These books are great quick-reference guides to finding character for your favorite (or not-so-favorite) novel, poem, story, or other work of literature. Find the characters from Chaucer, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and beyond. Along the way, these books also offer biographical information about the writer, with background about the time and place in which these characters were created. Also, read more about characters in literary history.
1. Chaucer A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Works
by Rosalyn Rossignol. Facts on File. From the publisher: "Written with grace and clarity, this detailed encyclopedic guide is an efficient and comprehensive reference to: Chaucer's language (Middle English), Chaucer's literary influences, literary forms of the period, contemporary historical events, the significance of biblical figures and saints who appear in Chaucer's works, the contributions of Chaucerian scholars..."
2. Shakespeare A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Plays, His Poems, His Life...
by Charles Boyce, and David Allen White. Facts on File. From the publisher: "The answers are easily found in Shakespeare A To Z, the only single-volume reference to virtually everything one needs—or wants—to know about the Bard. Wonderfully informative, this comprehensive work includes 3,000 entries and 50 illustrations."3. A to Z of American Women Writers
by Carol Kort. Facts on File. From the publisher: "This volume explores the lives of such women as: Mary Rowlandson, whose account of her captivity by Indians displayed the horrors of colonial American wars between colonists and Native Americans and her spiritual journey while in captivity; Harriet Jacobs, whose personal slave narrative has become the classic account of the terrors African-American women faced during slavery; Harriet Beecher Stowe..."4. Writers of the American Renaissance: An A-To-Z Guide
by Denise D. Knight (Editor). Greenwood Publishing Group. From the publisher: "This book expands earlier definitions of the 19th-century American Renaissance as represented by canonical writers such as Emerson and Poe, covering writers who published popular fiction and dominated the literary marketplace of the day. Included is generous coverage of women writers and writers of color."5. Ernest Hemingway A to Z: The Essential Reference to the Life and Work
by Charles M. Oliver. Facts on File. From the publisher: "Ernest Hemingway A to Z examines every aspect of the life, work, and legacy of this literary icon. In addition to providing detailed synopses of all of Hemingway's novels, short stories, plays, and nonfiction writings, the book draws on a vast array of letters, bibliography, criticism, correspondence, reviews, and the text themselves."6. Virginia Woolf A to Z: The Esential Reference to Her Life and Writings
by Mark Hussey. Oxford University Press. From the publisher: "Her revolutionary novels and essays have inspired generations of feminists, and her life has aroused both interest and speculation. In this comprehensive volume, Woolf's fiction and autobiographical writings are sent in the context of her infamous social milieu."7. Herman Melville A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work
by Carl E. Rollyson, and Lisa Olson Paddock. Facts on File. From the publisher: "Entries examine the characters and settings of his novels and short-stories; allusions and references that inform his work; the critics and scholars who commented on his work; and Melville's friends and associates, including Fanny Kemble, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Nathaniel Hawthorne."8. Literary Character: The Human Figure in Early English Writing
by Elizabeth Fowler. Cornell University Press. From the publisher: "Drawing on central texts of medieval and early modern England, Fowler demonstrates that literary characters are created by assembling social persons from throughout culture. Her perspective allows her to offer strikingly original readings of works by Chaucer, Langland, Skelton, and Spenser, and to reformulate and resolve several classic interpretive problems."9. Literary Treks: Characters on the Move
by Mary Snodgrass. Libraries Unlimited. From the publisher: "Entries span a range of genres and literary formats (including novels, dramas, and diaries); each follows a book's protagonist through space and time, covering places visited as well as historical figures, customs, cultures, and events. Geographic summaries, itemized itineraries, and detailed maps help students trace each character's journey."10. Heroines: The Lives of Great Literary Characters and What They Have to Teach Us
by Mary Riso. Baker Books. From the publisher: "Author Mary Riso explores the hearts of the heroines made famous in literary classics. Discover anew the unfounded love that blossoms in the orphan Jane Eyre; experience, with Betsey Trotwood, the courage to speak truth in the face of evil in 'David Copperfield'; thrill with Natasha of 'War and Peace,' whose inner beauty transfixes those around her."