what is a fictional biography called

This Reading Life

"Well, there’s so much to read, and I’m so far behind." Wallace Stegner

Fictionalised Biography or Biographical Fiction?

As most of you know by now, I love and adore historical fiction . It’s my preferred genre, although I will have a go at most things if it’s well-written, has an interesting premise or I’m in the mood. However my go-to, when I need a guaranteed read, a read I can simply fall into with comfort and ease, will always be historical fiction.

Historical fiction is a novel where an author sets their book in a period of time before their own and populates it with fictional characters (think Thomas Keneally, Geraldine Brooks, James A. Michener). To refine this even further, you could include authors who write about the immediate past. A time they may have lived through themselves or perhaps their grandparents lived through, providing a personal perspective to the historical context (think Tolstoy, Zola, Harper Lee).

In and around this are books that might be classified as alternate histories (think The Man in the High Castle or Stephen King’s 11/22/63 or George Orwell’s 1984 ) where the author plays with what might have happened if just one event changed.

AH is a genre of speculative fiction consisting of stories in which one or more historical events occur differently. These stories usually contain “what if” scenarios at crucial points in history and present outcomes other than those in the historical record. The stories are conjectural but are sometimes based on fact (wikipedia). 

We can also have books that are historical now by default. I guess you might call them period piece fiction or literary realism. These are novels that are now historical to us, but they were once contemporary (think Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Louisa May Alcott). For the modern reader, the historical period and setting of these novels now plays an important part in understanding what’s happening to our beloved characters.

And then there is the relatively new fictionalised biography .

Or is that, biographical fiction?

Whichever way you look it, it’s where an author takes real events and real people and makes up stuff about what they said and did to make a story. I love this sub-genre. When done well, it can provide insights into a time and place or a much-loved person that would be impossible to know otherwise, due to the sparsity of primary sources (think Hilary Mantel, Robert Graves, Philippa Gregory).

The  biographical novel  is a  genre  of novel which provides a fictional account of a contemporary or historical person’s life. This kind of novel concentrates on the experiences a person had during his lifetime, the people they met and the incidents which occurred. Like other forms of biographical fiction, details are often trimmed or reimagined to meet the artistic needs of the fictional genre, the novel. These reimagined biographies are sometimes called  semi-biographical novels , to distinguish the relative historicity of the work from other biographical novels (wikipedia).

One of the things I love about this particular genre is it’s ability to view history through a different lens.

In recent times, many authors have been exploring history through a feminist lens or an Indigenous lens (think The Secret River, Benang  or  Alias Grace ). Given that the historical record favours the winners (who usually happen to be older white men) being reminded that other people were involved and impacted is a good thing. A necessary thing.

Historical facts and data are not static; they have always been open to differing opinions and manipulation.

historical revisionism  identifies the re-interpretation of a historical account.  It usually involves challenging the orthodox (established, accepted or traditional) views held by professional scholars about an historical event or time-span or phenomenon, introducing contrary evidence, or reinterpreting the motivations and decisions of the people involved. The revision of the historical record can reflect new discoveries of fact, evidence, and interpretation, which then results in revised history (wikipedia).

Revisionism and re-interpretation are a natural human process. We all adjust our personal stories as new evidence comes to light and as experience and maturity enhance our ability to see beyond our own biases and prejudices.

The history of the world is no different. The stories around the facts, change with time. New information, fresh perspectives and the advantage of hindsight can all have an impact. It opens the doors to exciting new possibilities and original ideas.

Which brings me to the massive disappointment I feel, when this story telling process fails to work it’s magic over me.

It may be that the weird times under which we now live, are adversely affecting my reading habits. I do seem to be leaning more towards narrative non-fiction lately. But let me tell you about two of the disappointments.

Firstly, Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell.

Shortlisted for this years Women’s Prize and claiming to tell the story of Shakespeare young son who died at age 11 in 1596, this is a lifelong fascination for O’Farrell come to fruition. It sounded so promising.

I loved the first chapter that shows us a young Hamnet playing with his twin sister Judith who suddenly falls ill. She puts herself to bed and Hamnet goes searching for a family member to help, but everyone is out. This is unusual. Hamnet’s search becomes more desperate and tense when he suspects that Judith may have caught the Plague.

But then we switch to back story. The wild, untamed daughter attracts the attention of the dissatisfied tutor to her brothers. Yuck! Her witchy habits means she is an outsider and considered dangerous to know. He knows he shouldn’t, but he does, anyway. Blah, blah, blah.

I picked it up and put it down three times, hoping it was just my bad mood or tiredness. But no. This is just trite and awful. Not even the stuff about the Plague was enough to keep me interested (if only a few more world leaders had been like Queen Elizabeth I thought “ The playhouses are all shut, by order of the Queen, and no one is allowed to gather in public. “)

My next fictionalised biography disappointment was a bit closer to home.

I’ve been looking forward to the new Kate Grenville for some time now. It’s an embargoed title until the 2nd July, but some pre-publicity stuff tells me that the premise of this story about Elizabeth Macarthur hinges on the sudden discovery of some “ shockingly frank secret memoirs.”  Uh-oh!

I many give A Room made of Leaves closer attention in July, just to make sure, but the blurbs unnecessary use of the words ‘notorious’, ‘miraculously’ and  ‘playful’ have turned me off, as has this particular paragraph.

Marriage to a ruthless bully, the impulses of her heart, the search for power in a society that gave women none- this Elizabeth Macarthur manages her complicated life with spirit and passion, cunning and sly wit. Her memoir lets us hear-at last!-what one of those seemingly demure women from history might really have thought.

That has to be one of the worst written blurbs ever. It’s made the story sound like some kind of bodice-ripping, pot-boiler.

I am now feeling rather nervous about starting the final book in Hilary Mantel’s (so far) magnificent trilogy about Thomas Cromwell, The Mirror and the Light . The reports coming in from customers and other bloggers are encouraging, so all I have to do I is make the time to reread the first two!

A copy of Rodham  by Curtis Sittenfeld is also lurking on my TBR pile. I love the idea of an alternate history story line with a feminist lens, but what if the writing is dull and awful? I’ve never read any Sittenfeld before, so I don’t know what to expect.

Despite the above, I do in fact, love this genre. Remember how much I enjoyed In Love With George Eliot by Kathy O’Shaughnessy earlier this year. And my most recent  Zola  (surely the master of fictionalised history), and my current chapter-a-day read of War and Peace plus a whole stack of literary realism or period piece dramas devoured this year alone (ranging from Katherine Mansfield to Angela Thirkell to Mena Calthorpe and just this week Martin Boyd).

I’m certainly not done with fictionalised biographies, but I am a little more wary of late.

As always, I’m happy to consider your favourites, in this genre, for future reference.

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20 thoughts on “ Fictionalised Biography or Biographical Fiction? ”

Where do you find the energy to rant?I can hardly muster up some motivation to read!All kidding aside…appreciate your thoughts on this subject…while I sip my coffee and a slice of homemade Lemon Glaze Cake!Have a good weekend!

Sorry about the disappointments. I like how you wrote about the diversity of the possible combinations between fiction, biography, and history.

I've been very low on energy lately Nancy, but woke up this weekend full of vim, if not quite vigour. With it came a desire to write, something I haven't felt much of lately either.

Historical fiction is may favourite book topic. This post has been brewing for a while 🙂

A new Kate Grenville coming? Wow good to know, I'll be curious to know how it is. Biographical fiction — or whatever you want to call it — can be tricky! Messing with real people's lives. Paula McLain's novel about Beryl Markham \”Circling the Sun\” was pretty good but I was nervous beforehand whether it would be. I have heard good things about Rodham … so I hope to get to it soon. Cheers.

Paula McLain is another good example of someone who makes fictionalised biography look easy. I certainly enjoyed her one on Hemingway's first wife (name escapes me right now).

Really enjoyed your post and love this genre too. I've thoroughly enjoyed reading about the re-imagined lives of women in series by Philippa Gregory and Alison Weir to mention just a few. I can't wait to read Hamnet, and hope I get on with it a little better than you did.

Somehow I've managed to never read a Gregory or a Weir and I have no idea why. They sound just like something I would/should love. Maybe it was my binge reading so many of Jean Plaidy's kings and queens stories in my teens and twenties – I'm all kinged and queened out!

Oh no, now you've made me very wary about the Grenville which I was so looking forward to. But that blurb is dire…….Interesting to see your thoughts on what constitutes historical fiction. I did a MOOC course on this some years ago and it was thought that the time period had to predate the generation of the author – so they cannot write it from their own perspective.

I’ve dipped into the Grenville now & still feel the same away about as I did back in May, sadly. Both others have said they enjoyed it, so please don’t be put off by my take on it!

I have recently fallen in love with historical fiction, thanks to Canadian author, Jack Whyte. However, I’ve just read my first – what would be considered – biographical fiction. I read The Brothers of Auschwitz over Christmas and found it to be the most graphic Holocaust story I have read to date. The author interviewed these brothers to build the story, yet I am left confused by the genre as a whole. Which parts are fact, which parts are fiction? How much is an author able to use creative license, while still holding to the truth of a “biography”?

To date, all my holocaust reading has been survivor stories (written by them or with a ghost writer) and historical works. My first reaction is that I would be very uncomfortable with a fictionlised bio of the Holocaust (which is why I’ve been very reluctant to read The Tattooist of Auschwitz, which has been very successful here in Australia). But then, even the survivors stories will had changed over time.

Just think about the stories about your own life that you tell to new people you meet, or retell endlessly every Christmas. They evolve with the passing of time and with each retelling, new elements get added, things gets tweeked to make a better story. It’s what we all do. Even survivors of traumatic events. It’s not a lie or falsification of facts, it’s just our perspective changes with maturity and experience. And we forget stuff, or put things in the wrong order, all the time. Someone else in the room at the same time, will have a completely different story to tell. Something every single police officer knows.

So now I’m not so sure about the Holocaust and fictionalised bio’s. It’s important these stories are told and remembered, in the hope they never occur again. But if it allows Holocaust deniers to say ‘see I told you it was all made up’ then that is of concern.

You see how my mind works – one little prompt from you and I’m off on one of my tangents!!

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It’s funny, I read Hamnet last year during our first lockdown and it was a massive shot to the heart for me. I didn’t expect a fictionalised biography, though, I just heard it was great and went in with no expectations. But her writing style ! It enthralled me. It’s not even about Shakspeare, or Hamnet by the way, it’s about the mother/wife who seems to live in a paralel world among those people. I absolutely loved it, the chapter on the travel of the flea was absolutely original and when she wrote that X came into the cemetery with a certain amount of children and came out minus one, I wept my heart out. It’s really funny how tastes differ and how one book can have such an impact on someone and not reach another 🙂 And it’s good ! I mean, if we all had the same opinion, what a bore 🙂

It was the wild woman trope that I struggled with – I probably would have preferred if it was more about Hamnet or Shakespeare! I certainly wanted more of the plague stuff and I’m sorry, now, that I missed the journey of the flea. I did also hear that the parts about grief and loss were very touching. And you are very right, if we all liked the same thing, I’d be out of job!

I share your take on Hamnet and it was the journey of the flea which was the last straw and the point where I abandoned it. My book club mainly loved it tho so I was in a minority.

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Definition of Biography

Common examples of biographical subjects, famous examples of biographical works, difference between biography, autobiography, and memoir, examples of biography in literature, example 1:  savage beauty: the life of edna st. vincent millay  (nancy milford).

One of the first things Vincent explained to Norma was that there was a certain freedom of language in the Village that mustn’t shock her. It wasn’t vulgar. ‘So we sat darning socks on Waverly Place and practiced the use of profanity as we stitched. Needle in, . Needle out, piss. Needle in, . Needle out, c. Until we were easy with the words.’

Example 2:  The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens  (Claire Tomalin)

The season of domestic goodwill and festivity must have posed a problem to all good Victorian family men with more than one family to take care of, particularly when there were two lots of children to receive the demonstrations of paternal love.

Example 3:  Virginia Woolf  (Hermione Lee)

‘A self that goes on changing is a self that goes on living’: so too with the biography of that self. And just as lives don’t stay still, so life-writing can’t be fixed and finalised. Our ideas are shifting about what can be said, our knowledge of human character is changing. The biographer has to pioneer, going ‘ahead of the rest of us, like the miner’s canary, testing the atmosphere , detecting falsity, unreality, and the presence of obsolete conventions’. So, ‘There are some stories which have to be retold by each generation’. She is talking about the story of Shelley, but she could be talking about her own life-story.

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Home » Writing » Autobiography vs. Biography vs. Memoir

What is a Biography?

A biography, also called a bio, is a non-fiction piece of work giving an objective account of a person’s life. The main difference between a biography vs. an autobiography is that the author of a biography is not the subject. A biography could be someone still living today, or it could be the subject of a person who lived years ago.

Biographies include details of key events that shaped the subject’s life, and information about their birthplace, education, work, and relationships. Biographers use a number of research sources, including interviews, letters, diaries, photographs, essays, reference books, and newspapers. While a biography is usually in the written form, it can be produced in other formats such as music composition or film.

If the target person of the biography is not alive, then the storytelling requires an immense amount of research. Interviews might be required to collect information from historical experts, people who knew the person (e.g., friends and family), or reading other older accounts from other people who wrote about the person in previous years. In biographies where the person is still alive, the writer can conduct several interviews with the target person to gain insight on their life.

The goal of a biography is to take the reader through the life story of the person, including their childhood into adolescence and teenage years, and then their early adult life into the rest of their years. The biography tells a story of how the person learned life’s lessons and the ways the person navigated the world. It should give the reader a clear picture of the person’s personality, traits, and their interaction in the world.

Biographies can also be focused on groups of people and not just one person. For example, a biography can be a historical account of a group of people from hundreds of years ago. This group could have the main person who was a part of the group, and the author writes about the group to tell a story of how they shaped the world.

Fictional biographies mix some true historical accounts with events to help improve the story. Think of fictional biographies as movies that display a warning that the story is made of real characters, but some events are fictional to add to the storyline and entertainment value. A lot of research still goes into a fictional biography, but the author has more room to create a storyline instead of sticking to factual events.

Examples of famous biographies include:

• His Excellency: George Washington  by Joseph J. Ellis
• Einstein: The Life and Times  by Ronald William Clark
• Princess Diana – A Biography of The Princess of Wales  by Drew L. Crichton

What is an Autobiography?

An autobiography is the story of a person’s life written by that person. Because the author is also the main character of the story, autobiographies are written in the first person. Usually, an autobiography is written by the person who is the subject of the book, but sometimes the autobiography is written by another person. Because an autobiography is usually a life story for the author, the theme can be anything from religious to a personal account to pass on to children.

The purpose of an autobiography is to portray the life experiences and achievements of the author. Therefore, most autobiographies are typically written later in the subject’s life. It’s written from the point of view of the author, so it typically uses first person accounts to describe the story.

An autobiography often begins during early childhood and chronologically details key events throughout the author’s life. Autobiographies usually include information about where a person was born and brought up, their education, career, life experiences, the challenges they faced, and their key achievements.

On rare occasions, an autobiography is created from a person’s diary or memoirs. When diaries are used, the author must organize them to create a chronological and cohesive story. The story might have flashbacks or flashforwards to describe a specific event, but the main storyline should follow chronological order from the author’s early life to their current events.

One of the main differences between an autobiography vs. a biography is that autobiographies tend to be more subjective. That’s because they are written by the subject, and present the facts based on their own memories of a specific situation, which can be biased. The story covers the author’s opinions on specific subjects and provides an account of their feelings as they navigate certain situations. These stories are also very personal because it’s a personal account of the author’s life rather than a biography where a third party writes about a specific person.

Examples of famous autobiographies include:

• The Story of My Life  by Helen Keller
• The Diary of a Young Girl  by Anne Frank
• Losing My Virginity  by Richard Branson

What is a Memoir?

Memoir comes from the French word  mémoire , meaning memory or reminiscence. Similar to an autobiography, a memoir is the story of a person’s life written by that person. These life stories are often from diary entries either from a first-person account or from a close family member or friend with access to personal diaries.

