Questions tagged [inspiration]
Questions about the inspiration behind a work of literature, or an object or concept in a work: what it was based on, or where the idea came from.
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Was Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos based on the story beats of the same Keats poems?
I've read Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos, composed of the books Hyperion, Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, and Rise of Endymion.
The series pays considerable homage to the life and works of the 1800s poet ...
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Which traits of Milton's Lucifer from "Paradise Lost" did Neil Gaiman carry to "The Sandman"?
Lucifer Morningstar, the Vertigo Comics character, was created by Neil Gaiman with influence from John Milton's Paradise Lost - at least that's what is written on his Wikipedia page, and even on the ...
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Is there any evidence that Lope de Vega influenced William Shakespeare?
During the Spanish Golden Age of the arts, one of the key figures in Spanish literature was Lope de Vega, a prolific author of plays, poetry, and novels. He was approximately contemporary with William ...
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Did J. K. Rowling base platform 9 3/4 on the Gump?
In the Harry Potter series, there is platform 9 ¾ in Kings Cross Station. You travel through this place to go to a magical place.
In The Secret of Platform 13, by Eva Ibbotson, (which is ...
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Are any Sherlock Holmes antagonists besides Moriarty based on real people?
I've heard that Arthur Conan Doyle's depiction of Professor Moriarty was inspired by several real-life figures, including Adam Worth. Given Doyle's wide-ranging set of villains and antagonists in the ...
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Were other characters apart from Alice inspired by real life people?
It is a commonly known fact that Lewis Carroll based Alice in his Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass on Alice Liddell, after she asked him to tell him a story.
But were ...
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What is the foundation of the religion in Watership Down?
In Watership Down, El-ahrairah is essentially the father of all rabbits. He interacts with Prince Rainbow who seems to be a god.
From where do the religious history and/or deities in the story come?
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Was Stevenson's Treasure Island influenced by Poe?
I read on Wikipedia that:
During the same period, Edgar Allan Poe wrote, "MS Found in a Bottle" (1833) and the intriguing tale of buried treasure, "The Gold-Bug" (1843). All of these works ...
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How might Shakespeare have become familiar with Dante's work?
A recent question on our site asked whether Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing contained a reference to Dante's Divine Comedy. In his answer, Matt Thrower mentions Beatrice, the name of both a ...
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How much of The Song of Wandering Aengus by Yeats is based on Irish folklore?
Yeats was a keen student of Irish folklore and it is clear that the titular character in his poem The Song of Wandering Aengus is based on the pre-Christian Celtic god of love, youth and poetry.
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What were the inspirations for the Forsaken's names?
I realized that some of the Forsaken names were familiar to me (Ishamael and Ishmael from Moby Dick, Asmodean and Asmodeus the demon). Did Jordan take inspiration for the names for all the Forsaken, ...
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Vision of the future in Max Beerbohm's "Enoch Soames"
Max Beerbohm's 1916 novelette "Enoch Soames" (available e.g. at Project Gutenberg) is the story of a man who sells his soul to the devil for the privilege of spending an afternoon in a library (the ...
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Was Hardy's "A Few Crusted Characters" based directly on the Canterbury Tales?
I've just been reading Thomas Hardy's A Few Crusted Characters (full text available online), which is essentially a collection of short stories or vignettes loosely bound together by a framing story.
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What/who are the exact sources of inspiration, deriving from Antiquity, for Fables, written by La Fontaine?
I know that La Fontaine's Fables is heavily inspired by Greco-Roman classic literature, especially Aesop's fables, but I'm sure there are other sources of inspiration for La Fontaine's 12 books of ...
user2354
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Is there any evidence that William Shakespeare influenced Lope de Vega?
During the Spanish Golden Age of the arts, one of the key figures in Spanish literature was Lope de Vega, a prolific author of plays, poetry, and novels. He was approximately contemporary with William ...
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Who was the first scholar who claimed that the Ur-Hamlet was influenced by the German play Der bestrafte Brudermord?
Thomas Kyd (1558—1594) is best known as the author of The Spanish Tragedy, a play that shares several similarities with Shakespeare's Hamlet. These similarities include a ghost demanding vengeance, a ...
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Did Camus have a known source of inspiration for Meursault's behaviour during and after his mother's funeral?
Camus's novel The Stranger begins with the news of the death and the funeral of Meursault's mother. Meursault smokes cigarettes during the wake, doesn't weep before, during or after the funeral, and ...
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