Places Summaries

First published: 1901 as Tri sestry (revised, 1904; English translation, 1920) First produced: 1901, at the Moscow Art Theater Type of work: Drama Type of plot: Impressionistic realism Time of work: Nineteenth century Places Discussed Provincial town Provincial Three Sisters, Thetown. The drabness of life in provincial Russia grates on the three Prozòrov sisters. Compelled […]

First published: serial, 1890; book, 1891 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Fantasy Time of work: Late nineteenth century Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed *Mayfair *Mayfair. Picture of Dorian Gray, TheRichest district of London, lying to the east of Hyde Park, bounded on the north by Oxford Street and on the […]

First published: 1604 First produced: 1604 Type of work: Drama Type of plot: Tragicomedy Time of work: Thirteenth century Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed *Genoa *Genoa. Malcontent, TheNorthwestern Italian city-state and mercantile center around whose palace and court of Duke Altofronto the play centers. Within the palace building only the duchess’s bedchamber […]

First published: 1894 Type of work: Poetry Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed Celestial home Celestial Homeward home. George William Russell depicts man as a king who has descended to earth from the celestial realm he never describes. In the opening poem, “Recognition” and later in “Tragedy,” Russell anchors the idea: “Recognition’s” plowman, […]

First published: 1923 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Folklore Time of work: Heroic Age Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed Emania Emania. DeirdreCapital of Conachúr mac Nessa’s Ulster kingdom; located near modern-day Armagh in Northern Ireland, where Conachúr has Deirdre raised after it is prophesied that a retainer’s child named Deirdre, […]

First published: 1958 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Psychological realism Time of work: Early twentieth century Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed *London *London. Conscience of the Rich, TheGreat Britain’s capital and leading city. On his arrival in London, the narrator, young provincial lawyer Lewis Eliot, is fascinated by the metropolis, […]

First published: Il libro del cortegiano, 1528 (English translation, 1561) Type of work: Didactic Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed *Urbino *Urbino. Book of the Courtier, TheCity in central Italy that was the center of the duchy of Urbino, in whose court Castiglione’s dialogues are set. The duchy is a small state whose […]

First published: Popioły, 1904 (English translation, 1928) Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Historical Time of work: 1796-1812 Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed *Holy Cross Mountains *Holy AshesCross Mountains. Mountain range in the east of Poland in whose Lysica vicinity (the Bald Mountain), the young protagonist Raphael Olbromski first appears, hunting […]

First published: 1911 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Satire Time of work: Early twentieth century Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed *Oxford *Oxford. Zuleika DobsonCity that is home to one of England’s great universities. Max Beerbohm was educated at public school and Oxford University, and his familiarity with the city and […]

First published: Vios kai politela tou Alexe Zormpa, 1946 (English translation, 1952) Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Psychological realism Time of work: Mid-twentieth century Places Discussed Piraeus tavern Piraeus Zorba the Greektavern. Place on Crete where the Boss meets Zorba. A chance encounter throws together the two protagonists, and readers immediately see the […]

First published: 1992 First produced: 1978 Type of work: Drama Type of plot: Historical Time of work: Early 1940’s Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed *Los Angeles *Los Zoot SuitAngeles. Sprawling Southern California city in which the play is primarily set in 1942–a time when the city is preparing for war, divided by […]

First published: 1959 First produced: 1959 Type of work: Drama Type of plot: Absurdist Time of work: Late 1950’s Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed *Central Park *Central Zoo Story, The Park. Large public park in central Manhattan represented in the play only by benches on opposite edges of the stage. The atmosphere […]

First published: El zarco: Episodios de la vida mexicana en 1861-1863, 1901 (English translation, 1957) Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Historical Time of work: 1861-1863 Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed *Tierra caliente *Tierra calienteEl Zarco, the Bandit. Hot rural lowland region to the west and south of Mexico City where […]

First published: Zadig: Ou, La Destinée, histoire orientale, 1748 (English translation, 1749) Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Social satire Time of work: Antiquity Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed *Babylon *Babylon. ZadigCapital of ancient Babylonia on the Euphrates River in Mesopotamia in which the novel begins and ends. Exotic and far […]

First transcribed: Yvain: Ou, Le Chevalier au lion, c. 1170 (English translation, c. 1300) Type of work: Poetry Type of plot: Arthurian romance Time of work: Sixth century Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed *Carlisle Castle *Carlisle YvainCastle (CAHR-lil). Castle of King Arthur where Calogrenant narrates the tale of his own disgrace. The […]