The difference between a memoir vs. an autobiography is that a memoir focuses on reflection and establishing an emotional connection, rather than simply presenting the facts about their life. The author uses their personal knowledge to tell an intimate and emotional story about the private or public happenings in their life. The author could be the person in the story, or it can be written by a close family member or friend who knew the subject person intimately. The topic is intentionally focused and does not include biographical or chronological aspects of the author’s life unless they are meaningful and relevant to the story.

Memoirs come in several types, all of which are written as an emotional account of the target person. They usually tell a story of a person who went through great struggles or faced challenges in a unique way. They can also cover confessionals where the memoir tells the story of the author’s account that contradicts another’s account.

This genre of writing is often stories covering famous people’s lives, such as celebrities. In many memoir projects, the celebrity or person of interest needs help with organization, writing the story, and fleshing out ideas from the person’s diaries. It might take several interviews before the story can be fully outlined and written, so it’s not uncommon for a memoir project to last several months.

Memoirs do not usually require as much research as biographies and autobiographies, because you have the personal accounts in diary entries and documents with the person’s thoughts. It might require several interviews, however, before the diary entries can be organized to give an accurate account on the person’s thoughts and emotions. The story does not necessarily need to be in chronological order compared to an autobiography, but it might be to tell a better story.

Examples of famous memoirs include:

• Angela’s Ashes  by Frank McCourt
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings  by Maya Angelou
• Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S.  Grant by Ulysses S. Grant

Autobiography vs. Biography vs. Memoir Comparison Chart

Check out some of our blogs to learn more about memoirs:

• What is a memoir?
• 5 tips for writing a memoir
• Your memoir is your legacy

Ready to get started on your own memoir, autobiography, or biography? Download our free desktop book-making software, BookWright .

Autobiographies , Biographies , memoirs

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The 33 Best Biographical Fiction Novels for Historical Fiction Lovers

I’ve always gravitated toward biographical fiction novels. There is something about reading someone’s fictional biography that makes me feel so connected to them.

I generally find biographies to be rather dull, but when they are fictionalized I immediately get drawn into their world. I often find myself googling images or doing further research because I’m so entranced.

That’s why I wanted to gather all my favorite biographical novels in one place. You’ll find fictionalized biographies of princesses, rebels, spies, snipers, and writers below.

*Biographical Fiction Post contains affiliate links. Purchases made through links result in a small commission to us at no cost to you. Some books have been gifted. All opinions are our own.

This post fulfills a prompt for the 2024 reading challenge ! It’s not too late to join!

Article Contents

Biographical Novels Set in America

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murphy

July 2021 Good Morning America Book Club Pick

This fictionalized version of Belle de Costa Greene was wonderful, I’m so glad it was a GMA pick and a Gilded Age book to boot!

Greene was J.P. Morgan’s personal librarian and later the librarian for his heir. She was also a black woman passing as white. She had to keep her roots hidden in order to hold her job, but I’m glad her real truth is being told now.

Find This Book in: Books set in Libraries

The Invention of Wings

Author : Sue Monk Kidd

Year : 2014

Genre : Historical Fiction

More info: January 2014 Oprah’s Book Club Pick

Age Range : 18+

I picked this book up in Charleston when I was there for a visit in October of 2018. I wanted to pick up a book about the city. When I found out that our hotel was next to the Grimke sister’s home, I knew this was the book for me.

This book tells the story of Sarah Grimke, one of the first female abolitionists, and the enslaved Handful. Starting in Charleston on a plantation and ending in Philadelphia in the pre-civil war era, the story explores the life of Sarah, the daughter of a slaveholder, as she fights for the rights of women and enslaved people.

Why Kirsten like it

I found the story compelling – the political portion of Sarah’s work was particularly appealing. Sue Monk Kidd is a fantastic writer and the story flowed in such a wonderful way.

While I learned many valuable lessons, it did give me pause that the story was written by a white woman. I would recommend All We Were Promised by Ashton Lattimore if you are looking for an additional account of the problems facing enslaved people at this time.

Find this book in : Biographical Fiction Novels / Oprah’s Book Club / Fiction Books About Women in Politics

Carnegie’s Maid by Marie Benedict

First off look at this COVER! I loved this biographical novel but I’m sad my copy is an ebook because now I think I need to get the hardback version.

The story revolves around Andrew Carnegie’s housemaid and their fictional relationship. It was fascinating to learn about life in Pittsburg during the 1860s. This story particularly focuses on the different social classes of the American Industrial Revolution.

Caroline: The Little House Revisited by Sarah Miller

I read Little House on the Prairie for the first time earlier this year mostly because I wanted the background for this exact book. The entire time I was reading the original series, I found myself wondering about the choices the parents were making.

I wanted to know why certain things were being done and I finally got my answers in Sarah Miller’s classic retelling of the story. I didn’t love Little House, but I ADORED Caroline. This fictionalized biography is better than the original series in my opinion.

Marlene by C.W. Gortner

When it comes to books like The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, this would be a natural story to gravitate toward. I found the story to be focused too much on Marlene’s exploits as a bi-sexual woman. Yes, that’s groundbreaking – but it’s not all that defined her.

Which is why she fell flat as a character. I wanted more of her war-time efforts, more of her Hollywood life, more of her relationship with her daughter – just more substance in general. The writing and research were impeccable, as usual, it just didn’t live up to what I thought it could be.

Political Biographical Fiction

Jacqueline in Paris by Ann Mah

I had no idea that Jackie Kennedy spent a year abroad living in Paris in the year following the end of WWII. I was fascinated by Ann Mah’s take on what Jackie would have seen in post-war France.

This fictional biography covered it all! The rise of communism, the French people’s disdain for Americans, the struggle to make ends meet for many citizens, and the return to the glitz and glam of the gilded aristocracy.

As far as historical fiction books go, it was one of the most unique ones I’ve read in recent years. I immediately gave it to my francophile mother because I know she will adore it. This book was a must for our ultimate beach reads 2023 post.

American Princess by Stephanie Marie Thornton

We all know I love a good Royal Read but I don’t usually get to read a book about American royalty. We may not have an actual royal family, but dynasties like the Vanderbilts, Carnegies, Kennedys, and Roosevelts serve as good replacements. This story is about Alice Roosevelt, daughter of our 26th president, Teddy Roosevelt.

This historical fiction novel covers her life from the moment her father became President to her second breast cancer surgery. And what a doozy of a life she led! I couldn’t help wondering how her antics would have been perceived had she lived in today’s society. I read it in a few days and adored it! #gifted

The Kennedy Debutante

Author : Kerri Maher

Year : 2018

I had no idea the Kennedy girls were just as interesting at the Kennedy boys. This Historical Fiction biography told the story of Kick Kennedy during her stay in London before and during WWII. I found her to be a fascinating character.

Kick was a rebel, following her heart and standing up for what she believed in. I had so much sympathy for everything she went through in her life.

Why Kirsten loves it

I always love Kerri Maher’s historical fiction novels and this was no exception. Kick was one of the most fascinating subjects for a biographical fiction that I have ever read. I spent so much time googling photos of her during this time of her life that I felt like I knew her by the time the book was finished.

Find this book in : Biographical Fiction Novels / Best Books about WWII / Books About Women in Politics

Jackie and Maria

Author : Gill Paul

Year : 2020

Most people know about Jackie’s life during her White House years, but hearing the tale of what caused her to marry Aristotle Onassis was fascinating. I loved the dual narrators of Jackie and Onassis’s long-time lover, opera singer Maria Callas.⁣ It’s a perfect political novel about music!

Excuse me while I gush about Gill Paul‘s newest biographical fiction book, Jackie and Maria.⁣ Gill Paul is quickly becoming an auto-buy author for me. I loved Another Woman’s Husband and The Lost Daughter, about the Windsors and Romanovs respectively. Paul’s take on a new dynasty, The Kennedys, is equally compelling.⁣

Find this book in : Novels About Music / Biographical Fiction / Books About Women in Politics

18 Fun Fiction and Non-Fiction Books About Women in Politics

For more biographical fiction about political figures, check out this post.

Historical Biographical Fiction about the British Monarchy

An Indiscreet Princess: A Novel of Queen Victoria’s Defiant Daughter by Georgie Blalock

Well before Princess Diana, Meghan Markle, and Wallis Simpson, there was another royal rebel – Lady Louise, daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. And what a rebel she was! Why are there not more royal reads about her?

In the late 1800s, it was Louise, an artist, and sculptor, who was seen as quite rebellious. She took courses for the arts at a public school, talked back to the queen, and even had pre- and extra-marital affairs! Quite the scandal for the time.

I loved getting a look at one of the lesser-known (to me) royal figures. I hope to learn about more of Queen Victoria’s offspring in the future.

The White Queen by Philippa Gregory

The White Queen is one of my favorite Philippa Gregory novels, revolving around Elizabeth Woodville and her relationship with the King of England. I love the magical elements of this book as Elizabeth and her mother were said to be witches. We had to put this on our list of witch books.

It’s a really wonderful story. I learned so much about the tumultuous history of Britain. Also of note, Elizabeth was the mother of the boys in the tower which this book covers as well. If you love biographical novels, Philippa Gregory has written more than a dozen for you to read.

Find this book in Biographical Fiction / Best Witch Books / Books with Colors in the Title

American Duchess by Karen Harper

This particular biographical fiction book spans the same time period at Downton Abbey. It too features an American Heiress wed in London society to infuse a ducal estate with much-needed funds.

Unlike Lady Cora, the heroine of this story is a real historical figure. Consuelo Vanderbilt’s wedding to the Duke of Marlborough was considered the wedding of the century at the time, but their marriage left something to be desired.

Consuelo is forced to take up the mantle of duty for her estate and title, and in doing so, she finds her inner strength.

Modern Biographical Novels about the British Royal Family

Before the Crown by Flora Harding

After all the royal reads I’ve read over the years, I can’t believe this is my first story about The Queen’s romance with Prince Philip. With the Jubilee coming up now in England, this was a perfect fictionalized biography to read!

I was wondering about how Philip won the heart of then Princess Elizabeth, and this fictional story filled in some fun details. Think of it as a prequel to the first episode of The Crown in the best way!

Every royal-obsessed person needs to add this pick from Books about Queen Elizabeth II to their TBR list and check out our list of books like the crown !

The Queen’s Secret by Karen Harper

I don’t think enough is written about Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. She was a dynamic lady who was a guiding light for her husband, King George, as well as Queen Elizabeth. This biographical novel focuses on her work behind-the-scenes during WWII.

We get an inside look at the issues between her husband and his brother, King Edward, who abdicated to be with Wallis Simpson. Churchill’s relationship with the then Queen consort is also examined. We love the unique perspective of this pick from books about WWII.

The Other Windsor Girl by Georgie Blalock

I knew a little about Princess Margaret from what I gleaned from The C rown, but it was nice to focus on her as the main character. I can’t imagine what it would have been like had she been the Queen of England.

She actually reminded me a lot of Wallace Simpson. She was most definitely a royal rebel. She’s still not my favorite royal but this historical fiction biography helped me understand her life, personality, and pressures. This book about QEII will give you a different perspective on being a royal.

The Duchess by Wendy Holden

This intimate look at Wallis Simpson was wonderfully written. Never have I had compassion for the Duchess of Windsor in the way I did when I read this historical fiction biography.

Holden’s portrayal of this controversial historical figure focused on the time period when Wallis and King Edward fell in love, but also the time period after his death.

I actually felt bad for both the king, who clearly didn’t want the crown, and the woman he both loved and used to get out of his royal duties. There is so much to talk about it this book about Wallis Simpson, which is why we love this book for book clubs.

Love royal reads ? Check out the dozens we’ve rounded up here!

13 Captivating Books about the Royal Family

For more biographical fiction books about the British royal family, head to this post.

Fictional Biography Novels Set in France

The Queen of Paris by Pamela Binnings Ewen

I had such mixed feelings reading this biographical novel, in a good way. I hated Chanel who is a ruthless, shrewd woman who will do whatever she needs to in order to succeed, even becoming a nazi spy. I felt no sympathy for her, only disgust… and yet …. ⁣ ⁣ The writing drew me in. I don’t agree with Chanel’s choices, but I was intrigued by her life during the war and all she did to try to save her own skin. This pick from books about WWII is a must-read.

It was fascinating to read about regardless of my personal feelings about the heroine of the story. She’s not written to be liked, but rather to be examined and no list of books set in Paris would be complete without her.⁣ ⁣ I’d recommend this fictionalized biography if you are looking to uncover the more sinister side of the renowned icon.

Code Name Hélène: A Novel by Ariel Lawson

I LOVED this book so much.  It is so beautifully written, amazingly researched, and absolutely enthralling.  This book is based on the life of Nancy Wake, a nurse and journalist who became a Special Operations Executive during WWII. ⁣

She was an amazing woman and I had never heard of her before this fictional biography.  It has wonderful characters, a fabulous story, romance, adventure, and the terrifying reality of life during WWII.

Find this book in Historical Fiction Books

The Age of Light by Whitney Scharer

This historical fiction novel is about real-life photographer and model,  Lee Miller. I had never heard about Miller prior to this book, though I was familiar with her lover – Man Ray.

Why We Loved it: She made some life choices that I can’t say I agree with, but I found her to be a strong, feminist woman ahead of her time. This book is a five star read, but be warned – there are some erotic scenes in the novel.

Find this book in Biographical Fiction / Best Books of 2019 / Jazz Age Novels / Art Novels

Mademoiselle Chanel by C. W. Gortner

Coco Chanel is a fascinating woman, who is famed for her stylish, sophisticated fashions. Yet this story explores her connection to the Nazis during WWII and just how far she would go to stay on top.

Why We Loved it: I loved this story, but ended up hating the woman it was about. I grew up loving Chanel designs and idolizing the fashion icon. However, when I learned more about her life, I was scandalized and horrified….but I couldn’t put it down!

Find this book in Books set in the 1920s , Biographical Fiction / Fashion Novels / Books Set in France

16 Sensational Books Set in France to Love

Love when Frace is the setting of a book? We do too! That’s why we created this list.

Fictionalized Biographies about Authors

The Mystery of Mrs. Christie

Author : Marie Benedict

Genre : Historical Mystery

Age Range : 16+

⁣Marie Benedict is the master of bringing women back to life in her historical fiction novels. The Mystery of Mrs. Christie is my favorite to date and I found it hard to put down. ⁣In December 1926, Agatha Christie went missing for 11 days. She re-emerged as mysteriously as she disappeared and more questions than answers persist.

Why Jackie loves it

Benedict does a wonderful job of building the mystery using her brilliant imagination and bringing us into the world of Agatha Christie. It is the perfect blend of fiction and mystery and is an absolute delight.

Find this book in : Historical Mystery Books / Books about Writers / Books About Books / Biographical Fiction Novel / 1920s Novels

Bronte’s Mistress by Finola Austin

I’m a sucker for the classics, but I don’t know much about the authors of the classics I love. Of course, I knew of the Bronte sisters, but I had no idea that they had a brother or that he was a naughty one 😉.⁣ How could i not read this pick from novels about writers?

This story was fascinating to me because while I don’t condone modern-day infidelity, I understand how women back in the day had limited options. I loved Lydia and her (selfish) views of the world around her and I felt how hard it must be to be a woman in historic times.⁣

Her antics were utterly entertaining as were the antics of her children. I was rooting for her the entire time, even when I wanted to slap her and tell her to come to her senses.⁣

Z – A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler

Zelda Fitzgerald gets her moment in the sun in this fictionalized biography of her life. Zelda, often belittled by her husband, was actually the muse behind his stories.

He drew inspiration from her diary and her life for characters like Daisy in The Great Gatsby. Yet, their marriage kept Zelda from reaching her own greatest potential. A fascinating character study of the woman behind the man.

The Christie Affair

Author : Nina de Gramont

Year : 2022

More info: February 2022 Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick

I adored this mystery novel set during the 11 days of Agatha Christie’s disappearance. It’s told from the perspective of Christie’s husband’s mistress and it is utterly absorbing.

