Theseus was the mythical king and founder-hero of Athens. His role in history has been called "a major cultural transition, like the making of the new Olympia by Hercules." The myths surrounding Theseus—his journeys, exploits, and friends—have provided material for fiction throughout the ages.
Electra is one of the most popular mythological characters in tragedies. She is the main character in two Greek tragedies, Electra by Sophocles and Electra by Euripides. She is also the central figure in plays by Aeschylus, Alfieri, Voltaire, Hofmannsthal, and Eugene O'Neill. She is a vengeful soul in The Libation Bearers, the second play of Aeschylus' Oresteia trilogy. She plans out an attack with her brother to kill their mother, Clytemnestra.
Eileen Mary Challans, best known by her pen name Mary Renault, was an English writer best known for her historical novels set in ancient Greece.
Leave Her to Heaven is a 1945 American psychological thriller film noir directed by John M. Stahl and starring Gene Tierney, Cornel Wilde, Jeanne Crain, and Vincent Price. It follows a socialite who marries a prominent novelist, which spurs a violent, obsessive, and dangerous jealousy in her. It is based on the 1944 novel of same name by Ben Ames Williams, adapted by screenwriter Jo Swerling.
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is a novel by Muriel Spark, the best known of her works. It was first published in The New Yorker magazine and was published as a book by Macmillan in 1961. The character of Miss Jean Brodie brought Spark international fame and brought her into the first rank of contemporary Scottish literature. In 2005, the novel was chosen by Time magazine as one of the one hundred best English-language novels from 1923 to present. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie No. 76 on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.
Captain Corelli's Mandolin, released simultaneously in the United States as Corelli's Mandolin, is a 1994 novel by the British writer Louis de Bernières, set on the Greek island of Cephalonia during the Italian and German occupation of the Second World War.
Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow was an American novelist who won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1942. A lifelong Virginian who published 20 books including seven novels which sold well as well as gained critical acclaim, Glasgow portrayed the changing world of the contemporary South, differing from the idealistic escapism that characterized Southern literature after Reconstruction.
Freaky Friday is a comedic children's novel written by Mary Rodgers, first published by Harper & Row in 1972. It has been adapted for several films, including versions in 1976, 1995, 2003, and 2018, and was reinterpreted as a horror film for Freaky (2020).
The Age of Innocence is a 1920 novel by American author Edith Wharton. It was her twelfth novel, and was initially serialized in 1920 in four parts, in the magazine Pictorial Review. Later that year, it was released as a book by D. Appleton & Company. It won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, making Wharton the first woman to win the prize. Though the committee had initially agreed to give the award to Sinclair Lewis for Main Street, the judges, in rejecting his book on political grounds, "established Wharton as the American 'First Lady of Letters'". The story is set in the 1870s, in upper-class, "Gilded Age" New York City. Wharton wrote the book in her 50s, after she had established herself as a strong author, with publishers clamoring for her work.
The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit is a novel by Charles Dickens, considered the last of his picaresque novels. It was originally serialised between 1842 and 1844. While he was writing it Dickens told a friend that he thought it was his best work, but it was one of his least popular novels.
Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton was an American author. Many of her novels are set in her home state of California. Her bestseller Black Oxen (1923) was made into a silent movie of the same name. In addition to novels, she wrote short stories, essays, and articles for magazines and newspapers on such issues as feminism, politics, and war.
Mary Roberts Rinehart was an American writer, often called the American Agatha Christie. Rinehart published her first mystery novel The Circular Staircase in 1908, which introduced the "had I but known" narrative style. Rinehart is also considered the source of "the butler did it" plot device in her novel The Door (1930), although the exact phrase does not appear in her work.
Tara is the name of a fictional plantation in the state of Georgia, in the historical novel Gone with the Wind (1936) by Margaret Mitchell. In the story, Tara is located 5 miles (8 km) from Jonesboro, in Clayton County, on the east side of the Flint River about 20 miles (32 km) south of Atlanta.
James Thomas Farrell was an American novelist, short-story writer and poet.
Angela Margaret Thirkell was an English and Australian novelist. She also published one novel, Trooper to Southern Cross, under the pseudonym Leslie Parker.
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is a 1969 British drama film directed by Ronald Neame from a screenplay written by Jay Presson Allen, adapted from her own stage play, which was in turn based on the 1961 novel of the same name by Muriel Spark. The film stars Maggie Smith in the title role as an unrestrained teacher at a girls' school in Edinburgh. Celia Johnson, Robert Stephens, Pamela Franklin, and Gordon Jackson are featured in supporting roles.
The Second Form at Malory Towers is a children's novel by Enid Blyton set in an English boarding school. It is the second book in the Malory Towers school story series. The novel was published in 1947 by Methuen Publishing. The first edition was illustrated by Stanley Lloyd, both the dust jacket and the inner illustrations. It has been reprinted 20 times, the most recent being in 2019. The Second Form at Malory Towers has a rating of 4.06 stars on Goodreads.
The Charioteer is a war novel by Mary Renault first published in London in 1953. Renault's US publisher (Morrow) refused to publish it until 1959 due to its generally positive portrayal of homosexuality. The Charioteer is significant because it features a prominent - and positive - gay theme at an early date and quickly became a bestseller - particularly within the gay community.
Mourning Ruby is the eighth novel by Helen Dunmore.
Co=ge=we=a, The Half-Blood: A Depiction of the Great Montana Cattle Range is a 1927 Western romance novel by Mourning Dove, also known as Hum-Ishu-Ma, or Christine Quintasket. It is one of the earliest novels written by an indigenous woman from the Plateau region. The novel includes the first example of Native American literary criticism.
