sebastian Tombs and Sugarman Treacle |
|
Simon Templar (The Saint) |
Lee Child |
(various) |
Hero of over 20 novels, beginning with Killing Floor (1997): a 6' 5"
former major in the US military police; played in two films by Tom Cruise (5' 7") |
|
Jack Reacher |
Bernard Cornwell |
(various) |
Named after an England rugby captain who won 16 caps, including two for the Lions,
between 1960 and 1967 (with an 'e' added at the end) |
|
Richard Sharpe |
RSM Patrick Harper (originally an antagonist; played on TV by Daragh O'Malley)
was the right–hand man of |
Baroness d'Orczy |
The Scarlet Pimpernel |
The Scarlet Pimpernel's real name |
|
Sir Percy Blakeney |
Fyodr Dostoevsky |
Crime and Punishment |
Central character: impoverished student and murderer |
|
Raskolnikoff |
Arthur Conan Doyle |
(Various) |
"When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains,
however improbable, must be the truth" |
|
Sherlock Holmes |
Alexandre Dumas (pere) |
The Count of Monte Cristo |
Protagonist (name of the title character) |
|
Edmond Dantes |
Alexandre Dumas (pere) |
The Three Musketeers |
Protagonist (a friend and associate of the title characters) |
|
d'Artagnan |
George du Maurier |
Trilby |
Hypnotist and mesmerist |
|
Svengali |
T. S. Eliot |
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats |
Named after a book of the Bible |
|
Old Deuteronomy |
James Fenimore Cooper |
Last of the Mohicans |
Name of the Last of the Mohicans |
|
Chingachgook |
Son of Chingachgook |
|
Ungas |
F. Scott Fitzgerald |
The Great Gatsby |
Full name of the title character |
|
James Gatz |
The attractive (though shallow and self–absorbed) young debutante and
socialite who is the subject of the title character's obsession |
|
Daisy Buchanan |
Ian Fleming |
(Various) |
Attended Fettes College in Edinburgh, after being expelled from Eton following
an indiscretion involving a laundry maid |
|
James Bond |
John Galsworthy |
The Forsyte Saga |
Possessive central character of the first novel, A Man of Property |
|
Soames Forsyte |
Earle Stanley Gardner |
The Case of the Velvet Claws |
First appearance of |
|
Perry Mason |
Mrs. (Elizabeth) Gaskell |
The Half–Brothers |
First appeared in Mrs. Gaskell's
short story The Half–Brothers; first appeared on film in 1943 –
since when, despite being female, she has been played (on film and TV) by at
least five different males |
|
Lassie |
Stella Gibbons |
Cold Comfort Farm |
Family that owned the farm |
|
Starkadder |
Goethe |
Faust |
Evil spirit, Faust's tempter |
|
Mephistopheles |
Winston Graham |
Poldark (series) |
Title character of the fourth novel in the series: Ross Poldark's arch–enemy; an industrialist and businessman,
regarded as an upstart by the aristocracy; becomes enamoured of Poldark's first love, Elizabeth, eventually marrying her after she is widowed |
|
George Warleggan |
Graham Greene |
Brighton Rock |
Teenage gang leader – a "frighteningly immature teenage psychopath" |
|
Pinkie Brown |
Philippa Gregory |
The White Queen |
The White Queen was (historical character) |
|
Elizabeth Woodville |
... consort of |
|
Edward IV |
G. & W. Grossmith |
Diary of a Nobody |
The nobody |
|
Charles Pooter |
H. Ryder Haggard |
King Solomon's Mines |
Protagonist of this and its sequels (an English big game hunter and adventurer) |
|
Allan Quartermain |
Thomas Hardy |
Far from the Madding Crowd |
Central character – inherits her father's farm at start of book |
|
Bathsheba Everdene |
Handsome and unprincipled soldier, Bathsheba's first husband |
|
Sergeant Troy |
The farmer who Bathsheba agrees to marry, but who shoots Troy on his reappearance |
|
Boldwood |
The shepherd who is Bathsheba's first suitor and second husband |
|
Gabriel Oak |
Mother of Troy's child, whom he deserts before marrying Bathsheba |
|
Fanny Robin |
Thomas Hardy |
Jude the Obscure |
Jude's surname |
|
Fawley |
Thomas Hardy |
The Mayor of Casterbridge |
Name of the eponymous character, who sells his wife and baby daughter for
five guineas after arguing with his wife when drunk |
|
Michael Henchard |
Thomas Hardy |
Tess of the D'Urbervilles |
Clergyman's son that Tess falls in love with and marries |
|
Angel Clare |
False young man that Tess murders, after having his child |