This biographical fiction novel is totally fictional because there is no account of what actually happened to Agatha Christie during her missing days. There are layers of mystery throughout, with a side of a love story.

I never felt I would be able to sympathize with a mistress but I was cheering for her by the end. I was also enchanted by the setting of the small hotel. If you love historical mystery books, this is a must-read.

Find this book in : Biographical Fiction Novels / Historical Mystery Books / Hotel Novels / Ultimate List of Mystery Books

Romanov Family Biographical Fiction Novels

The Tsarina’s Daughter by Ellen Alpsten

I’ve been enthralled with the Romanovs since I saw my first Faberge egg. While most of my reading has focused on the fall of the dynasty, I was intrigued by this biographical fiction novel set after the reign of Peter the Great.

Why We Liked It It was FASCINATING to see the cultural backdrop of Russia’s imperial court. I loved learning about the court intrigue and the ruthless way power changed hands.

Find this book in Cozy Winter Books / Royal Reads / Romanov Novels

The Last Grand Duchess by Bryn Turnbull

I love stories about the Romanov Dynasty. Ever since I saw a collection of Faberge eggs when I was a child, the story of the last members of the Russian Imperial family have always fascinated me.

This biographical historical fiction story revolves around the eldest daughter, Olga. Its dual timeline switches between the family’s life after the revolution and Olga’s childhood and the events that lead to the revolution in the first place.

Why We Loved It: We all know how this tragic story ends, so this book is all about the journey. I love that Turnbull focused on a sister other than Anastasia.

Find this book in Ultimate Beach Reads 2022 / Romanov Historical Fiction / Biographical Fiction

The Romanov Empress by C.W. Gortner

If you are into biographical historical fiction, this is a great one for your list. I had no idea that the Tsarina was such a force.

Think the British Monarchy is the only one with scandalous stories worth telling? Think again! This book is all about Empress Marina’s life. As the mother of the last Tsar of Russia, it was compelling to read about the events of the Russian Revolution as they unfolded.

I loved how the author laid out the family’s struggle with adjusting to the people’s needs. Empress Alexandra and her dependent relationship with Rasputin is also covered in the novel. I’d love to see a mini-series made about this family.

The Lost Daughter by Gill Paul

Why We Liked it: Maria’s story drew me in immediately, but I floundered a bit when it skipped over to Val’s portions. I just didn’t feel a connection to her and found myself wishing it would get back to Maria’s parts. Still, it was a good biographical historical fiction royal novel if you are interested in a lesser-known Romanov. 

Find this book in Books about the Romanovs / Books like The Crown / Biographical Fiction

More Royal Biographical Fiction

The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell

December 2022 Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick

I couldn’t put down this biographical fiction book set in Italy in the 1550s. Maggie O’Farrell just has a way of writing that is utterly captivating.

It’s the story of Lucrezia, daughter of the Grand Duke of Florence, and her unfortunate life as a child bride to the ruler of Ferrara. I always thought that British royal history had all drama, but this story proved me wrong! Those Italians are masters at the art of poison and murder.

I found the story, which also revolves around the painting of the titular marriage portrait, to be fast-moving and fascinating. It’s one of those historical fiction books that had me googling what was real and what truths were bent.  

The Girl in White Gloves by Kerri Maher

I adored this royal read about Grace Kelly and had trouble putting it down. The storyline is split between Grace’s rise to Hollywood stardom and her future as a settled princess. The writing was so captivating that I found myself sneaking pages on my Kindle all over town. 

Kerri Maher brought Grace Kelly to life in this biographical fiction book about her life. I had no idea about her home life struggles, her many romances, or the state of her marriage to Rainer. 

Find this book in Biographical Fiction / Books Like Evelyn Hugo / Books with a color in the Title / Books Like the Crown

The Queen’s Fortune by Allison Pataki

The Queen’s Fortune had everything I love in a historical fiction novel – royalty, drama, a touch of romance, a strong female protagonist, and action. This book starts out all action and it doesn’t let up!⁣

I devoured the story of Napoleon, his former lover, and the dynasty that he helped her create with her eventual husband, who happened to be his #1 frenemy. They didn’t know what frenemies we’re back then but Napoleon and Bernadotte were the OGs.⁣

This is one of the biographical fiction books set in France that we could have put in so many categories and is a great place to start.

The Second Duchess by Elizabeth Loupas

The Duke of Ferrara has taken a second wife after possibility having killed his first duchess. While first ignoring the rumors, soon Barbara decides she needs to investigate what happened to Lucrezia de Medici.

I liked the mystery aspects of this biographical fiction story. I was certainly living in fear that something would befall Barbara as her pool of suspects grew larger.

More Biographical Historical Fiction Novels

Diva by Daisy Goodwin

Daisy Goodwin has done it again with this incredible biographical fiction about Maria Callas, famed Opera singer, and lover of Aristotle Onassis. 

As usual with Daisy Goodwin’s stories, I found myself transfixed by the story of Maria’s life and her relationship with Onassis. It was fascinating to see how their courtship affected her performances and how she grew to become an unstoppable force in an industry ruled by men.

Why we like it: I had previously read Gill Paul‘s story Jackie & Maria and thought I might find this book redundant, but I was wrong. They bring two different perspectives that flush out the Maria – Onassis- Jackie O love triangle. #gifted by St. Martins Press

Find this book in Music Books / Biographical Fiction / New Historical Fiction Books

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell

I had this book on my TBR for so long and I am so happy that I finally had a chance to read it. This is the story of Shakespeare’s life, family, and extraordinary wife during the time of the plague.

Shakespeare himself is never actually mentioned by name in this extraordinary and heartbreaking book that was so hard to put down. I know why it made so many lists of top books for 2020. And if you are looking for biographical novels about writers, this one is a must-read.

Find this book in Biographical Fiction Novels / Books About Books

The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba by Chanel Cleeton

Chanel Cleeton is back with a prequel to the Perez family story. This time, she examines their ancestor, Marina during the 1896 war between Spain and the US on Cuban soil. This is one of our favorite Gilded Age books set internationally.

Evangelina Cisneros, dubbed The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba by the New York newspapers, and journalist Grace Harrington’s stories are also the focus of this biographical novel.

Why I Liked it: Cleeton’s vivid imagery and captivating stories make learning about Cuba’s tragic history compelling and helps give context to the Cuba we know today.

Find this book in Gilded Age Books / Biographical Fiction / Chanel Cleeton Books

The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn

Kate Quinn’s stories of the women heroes of WWII continue to dazzle every time. The subject for this story is Soviet Sniper Mila Pavlichenko, commonly known as Lady Death.

The story flashes between her time in on a diplomatic tour of the U.S. when she befriended Eleanor Roosevelt and her life leading up to and during the war. We learn about what motivated her to become the most decorated sniper in the army, what life was like on the battlefields of war, and how love plays a role in her life.

But the tension is really heightened by the narration of an assassin out to kill President Roosevelt and frame Mila for the murder. I adored this biographical historical fiction story by Quinn.

Which biographical fiction novel are you most interested in reading?

Ultimate List of Historical Fiction

Love Historical Fiction? The Ultimate List of Historical Fiction is the perfect list for you. It is carefully divided by time.

Co-Founder and Creative Director

As a mother of two boys, Kirsten rediscovered her life-long love for reading while choosing appropriate books for her children. She started this website with Jackie to share their passion for literacy with other moms and kids. She uses her years of experience in marketing and public relations to create quarterly magazines, implement social media strategy, and ensure the website content is relevant and beautiful.

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What is a Biography? Definition, Elements, and More

Have you found yourself browsing the biography section of your favorite library or bookstore and wondered what is a biography book ? 

Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! Plenty of people wonder “What is a biography vs autobiography?” or “What is a biography vs memoir?” And today we are here to set the record straight.

In this brief guide to what a biography is, we’ll explore the definition of a biography, along with its purpose, how you might write one yourself, and more. Let’s get started.

Need A Nonfiction Book Outline?

In this article, we’ll explore:

What is a biography of a person .

What is a biography? A biography is what we call the written account of someone’s life. It is written by someone other than whom the book is about. For example, an author named Walter Isaacson has written biographies on Steve Jobs , Leonardo da Vinci , and Einstein . 

A biography is what focuses on the significant events that occurred in a person’s life, along with their achievements, challenges they’ve overcome, background, relationships, and more. 

They’re an excellent way to get a comprehensive understanding of someone you admire. 

So now you understand what a biography is, but what is the point of a biographical story?

What is the point of a biography? 

Biographies have a few purposes. They can serve as historical records about a notable figure, inspire and educate readers, and give us more insight into how the folks we’re interested in lived their lives. 

And, if you are studying a notable figure, like Einstein, a biography is what you will use as a research resource !

Does a biography cover someone’s entire life? 

Biographies typically encompass most of a person’s life. Obviously, if the subject of the book is still alive, their entire life cannot be written about. 

If the person lived a long and eventful life with many achievements, the author may cover only an especially noteworthy period of the subject’s life. 

Even so, the point of a biography is to learn about your subject beyond just what they achieved, so there will likely still be contextual information about the subject’s childhood, formative experiences, and more. 

Is a biography always nonfiction? 

Surprisingly, a biography is not always nonfiction . There is a genre called biographical fiction in which the author uses real-life people and events to inspire their fictional narrative . 

This genre is fun because the author can postulate about what their subject may have been thinking, feeling, and more in a way they may not be able to with a nonfiction biography. 

Just keep in mind that biographical fiction blends facts with made-up information, so it can’t be used as a primary research source. That said, it’s a fun supplement to learning about a figure you’re interested in, and can help generate curiosity and insights about their lives. 

If you’d like to read a biographical fiction book, check out books like: 

• The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
•   The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
• The Aviator’s Wife by Melanie Benjamin 

Biography vs autobiography

What is a biography vs autobiography? Well, a biography is written about another person . An autobiography is when the writer writes about their own life. So Becoming by Michelle Obama would be an autobiography, not a biography. It’s only a biography if another author decides to write about Michelle Obama.

Biography vs memoir

What is a biography vs memoir? This distinction is a bit harder to define. A memoir is usually written around a theme or a specific time period in someone’s life, and the author is writing about their own memories. Whereas a biography is in chronological order and follows (more or less) the whole lifetime of a person, but it is a person other than the author.

So if someone is telling stories about their travels through South America, that isn’t covering their life story, and it is written about themself, so it would be a memoir instead of a biography.

Now that you know what a biography is, and the importance of biographies, let’s discuss why someone would want to write one.

Why would someone write a biography? 

An author may want to write a biography about someone because they’re inspired by them and want to educate the public about them. Or, they want to create a historical resource for scholars to study. 

An author may even have a commercial motivation for writing a biography, like a lucrative celebrity profile or a biography that has the potential to be adapted into a film or television series. 

Is it possible to write a biography about yourself? 

If you write a book about yourself, it’s called an autobiography or a memoir—not a biography. So, when you start writing your book, make sure you don’t get caught in the autobiography vs biography or biography vs memoir maze.

If you’d like a book written about you that you’re not the author of, you can hire a writer to create one for you. You may choose to do this if you feel your writing skills are not up to par or you don’t have time to write your own biography .

Hiring a writer to write your biography can also make sense if you’d like to make sure the book is as objective and professional as it can be. Of course, this means you have to surrender control of the narrative! 

Some folks may also feel that a biography has more credence than an autobiography or memoir since the book’s subject doesn’t get to decide what is said about them. So hiring a writer for your biography can be a good way to credibly get your story out there. 

Can you write a biography about anyone you’d like? 

When it comes to writing about other people’s lives, it’s wise to proceed with an abundance of caution. After all, you don’t want to be sued for defamation or find yourself in other legal hot water. 

We highly suggest you look into the legal ramifications of writing about your chosen subject before you begin writing about them, but here are a couple of general things to know: 

• Typically, you don’t need permission to write about someone who is a public figure. However, the definition of a public figure can vary depending on your jurisdiction and more, so you’ll need to do your research.
• Even if you discover that you can write about your subject without permission, it’s still advisable to contact the subject and/or their family. Not only is it good manners, but it may afford you some insider information about your subject. 
• If your subject or the family of your subject tells you they don’t want a biography about them, you may still legally be able to proceed—consult a lawyer—but you might face backlash when the book is published, limited access to information about your subject, and perhaps a pressing sense of guilt. Not worth it, if you ask us! 

Examples of biographies

What’s a biography that is really good? Here are a few of the best biographies you should add to your list: 

• Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera 
• Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain by Charles R. Cross
• Anne Frank: The Biography by Melissa Müller
• You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington by Alexis Coe
• The Beatles: The Biography by Bob Spitz
• Victoria the Queen: An Intimate Biography of the Woman Who Ruled an Empire by Julia Baird

We’ve also reviewed the best business biographies of highly successful entrepreneurs. These books offer invaluable lessons and inspiration for aspiring business leaders and authors.

Final thoughts 

Now if anyone asks you “What’s a biography?” You should be able to tell them (and give them some great examples).

Reading a biography is a great way to get inspired, learn from other people’s experiences, and more. And writing a biography can be an excellent educational experience in its own right! If you’d like to publish a biography but don’t know where to start, we’re here to help. Simply schedule a book consultation to get started. 

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Definition of Biography

A biography is simply an account or detailed description about the life of a person. It entails basic facts, such as childhood, education, career, relationships, family, and death. Biography is a literary genre that portrays the experiences of all these events occurring in the life of a person, mostly in a chronological order. Unlike a resume or profile, a biography provides a life story of a subject, highlighting different aspects of his of her life. A person who writes biographies, is called as a “biographer.”

Types of Biography

There are three types of biography:

Autobiography

An autobiography tells the story of a person’s own life. While that person writes his own account, he or she may take guidance from a ghostwriter or collaborator.

A biography narrates the life story of a person, as written by another person or writer. It is further divided into five categories:

• Popular biography
• Historical biography
• Literary biography
• Reference biography
• Fictional biography

This is a more focused writing than an autobiography or a biography. In a memoir , a writer narrates the details of a particular event or situation that occurred in his or her lifetime.

Examples of Biography in Literature

Example #1: shakespeare: a life (by park honan).

This biography is the most accurate, up-to-date, and complete narrative ever written about the life of William Shakespeare. Park Honan has used rich and fresh information about Shakespeare in order to change the perceptions of readers for the playwright, and his role as a poet and actor.

This book completely differs from other biographies that imagine different roles for him, commenting on his sexual relationships and colorful intrigues. Though detailed psychological theories and imaginative reforms about the famous playwright could be amusing, in fact, they damage the credibility of the sources. Therefore, many attempts have been made to know about Shakespeare, but this one is a unique example.

Example #2: Arthur Miller: Attention Must Be Paid (By James Campbell)

This biography is written in the form of a drama , presented in just two acts. In the first act, the author shows the famous dramatist, Arthur Miller, in his early success, having the love of the most beloved woman in the world, and resisting tyranny. However, in the second act of this biography, the author shows that the hero was badly assaulted and ridiculed by a rowdy mob called critics, who are expelled from the conventional theater. He ends his book with rhetorical details related to a revitalization in the fortunes of the playwright.

Example #3: The Life of Samuel Johnson (By James Boswell)

This biography is frequently hyped as a perfect example of modern biography, and all-time best example in the English language. This masterpiece of James Boswell has covered the whole life of the ubiquitous literary writer Samuel Johnson, with whom Boswell was well-acquainted. The unique quality of this book is that it shows Johnson as a walking intellectual amongst us.

Example #4: The Bronte Myth (By­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ Lucasta Miller)

Emily, Anne, and Charlotte Bronte were very famous and eminent writers in the history of English literature. Many rumors and gossips were associated with them when they reached the peaks of their careers and received great approval for writing the most admired novels of the nineteenth century. In their biography, Lucasta Miller chunks the myths related to these young enigmatic women. This is a fine example of a biography.

Example #5: Why this World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector (By­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ Benjamin Moser)

After perusing his own private manuscripts and writings, this modernist writer, Benjamin Moser, has explored the mystique surrounding Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector. This is one of Moser’s biographies, which comes a little closer to finding her true nuances. All those readers who are going to read her myriad of works for the first time would find this biography interesting, and her life as beautiful and tragic, yet riveting.

