10 mysterious personalities who inspired great poets and writers

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Many great writers drew inspiration from real people when creating their works. In a number of cases, the person who motivated the author is well known - from Beatrice Portinari, who inspired Dante, to F. Scott Fitzgerald's wife, Zelda, who was the prototype of Daisy in The Great Gatsby. But identifying the sources of inspiration for other authors' work was sometimes more difficult. There are a number of cases where the muse has remained a mystery. In some cases, even if a name was provided, it was impossible to conclusively identify the person in question. In other examples, not even the name of a person was found - the prototype of the main character. Here are 10 examples of great literary muses whose identities have never been definitively established.

1. Petrarch and Laura

Francesco Petrarca was one of the founders of Renaissance humanism, and one of his most famous achievements is the collection of poems "Canzonere". The main theme of this collection is a certain Laura - a woman who inspired the poet, and who is described in poetry as the object of Petrarch's unrequited love. Who this Laura was remains a mystery: the poet never mentioned her last name. Some argue that the mysterious "muse" was most likely Laura de Nov. But this was never finally established (after all, Petrarch wrote 7 centuries ago), and Laura could be anyone.

2. Shakespeare and inspiration for his sonnets

William Shakespeare's sonnets have generated a lot of interest for many reasons, including the fact that they appear to have been inspired by two different people (one man and one woman), but who they were is a mystery. 126 sonnets are addressed to the man known as Righteous Youth and 26 to the woman known as The Dark Lady. Both remain unknown to this day. Sonnets in general have also been dedicated to a man named "Mr. W. H." Someone suggested that "W. H." - Shakespeare's friend, William Herbert, who provided financial support for the publication of The First Folio, a collection of Shakespeare's plays. Others believe it is Henry Risley, and argue that Shakespeare changed the order of the person's initials to keep his identity a secret.

3. Alexander Pope and the character of "Elegy in memory of the unfortunate lady"

The search for inspiration by great writers is not a new phenomenon. Examples of this can be seen in the distant past, when biographer Samuel Johnson wanted to find out the identity of the woman who inspired one of the works of Alexander Pope. The poem, entitled "Elegy in Memory of the Unhappy Lady," does not reveal the identity of the woman in question. However, as Johnson later stated in his biography of Pope, The Lives of Poets, "All my investigations into the name and life of the lady have been fruitless." Subsequent investigations by other people also failed to establish her identity.

4. Byron and his alleged son

George Gordon Byron, most commonly known as Lord Byron, was known not only for his poetry but also for his infamous personal life. One of the mysteries is related to the children he allegedly had. It is known that Byron had a daughter named Ada from a legal marriage with Anna Isabella Milbenk, and he also had another daughter, Allegra, from an affair with Mary Shelley's half-sister, Claire Claremont. He recognized Allegra as his child. However, in addition to these confirmed examples of Byron's paternity, there were also suggestions that the poet could have another child, and that one of his works is dedicated to him. The poem "To My Son" is believed to be about a boy born to a woman named Lucy Monk. She worked for the poet while he was living at Newstead Abbey, and some people believe that Byron may have been the boy's father. However, Byron never confirmed this, and the poem may mention another unknown child who was born to him. It is also possible that this is an entirely imaginary scenario.

5. Edgar Poe and the twins from The Fall of the House of Usher

One of the most famous stories by Edgar Allan Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher tells the dark story of the twins Roderick and Madilane, members of the House of Usher. Poe may have been inspired by two real twins he knew to create these characters. James Campbell and Agnes Pye, like the brother and sister in Poe's story, suffered from mental health problems and led a reclusive existence. Like Roderick and Madylane, James and Agnes were also the last of their family. Poe himself never confirmed that they were the source of inspiration for his story, but the parallels between fiction and reality are striking.

6. Alexandre Dumas and the Man in the Iron Mask

The legendary man in the iron mask, who inspired the third part of Alexandre Dumas' novel Viscount de Bragelon: 10 Years Later, is one of the most famous examples of unsolved personality mysteries. This is also an unusual example of how the muse of a writer puzzles not only the readers, but also the author of the work himself. Neither Dumas nor anyone else knew who this man really was. He was a prisoner who was held in the Bastille in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. His face has always been hidden, and as such, his identity has never been confirmed. Louis XIV was king of France at the time, and this led to speculation that the mysterious prisoner had some connection with the monarch. It is this assumption that was used by Dumas in the novel, in which it becomes known that the prisoner is Philippe, the king's secret twin brother. In real life, there have been many speculations about his true identity, but hardly anyone will ever know for sure.

7. Emily Dickinson and "The Master"

Much of the life of American poet Emily Dickinson has remained a mystery, so it's no surprise that the question of people who might have inspired her work is also controversial. One of the most intriguing questions is the identity of the person to whom Dickinson wrote love letters in 1858-1861. They were addressed to a person known as "The Master", but his name was never mentioned in the correspondence, and his identity remains unknown. The letters are mysterious in many ways. It is unknown whether the Master was a real person or an imaginary one, invented by Dickinson. Even if the letters were sent to a real person, it is unclear if they were ever sent or read by the intended recipient. Any of the men Dickinson is known to have corresponded with during her lifetime, including journalists Samuel Bowles and Thomas Wentworth Higginson, has been speculated to be the “object of sighing”. Dickinson was also friends and exchanged letters with Otis Lord. However, scientists have not been able to come to a consensus as to who was the most likely "candidate".

8. Flaubert and inspiration for Madame Bovary

Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary tells the story of a young woman named Emma, whose attempts to escape the constraints of her daily life lead to her downfall and death. Flaubert is said to have once stated, "Madame Bovary is me." This was sometimes seen as the final act of the author's self-identification with his character. But was there a real woman who inspired Flaubert in his "history of provincial life." It has been argued that Madame Bovary was inspired by Louise Colet, the woman with whom Flaubert was having an affair when he began writing the novel. Flaubert himself never confirmed this, preferring to assert that Emma is a reflection of himself.

9 Tolstoy and the prototype of Anna Karenina

As in the case of Madame Bovary, the plot of Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy also focuses on the fall of women in a society that does not accept “mistakes”. The first draft of the book dealt more with the protagonist's husband, but Tolstoy gradually reworked the novel so that instead it would become a story about Anna herself. Equally, as in the example with Flaubert, it was argued that when creating the character Tolstoy drew inspiration from the history of a woman he knew in real life. So who could this woman be. Some believe that the prototype of Anna Karenina was Maria Hartung, whose father was Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. However, Tolstoy never made any statements about who the image of Anna Karenina was painted from.

10. Capote and model for Holly Golightly

Truman Capote's novel Breakfast at Tiffany's introduced the world to the character of Holly Golightly, who became even more iconic after her role in the film adaptation of the same name was played by Audrey Hepburn. But who was originally the model for Holly. Many women who knew Capote could be the prototype of the heroine. But others believe that Holly is a collection of different women that Capote knew at the time in New York. These include Gloria Vanderbilt, Maeve Brennan, and Una O'Neill. They even mentioned Marilyn Monroe. Ultimately, it is no longer possible to determine whether a particular woman was used as a model for the character.