|
Alec D'Urberville |
Joseph Heller |
Catch–22 |
"Some men are born mediocre; some men achieve mediocrity; and some men
have mediocrity thrust upon them. With …, it had been all three" |
|
Major Major Major Major |
O. Henry |
The Caballero's Way |
Character that first appeared in this short story |
|
The Cisco Kid |
James Hilton |
Goodbye Mr. Chips |
Mr. Chips's full surname |
|
Chipping |
E. W. Hornung |
|
Amateur cricketer and "gentleman thief" – known as 'The
Amateur Cracksman' – assisted by Harry "Bunny" Manders |
|
(A. J.) Raffles |
Thomas Hughes |
Tom Brown's Schooldays |
School bully who persecutes the title character but gets expelled for
drunkenness; later turned into a military anti–hero by George MacDonald Fraser |
|
(Harry) Flashman |
Victor Hugo |
Les Misérables |
Unmarried mother that Valjean sends to a hospital (where she dies of shock ... ) |
|
Fantine |
Daughter of the above, whom Valjean ransoms from her cruel foster parents
and raises as his own daughter, after her mother's death |
|
Cosette |
Notre Dame de Paris |
Gypsy girl that Quasimodo falls in love with |
|
Esmeralda |
Washington Irving |
|
Fell asleep for 20 years and missed the American War of Independence |
|
Rip Van Winkle |
Kazuo Ishiguro |
The Remains of the Day |
Narrator and central character (played in the film by Anthony Hopkins) |
|
Stevens |
Jerome K. Jerome |
Three Men in a Boat |
Name of the dog |
|
Montmorency |
Stephen King |
It |
Name of the 'dancing clown' in which form the titular "ancient
cosmic evil" usually appears |
|
Pennywise |
Stieg Larsson |
Millennium trilogy |
Name of the character referred to in the titles |
|
Lisbeth Salander |
In the stories, Millennium is a |
|
Magazine |
D. H. Lawrence |
Lady Chatterley's Lover |
Lady Chatterley's first name |
|
Constance (Connie) |
First name of Lady Chatterley's husband (Lord Chatterley) |
|
Clifford |
Name of the eponymous gamekeeper |
|
Oliver Mellors |
Anita Loos |
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes |
Heroine |
|
Lorelei Lee |
Captain Maryatt |
Children of the New Forest |
The children's surname |
|
Beverley |
H. C. McNeile |
(various) |
The Black Gang (1922) was the second novel (the first being self–titled,
and describing him as "detective, patriot, hero and gentleman") to feature |
|
Hugh 'Bulldog' Drummond |
Herman Melville |
Moby Dick |
Narrator – the only survivor of the wreck of the Pequod |
|
Ishmael |
One–legged captain of the Pequod |
|
Ahab |
First mate of the Pequod |
|
Starbuck |
Thomas Middleton,
William Rowley | The Changeling (play) |
Heroine |
|
Beatrice Joanna |
Margaret Mitchell |
Gone with the Wind |
Scarlett O'Hara's three husbands |
|
Charles Hamilton |
|
Frank Kennedy |
|
Rhett Butler |
The gallant Confederate soldier who Scarlett saw as "the perfect
knight"; "She loved him and wanted him and did not understand him" |
|
Ashley Wilkes |
Upsets Scarlett by marrying Ashley, who is her distant cousin; Scarlett
marries her brother in revenge |
|
Melanie Hamilton |
John Mortimer |
Rumpole stories |
Rumpole's first name |
|
Horace |
Vladimir Nabokov |
Lolita |
Middle–aged academic who is unable to resist the charms of the title character |
|
Humbert Humbert |
George Orwell |
Animal Farm |
Human owner of the farm – said to represent Tsar Nicholas II of Russia |
|
Mr. Jones
|
Owner of Pinchfield, a successful neighbouring farm – said to represent
Hitler and the Nazi Party |
|
Mr. Frederick |
Owner of Foxwood, a run–down neighbouring farm – said to represent
the Western powers |
|
Mr. Pilkington |
Most of the principal animals (including the three
below) are |
|
Pigs |
Leader of the animals, said to represent Stalin |
|
Napoleon |
Main rival to the above – said to represent Trotsky |
|
Snowball |
'Public spokesperson' of the animals' leader |
|
Squealer |
Hired by the animals' leader to represent Animal Farm in human society
– said to represent Western intellectual Socialists such as George Bernard Shaw |
|
Mr. Whymper |
Name of the heroic shire horse – "the tragic avatar of the
working class" |
|
Boxer |
His friend, representing the educated middle classes |
|
Clover |
George Orwell |
1984 |
Central character |
|
Winston Smith |