Function of Biography

The function of writing biographies is to provide details regarding the life of a person or a thing in an entertaining but informative manner. By the end of a biography, readers feel like they are well-acquainted with the subject. Biographies are often non-fictional, but many biographers also use novel-like format, because a story line would be more entertaining with the inclusion of strong exposition , rising conflict , and then climax . Besides, the most inspirational life stories could motivate and put confidence into the readers.

Biographies: The Stories of Humanity

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• Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia
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A biography is a story of a person's life, written by another author. The writer of a biography is called a biographer while the person written about is known as the subject or biographee.

Biographies usually take the form of a narrative , proceeding chronologically through the stages of a person's life. American author Cynthia Ozick notes in her essay "Justice (Again) to Edith Wharton" that a good biography is like a novel, wherein it believes in the idea of a life as "a triumphal or tragic story with a shape, a story that begins at birth, moves on to a middle part, and ends with the death of the protagonist."

A biographical essay is a comparatively short work of nonfiction  about certain aspects of a person's life. By necessity, this sort of essay  is much more selective than a full-length biography, usually focusing only on key experiences and events in the subject's life.

Between History and Fiction

Perhaps because of this novel-like form, biographies fit squarely between written history and fiction, wherein the author often uses personal flairs and must invent details "filling in the gaps" of the story of a person's life that can't be gleaned from first-hand or available documentation like home movies, photographs, and written accounts.

Some critics of the form argue it does a disservice to both history and fiction, going so far as to call them "unwanted offspring, which has brought a great embarrassment to them both," as Michael Holroyd puts it in his book "Works on Paper: The Craft of Biography and Autobiography." Nabokov even called biographers "psycho-plagiarists," meaning that they steal the psychology of a person and transcribe it to the written form.

Biographies are distinct from creative non-fiction such as memoir in that biographies are specifically about one person's full life story -- from birth to death -- while creative non-fiction is allowed to focus on a variety of subjects, or in the case of memoirs certain aspects of an individual's life.

Writing a Biography

For writers who want to pen another person's life story, there are a few ways to spot potential weaknesses, starting with making sure proper and ample research has been conducted -- pulling resources such as newspaper clippings, other academic publications, and recovered documents and found footage.  

First and foremost, it is the duty of biographers to avoid misrepresenting the subject as well as acknowledging the research sources they used. Writers should, therefore, avoid presenting a personal bias for or against the subject as being objective is key to conveying the person's life story in full detail.

Perhaps because of this, John F. Parker observes in his essay "Writing: Process to Product" that some people find writing a biographical essay "easier than writing an  autobiographical  essay. Often it takes less effort to write about others than to reveal ourselves." In other words, in order to tell the full story, even the bad decisions and scandals have to make the page in order to truly be authentic.

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What Is a Biography?

Learning from the experiences of others is what makes us human.

At the core of every biography is the story of someone’s humanity. While biographies come in many sub-genres, the one thing they all have in common is loyalty to the facts, as they’re available at the time. Here’s how we define biography, a look at its origins, and some popular types.

“Biography” Definition

A biography is simply the story of a real person’s life. It could be about a person who is still alive, someone who lived centuries ago, someone who is globally famous, an unsung hero forgotten by history, or even a unique group of people. The facts of their life, from birth to death (or the present day of the author), are included with life-changing moments often taking center stage. The author usually points to the subject’s childhood, coming-of-age events, relationships, failures, and successes in order to create a well-rounded description of her subject.

Biographies require a great deal of research. Sources of information could be as direct as an interview with the subject providing their own interpretation of their life’s events. When writing about people who are no longer with us, biographers look for primary sources left behind by the subject and, if possible, interviews with friends or family. Historical biographers may also include accounts from other experts who have studied their subject.

The biographer’s ultimate goal is to recreate the world their subject lived in and describe how they functioned within it. Did they change their world? Did their world change them? Did they transcend the time in which they lived? Why or why not? And how? These universal life lessons are what make biographies such a meaningful read.

Origins of the Biography

Greco-Roman literature honored the gods as well as notable mortals. Whether winning or losing, their behaviors were to be copied or seen as cautionary tales. One of the earliest examples written exclusively about humans is Plutarch’s Parallel Lives (probably early 2 nd century AD). It’s a collection of biographies in which a pair of men, one Greek and one Roman, are compared and held up as either a good or bad example to follow.

In the Middle Ages, Einhard’s The Life of Charlemagne (around 817 AD) stands out as one of the most famous biographies of its day. Einhard clearly fawns over Charlemagne’s accomplishments throughout, yet it doesn’t diminish the value this biography has brought to centuries of historians since its writing.

Considered the earliest modern biography, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) by James Boswell looks like the biographies we know today. Boswell conducted interviews, performed years of research, and created a compelling narrative of his subject.

The genre evolves as the 20th century arrives, and with it the first World War. The 1920s saw a boom in autobiographies in response. Robert Graves’ Good-Bye to All That (1929) is a coming-of age story set amid the absurdity of war and its aftermath. That same year, Mahatma Gandhi wrote The Story of My Experiments with Truth , recalling how the events of his life led him to develop his theories of nonviolent rebellion. In this time, celebrity tell-alls also emerged as a popular form of entertainment. With the horrors of World War II and the explosion of the civil rights movement, American biographers of the late 20 th century had much to archive. Instantly hailed as some of the best writing about the war, John Hersey’s Hiroshima (1946) tells the stories of six people who lived through those world-altering days. Alex Haley wrote the as-told-to The Autobiography of Malcom X (1965). Yet with biographies, the more things change, the more they stay the same. One theme that persists is a biographer’s desire to cast its subject in an updated light, as in Eleanor and Hick: The Love Affair that Shaped a First Lady by Susan Quinn (2016).

Types of Biographies

Contemporary Biography: Authorized or Unauthorized

The typical modern biography tells the life of someone still alive, or who has recently passed. Sometimes these are authorized — written with permission or input from the subject or their family — like Dave Itzkoff’s intimate look at the life and career of Robin Williams, Robin . Unauthorized biographies of living people run the risk of being controversial. Kitty Kelley’s infamous His Way: The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra so angered Sinatra, he tried to prevent its publication.

Historical Biography

The wild success of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton is proof that our interest in historical biography is as strong as ever. Miranda was inspired to write the musical after reading Ron Chernow’s Alexander Hamilton , an epic 800+ page biography intended to cement Hamilton’s status as a great American. Paula Gunn Allen also sets the record straight on another misunderstood historical figure with Pocahontas: Medicine Woman, Spy, Entrepreneur, Diplomat , revealing details about her tribe, her family, and her relationship with John Smith that are usually missing from other accounts. Historical biographies also give the spotlight to people who died without ever getting the recognition they deserved, such as The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks .

Biography of a Group

When a group of people share unique characteristics, they can be the topic of a collective biography. The earliest example of this is Captain Charles Johnson’s A General History of the Pirates (1724), which catalogs the lives of notorious pirates and establishes the popular culture images we still associate with them. Smaller groups are also deserving of a biography, as seen in David Hajdu’s Positively 4th Street , a mesmerizing behind-the-scenes look at the early years of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Mimi Baez Fariña, and Richard Fariña as they establish the folk scene in New York City. Likewise, British royal family fashion is a vehicle for telling the life stories of four iconic royals – Queen Elizabeth II, Diana, Kate, and Meghan – in HRH: So Many Thoughts on Royal Style by style journalist Elizabeth Holmes.

Autobiography

This type of biography is written about one’s self, spanning an entire life up to the point of its writing. One of the earliest autobiographies is Saint Augustine’s The Confessions (400), in which his own experiences from childhood through his religious conversion are told in order to create a sweeping guide to life. Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is the first of six autobiographies that share all the pain of her childhood and the long road that led to her work in the civil rights movement, and a beloved, prize-winning writer.

Memoirs are a type of autobiography, written about a specific but vital aspect of one’s life. In Toil & Trouble , Augusten Burroughs explains how he has lived his life as a witch. Mikel Jollett’s Hollywood Park recounts his early years spent in a cult, his family’s escape, and his rise to success with his band, The Airborne Toxic Event. Barack Obama’s first presidential memoir, A Promised Land , charts his path into politics and takes a deep dive into his first four years in office.

Fictional Biography

Fictional biographies are no substitute for a painstakingly researched scholarly biography, but they’re definitely meant to be more entertaining. Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler constructs Zelda and F. Scott’s wild, Jazz-Age life, told from Zelda’s point of view. The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict brings readers into the secret life of Hollywood actress and wartime scientist, Hedy Lamarr. These imagined biographies, while often whimsical, still respect the form in that they depend heavily on facts when creating setting, plot, and characters.

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12 Rules for Writing a Biographical Novel

Posted by Our Special Guest | Jun 4, 2018 | Genre

by Sally Koslow

Biographical novels are endlessly fascinating. They are fictional – often highly researched but still fictional – accounts of a real person’s life. The Paris Wife , about Ernest Hemingway and Hadley Richardson. The Other Boleyn Girl , about Mary Boleyn and her sister Anne.  In Cold Blood , Truman Capote’s reconstruction and retelling of the murder of the Clutter family.

They’re popular, educational, and often become terrific movies.

If you’re thinking of tackling one, here are some secrets to making yours work.

1. Pick a human subject you find genuinely fascinating

Unless they’re crazy-fast, most writers spend at least a year completing a manuscript, and once it’s sold, another year or two may pass until publication . After that, promotion continues for a good, long while.

You’ll be channeling your hero and/or heroine for what will feel like forever, so you’d best pick people who are sufficiently complex.

2. Your character doesn’t have to be wholly likable

They do need to be believable and intriguing.

3. Jump-start your research with biographies

If a biography exists of your subject, lucky you. Begin there. If you’re truly fortunate, there will be more than one biography to inhale. Next, move on to diaries, memoirs, letters, interviews, and related documents. Your goal is to feel you know your subject at least as well as your best friend. If you’d like your subject as a friend, even better. See Rule #2.

4. Beware of verbal anachronisms

I just read an otherwise terrific biographical novel set mostly in the 1950s and 1960s, where the author used the word “alas” at least ten times. I kept wondering if in the next scene I might discover that this mid-century woman wore a whalebone corset and dosed herself with laudanum. Related point: even if “alas” had been an apt word to use, it’s still oddly memorable, and strange to use so often in one book.

5. Avoid dialogue tics

We’ve all learned that conversation shouldn’t be too on the nose and speakers can overlap. In an effort to be period-friendly, however, dialogue shouldn’t mimic every sloppy annoyance of everyday speech. Really. Very. So. Well. Use words such as these sparingly. They are the cayenne pepper of your manuscript.

6. Capture your subject’s voice

Read letters and diaries, if any exist. Check for YouTubes – you may actually be able to hear the voice of your subject. It’s essential for conversation and internal dialogue to feel real or your book won’t distinguish itself.

7. Feel free to reshape your story line

Even the most interesting person does not lead his or her life in a plot. An author needs to determine not only what events to subtract and re-order in the life of her subject, but what do fictionalize and add. Perhaps your Civil War nurse visits an imaginary hospital in Atlanta, or even a real one in which you can’t that prove she ever set foot. Your story may be better for the invention .

9. Enrich your book with historical details

Consider your book to be the literary equivalent of Colonial Williamsburg. Readers come to any historical novel, biographical or otherwise, partly to learn about a bygone era. Don’t stint on (accurate!) details about clothing, hairdos, food, home design, transportation, gardening, raising children….

10. Beware of rabbit holes

In preparation for writing any historical novel, it’s so much fun combing through clippings, tracking down out-of-print books, and watching vintage movies that it’s essential to assert discipline. Otherwise, you may find yourself going down rabbit holes that cause you to either procrastinate or to get so obsessed with a historical footnote that you digress in your writing. Stay on point, people.

11. Stick to your era

In a biographical novel it’s essential to color within the lines or your time period’s details. Nothing takes a reader out of story faster than a mistake. You will find yourself researching picky but essential points. Did women wear nylon stockings in 1939? In 1962, could you buy avocados in a Minnesota supermarket? How many stars did the American flag have in 1901?

12. Read well-written novels within the genre

You want to be able to identify fine writing and become infected by its virus, so read the best of the best and steer clear of biographical novels with pedestrian writing.

Set your bar high

Because why else would you do it? Are you writing a biographical novel? Or thinking about it? Need advice?  Come chat with us on our Facebook page!

She also wrote the international bestseller  The Late, Lamented Molly Marx ;  The Widow Waltz ;   With Friends Like These ; and  Little Pink Slips .  She is also the author of one work of nonfiction , Slouching Towa rd Adulthood: How to Let Go So Your Kids Can Grow Up.

Sally is the former editor-in-chief of  McCall’s  Magazine. She has taught at the Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College and is on the faculty of the New York Writer’s Workshop. She has contributed essays and articles to  The New York Times ,  O ,  Real Simple , and many other newspapers and magazines. She is a member of Tall Poppy Writers .

Sally lives in Manhattan, but hopes the statute of limitations never ends on mentioning that she is from Fargo, North Dakota. She is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she met her husband. They live in Manhattan, and are the proud parents of two sons.

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Fictional Biography

Fictional Biography is a genre wherein an author writes an account of a person's life where that person is actually a fictional character (or leastways, is generally thought to be). An example would be the satirical Augustus Carp, Esq., By Himself: Being the Autobiography of a Really Good Man , published anonymously in 1924 (later confirmed to have been written by Sir Henry Howarth Bashford). In Wold Newton circles, however, the general assumption is that the book will have been written about a pre-existing figure.

The genre is rather a wide one. At one end there will be books that are essentially critical studies of a character, or perhaps examples of "The Game", the scholarly-yet-creative research into the life and career of Sherlock Holmes. While such books are biographical , it would be difficult to actually describe them as fully-fledged biographies. At the other end of the scale can be found novels that have simply been presented in an unusual way, where the style of the biography largely gives way to narrative. Somewhere in the middle are straight biographies, where the authors have used the source texts as though they were historical documents, and in many of these cases the authors have taken the explicit position that they are writing about real people.

Wold Newton scholarship directly derives from two fictional biographies by Philip José Farmer, Tarzan Alive and Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life . There have, however, been many others, both before and after Farmer, at various points in the scale. The list below is based upon the information supplied on Win Scott Eckert 's The Wold Newton Universe website , which listing he expanded in his book Crossovers . Further examples have been added directly to this article.