First published: 1890 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Psychological realism Time of work: 1840’s Places Discussed Saint Pierre Saint YoumaPierre (sah[n] pyehr). City on the West Indian island of Martinique, which is a French colony with a slave-based economy. Located fifteen miles from the cloud-crested volcano Mount Pelée, the town has a church, […]

First published: 1940 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Autobiographical Time of work: 1929-1936 Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed *Manhattan *Manhattan. You Can’t Go Home AgainBorough of New York City in which the novel opens, shortly after George Webber has published his first novel. During a Park Avenue party, Webber reveals […]

First published: 1835 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Adventure Time of work: Early eighteenth century Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed *Pocota-ligo council house *Pocota-ligo Yemassee, Thecouncil house. Meeting house in the town occupied by the Yemassee Indian tribe and the primary setting for fierce internal tribal conflict, as tribal leader […]

First published: 1937 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Domestic realism Time of work: 1880-1937 Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed *London *London. Years, TheEvery major shift in date within the novel is introduced by a panoramic descriptive sequence that contrasts the capital with the surrounding countryside or more distant vistas, but […]

First published: 1938 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Regional Time of work: Late nineteenth century Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed Baxter’s Island Baxter’s Yearling, TheIsland. Farm of the Baxter family covering one hundred acres of Florida scrubland in the middle of a dry forest. Penny Baxter bought the land from […]

First published: 1973 (English translation, 1976) Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Social realism Time of work: Early 1970’s Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed *Senegal *Senegal. XalaCountry located at the extreme western tip of West Africa, a humid tropical region in which agricultural productivity is limited and most people who live […]

First published: 1847 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Love Time of work: 1757-1803 Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed *Yorkshire *Yorkshire. Wuthering Heights Region comprising three English counties–North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire–in northern central England. The properties of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange are located in this region of […]

First published: 1918 Type of work: Poetry Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed *Deutschland *DeutschlandWreck of the Deutschland, The. Ship whose 1875 sinking caused the deaths of five Franciscan nuns to whom Hopkins dedicates this poem. Also the German-language name for Germany, “Deutschland” is, in Hopkins’s words, “double a desperate name!” because it […]

First published: 1879 (written, 1836; English translation, 1927) First produced: 1913 Type of work: Drama Type of plot: Psychological realism Time of work: Early nineteenth century Places Discussed Open country Open Woyzeckcountry. Woyzeck interprets natural phenomena like mushroom patterns or the blazing noontime sun as omens of a world about to be engulfed by some […]

First published: 1671 as Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (English translation, 1675) First produced: 1670 Type of work: Drama Type of plot: Comedy of manners Time of work: Seventeenth century Places Discussed Jourdain mansion Jourdain Would-Be Gentleman, Themansion (zhohr-DAHN). Parisian home of Monsieur Jourdain, a rich tradesman. It is instructive to study the ingenuity with which France’s […]

First published: 1950 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Philosophical realism Time of work: 1801-1826 Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed *Frankfort *Frankfort. World Enough and TimeKentucky city in which the crucial event of the novel occurs: the assassination of Colonel Cassius Fort, a prominent state politician. A young attorney, Jeremiah Beaumont, […]

First published: serial, 1886-1887; book, 1887 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Social realism Time of work: Nineteenth century Places Discussed Wessex Wessex. Woodlanders, TheFictional region of England in which Thomas Hardy set most of his major novels. It is situated east of the Cornish coast, between the River Thames and the English Channel. […]

First published: Holzfällen: Eine Erregung, 1984 (English translation, 1987) Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Social realism Time of work: 1980’s Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed Auersberger apartment Auersberger Woodcuttersapartment. Location of the dinner party in Vienna. The narrator’s rage is directed primarily against the artistic pretensions of his hosts and […]

First published: 1971 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Psychological realism Time of work: 1939-1971 Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed Yewville Yewville. WonderlandTown in New York’s upstate Niagara County where Jesse Harte, one of six children, grows up in a small and crowded house built by his father, Willard, next to […]

First published: Trachinai, c. 435-429 b.c.e. (English translation, 1729; Pound’s translation, 1954) First produced: Trachinai, 435-429 b.c.e. Type of work: Drama Type of plot: Tragedy Time of work: Antiquity Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed Herakles’ house Herakles’ Women of Trachis, Thehouse (HEHR-uh-kleez). Home of Herakles, for which Sophocles uses a set with […]

