Illegitimacy in fiction

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a list of fictional stories in which illegitimacy features as an important plot element. Passing mentions are omitted from this list.

Contents 1 Written works 2 Musicals 3 Music 4 Movies 5 Television 6 See also

[edit] Written works

• Geoffrey of Monmouth, The History of the Kings of Britain (c. 1136 prose narrative): Much attention is focused on the disputable bastardy of King Arthur, as well as the illegitimate origins of the wizard, Merlin.

• Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur (1485 prose narrative): Mordred, bastard son of King Arthur and his sister Morgan le Fay, helps to destroy Camelot.

• William Shakespeare, King John (1595? play): Phillip Falconbridge, bastard son of Richard the Lionheart, helps save England from ruin at the hands of Richard's incompetent younger brother John of England.

• William Shakespeare, King Lear (1605 play): Edmund, bastard son of the Earl of Gloucester, first cheats his legitimate brother Edgar of his lands, then stands by while his father is declared a traitor, blinded, and sent to wander in the wilderness. Edmund finally makes an attempt on the English crown itself by bedding Lear's two daughters Regan and Goneril.

• Thomas Middleton, The Revenger's Tragedy (1607 play): In addition to cuckolding his father and plotting against his legitimate brother, the Duke's bastard son, Spurio, also becomes heavily embroiled in the Revenger's plot to undo the Duke and the rest of his family.

• William Shakespeare, The Tempest (1611 play): Caliban, a savage, deformed slave of the play's protagonist Prospero, is the offspring of a witch and a demon.

• Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter (1850 novel): Hester Prynne gives birth after committing adultery, refuses to name the father, and is cast out of Puritan society.

• Elizabeth Gaskell, Ruth (1853 social novel): a compassionate portrayal of an orphaned young seamstress, Ruth Hilton, who is seduced, impregnated and abandoned by gentleman Henry Bellingham.

• Alphonse Daudet, Jack (1876 novel): about an illegitimate child, a martyr to his mother's selfishness.

• Marcel Pagnol, Marius (1929 play)

• Marcel Pagnol, Fanny (1932 play)

• Marcel Pagnol, César (1936 play)

• Grace Metalious, Peyton Place (1956 novel): The main plot follows the lives of three women in a small New England town — lonely, repressed Constance MacKenzie, her illegitimate daughter Allison, and her employee Selena Cross.

[edit] Musicals

• Fanny (1954–57?, based on Marcel Pagnol's trilogy of plays, Marius, Fanny and César)

[edit] Music

• Diana Ross and the Supremes, "Love Child" (1968 number-one hit single)

[edit] Movies

• Peyton Place (1957, based on Grace Metalious' best-selling novel)
• Fanny (1961, adapted from the musical play Fanny, which in turn had been adapted from Marcel Pagnol's trilogy of plays, Fanny, Marius and César)

[edit] Television

• Peyton Place (1964–69, ABC TV series based on Grace Metalious' novel)

[edit] See also

• Illegitimacy