• 1 'Sir John Falstaff a Notorious Highwayman' in A Complete History of the Lives and Robberies of the Most Notorious Highwaymen by Alexander Smith (1719)
• 2 'The Life of Sir John Falstaff in A General and True History of the Lives and Actions of the Most Famous Highwaymen, Murderers, Street-Robbers, etc. to which is added A Genuine Account of the Voyages and Plunders of the most noted Pirates by Captain Charles Johnson (1742)
• 3 The Life of Sir John Falstaff by Robert Barnabas Brough (1858)
• 4 "Biographical Note" by Paul Austin Delagardie, in Unnatural Death by Dorothy L. Sayers (1927)
• 5 Sleuths: 23 Great Detectives of Fiction & Their Best Stories ed. Kenneth MacGowan (1931)
• 6 The Gay Adventurer aka The Life and Exploits of the Scarlet Pimpernel by John Blakeney (1935)
• 7 "A Probable Outline of Conan's Career" by P. Schuyler Miller and John D. Clark (1938), variously revised under other titles by L. Sprague de Camp (1952 onwards)
• 8 Yankee Lawyer: The Autobiography of Ephraim Tutt , ed. Arthur Train (1943)
• 9 Four-&-Twenty Bloodhounds by Anthony Boucher (1950)
• 10 Maigret’s Memoirs , ed. Georges Simenon (1950)
• 11 Colonel Chinstrap , ed. Ted Kavanagh (1952)
• 12 Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street by William S. Baring-Gould (1962)
• 13 I, Flook: An autobiography with drawings by Trog , ed. George Melly and Wally Fawkes (1962)
• 14 Nero Wolfe of West Thirty-Fifth Street by William S. Baring-Gould (1969)
• 15 The Life and Times of Horatio Hornblower by C. Northcote Parkinson (1970)
• 16 An Informal Biography of Scrooge McDuck by Jack L. Chalker, with a Bibliography by Kim Weston (1971, 1974)
• 17 Tarzan Alive by Philip José Farmer (1972)
• 18 "The Obscure Life and Hard Times of Kilgore Trout" by Philip José Farmer (1973)
• 19 Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life by Philip José Farmer (1973)
• 20 James Bond: The Authorised Biography of 007 by John Pearson (1973)
• 21 America's Secret Service Ace by Nick Carr (1974)
• 22 "Edgar Rice Burroughs: A Brief Biographical Sketch" in A Guide to Barsoom by John Flint Roy (1976)
• 23 I, Sherlock Holmes , ed. Michael Harrison (1977)
• 24 The Wimsey Family by C.W. Scott-Giles (1977)
• 25 John Steed: An Authorized Biography, Volume 1 - Jealous In Honour by Tim Heald (1977)
• 26 The Private Lives of Private Eyes, Spies, Crime Fighters, and Other Good Guys" by Otto Penzler (1977)
• 27 "Jonathan Swift Somers III: Cosmic Traveller in a Wheelchair" by Philip José Farmer (1977)
• 28 The Flying Spy: A History of G-8 by Nick Carr (1978)
• 29 The Great Detectives - A Host of the World's Most Celebrated Sleuths Are Unmasked by Their Authors , ed. Otto Penzer (1978)
• 30 Biggles: The Authorized Biography by John Pearson (1978)
• 31 Jeeves: A Gentleman's Personal Gentleman by C. Northcote Parkinson (1979)
• 32 The Memories of Dame Hilda Bracket: One Little Maid, with a Foreword by Dr Evadne Hinge PTH LRAM , ed. Patrick Fyffe (1980)
• 33 The Great Detectives: Seven Original Investigations by Julian Symons, illustrated by Tom Adams (1981)
• 34 Star Trek II Biographies by William Rotsler (1982)
• 35 The Brownstone House of Nero Wolfe, as told by Archie Goodwin , ed. Ken Darby (1983)
• 36 The Private Life of Dr. Watson , ed. Michael Hardwick (1983)
• 37 Suspects by David Thomson (1985)
• 38 Sherlock Holmes: My Life and Crimes', ed. Michael Hardwick (1986)
• 39 The Life and Times of Miss Jane Marple by Anne Hart (1989)
• 40 The Life and Times of Hercule Poirot by Anne Hart (1990)
• 41 My Gorgeous Life by Dame Edna Everage (1989)
• 42 Arthur Daley Straight Up: The Autobiography , ed. Paul Ableman and Leon Griffiths (1991)
• 43 Leopold Bloom: A Biography aka The Life of Leopold Bloom: A Novel by Peter Costello (1992)
• 44 The Reminisences of the Hon. Galahad Threepwood , ed. N.T.P. Murphy (1993)
• 45 The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck by Don Rosa (1994, 1997)
• 46 Holmes and Watson by June Thomson (1995)
• 47 The Eyes Of The Fleet: A Popular History Of Frigates And Frigate Captains, 1793-1815 by Anthony Price (1996)
• 48 Radio's Captain Midnight: The Wartime Biography by Stephen Kallis (1999)
• 49 Basil Brush: My Story , ed. Andrew Crofts (2001)
• 50 The World of Austin Powers by Andy Lane (2002)
• 51 Life Beyond the Box (2003)
• 52 ' Fawlty Towers': A Worshipper's Guide by Lars Holger Holm (2004)
• 53 Nancy Drew, Confessions of a Teen Sleuth: A Parody , ed. Chelsea Cain (2005)
• 54 Les Nombreuses vies d’Arsène Lupin by André-François Ruaud (2005)
• 55 Les Nombreuses vies de Sherlock Holmes by André-François Ruaud & Xavier Mauméjean (2005)
• 56 Les Nombreuses vies d’Hercule Poirot by André-François Ruaud & Xavier Mauméjean (2006)
• 57 Les Nombreuses vies de Fantômas by Étienne Barillier (2006)
• 58 'Indiana Jones: Biografía' by Marcus Brody, ed. Pau Gómez (2006)
• 59 Before You Leap: A Frog's-Eye View of Life's Greatest Lessons by Kermit the Frog (2006)
• 60 Les Nombreuses vies de James Bond by Laurent Queyssi (2007)
• 61 I am the Doctor: The Unauthorised Diaries of a Timelord , ed. John Peel (2007)
• 62 Les Nombreuses vies de Maigret by Jacques Baudou (2007)
• 63 Les Nombreuses vies de Dracula by André-François Ruaud & Isabelle Ballester (2008)
• 64 Les Nombreuses vies de Frankenstein by André-François Ruaud (2008)
• 65 Les Nombreuses vies de Malaussène by Nicolas Lozzi (2008)
• 66 Les Nombreuses vies de Conan by Simon Sanahujas (2008)
• 67 Les Nombreuses vies de Nero Wolfe, un privé à New York by André-François Ruaud (2008)
• 68 Les Nombreuses morts de Jack l’Éventreur by André-François Ruaud & Julien Bétan (2008)
• 69 Eclectic Gypsy: An Unauthorised Biography of Doctor Who by Dave Thompson (2008)
• 70 Roy of the Rovers: The Unauthorised Biography by Mick Collins (2008)
• 71 Le Dico des héros dirigé by André-François Ruaud (2009)
• 72 Les Nombreuses vies de Miss Marple by Jacques Baudou (2009)
• 73 Les Nombreuses vies de Cthulhu by Patrick Marcel (2009)
• 74 Les Nombreux mondes de Jane Austen by Isabelle Ballester (2009)
• 75 Les Nombreuses vies de Harry Potter by André-François Ruaud (2009)
• 76 The Lineup: The World's Greatest Crime Writers Tell the Inside Story of Their Greatest Detectives , ed. Otto Penzler (2009)
• 77 Handling Edna: The Unauthorised Biography by Barry Humphries (2009)
• 78 Detective Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte: His Life and Times by Michael Duke (2010)
• 79 Les Nombreuses vies de Nestor Burma by Jacques Baudou (2010)
• 80 Les Nombreuses vies du polar provençal by Nicolas Lozzi (2011)
• 81 A Simples Life: My Life and Times (2010)
• 82 Sherlock Holmes, une vie by André-François Ruaud & Xavier Mauméjean (2011)
• 83 Arsène Lupin, une vie by André-François Ruaud (2011)
• 84 Hercule Poirot, une vie by André-François Ruaud & Xavier Mauméjean (2012)
• 85 I, Partridge: We Need to talk about Alan by Alan Partridge, with Rob Gibbons, Neil Gibbons, Armando Iannucci and Steve Coogan (2011)
• 86 The Doctor - His Lives and Times , ed. James Goss & Steve Tribe (2013)
• 87 Let Me Off at the Top: My Classy Life & Other Musings by Ron Burgundy (2013)
• 88 Through It All I've Always Laughed - Memoirs of Count Arthur Strong , ed. Steve Delaney (2013)
• 89 My Prefect Cousin: A Short Biography of Paul Hamilton by Kevin Eldon (2014)
• 90 Roy of the Rovers: The Official Autobiography of Roy of the Rovers by Roy Race (2014)
• 91 The Naked Doctor: Evadne's Odyssey, Book One by Dr Evadne Hinge, as told to George Logan (2014)
• 92 The Autobiography of James T. Kirk: The Story of Starfleet's Greatest Captain ed. David A Goodman (2015)
• 93 Toast on Toast: Cautionary tales and candid advice , ed. Matt Berry & Arthur Matthews (2015)
• 94 The Autobiography of Jean-Luc Picard: the Story of One of Starfleet's Most Inspirational Captains ed. David A. Goodman (2017)
• 95 Crikey! How Did That Happen? The Life and Times of Sir Bertram Wooster by Sri Romesh Yogananda / Crikey! How Did That Happen?: The Refreshingly Unauthorised Biography of Sir Bertram Wooster KG by Ian Strathcarron (2018)
• 96 The Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway: The History of the Captain Who Went Further Than Any Had Before , ed. Una McCormack (2020)
• 97 England's Screaming by Sean Hogan (2020)
• 98 The Autobiography of Mr Spock: the Life of a Federation Legend , ed. Una McCormack (2021)
• 99 Twilight's Last Screaming by Sean Hogan (2022)

'Sir John Falstaff a Notorious Highwayman' in A Complete History of the Lives and Robberies of the Most Notorious Highwaymen by Alexander Smith (1719)

The pseudonymous Alexander Smith presents the lives and robberies of those notorious highwaymen for supposed 'moral' purpose, and in the expanded 1719 edition includes amongst them a villainous Robin Hood (and a Falstaff whose criminal career is shown to extent past the incident portrayed by William Shakespeare in Henry IV Part One .

'The Life of Sir John Falstaff in A General and True History of the Lives and Actions of the Most Famous Highwaymen, Murderers, Street-Robbers, etc. to which is added A Genuine Account of the Voyages and Plunders of the most noted Pirates by Captain Charles Johnson (1742)

An expansion of Captain Johnson's 1724 A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates using material from Smith's volume on highwaymen. "Captain Johnson" is likewise believed to be an alias, and the theory that the true author of the original book was Daniel Defoe persists. To add verisimilitude, Falstaff is mentioned in other sections of the book as well; indeed, it is clearly from the reference to him in the introduction that his inclusion was a selling-point.

The Life of Sir John Falstaff by Robert Barnabas Brough (1858)

This volume is, to date, the earliest identified full-length fictional biography published (further evidence for the popularity of this figure from Shakespeare may be found in the volume of his letters published by James White in 1796, and A.M.F. Randolph's 1893 account of his trial before Justice Shallow).

"Biographical Note" by Paul Austin Delagardie, in Unnatural Death by Dorothy L. Sayers (1927)

A brief, and amusingly self-serving, biography of Lord Peter Wimsey , written by his uncle at the request of Dorothy L. Sayers .

Sleuths: 23 Great Detectives of Fiction & Their Best Stories ed. Kenneth MacGowan (1931)

Sleuths was a collection of short stories about fictional detectives by various hands, but with the gimmick that each piece came with a Who's Who -style mini-biography of each detective by either the author or editor.

• C. Auguste Dupin (Unattributed)
• Sherlock Holmes (Kenneth Macgowan; a longer version of this piece appeared later as the frontispiece to Ellery Queen's notorious anthology The Misadventures of Sherlock Holmes ).
• Martin Hewitt (Arthur Morrison)
• Eugene Valmont (Kenneth Macgowan)
• Professor Augustus S.F.X. Van Dusen (Kenneth Macgowan)
• Craig Kennedy (Arthur B Reeve)
• Dr. John Thorndyke (R. Austin Freeman)
• Astrogon Kerby (Gelett Burgess)
• Philip Trent (E.C. Bentley)
• Max Carrodos (Ernest Bramah)
• William Dawson (Kenneth Macgowan)
• Reggie Fortune (H.C. Bailey)
• Hercule Poirot and Capt. Arthur Hastings (both Kenneth Macgowan)
• Jim Hanvey (Octavus Roy Cohen)
• Supt. Henry Wilson (G.D.H. & M. Cole)
• Lord Peter Wimsey (Dorothy L. Sayers)
• Dr. Eustace Hailey (Kenneth Macgowan)
• Mr. J.G. Reeder (Kenneth Macgowan)
• Detective John Duff (Kenneth Macgowan)
• Henry Poggiloli (T.S. Stribling)
• Instead of biographies, for The Old Man in the Corner, Uncle Abner and Father Brown. there are unattributed apologia for the scarcity of information.

The Gay Adventurer aka The Life and Exploits of the Scarlet Pimpernel by John Blakeney (1935)

Published while the Baroness Orczy was still writing stories about Sir Percy Blakeney and his descendents, and not always consistent with them. It is generally assumed that “John Blakeney” was actually her son John Orczy Barstow. The book is available online here .

"A Probable Outline of Conan's Career" by P. Schuyler Miller and John D. Clark (1938), variously revised under other titles by L. Sprague de Camp (1952 onwards)

The original article is online here .

Yankee Lawyer: The Autobiography of Ephraim Tutt , ed. Arthur Train (1943)

A popular entry in Train's long-running series of stories, in which he passes the baton to Tutt himself in order to tell the story of his life (and, in doing so, point out where Train has misrepresented him in print in the past). Readers were left somewhat confused as to whether Tutt was a fictional character, or whether he had been real all along....

Four-&-Twenty Bloodhounds by Anthony Boucher (1950)

• Verne Chute's Shadrack Arnold
• Joseph Commings's Senator Brooks U. Banner
• W.T Brannon's Jim Burgess
• John Dickson Carr's Dr. Gideon Fell
• Ken Crssen's Mortimer Death
• Matthew Head's Dr. Mary Finney
• Dr. Sam: Johnson , as chronicled by Lillian de la Torre
• Harold Q. Masur's Scott Jordan
• Frank Kane's Johnny Liddell
• Jerome & Harold Prince's Inspector Magruder
• James M. Fox's John and Suzy Marshall
• Merlini, as chronicled by "Clayton Rawson" (pen-name for The Great Merlini and Ross Harte)
• D.B. Olsen's Miss Rachel Murdock
• The Mysterious Traveller, as chronicled by Robert Arthur
• Anthony Boucher's Nick Noble
• Lawrence G. Blochman's O'Reilly Sahib
• Stewart Sterling's Ben Pedley
• August Derleth's Solar Pons
• Ellery Queen
• Brett Halliday's Michael Shayne
• Frederick Brown's Henry Smith
• George Harmon Coxe's Dr. Paul Standish
• Q. Patrick's Lt. Timothy Trant
• Kelley Roos's Jeff and Haila Troy
• Stuart Palmer's Hildegarde Withers

Explicitly-modelled on Sleuths , Boucher composed (allegedly drawing his information from question sheets completed by the detectives themselves) similar Who's Who -style entries for each work in his anthology of detective fiction - with three exceptions. Ellery Queen refused to supply any information, sending Boucher a facetious letter instead, which is reprinted complete with signature; The Mysterious Traveller is said to have supplied biographical information so disturbing that it could not be published, with Boucher announcing that he had had to send a copy to Miskatonic University instead (one wonders how many readers in 1950 recognised the joke here); Brett Halliday supplied no further information beyond his Michael Shayne story which recounts how the two men got to know each other.

Maigret’s Memoirs , ed. Georges Simenon (1950)

Much like Train before him, Maigret has a go at his chronicler and insists on writing the story of his life himself. Simenon later allowed Julian Symons to write an associated pastiche, “About Maigret and the Stolen Papers” , in his Great Detectives (see below).

Colonel Chinstrap , ed. Ted Kavanagh (1952)

The autobiography of Colonel Humphrey Chinstrap, the dipsomaniac army officer from I.T.M.A. , the BBC radio series that got the British through World War Two.

Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street by William S. Baring-Gould (1962)

Arguably the culmination of all Sherlockian speculation - although by no means the last - Baring-Gould draws together much work by himself and other hands to tell the story of the Great Detective's family, career, and retirement. The book is notable for popularising the idea that Nero Wolfe was Sherlock Holmes 's son. Elements from the Professor Challenger stories, and from three notable pastiches, are also included.

I, Flook: An autobiography with drawings by Trog , ed. George Melly and Wally Fawkes (1962)

"Flook" was a comic strip that ran in British newspapers from 1949 till at least the mid-1980s, drawn by Trog (Wally Fawkes) and written by a succession of well-known names. Originally for children, it quickly developed in surreal and satirical ways for an older audience. In his slim illustrated prose autobiography, Flook - some sort of magical prehistoric-creature-about-town - gives an account of his life as ostensible pet to a young boy whom he notices hasn't aged since the strip started...

Nero Wolfe of West Thirty-Fifth Street by William S. Baring-Gould (1969)

Whereas Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street was a straight biography of the late Sherlock Holmes, Nero Wolfe of West 35th Street is more a collection of essays about the still-living New York detective , each one dealing with a different aspect of Wolfe's career, life, and circle.