First published: 1982 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Social realism Time of work: 1930’s-1960’s Places Discussed Brewster Place Brewster Women of Brewster Place, ThePlace. Neighborhood in a large, unnamed northern city, possibly New York, possibly Chicago. New York seems more likely since, aside from its being Gloria Naylor’s hometown, there is mention in […]

First published: 1657 First produced: c. 1621-1627 Type of work: Drama Type of plot: Tragedy Time of work: Early seventeenth century Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed *Florence *Florence. Women Beware WomenCity in the Tuscany region that was one of Italy’s main centers of culture and political intrigue in the seventeenth century. The […]

First published: Une Vie, 1883 (English translation, 1888) Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Naturalism Time of work: Early nineteenth century Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed *Normandy *Normandy. Woman’s Life, ALargely agricultural region on western France’s Atlantic coast in which the novel’s fundamental settings–both literal and symbolic–are established in the opening […]

First published: 1607 First produced: 1603 Type of work: Drama Type of plot: Tragicomedy Time of work: Early seventeenth century Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed *Yorkshire *Yorkshire. Woman Killed with Kindness, AHistoric county in northern England in which the play is set. Yorkshire and its inhabitants are usually described as bleak, independent, […]

First published: 1860 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Detective and mystery Time of work: 1850’s Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed Hampstead, on the Finchley-road Hampstead, Woman in White, Theon the Finchley-road. This lonely, isolated stretch of woods, near a crossroads leading to London, provides the first sighting of the woman […]

First published: Suna no onna, 1962 (English translation, 1964) Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Allegory Time of work: 1962 Places Discussed Sand dunes Sand Woman in the Dunes, Thedunes. Coastal region in an unspecified part of Japan. At the beginning of the novel, the main character, Jumpei Niki, a science teacher and amateur […]

First published: serial, 1864-1866; book, 1866 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Domestic realism Time of work: Mid-nineteenth century Places Discussed Hollingford Hollingford. Wives and DaughtersEnglish provincial town that provides the main setting in which country life and her central figures interact as their stories unfold. Molly Gibson, the central figure and moral fulcrum […]

First published: 1952 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Psychological realism Time of work: Early twentieth century Places Discussed Taulkinham Taulkinham. Wise BloodImaginary Alabama city that is the setting for most of the action of Wise Blood; loosely modeled on Birmingham, Alabama. Hazel Motes decides to go to Taulkinham when he discovers, after leaving […]

First published: 1935 First produced: 1935 Type of work: Drama Type of plot: Tragedy Time of work: Twentieth century Places Discussed Riverfront Riverfront. WintersetTenement house, nestled under a soaring bridge and surrounded by huts, which shelters street people and demonstrates that the streets of America are not paved with gold nor is America in fact […]

First published: 1623 First produced: 1610-1611 Type of work: Drama Type of plot: Tragicomedy Time of work: Legendary past Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed *Sicily *Sicily. Winter’s Tale, TheIsland off the southern tip of the Italian peninsula in which the play opens, with Polixenes, the king of Bohemia, visiting his old friend […]

First published: 1961 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Social realism Time of work: 1960 Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed New Baytown New Winter of Our Discontent, TheBaytown. Harbor town on Long Island, New York, in which the novel is primarily set. New Baytown has deep connections to an old seafaring […]

First published: 1902 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Psychological realism Time of work: c. 1900 Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed Lancaster Gate Lancaster Wings of the Dove, TheGate. Large London estate belonging to Mrs. Maud Lowder that symbolizes the vulgarity of wealth with power but without taste. Merton Densher describes […]

First published: 1919 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Psychological realism Time of work: Late nineteenth century Places Discussed Winesburg Winesburg. Winesburg, OhioOhio village of some one thousand inhabitants. All two dozen stories in Winesburg, Ohio are set in Winesburg, a small town probably based on Clyde, Ohio, where Anderson lived as a young […]

First published: Terre des hommes, 1939 (English translation, 1939) Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Autobiographical Time of work: 1920’s and 1930’s Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed Airplane Airplane. Wind, Sand, and StarsAfter training as a pilot in the mid-1920’s, the author carries mail and passengers over oceans and continents. During […]

First published: 1908 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Allegory Time of work: Early twentieth century Places Discussed River River. Wind in the Willows, TheFictional river in England that flows to the sea past meadows, woods, and towns and which serves as the focus of the novel. The river, never named in the story, […]