Nameless Party leader (dictator of Oceania) |
|
Big Brother |
"Inner party" member who proves to be Smith's nemesis |
|
O'Brien |
Smith's lover, a fellow "thought criminal" (and "sex
criminal") |
|
Julia |
Alexander Pope |
The Rape of the Lock |
The wronged heroine, after whom one of Uranus's moons is named |
|
Belinda |
The gnome or sprite whose name was also given to a moon of Uranus |
|
Umbriel |
Nicholas Rowe |
The Fair Penitent |
Philanderer who first appeared in |
|
Lothario |
Walter Scott |
Ivanhoe |
Ivanhoe's first name |
|
Wilfred |
First name of Ivanhoe's father – invented by Scott for this character |
|
Cedric |
Ward of the above, and Ivanhoe's 'love interest'; they marry
at the end of the novel (after his father finally agrees) |
|
Rowena |
'Healer' who tends to Ivanhoe after he is wounded in a joust, and for
whom he successfully fights a duel after she is accused of witchcraft; daughter of the money–lender,
Isaac of York |
|
Rebecca |
Walter Scott |
Rob Roy |
Rob Roy's second name |
|
MacGregor |
Mary Shelley |
Frankenstein |
Frankenstein's first name |
|
Viktor |
Richard B. Sheridan |
The Rivals |
Character famous for ludicrous misuse of words |
|
Mrs. Malaprop |
Muriel Spark |
|
Miss Christina Kaye, of James Gillespie School, was the model for |
|
Miss Jean Brodie |
John Steinbeck |
The Grapes of Wrath |
Family |
|
Joad |
Robert Louis Stevenson |
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde |
Dr. Jekyll's first name |
|
Henry |
Mr. Hyde's first name |
|
Edward |
Jonathan Swift |
Gulliver's Travels |
Gulliver's first name |
|
Lemuel |
W. M. Thackeray |
Vanity Fair |
Becky Sharp marries |
|
Capt. Rawdon Crawley |
Character who shares his name with a member of David Cameron's Cabinet |
|
George Osborne |
Leo Tolstoy |
Anna Karenina |
Anna's adulterous lover |
|
Count Vronsky |
Sue Townsend |
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole |
The love of Adrian's life – becomes a Blair's Babe |
|
Pandora Braithwaite |
Mark Twain |
|
Title character of three novels; also appears in the Adventures of [his friend]
Huckleberry Finn |
|
Tom Sawyer |
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer |
Tom's sweetheart |
|
Becky Thatcher |
Dark–hearted villain, half native American, who seeks revenge on
Becky's father Judge Thatcher |
|
Injun Joe |
|
Narrator of Tom Sawyer Abroad and Tom Sawyer, Detective |
|
Huckleberry Finn |
Jules Verne |
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea |
Captain of the Nautilus |
|
Nemo |
Jules Verne |
Around the World in 80 Days |
Hero – lived at No. 7 Savile Row, London
|
|
Phileas Fogg |
His manservant |
|
Passepartout |
Voltaire |
Candide |
Tutor to the title character: a self–proclaimed incurable optimist,
who insists that "all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds" – i.e.
this one (a satire on Leibniz, in whose philosophy this is a central tenet) |
|
Dr. Pangloss |
Keith Waterhouse |
Billy Liar |
Billy's surname |
|
Fisher |
Evelyn Waugh |
Brideshead Revisited |
Master of Brideshead – returns there and is converted to Catholicism
on his deathbed; played on TV by Laurence Olivier |
|
Marquess of Marchmain |
H. G. Wells |
The Invisible Man |
Name of the central character (no first name is given in the book) |
|
Griffin |
T. H. White |
The Sword in the Stone |
Nickname of the future King Arthur |
|
Wart |
(P. G. Wodehouse) |
(Various) |
Lives at 3A Berkeley Mansions, London W1; has an Aunt Agatha, and friends
called Bingo Little and Gussie Fink–Nottle |
|
Bertie Wooster |
(Various) |
Jeeves's first name |
|
Reginald |
(Various) |
Member of the Drones Club: a monocle–wearing Old Etonian, and something
of a dandy; a fluent and witty speaker, with a remarkable ability to pass through the most amazing
adventures unruffled; has a friend called Mike Jackson – a keen cricketer; first name Rupert
(later changed to Ronald Eustace); the initial letter of his surname (which he admits he adopted
himself as there are too many people with this common surname) is silent; based (according to
Wodehouse) on Rupert D'Oyly Carte, son of the famous impresario |
|
Psmith |
Herman Wouk |
The Caine Mutiny |
Captain of the USS Caine – played in the film by Humphrey
Bogart |
|
Queeg |