The Life and Times of Horatio Hornblower by C. Northcote Parkinson (1970)

Although books in a similar vein had been written before, the idea behind The Life and Times of Horatio Hornblower seems to have been a new one to its readers. Parkinson took the character of Horatio Hornblower , the protagonist of the historical novels by C.S. Forester , and wrote such a straight biography that some reviewers missed the point and thought Hornblower had actually existed. Rumours exist of a similar tome by one "C. Windgate".

An Informal Biography of Scrooge McDuck by Jack L. Chalker, with a Bibliography by Kim Weston (1971, 1974)

This essay was originally published in Markings magazine in 1971, then in an expanded standalone pamphlet in 1974. It is placed firmly in the tradition of the Sherlockian 'Game', noting that the book's 'form is an established literary genre in and of itself'. McDuck's life is taken from the comics by Carl Barks , who is elsewhere recorded as having said that he considered Disney's anthropomorphic animal cartoon characters as being, essentially, portraits of human beings in caricature .

Tarzan Alive by Philip José Farmer (1972)

See main article Tarzan Alive .

"The Obscure Life and Hard Times of Kilgore Trout" by Philip José Farmer (1973)

Doc savage: his apocalyptic life by philip josé farmer (1973).

See main article Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life .

James Bond: The Authorised Biography of 007 by John Pearson (1973)

John Pearson was a colleague of Ian Fleming and wrote his biography. James Bond: The Authorised Biography reveals that Pearson started to get peculiar correspondence once his Fleming book was out, which lead him to discover that James Bond is not fictional at all. It is interesting to note that before Fleming's literary estate took an interest, Pearson anticipated that the book would have to be a parody in order to reach print. It is interesting to note that Pearson's book was published around the same time as Farmer's, as the latter also includes - consistent - information about James Bond's ancestry.

America's Secret Service Ace by Nick Carr (1974)

About Operator #5 .

"Edgar Rice Burroughs: A Brief Biographical Sketch" in A Guide to Barsoom by John Flint Roy (1976)

Wold Newton scholars have also considered the differences between the real-life Burroughs and the narrator of his books in their article Burroughing Beneath the Page .

I, Sherlock Holmes , ed. Michael Harrison (1977)

In essentials, this is a novelisation of Harrison's earlier work of Sherlockian speculation The World of Sherlock Holmes , with conclusions that he had reached found to be confirmed by the Great Detective 's own memoir, preserved in the British Library.

The Wimsey Family by C.W. Scott-Giles (1977)

Penned by the Fitzalan Pursuivant of Arms Extraordinary, based on his longstanding correspondence with Dorothy L. Sayers about the ancestry of Lord Peter Wimsey .

John Steed: An Authorized Biography, Volume 1 - Jealous In Honour by Tim Heald (1977)

This was the first biography written by Tim Heald - with input from both Patrick Macnee (who features as a character, as does his father) and Brian Clemens. Only the first volume of the life of John Steed , central character of the television programme The Avengers , was ever produced, and only one edition was printed; nevertheless, Mr. Heald is probably nowadays known best as a biographer, although few of his other subjects can have had the same pre-existing acquaintance that he had with John Steed.

The book, which lacks any of the fantastic elements the television show is now best known for, is notable for its cameo appearance by James Bond and, somewhat bizarrely, a crossover with Evelyn Waugh 's first novel, Decline and Fall . A rarity, it is described in hushed tones on various websites, such as here .

The Private Lives of Private Eyes, Spies, Crime Fighters, and Other Good Guys" by Otto Penzler (1977)

A large-format illustrated book, covering 'The lives and times of the world's 25 best-known fictional crime fighters'. Each section offers an overview of a character or characters, as well as a brief in-universe biography:

• Modesty Blaise
• Father Brown
• Nick Carter
• Charlie Chan
• Nick and Nora Charles
• Bulldog Drummond
• C. Auguste Dupin
• Mike Hammer
• Sherlock Holmes
• Jules Maigret (excerpt available online here )
• Philip Marlowe
• Miss Marple
• Perry Mason
• Hercule Poirot
• Dr. Thorndyke
• Philo Vance
• Lord Peter Wimsey

"Jonathan Swift Somers III: Cosmic Traveller in a Wheelchair" by Philip José Farmer (1977)

Available online here .

The Flying Spy: A History of G-8 by Nick Carr (1978)

The great detectives - a host of the world's most celebrated sleuths are unmasked by their authors , ed. otto penzer (1978).

This book consists of a series of essays about famous fictional detectives (or similar), written by their chroniclers. Predominantly the characters are treated as fictional, but some contributions are 'in-universe', with one or two somewhere in between!

• Roderick Alleyn by Ngaio Marsh
• John Appleby by Michael Innes
• Lew Archer by Ross MacDonald
• Father Bredder by Leonard Holton
• Flash Casey by George Harmon Coxe
• Pierre Chambrun by Hugh Pentecost
• Inspector Cockrill by Christianna Brand
• Captain Jose Da Silva by Robert L. Fish
• Nancy Drew by Carolyn Keene
• The 87th Precinct by Ed McBain
• Fred Fellows by Hillary Waugh
• Inspector Ghote by H. R. F. Keating (something of a self-satire)
• Matt Helm by Donald Hamilton
• Duncan Maclain by Baynard H. Kendrick
• Mark McPherson by Vera Caspary
• Lieutenant Luid Mendoza by Dell Shannon
• Mr and Mrs North by Richard Lockridge
• Patrick Petrella by Michael Gilbert
• Superintendent Pibble by Peter Dickinson
• Quiller by Adam Hall
• Inspector Schmidt by George Bagby
• The Shadow by Maxwell Grant
• Michael Shayne by Brett Halliday (this entry essentially a real-world version of Halliday's contribution to Four-and-Twenty Bloodhounds )
• Virgil Tibbs by John Ball (some of this entry is quoted in the TV Tropes website's article on the "Literary Agent Hypothesis" )
• Dick Tracy by Chester Gould
• Inspector Van der Valk by Nicolas Freeling

Biggles: The Authorized Biography by John Pearson (1978)

The conceit of this book is that Captain James Bigglesworth, the World War One flying ace whose adventures were described by W.E. Johns , lived near Pearson following his retirement. The book is not much liked by Biggles fans, as it takes considerable liberties with Johns's works.

Jeeves: A Gentleman's Personal Gentleman by C. Northcote Parkinson (1979)

In this book Parkinson assembles episodes from P.G. Wodehouse 's Bertie Wooster stories into a continuous narrative, as well as adding incidents of his own. Not perhaps a successful imitation of Wodehouse's style, although the all-star cast audiobook adaptation in particular occasionally raises a smile. Notably, Lord Peter Wimsey , Bunter , Hercule Poirot and Father Brown all appear. Northcote Parkinson cites his inspiration as Geoffrey Jaggard's concordance-cum-book of quotations, Wooster's World (1967). He also cites a number of fictional sources, including a spurious biography of Lord Peter Wimsey , Whimsical Sleuth by Wallace Edgar .

The Memories of Dame Hilda Bracket: One Little Maid, with a Foreword by Dr Evadne Hinge PTH LRAM , ed. Patrick Fyffe (1980)

Autobiography of one half of the light opera-singing duo, Hinge & Bracket, edited by one of the two gentlemen who (so-to-speak) knew them best.

The Great Detectives: Seven Original Investigations by Julian Symons, illustrated by Tom Adams (1981)

A coffee-table book of original critical, speculative and creative material, written with the permission of the daughters of Agatha Christie , Rex Stout and Raymond Chandler , and the co-operation of Georges Simenon and Frederic Dannay , comprising:

• "How a Hermit was Disturbed in His Retirement" (short story in which a very young Miss Marple meets the elderly Sherlock Holmes, also anthologised elsewhere under the title "The Adventure of Hillerman Hall")
• "About Miss Marple and St. Mary Mead" (a reminiscence written at Symons's request by the Reverend Leonard Clement, narrator of the first Miss Marple novel The Murder at the Vicarage
• "In Which Archie Goodwin Remembers" (Symons interviews Archie Goodwin while visiting the United States, and learns the fate of Nero Wolfe )
• "Which Expounds the Ellery Queen Mystery" (still in America, Symons researches the life of Ellery Queen , and finds evidence to support his theory that the detective was actually two different men, Ellery and Dan. Frederic Dannay's opinion is also sought)
• "About Maigret and the Stolen Papers" (a short story crossing-over Maigret and Hercule Poirot )
• "The Life of Hercule Poirot, based on the notes of Captain Arthur Hastings" (Symons meets the elderly Captain Hastings , and takes over his project to put together a full biography of the Belgian sleuth)
• "About the Birth of Philip Marlowe" (Symons meets the man on whom Raymond Chandler based Philip Marlowe )

Star Trek II Biographies by William Rotsler (1982)

The author of tie-in fiction to the movies Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock was encouraged by his editor to take a closer look at the lives of the crew of the USS Enterprise . Although much of his book has since been contradicted, Rotsler is famously credited with coining Lt. Uhura's first name .

== "The" is My Middle Name by Gonzo the Great, ed. Chris Langham (1982, unpublished) Advertised in 1982, this volume purportedly was unable to find a publisher. It is unlikely to see print now.

The Brownstone House of Nero Wolfe, as told by Archie Goodwin , ed. Ken Darby (1983)

A fictional biography of Nero Wolfe's house, also revealing much about both Wolfe and Archie's lives. Flatly contradicts both Symons's book and Robert Goldsborough's continuation novels regarding the fate of Wolfe and Archie.

The Private Life of Dr. Watson , ed. Michael Hardwick (1983)

This novel has the doctor recall his somewhat racy adventures in youth, before he encountered Holmes. The title is a riff on The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes - the novelisation of the film of that name had been written by Michael and Mollie Hardwick.

Suspects by David Thomson (1985)

Not, unfortunately, consistent with the Wold Newton Universe. The narrator of this novel writes biographies of different movie characters, expanding on what is known from the films, and gradually the articles begin to bleed into each other. The follow-up, Silverlight , took a more conventional style, and mainly covered figures from the Wild West, both historical and fictional.

Sherlock Holmes: My Life and Crimes', ed. Michael Hardwick (1986)

Although the book opens as an autobiography, discussing - for example - Sherlock Holmes's early work with the Pinkertons, it rapidly turns into a novel as Holmes reveals to the reader the true events of the Great Hiatus.

The Life and Times of Miss Jane Marple by Anne Hart (1989)

The life and times of hercule poirot by anne hart (1990).

Essentially an analysis of the stories and characters as fiction.

My Gorgeous Life by Dame Edna Everage (1989)

Perhaps not as classy as Hinge & Bracket (she's Australian) but certainly better-known and much more influential.

Arthur Daley Straight Up: The Autobiography , ed. Paul Ableman and Leon Griffiths (1991)

This book begins as a narrative of the youth of Arthur Daley, the car dealer from Minder , but ultimately turns into a selection of his adventures, probably derived from television episodes. Interestingly, the cover bears a recommendation from Derek Trotter (q.v.). Other television shows have produced books in a similar vein to Straight Up - finding a way of adapting what is on the screen into a book without just producing flat novelisations or script books - but this is perhaps the closest to actual autobiography.

Leopold Bloom: A Biography aka The Life of Leopold Bloom: A Novel by Peter Costello (1992)

A straight biographical study of the protagonist of James Joyce 's Ulysses .

The Reminisences of the Hon. Galahad Threepwood , ed. N.T.P. Murphy (1993)

Ostensibly a later edition of the book consumed by the pig Empress of Blandings in Wodehouse's Heavy Weather , and finally revealing the truth about Parslowe and the prawns, and what happened to Lord Ickenham and Pongo at the dog races, this book is actually about the real-life characters who haunted the Pelican Club at the end of the nineteenth century.

The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck by Don Rosa (1994, 1997)

Rosa carefully constructed stories for the Uncle Scrooge comic based on references to Scrooge McDuck's early life as revealed in the early Carl Barks comics, much as other fictional biographers drew non-fiction styled histories from their original sources.

Holmes and Watson by June Thomson (1995)

The eyes of the fleet: a popular history of frigates and frigate captains, 1793-1815 by anthony price (1996).

A study of a selection of naval heroes of the Napoleonic Wars - men such as Pigot, Cochrane, Hoste, Pellew, and... um... Hornblower.

Radio's Captain Midnight: The Wartime Biography by Stephen Kallis (1999)

Basil brush: my story , ed. andrew crofts (2001).

Even puppets have turned to the written word to tell their life-story.

The World of Austin Powers by Andy Lane (2002)

Life beyond the box (2003).

A pair of BBC television programmes, rather than books:

• "Norman Stanley Fletcher" told the life story of the central character of the prison sitcom Porridge , revealing details of his early life, and the fates of the main recurring characters of the series. It starred the surviving members of the original cast.
• "Margo", conversely, featured none of the surviving cast of the sitcom The Good Life , and was a deconstruction of the snobbish Margo Leadbetter, revealing the skeletons in her cupboard.

' Fawlty Towers': A Worshipper's Guide by Lars Holger Holm (2004)

This is the book that, notoriously, presents the script of the alleged thirteenth episode of John Cleese and Connie Booth's sitcom, supposedly filmed but never broadcast. Amongst the other material in the book are potted biographies of each of the residents of the Torquay hotel.

Nancy Drew, Confessions of a Teen Sleuth: A Parody , ed. Chelsea Cain (2005)

Les nombreuses vies d’arsène lupin by andré-françois ruaud (2005).

Volume 1 of a series of fictional biographies published by the French imprint la bibliothèque rouge . Many volumes address not only the title character but other characters on a similar nature, and feature French translations of pastiches familiar to a Wold Newton audience.

Les Nombreuses vies de Sherlock Holmes by André-François Ruaud & Xavier Mauméjean (2005)

La bibliothèque rouge , Volume 2.

Les Nombreuses vies d’Hercule Poirot by André-François Ruaud & Xavier Mauméjean (2006)

La bibliothèque rouge , Volume 3.

Les Nombreuses vies de Fantômas by Étienne Barillier (2006)

La bibliothèque rouge , Volume 4.

'Indiana Jones: Biografía' by Marcus Brody, ed. Pau Gómez (2006)

Originally written in 1948 by a close friend and colleague of Dr. Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, Jr., together with a 1993 postscript by Jones himself, this book has only even been published in Spain, in Spanish, without the authorisation of Lucasfilm.

Before You Leap: A Frog's-Eye View of Life's Greatest Lessons by Kermit the Frog (2006)

One of a series of self-help books overseen by series editor Jim Lewis (the others being 'The Diva Code: Miss Piggy on Life, Live and the 10,000 Idiotic Things Frogs Do" and Pepe the King Prawn's "It's Hard Out Here for a Shrimp: Life, Love and Living Large"), this book includes Kermit's own autobiography recounting the story of his life and the formation of the Muppets.

Les Nombreuses vies de James Bond by Laurent Queyssi (2007)

La bibliothèque rouge , Volume 5.

I am the Doctor: The Unauthorised Diaries of a Timelord , ed. John Peel (2007)

Ostensibly interviews with ten incarnations of the Doctor - and one of his companions - this book is just lists the barest details of the plots of all broadcast television stories. And for some reason, each Doctor is able to describe the circumstances of his regeneration into his subsequent body...

Les Nombreuses vies de Maigret by Jacques Baudou (2007)

La bibliothèque rouge , Volume 6.

Les Nombreuses vies de Dracula by André-François Ruaud & Isabelle Ballester (2008)

La bibliothèque rouge , Volume 7.

Les Nombreuses vies de Frankenstein by André-François Ruaud (2008)

La bibliothèque rouge , Volume 8.

Les Nombreuses vies de Malaussène by Nicolas Lozzi (2008)

La bibliothèque rouge , Volume 9.

Les Nombreuses vies de Conan by Simon Sanahujas (2008)

La bibliothèque rouge , Volume 10.

Les Nombreuses vies de Nero Wolfe, un privé à New York by André-François Ruaud (2008)

La bibliothèque rouge , Volume 11.