First published: 1804 as Wilhelm Tell (English translation, 1841) First produced: 1804 Type of work: Drama Type of plot: Historical Time of work: Fifteenth century Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed *Altdorf *Altdorf. William TellTown in Switzerland’s Uri canton on whose public square people are building a prison fortress under duress, and where […]

First published: Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre: Oder, Die Entsagenden, 1821, 1829 (English translation, 1882) Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Philosophical Time of work: Early nineteenth century Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed Pedagogic Province Pedagogic Wilhelm Meister’s TravelsProvince (peh-duh-GAH-jihk). At almost precisely the halfway point of the novel, Wilhelm enters the Pedagogic […]

First published: Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre, 1795-1796 (English translation, 1824) Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Bildungsroman Time of work: Late eighteenth century Places Discussed Lothario’s estate Lothario’s Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeshipestate. Home of the nobleman Baron Lothario. Set in the German countryside, the estate is Wilhelm’s initial point of contact with the social circle that […]

First published: 1939 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Tragicomedy Time of work: 1927 and 1937 Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed *Mississippi Gulf Coast *Mississippi Wild Palms, TheGulf Coast. The first section of the “Wild Palms” part of the novel opens in a summer cottage on the beach in southern Mississippi. […]

First published: Gan, 1911-1913 (English translation, 1959) Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Psychological realism Time of work: 1880 Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed Otama’s house Otama’s Wild Geese, Thehouse. Residence of the young woman named Otama, located on Tokyo’s Muenzaka Slope. Otama’s lover, the middle-aged moneylender Suezo, carefully chooses the […]

First published: Vildanden, 1884 (English translation, 1891) First produced: 1885 Type of work: Drama Type of plot: Social realism Time of work: Nineteenth century Places Discussed Werle house Werle Wild Duck, Thehouse. Home of the wealthy industrialist Haakon Werle in which the play opens. Shaded lamps in its rich study cast a greenish glow, giving […]

First published: La Peau de chagrin, 1831 (English translation, 1896) Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Allegory Time of work: 1829-1831 Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed Parisian gambling house Parisian Wild Ass’s Skin, Thegambling house. Located at 36 Palais Royal, this is the place where Raphael loses the last of his […]

First published: 1798 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Gothic Time of work: 1763-1776 Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed Mettingen Mettingen Wieland (MEHT-ihn-jehn). Fictional name of the Wieland’s eastern Pennsylvania farm and later of Clara’s house located on her share of the farm. Mettingen is also the name of a real […]

First published: 1966 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Domestic realism Time of work: Late 1830’s Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed *England *England. Wide Sargasso SeaAlthough only the brief third section of the novel actually takes place in England, the country’s influence reverberates throughout. All the people in power are English: […]

First published: 1962 First produced: 1962 Type of work: Drama Type of plot: Absurdist Time of work: Mid-twentieth century Places Discussed New Carthage New Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?Carthage. Fictional town named after a city from the ancient world. Carthage was destroyed forever when the Romans added salt to the soil, ensuring that nothing would […]

First published: 1850 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Adventure Time of work: 1840’s Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed USS Neversink USS White-JacketNeversink. U.S. naval frigate that is the novel’s primary setting. The narrator describes its crew and the vessel in great detail, delineating the various roles of the seamen and […]

First published: 1612 First produced: c. 1609-1612 Type of work: Drama Type of plot: Tragedy Time of work: Late sixteenth century Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed *Rome *Rome. White Devil, TheLeading city of Italy, in which the first four acts of the play take place. During Webster’s time, Rome was known for […]

First published: La región más transparente, 1958 (English translation, 1960) Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Mythic Time of work: Early to mid-1950’s Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed *Mexico City *Mexico Where the Air Is ClearCity. Mexico’s capital city is the central location of the novel, providing a modern urban setting […]

First published: 1988 Type of work: Short fiction Places Discussed Alcoholic treatment center Alcoholic Where I’m Calling Fromtreatment center. Fictional institution representative of a real alcohol recovery facility. Frank Martin’s facility is central to the title and characterization of the story. The unnamed narrator, who has already spent a few days at the center when […]

First published: 1905 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Social realism Time of work: Early twentieth century Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed Sawston Sawston. Where Angels Fear to TreadEnglish town that is home to the conventional middle-class Herriton family. E. M. Forster modeled this dreary, repressive town on Tonbridge, Kent, southeast […]

