Great Literary Friendships

Janet Phillips

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English

Bodleian Library
18 February 2022

Literature, Poetry & Criticism; Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers; Gift books

Close friendships are a heart-warming feature of many of our best-loved works of fiction. From Jane Eyre and Helen Burns' poignant schoolgirl relationship to Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn's adventures on the Mississippi, fictional friends have supported, guided, comforted, nursed and at times betrayed the heroes and heroines of our popular and influential plays and novels.

This book explores twenty-four literary friendships and, together with character studies and publication history, describes how each key relationship influences character, determines plot, promotes or disguises romance, preserves a reputation, sometimes results in betrayal, or underlines the theme of each literary work.

It shows how authors from William Shakespeare to Elena Ferrante have by turns celebrated, lamented or transformed friendships throughout the ages, and how some friends

Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, Holmes and Watson or even Bridget Jones and pals

have taken on creative lives beyond the bounds of their original narrative.

Including a broad scope of literature spanning a period of 400 years from writers as diverse as Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Evelyn Waugh, John Steinbeck and Alice Walker, this book is the ideal gift for your literature-loving friend.

By: Janet Phillips
Imprint: Bodleian Library
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 129mm,
Weight: 454g
ISBN: 9781851245826
ISBN 10: 1851245820
Pages: 216
Publication Date: 18 February 2022
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Janet Phillips is an editor at Bodleian Library Publishing.

Reviews for Great Literary Friendships

'A few pages in you feel you are in the company of a sprightly, charming, well-read friend . . . a masterful story-teller, her short essays on pivotal friendships feel like entering sunlight from thick fog, you'll see and hear what you never noticed on first reading.' * Country Life Magazine *