Les Nombreuses morts de Jack l’Éventreur by André-François Ruaud & Julien Bétan (2008)

La bibliothèque rouge , Volume 12; regarding Jack the Ripper, the notorious murderer often used in fiction pitched against figures such as Sherlock Holmes.

Eclectic Gypsy: An Unauthorised Biography of Doctor Who by Dave Thompson (2008)

A spoof of the whole idea of a fictional biography, citing interviews with dead Time Lords and articles from unlikely interstellar publications (and occasionally mocking one or two specific fans).

Roy of the Rovers: The Unauthorised Biography by Mick Collins (2008)

Somewhat like John Pearson, Mick Collins began by writing a biography of a real person, with "his bestselling All-Round Genius about a real life sports man who resembled a comic strip hero[; in Roy of the Rovers ], Mick Collins turns his attention to a comic strip hero that many thought was a real-life striker".

Le Dico des héros dirigé by André-François Ruaud (2009)

La bibliothèque rouge , Volume 13, being a dictionary of heroes - "A comme Adamsberg, B comme Belphégor, C comme Chéri-Bibi, D comme Dickson, E comme Emmanuelle, F comme Fu Manchu, G comme Green Hornet, H comme Holmes et ainsi de suite."

Les Nombreuses vies de Miss Marple by Jacques Baudou (2009)

La bibliothèque rouge , Volume 14.

Les Nombreuses vies de Cthulhu by Patrick Marcel (2009)

La bibliothèque rouge , Volume 15; addressing the workings of a universe where loom the Ctuhlhu Cult Deities.

Les Nombreux mondes de Jane Austen by Isabelle Ballester (2009)

La bibliothèque rouge , Volume 16; addressing the lives of Elizabeth Bennet and other figures from Austen's works.

Les Nombreuses vies de Harry Potter by André-François Ruaud (2009)

La bibliothèque rouge , Volume 17.

The Lineup: The World's Greatest Crime Writers Tell the Inside Story of Their Greatest Detectives , ed. Otto Penzler (2009)

For Otto Penzler's latest anthology of fictional biographies, some contributors chose to write about how they developed their characters, and others opted to continue the polite fiction that they are chronicling the lives of real people:

• Jack Taylor by Ken Brown
• Jack Reacher by Lee Child
• Harry Bosch by Michael Connelly
• Charlie Parker by John Connolly
• Elvis Cole and Joe Pike by Robert Crais
• Lincoln Rhyme by Jeffrey Deaver
• Inspector Morse by Colin Dexter
• Charlie Resnick by John Harvey
• Bob Lee Swagger by Stephen Hunter
• Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus by Faye Kellerman
• Alex Delaware by Jonathan Kellerman
• Dismas Hardy by John Lescroart
• Tess Monaghan by Laura Lippman
• Rambo by David Morrell
• Mallory by Carol O'Connell
• Spenser by Robert B. Parker
• Lou Boldt by Ridley Pearson
• Charlotte and Thomas Pitt by Anne Perry
• Aloysius X. L. Pendergast by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
• John Rebus by Ian Rankin
• Precious Ramotswe by Alexander McCall Smith

Handling Edna: The Unauthorised Biography by Barry Humphries (2009)

The inside story of Dame Edna Everage, as told by her long-term manager.

Detective Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte: His Life and Times by Michael Duke (2010)

A biography of Arthur Upfield 's Bony , with particular reference to his Aboriginal background. The author concedes that Bony is a fictional character but that he intends to pretend he's real. The publishers have made an excerpt available online here (which, interestingly, compares Bony's relationship to Upfield with John Steed and his biographer Tim Heald....).

Les Nombreuses vies de Nestor Burma by Jacques Baudou (2010)

La bibliothèque rouge , Volume 18.

Les Nombreuses vies du polar provençal by Nicolas Lozzi (2011)

La bibliothèque rouge , Volume 19; discussing the detectives of Provençe.

A Simples Life: My Life and Times (2010)

The Russian-accented meerkat Aleksandr Orlov takes a break from advertising a price-comparison website to tell his story.

Sherlock Holmes, une vie by André-François Ruaud & Xavier Mauméjean (2011)

La bibliothèque rouge , Volume 20.

Arsène Lupin, une vie by André-François Ruaud (2011)

La bibliothèque rouge , Volume 21.

Hercule Poirot, une vie by André-François Ruaud & Xavier Mauméjean (2012)

La bibliothèque rouge , Volume 22. Further volumes are in preparation; Tarzan , notably, is to be one of the figures covered.

I, Partridge: We Need to talk about Alan by Alan Partridge, with Rob Gibbons, Neil Gibbons, Armando Iannucci and Steve Coogan (2011)

Alan 's follow-up to his earlier, pulped, Bouncing Back , covering his complete career without resorting to simply novelising episodes of his radio, television or Youtube series.

The Doctor - His Lives and Times , ed. James Goss & Steve Tribe (2013)

A licenced work in a similar vein to Eclectic Gypsy , interspersed with real-world commentary on the television show Doctor Who including contributions from writers, cast and crew from across its fifty-year history.

Let Me Off at the Top: My Classy Life & Other Musings by Ron Burgundy (2013)

Older, more American, classier and much more successful than Norfolk's greatest son (one cannot but wonder whether this book was directly inspired by I, Partridge ), "Ron Burgundy have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work."

Through It All I've Always Laughed - Memoirs of Count Arthur Strong , ed. Steve Delaney (2013)

Facsimile of a hand-corrected typescript by the legend of showbusiness himself.

My Prefect Cousin: A Short Biography of Paul Hamilton by Kevin Eldon (2014)

Kevin Eldon tells the story of the performance poet (whom he, Kevin, in turn, performs in stand-up) Paul Hamilton.

Roy of the Rovers: The Official Autobiography of Roy of the Rovers by Roy Race (2014)

England's best-loved footballer tells the story of his life.... well, somebody does. The original hardback edition published by Century credits accustomed ghostwriter of biographies Eddie Grant with putting the text together, but the 2015 paperback by Arrow is credited to 'Roy Race with Giles Smith'.

The Naked Doctor: Evadne's Odyssey, Book One by Dr Evadne Hinge, as told to George Logan (2014)

Memoir of the other half of Hinge & Bracket, covering 1920-1938 (a second volume is said to be in preparation). By Logan's own account, "I was aware that my former colleague, Patrick. had, back in the 1980s, produced something called 'One Little Maid' [...] I had never read it, and it was only when an audiobook version was produced [....] that I became acquainted with it. And was astonished to discover how poor it was. A friend, a great enthusiast of Hinge and Bracket, and particularly of Dame Hilda, described it as 'anodyne'. That is, if anything, over generous. It's utterly dull and inoffensive - tedious, harmless, bland. Totally devoid of the wit and inventiveness that Patrick, in the character of Dame Hilda, was renowned for."

The Autobiography of James T. Kirk: The Story of Starfleet's Greatest Captain ed. David A Goodman (2015)

The life story of James Tiberius Kirk, as written by the man himself shortly before his tragic death aboard the USS Enterprise-B . The volume includes a Foreword by Dr. Leonard H. McCoy, and an Afterword by Spock of Vulcan.

Toast on Toast: Cautionary tales and candid advice , ed. Matt Berry & Arthur Matthews (2015)

Another acting memoir, this one by Steven Toast (perhaps best known for his voiceover work).

The Autobiography of Jean-Luc Picard: the Story of One of Starfleet's Most Inspirational Captains ed. David A. Goodman (2017)

Crikey how did that happen the life and times of sir bertram wooster by sri romesh yogananda / crikey how did that happen: the refreshingly unauthorised biography of sir bertram wooster kg by ian strathcarron (2018).

One book, two releases; firstly for free electronically under the name of Sri Romesh Yogananda, and then several months later under a modified title and credited to the pen name of the publisher Ian David Patrick Macpherson, 3rd Baron Strathcarron, electronically for a modest charge and in paperback.

The Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway: The History of the Captain Who Went Further Than Any Had Before , ed. Una McCormack (2020)

England's screaming by sean hogan (2020).

Does for British horror films what Suspects did for Film Noir.

The Autobiography of Mr Spock: the Life of a Federation Legend , ed. Una McCormack (2021)

Delayed from 2018, original editor David A. Goodman having found himself unable to devote sufficient time to the project.

Twilight's Last Screaming by Sean Hogan (2022)

More intertwining stories, this time from American horror.

• 1 Sherlock Holmes
• 2 Lord Peter Wimsey
• 3 Mircalla Karnstein

What is a Biopic — Definition & Best Examples Explained

D o you ever wonder what is a biopic, or what counts as a biopic? In contemporary cinema, biopic movies seem to be everywhere. Old historical figures, musicians, politicians, as well as “regular” people dealing with extraordinary events.

There have been more biopic films in recent decades, but they’re nothing new. Biopics have been a staple in the cinema landscape dating back to its earliest days. So, what is a biopic, what do they usually entail and how has the genre evolved to be where it is today?

Watch: How to Make a Biopic

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Defining Biopic    

What does biopic mean.

The spectrum of what qualifies as a biographical film is rather wide, leaving room for creative expressions of true life. For example, consider how Tarantino adapted Sharon Tate's story in Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood . Before getting into the real complexities of biopic films, let’s first provide a biopic definition that all these films share. 

BIOPIC DEFINITION

What is a biopic.

A biopic is a movie that dramatizes the life of a real, non-fictional individual. Short for “biographical motion picture,” a biopic can cover a person’s entire life or one specific moment in their history. Topics for biopics are nearly endless, with famous figures from history, along with popular celebrities of late, being covered.

Biopic characteristics include:

• Covering the life of a real individual
• Taking "creative license" with parts of the individual’s life or character for dramatic purposes
• Covering multiple years in their life or focusing on very specific moments
• Featuring a “Where are they now?” section that covers what happened to the individual(s) after the events portrayed in the film

While all biopics are essentially movies about a real-life person, they can differ in many other ways. 

The most obvious way a biopic differentiates itself is in how accurate it is to the subject’s history. Depending on the story you want to tell, a biopic can be almost wholly fictional, using only surface facts to create a mostly made-up narrative .

If the biopic is about someone who has a great myth around them, a filmmaker might be more interested in making a movie about the legend of the person instead of the facts.

Unfortunately, a 100% accurate biopic is impossible. If you are basing the movie on someone who existed centuries ago, filmmakers will only have so much to work with. In some of those cases, even if the facts are available, the myth surrounding a person might be a bigger draw or a more interesting story.

Take Todd Haynes  I'm Not There , which casts multiple actors to portray Bob Dylan. More than simply a marketing stunt, this varied cast accentuates Dylan's own constantly shifting personas. 

I'm Not There  •  Watch Todd Haynes define biopic

20th century biopics about 20th century individuals are often caught embellishing the facts for the sake of making the subject look better or worse than they really were. So if you make a biopic about someone who is still alive, you will absolutely get told about how right or wrong your biographical film is.

More often than not, though, biopics fudge the truth for the sake of making a better movie. This is nothing new, as artworks and plays have stretched the truth in some way for the sake of the art itself. After all, movies are not real life, and if someone really wanted to know the facts of an individual’s life, they could look up a written biography.

Biopic Early Days

The emergence of biopics.

It may surprise some to learn that biographical movies have always been popular. Some of the first films ever made were biopics, often focusing on historical figures such as Peter the Great, Joan of Arc, Napoleon Bonaparte, and even Jesus of Nazareth.

George Armstrong Custer and Abraham Lincoln are two historical figures, alive around the same time, who managed to get several biopics in cinema’s early years. For Custer, these include Custer’s Last Fight (1912), The Plainsman (1936 and 1966), Santa Fe Trail (1940), and They Died with Their Boots On (1941). Many of these films were criticized for fabricating and romanticizing the history and facts of Custer’s life.

Abraham Lincoln also got his fair share of many, many biopics before 1950. Of these many biopics, Young Mr. Lincoln (1939) is probably the most well known and revered, having been directed by John Ford and starring Henry Fonda as Lincoln. Unlike most movies about US Presidents, Young Mr. Lincoln exclusively focuses on Lincoln’s days as a young lawyer in Illinois, working on a murder case.

Aside from historical figures, early biopics would also feature celebrities of the day. Possibly the most significant and well known of these is Yankee Doodle Dandy (1943), starring James Cagney, focusing on George M. Cohan, otherwise known as “The Man Who Owned Broadway.” Regardless of how accurate it is, it proved to be a huge success, getting awards attention and critical acclaim.

Yankee Doodle Dandy also sheds light on a very important aspect of biopics, which is their popularity. On top of people wanting to see a dramatization of a real life person, biopics require actors to more or less “be” the real life individual, which can prove to be a challenge. As a result, it can be very impressive to see how an actor pulls off being so much like the real life subject.

This success can also bring with it awards, which many biopics receive. Regardless of the plot’s quality, the main draw for a biopic movies is often the acting, which ends up either being the most notable part.

Here are a few more notable examples of early biopics:

The Story of the Kelly Gang , Charles Tait (1906)

Napoleon , Abel Gance (1927)

Passion of Joan of Arc , Carl Theodor Dreyer (1928)

Annie Oakley , George Stevens (1935)

Gentleman Jim , Raoul Walsh (1942)

The Great Moment , Preston Sturges (1944)

Ivan the Terrible , Sergei Eisenstein (1944-1946)

Biopics Changes

The changing world of biopics.

As cinema began to change, so did the biopic meaning. While still retaining similar act structures and an air of romanticism, biopic films started to cover a greater swath of subjects. Additionally, the rate of biopics being released began to increase, particularly after the 1940s.

Auditioning actors is hard enough — trying to find a perfect match for the subject of a biopic is an entirely different challenge. The debate of choosing someone who looks like the person over whether they can act like the person is a never-ending debate, with various arguments for either side. While some believe what matters most is the performance, others think that looking like the subject is what’s important.

Additionally, if the film does not represent the subject in a way that others deem fair, it can cause problems for the actor doing the portrayal.

Some biopic movies have eliminated this issue by having the subjects star in the movie their lives were based on. Notable examples of this include Jackie Robinson in The Jackie Robinson Story (1950) and Howard Stern in Private Parts (1997).

Biopics can really run the gamut of all movie genres . While biopics such as Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and Cleopatra (1963) used their subjects to tell grand narratives, other types of biopics were beginning to crop up. 

Spartacus (1960), while being a traditional epic biopic about the Third Servile War (73-71 BC), also worked as a commentary on the recent Communist witch hunt that led to The Hollywood Blacklist .

Andrei Rublev (1966), though set in the 15th century, uses its setting to criticize the then Soviet Union’s suppression of artistic and spiritual freedoms. Since the film was directed by Andrei Tarkovsky in the Soviet Union, the country had it banned and then censored.

One of the most controversial films of the 1960s was also a (simplified) biopic: Bonnie and Clyde (1967). Starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway as the classic crime couple, the film featured shameless sex and violence that broke new barriers in American cinema. It is now recognized as one of the first films to come from the burgeoning and vital New Hollywood era.

Later in the 1980s, Paul Schrader’s Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985) took a highly artistic approach to the biopic. Balancing its focus between the last day of Yukio Mishima’s life and recreations of some of his stories, Schrader created a biopic that dared to be way more artistic than factual. This film truly complicates the answer to "What is a biopic?"

Biopic Meaning Today

The modernization of biopic movies.

As the 20th century raged on into the 21st, the subjects of biographical films expanded to include lesser known figures alongside famous ones. Film critic David Edelstein digs into some recent and classic biopic examples in this video, along with the genre’s continued popularity.

In the last few decades, politicians and musicians have strongly dominated the biopic scene. Whether it’s a recent US president or someone else working in Washington D.C., plenty of notable biopics have been about American political figures.

Using Richard Nixon as one example, he managed to get two different movies made about him in the 1990s. The first was Oliver Stone’s Nixon (1995), starring Anthony Hopkins, which was a sprawling, three-hour-plus drama that touched upon his personal life and politics.

The other was Dick (1999), which starred Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams as two teenagers who somehow get involved with the Watergate scandal. While Dick is more obviously a comedy, it’s still about a real historical event and has an actor playing a real politician (Dan Hedaya as Nixon).