First published: Naar vi døde vaagner, 1899 First produced: 1900 Type of work: Drama Type of plot: Psychological symbolism Time of work: Nineteenth century Places Discussed Seaside resort Seaside When We Dead Awakenresort. Spa on the coast of Norway where the play opens. The artist Rubek and Maia, his wife of four years, are there […]

First published: 1969 First produced: 1969 Type of work: Drama Type of plot: Farce Time of work: 1960’s Places Discussed Dr. Prentice’s psychiatric clinic Dr. What the Butler SawPrentice’s psychiatric clinic. Office of Dr. Prentice, a psychiatrist, that is the play’s only set. Not part of England’s National Health Service, this private clinic caters to […]

First published: 1897 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Psychological realism Time of work: 1890’s Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed *Kensington Gardens *Kensington What Maisie KnewGardens. Great London park in which Maisie and her stepfather, Sir Claude, discover her mother, Ida, with another man known as the Captain. This scene is […]

First published: 1855 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Historical Time of work: Late sixteenth century Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed *Bideford *Bideford. Westward Ho!English town in north Devon in which the novel’s protagonist, naval hero Amyas Leigh, was born and to which he returns after each of his voyages. Bideford […]

First published: 1928 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Social realism Time of work: Early twentieth century Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed Morton Hall Morton Well of Loneliness, TheHall. Located between Upton-on-Severn and the Malvern Hills in the British Midlands, Morton Hall is Stephen Gordon’s home until her early twenties. This […]

First published: 1939 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Impressionistic realism Time of work: 1900-1928 Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed Libya Hill Libya Web and the Rock, TheHill. Small North Carolina town in which George is born and raised. It is a sharp, vivid place, where specific buildings are grounded. His […]

First published: 1874-1875 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Social realism Time of work: 1873 Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed Melmotte house Melmotte Way We Live Now, Thehouse. Ostentatious London home of Augustus Melmotte, the celebrated swindler whose dealings form the central plot of the book, and his family, in Mayfair’s […]

First published: 1700 First produced: 1700 Type of work: Drama Type of plot: Comedy of manners Time of work: Seventeenth century Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed *London *London. Way of the World, TheCapital city of England that provides the world in which the play is set–a world of coffeehouses, periwigs, and elaborately […]

First published: 1903 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Social realism Time of work: Nineteenth century Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed *England *England. Way of All Flesh, TheAll events in this novel take place in Victorian England, a powerful society which presided over a vast British Empire. Armed with an aggressive […]

First published: 1931 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Psychological realism Time of work: 1920’s Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed *London *London. Waves, TheWoolf was the child of a prominent family living in a London great house, and for her the city was at the center of civilization, albeit a civilization […]

First published: 1814 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Historical Time of work: 1745 Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed Tully-Veolan Tully-Veolan Waverley (TUHL-ee vee-OHL-uhn). Ancient Scottish manor house and estate in Perthshire north of Edinburgh which is the home of the Bradwardines. Scott used a number of real Scottish houses as […]

First published: 1941 First produced: 1941 Type of work: Drama Type of plot: Melodrama Time of work: Late spring, 1940 Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed Farrelly country house Farrelly Watch on the Rhinecountry house. Suburban home of the distinguished Farrelly family, located outside Washington, D.C. The house’s living room is the setting […]

First published: 1922 Type of work: Poetry Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed *London *London. Waste Land, TheGreat Britain’s capital city, a place cloaked in brown fog, is populated by people who walk in circles without connection to anything or anyone. The walk from London Bridge down King William Street leads past a […]

First produced: Sphēkes, 422 b.c.e. (English translation, 1812) Type of work: Drama Type of plot: Satire Time of work: Fifth century b.c.e. Places Discussed Athens street Athens Wasps, Thestreet. Street scene outside the home of Bdelycleon (whose name means “Cleon hater”), where two slaves stand guard. They explain that their master is holding his old […]

First published: 1880 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Psychological realism Time of work: c. 1850 Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed *Washington Square *Washington Washington SquareSquare. Fashionable neighborhood at the southern end of New York City’s Manhattan borough that sits near the transition between the narrow, helter-skelter streets with quaint names […]

First published: 1855 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Social realism Time of work: Mid-nineteenth century Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed Barchester Barchester. Warden, TheEnglish town that Anthony Trollope based on the cathedral city of Salisbury in the west of England, as the locale for his novel about various ecclesiastical tensions […]

