9 popular book characters behind which real people were hiding: From Baron Munchausen to Lolita

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

Often, writers find ideas for their books in real life, and then the heroes of the books literally "copied" from the people the writer met. However, an idea for inspiration can be an accidentally read newspaper article or news, after which it gets its continuation on the pages of a book. Today our review presents the heroes of famous literary works, each of which hid a very real person.

Baron Munchausen

The legendary Baron Munchausen, who became the hero of the book by Rudolf Erich Raspe (the author of the very first work about the famous dreamer), bore exactly the same title and surname as the book character Moreover, they had exactly the same craving for embellishing their own lives and inventing the most incredible stories … It seems that the writer only needed to study the biography of Karl Friedrich Jerome Baron von Munchausen, because this is about his incredible ability to fantasize at one time there were real legends.

James Bond

This character was handsome, always able to impress and had a soft spot for the exotic Vodka Martini cocktail. Bernard Lippe-Bisterfeld held the title of Prince of the Netherlands and was the first president of WWF. He became a friend of Ian Fleming, who was supposed to keep an eye on a high-ranking prince who had defected to the side of British intelligence. It was his traits and habits that the writer endowed his James Bond with.

Sherlock Holmes

The man from whom the appearance of Sherlock Holmes was copied, his equanimity, philosophical attitude to life and love of deduction, was a well-known surgeon in Britain, a professor at the University of Edinburgh, to whom the police from time to time consulted. Joseph Bell was a mentor to Arthur Conan Doyle. Subsequently, the student endowed one of his most famous characters with the qualities of his teacher, bringing them to perfection.

Ostap Bender

Osip Benjaminovich Shor could travel through the whole country without a penny in his pocket, but possessing an incredible ability to play absolutely any role, be it an enemy of the Soviet regime, an artist, a businessman, or even a criminal investigation officer. Inborn artistry and charm allowed Osip Shor to live a very bright and exciting life, full of incredible adventures. And to become what is called the most likely prototype of Ostap Bender.

Dorian Grey

The beautiful Dorian, endowed by Oscar Wilde with eternal youth and beauty, was a very real John Gray, a 15-year-old boy with an angelic appearance and a penchant for vice and immense pleasures. John Gray was one of the writer's protégés and even began to call himself Dorian during his relationship with Oscar Wilde, recognizing himself in The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Daisy Buchanan

Ginevra King, the first love of the writer, inspired him to create several literary characters, including the prototype of the adorable young Daisy in The Great Gatsby. Despite the fact that the novel of Francis Scott Fitzgerald and the daughter of a wealthy financier was doomed, the first feelings left a deep imprint on the writer's soul. And also - the letters that the lovers exchanged for two years. And the works: "The Great Gatsby", "On the Other Side of Paradise" and "Winter Dreams", in the heroines of which you can easily recognize Ginevra King.

Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty

Despite the fact that in the novel "On the Road" Jack Kerouac describes the journey of Sal Paradise and his friend Dean Moriarty, the reader can easily recognize the main characters of the writer himself and his friend Neil Cassidy. Moreover, the entire story is devoted to real events from their lives. It would never occur to anyone to question the fact that Jack Kerouac's novel is completely autobiographical, and no one should be fooled by name changes.

Lolita

The heroine of Vladimir Nabokov, it turns out, had her own prototype, the eleven-year-old girl Sally Horner, whose fate was completely unenviable. She was kidnapped and then, with the help of deception and threats, kept with him for two years by Frank La Salle, a 50-year-old serial molester. In Nabokov's novel, his hero, just like La Salle, passes off Dolly as his daughter while traveling across America.

In 1948, a scandalous and tragic story took place in America, the development of which was followed by the whole country. One not very responsible mother from a small town in New Jersey let her 11-year-old daughter go to the sea with friends. As a result, the girl disappeared. When almost two years later, Sally called, it turned out that all this time she was moving around the country in a car in the company of a kidnapper who posed as her father. It is about this case that Nabokov mentions in the novel, when the main character discusses his guilt.