While politicians are fun to watch, no other industry seems to get as much biopic attention as music. Elvis Presley got a made-for-television biopic in 1979 (simply titled Elvis ), starring Kurt Russell and directed by John Carpenter (their first collaboration).

Elvis  •  Watch John Carpenter define biopic

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart got a stage play that was adapted into the film Amadeus (1984), directed by renowned Czech filmmaker Milos Forman . And Selena Quintanilla-Perez got one with Selena (1997), starring Jennifer Lopez, which also brought with it some casting controversy.

Many more music biopics between the 1970s and now have been released, proving their popularity and saturation. Some very recent and famous examples include Straight Outta Compton (2015) and Bohemian Rhapsody (2018), the latter of which became the highest grossing biopic of all-time as of this writing.

Here are a few more famous biopic examples:

Lawrence of Arabia , David Lean (1962)

Patton , Franklin J. Schaffner (1970)

Raging Bull , Martin Scorsese (1980)

The Elephant Man , David Lynch (1980)

Malcolm X , Spike Lee (1992)

Marie Antoinette , Sofia Coppola (2006)

Oppenheimer , Christopher Nolan (2023)

There is no shortage of biopic movies out there, and there likely never will be. Movies now have even more technology to reproduce worlds and people, thus enhancing the authenticity of any given film.

Make-up artists continue to make sure their actors look like the subject while the actors themselves still need to convince the world with their performance. And with the amount of subjects that can be chosen from, there will never be a shortage for a movie based on a real life person.

Creating Biopics

How to write a biopic.

Writing a screenplay is hard.  Writing a screenplay for a biopic  can be even harder. A script for a biopic will have to walk a fine line, both telling the story truthfully and also taking creative liberties.

The first, and arguably most crucial, part of writing a biopic is research. A biopic writer will have to research, research, and then research again. They should not only understand the subject of the biopic as well as the people they regularly interacted with, but they should also understand the time and world in which they existed. 

Say you’re writing a biopic about Leon Trotsky. You’d have to read as much of his writing as you could, as well as the cornucopia of biographies that have been written about him. But you should also research his contemporaries—Lenin, Stalin, Martov, etc.— and  also the larger context of the October Revolution and Russia in the beginning of the 1900s. That’s a lot of reading.

You will also have to decide how much of a person’s life you want to cover. Plenty of successful biopics keep the timeframe tight, but others want to cover most of a person’s existence. The biopic Jackie largely focuses on the days surrounding the assassination of JFK, creating a claustrophobic feeling that lasts the entire runtime.

Walk the Line , meanwhile, tackles a large portion of Johnny Cash’s life, allowing events of his childhood to clearly affect his actions later in the film.

Remember: writing a biopic isn’t the same thing as writing a biography. First and foremost, you’re writing a compelling film. Ideally, it will capture the essence of its subject.

Creative ways to adapt a true story

Now that you have a solid understanding of "what is a biopic," their history, and what they can entail, let's turn our attention to how a few notable films adapt those real life stories. Using the scripts themselves, along with various clips, we dig into how filmmakers like Tarantino, Charlie Kaufman and the Safdie Brothers adapted their source material to make engaging cinema.

Up Next: Adapting a true story →

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For writer Molly Antopol, silences create room for fiction

The Creative Writing Program’s newest fiction writer tells wide-ranging stories about individual lives shaped by the forces of history.

Molly Antopol  expected to be a union organizer like other members of her Los Angeles-based progressive family. Instead, she pursued writing and in 2023 joined Stanford’s School of Humanities and Sciences as a professor in the English Department, member of the Creative Writing Program , and author of a highly acclaimed collection of short stories, The UnAmericans  (W.W. Norton, 2014). 

The UnAmericans has been recognized for nuanced, believable stories set everywhere from contemporary rural Maine to World War II-era Belarus. The fictions present predominantly Jewish characters who experience their individual dramas—whether intimate, like a teenager coping after her mother’s sudden death, or geopolitical, like an exile from an oppressive communist regime remaking his life in the United States—against the great historical dramas of World War II and the rise and fall of the Soviet Union. The UnAmericans received the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award and a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Award. It was also longlisted for the National Book Award and was a finalist for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize. 

But back when Antopol was an undergraduate at the University of California, Santa Cruz, she focused her efforts on supporting the United Farm Workers in Watsonville, California. 

“The work felt incredibly important,” Antopol said. “I always wanted to be a writer, but being a writer never felt like something that I could actually do. It felt very pie in the sky.”

Finding her subject matter and method

Perhaps informed by her experience with organized labor, Antopol’s approach to writing leans heavily into hard work. She painstakingly researches her stories to make them feel authentic. She travels, interviews people, combs through archives, and listens to oral histories to build the “poise” and “heft” for which her stories have been recognized . As part of her MFA from Columbia University (2004), Antopol wrote a complete collection of stories, never intending to publish it, before she turned her hand to The UnAmericans . 

“I felt like I needed to learn how to write character, how to write setting, how to write dialogue,” Antopol explained. “I wanted to learn all of the technical skills that I could in order to write a book that I would be comfortable putting out into the world.” 

After college, Antopol received a fellowship to do environmental and human rights work in Israel. That experience helped define the themes and settings in her writing. 

At a party, she met a woman from Antopol, Belarus—a war-decimated predominantly Jewish village from which the writer takes her name. Incredibly, the woman knew Antopol’s deceased namesake . The connection led Antopol to a kind of collective scrapbook, called a Yizkor book , containing oral histories, maps, and photos memorializing the town’s Jewish residents killed in World War II. In addition to providing the raw material for a story in The UnAmericans about resistance fighters in Belarus, the book opened Antopol’s eyes to the realization that narrators often don’t share directly what is most important. The emotional heart of a story can be like a drop of dish soap in oily water, Antopol realized, and the same was true in her family. 

“I’m interested in stories that explore and sometimes interrogate the nature of storytelling itself,” Antopol said. “Getting to read that Yizkor book made me think about all of the gaps and silences in the stories told in my own family—which loves to tell stories. But Antopol, in Belarus, was a place I had never heard about. This helped me think about the ways humans tell stories about the dark periods of history that no one wants to look at.” 

The slippage between the emotional heft of a story and how it is told also shapes the stories in The UnAmericans and those stories her characters tell themselves. For example, the protagonist in “The Quietest Man” organizes against the communist regime in Czechoslovakia as a young professor. When arrested and interrogated, he does not report on his fellow activists, thus earning his nickname. But later in his life, as an exile in the United States, he faces questions from his daughter, who is writing a play about her father’s formative drama. The Quietest Man tells her a web of lies that make him seem a better man and father than he has ultimately been. 

“[A]s I continued to talk,” he concludes, “I wondered if any of what I was saying would begin to feel like the truth. It didn’t yet, but I was just getting started.” 

Antopol worked on The UnAmericans  for 10 years. Logging long days at her desk, she put each story through more than a dozen major revisions, some while she was at Stanford as a Wallace Stegner Fellow (2006-2008) and as a Jones Lecturer (2008-2018). 

Feeling like a writer

Following her lectureship, Antopol taught at Harvard University and then the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin. But The Farm feels like home. 

“Stanford is the first place I ever really felt like a writer,” Antopol said. “It is an incredible thing to be back and to be on the faculty and to get to work with these amazing students.”

For some writers, teaching is something they do to support their writing. For Antopol, it has helped reveal her craft.

“Once I started teaching and realized just how much I loved it and how beautifully it complemented the writing, I knew I was on the right path,” she said.

As a teacher as well as a writer, Antopol focuses on craft and revision. She aims to supply her students with as many ideas and examples as she can to empower them to excavate “the narrative possibilities that are inherent in each piece” of their writing to steer their revisions, she said. 

It’s important to Antopol to make sure student writers get insights, in addition to edits, from their classmates and from her so they can find their own voices. The first half of her semester-long workshops are devoted to reading published authors’ work—her picks include Edward P. Jones, Joy Williams, Roberto Bolaño, and Gish Jen—to train students how to appreciate different styles and objectives. 

“We’re developing a vocabulary, almost a library of terms and of books to discuss,” Antopol said. “That way we feel really comfortable discussing fiction writ large with each other before we apply any of this to the work of the writers in the room. It’s also about teaching my students how to read like writers—to try to understand what the writer is doing and what we can learn from that.”

The learning environment also inspires the instructor. 

“There is just something so incredible about being with a group of students who value language, sentences, and stories in such a deep and profound way,” she said. “Working with these smart and engaged students and talking so seriously, so rigorously, and so generously about stories helps me as a writer, too. The combination has been amazing.”

Antopol is currently completing work on her forthcoming novel, Saturn ,   which will be published by W.W. Norton. 

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What is a novel?

A novel is an invented prose narrative of significant length and complexity that deals imaginatively with human experience. Its roots can be traced back thousands of years, though its origins in English are traditionally placed in the 18th century.

What are the elements of a novel?

A novel can accommodate an almost infinite number of elements. Some of the novel's typical elements, though, are the story or plot, the characters, the setting, the narrative method and point of view, and the scope or dimension.

What are the different types of novels?

The novel has an extensive range of types, among them being: historical, picaresque, sentimental, Gothic, psychological, novel of manners, epistolary, pastoral, roman à clef, antinovel, cult, detective, mystery, thriller, western, fantasy, and proletarian. There is no limit to the number of genres available to the novel.

novel , an invented prose narrative of considerable length and a certain complexity that deals imaginatively with human experience, usually through a connected sequence of events involving a group of persons in a specific setting . Within its broad framework, the genre of the novel has encompassed an extensive range of types and styles: picaresque , epistolary , Gothic , romantic , realist, historical —to name only some of the more important ones.

The novel is a genre of fiction , and fiction may be defined as the art or craft of contriving, through the written word, representations of human life that instruct or divert or both. The various forms that fiction may take are best seen less as a number of separate categories than as a continuum or, more accurately, a cline, with some such brief form as the anecdote at one end of the scale and the longest conceivable novel at the other. When any piece of fiction is long enough to constitute a whole book, as opposed to a mere part of a book, then it may be said to have achieved novelhood. But this state admits of its own quantitative categories, so that a relatively brief novel may be termed a novella (or, if the insubstantiality of the content matches its brevity , a novelette), and a very long novel may overflow the banks of a single volume and become a roman-fleuve , or river novel. Length is very much one of the dimensions of the genre.

The term novel is a truncation of the Italian word novella (from the plural of Latin novellus , a late variant of novus , meaning “new”), so that what is now, in most languages, a diminutive denotes historically the parent form. The novella was a kind of enlarged anecdote like those to be found in the 14th-century Italian classic Boccaccio’s Decameron , each of which exemplifies the etymology well enough. The stories are little new things, novelties, freshly minted diversions, toys; they are not reworkings of known fables or myths , and they are lacking in weight and moral earnestness. It is to be noted that, despite the high example of novelists of the most profound seriousness, such as Tolstoy , Henry James , and Virginia Woolf , the term novel still, in some quarters, carries overtones of lightness and frivolity. And it is possible to descry a tendency to triviality in the form itself. The ode or symphony seems to possess an inner mechanism that protects it from aesthetic or moral corruption, but the novel can descend to shameful commercial depths of sentimentality or pornography . It is the purpose of this section to consider the novel not solely in terms of great art but also as an all-purpose medium catering for all the strata of literacy.

Such early ancient Roman fiction as Petronius ’ Satyricon of the 1st century ad and Lucius Apuleius’ Golden Ass of the 2nd century contain many of the popular elements that distinguish the novel from its nobler born relative the epic poem. In the fictional works, the medium is prose, the events described are unheroic , the settings are streets and taverns, not battlefields and palaces. There is more low fornication than princely combat; the gods do not move the action; the dialogue is homely rather than aristocratic. It was, in fact, out of the need to find—in the period of Roman decline—a literary form that was anti-epic in both substance and language that the first prose fiction of Europe seems to have been conceived. The most memorable character in Petronius is a nouveau riche vulgarian; the hero of Lucius Apuleius is turned into a donkey; nothing less epic can well be imagined.

The medieval chivalric romance (from a popular Latin word, probably Romanice , meaning written in the vernacular , not in traditional Latin) restored a kind of epic view of man—though now as heroic Christian, not heroic pagan. At the same time, it bequeathed its name to the later genre of continental literature , the novel, which is known in French as roman , in Italian as romanzo , etc. (The English term romance, however, carries a pejorative connotation.) But that later genre achieved its first great flowering in Spain at the beginning of the 17th century in an antichivalric comic masterpiece—the Don Quixote of Cervantes, which, on a larger scale than the Satyricon or The Golden Ass , contains many of the elements that have been expected from prose fiction ever since. Novels have heroes, but not in any classical or medieval sense. As for the novelist, he must, in the words of the contemporary British-American W.H. Auden ,

Become the whole of boredom, subject to Vulgar complaints like love, among the Just Be just, among the Filthy filthy too, And in his own weak person, if he can, Must suffer dully all the wrongs of Man.

The novel attempts to assume those burdens of life that have no place in the epic poem and to see man as unheroic, unredeemed, imperfect, even absurd. This is why there is room among its practitioners for writers of hardboiled detective thrillers such as the contemporary American Mickey Spillane or of sentimental melodramas such as the prolific 19th-century English novelist Mrs. Henry Wood , but not for one of the unremitting elevation of outlook of a John Milton .

The novel is propelled through its hundred or thousand pages by a device known as the story or plot. This is frequently conceived by the novelist in very simple terms, a mere nucleus, a jotting on an old envelope: for example, Charles Dickens ’ Christmas Carol (1843) might have been conceived as “a misanthrope is reformed through certain magical visitations on Christmas Eve,” or Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (1813) as “a young couple destined to be married have first to overcome the barriers of pride and prejudice,” or Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment (1866) as “a young man commits a crime and is slowly pursued in the direction of his punishment.” The detailed working out of the nuclear idea requires much ingenuity, since the plot of one novel is expected to be somewhat different from that of another, and there are very few basic human situations for the novelist to draw upon. The dramatist may take his plot ready-made from fiction or biography—a form of theft sanctioned by Shakespeare—but the novelist has to produce what look like novelties.

The example of Shakespeare is a reminder that the ability to create an interesting plot, or even any plot at all, is not a prerequisite of the imaginative writer’s craft. At the lowest level of fiction, plot need be no more than a string of stock devices for arousing stock responses of concern and excitement in the reader. The reader’s interest may be captured at the outset by the promise of conflicts or mysteries or frustrations that will eventually be resolved, and he will gladly—so strong is his desire to be moved or entertained—suspend criticism of even the most trite modes of resolution. In the least sophisticated fiction, the knots to be untied are stringently physical, and the denouement often comes in a sort of triumphant violence. Serious fiction prefers its plots to be based on psychological situations, and its climaxes come in new states of awareness—chiefly self-knowledge—on the parts of the major characters.

Melodramatic plots, plots dependent on coincidence or improbability, are sometimes found in even the most elevated fiction; E.M. Forster’s Howards End (1910) is an example of a classic British novel with such a plot. But the novelist is always faced with the problem of whether it is more important to represent the formlessness of real life (in which there are no beginnings and no ends and very few simple motives for action) or to construct an artifact as well balanced and economical as a table or chair; since he is an artist, the claims of art, or artifice , frequently prevail.

There are, however, ways of constructing novels in which plot may play a desultory part or no part at all. The traditional picaresque novel —a novel with a rogue as its central character—like Alain Lesage’s Gil Blas (1715) or Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones (1749), depends for movement on a succession of chance incidents. In the works of Virginia Woolf , the consciousness of the characters, bounded by some poetic or symbolic device, sometimes provides all the fictional material. Marcel Proust ’s great roman-fleuve , À la recherche du temps perdu (1913–27; Remembrance of Things Past ), has a metaphysical framework derived from the time theories of the philosopher Henri Bergson , and it moves toward a moment of truth that is intended to be literally a revelation of the nature of reality. Strictly, any scheme will do to hold a novel together—raw action, the hidden syllogism of the mystery story , prolonged solipsist contemplation—so long as the actualities or potentialities of human life are credibly expressed, with a consequent sense of illumination, or some lesser mode of artistic satisfaction, on the part of the reader.