First published: 1898 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Science fiction Time of work: Late nineteenth century Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed *Horsell Common *Horsell War of the Worlds, TheCommon. Rough, wooded landscape in Woking, on the edge of one of London’s dormitory towns, where the first Martian cylinder comes down. […]

First published: Voyna i mir, 1865-1869 (English translation, 1886) Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Historical Time of work: 1805-1813 Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed *St. Petersburg *St. War and PeacePetersburg. Capital of Imperial Russia amid whose high society Tolstoy introduces his novel’s major players through the mechanism of a formal […]

First published: 1964 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Social satire Time of work: Early 1960’s Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed St. Botolphs St. Wapshot Scandal, TheBotolphs. Massachusetts town, introduced in The Wapshot Chronicle as an old river town, that becomes in The Wapshot Scandal a seat of virtue and value […]

First published: 1957 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Social realism Time of work: 1890’s-1950’s Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed St. Botolphs St. Wapshot Chronicle, TheBotolphs. Small Massachusetts town with a distinguished past that has been experiencing an economic, intellectual, and spiritual decline since the middle of the nineteenth century. The […]

First published: Le Juif errant, 1844-1845 (English translation, 1868) Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Melodrama Time of work: 1831-1832 Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed *Paris *Paris. Wandering Jew, TheFrance’s capital city, the focal point of the novel, is minutely defined as the Red Room in number 3, rue Saint François, […]

First published: Le Grand Meaulnes, 1913 (English translation, 1928) Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Psychological Time of work: Nineteenth century Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed Sainte-Agathe Sainte-Agathe. Wanderer, TheFrench village where Francois Seurel spends most of his childhood. His parents are the village schoolteachers and the family lives in the […]

First published: 1956 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Picaresque Time of work: 1930’s Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed Arroyo Arroyo. Walk on the Wild Side, ATown in southern Texas’s Rio Grande Valley where Dove begins his adventures. His father, Fitz Linkhorn, originally went there in the early twentieth century from […]

First published: 1952 (English translation, 1954) First produced: 1953 as En attendant Godot Type of work: Drama Type of plot: Absurdist Time of work: Indeterminate Places Discussed Country road Country Waiting for Godotroad. Unnamed road, alongside which Vladimir and Estragon await the arrival of Godot. No clues are given to identify the location, whose terrain […]

First published: 1915 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Psychological realism Time of work: Early twentieth century Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed *London *London. Voyage Out, TheGreat Britain’s capital city serves as a contrast to Santa Marina, which is represented by its “primitiveness.” The novel opens as Helen and Ridley Ambrose […]

First published: 1834 (English translation, 1995) Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Psychological realism Time of work: Early nineteenth century Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed La Gastine La VoluptéGastine (lah gas-TEEN). Isolated farmhouse in a remote part of the northern French region of Brittany; a calculatedly unostentatious one-story edifice set in […]

First published: 1607 First produced: 1605 Type of work: Drama Type of plot: Social satire Time of work: Sixteenth century Places Discussed Volpone’s house Volpone’s Volponehouse (vohl-POH-nay). Home of the Venetian magnifico, whose name means “fox.” With an outer gallery or waiting room for dupes and a dazzling treasure cache, piles of gold, plate, and […]

First published: serial, 1857-1859; book, 1858-1859 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Historical Time of work: Late eighteenth century Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed Castlewood House (England) Castlewood Virginians, TheHouse (England). Ancestral seat of the Esmond family, located in south-central England about one hundred miles west of London. At the beginning […]

First published: 1902 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Western Time of work: Late nineteenth century Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed *Medicine Bow *Medicine Virginian, TheBow. Wyoming town in and around which the novel is set, during the latter part of the nineteenth century. The setting depicts a romantic scene with […]

First published: Terras do sem fin, 1942 (English translation, 1945) Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Social realism Time of work: Late nineteenth century Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed *Sequeiro Grande *Sequeiro Violent Land, TheGrande (see-KAY-roh GRAHN-day). Forest region of prime cacao-growing land in northeastern Brazil. In his foreword to the […]

First published: 1960 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Psychological realism Time of work: 1952 Places Discussed Powderhead Powderhead. Violent Bear It Away, TheTiny settlement somewhere in rural Tennessee–perhaps east of Nashville–where the boy, Francis Marion Tarwater, has spent nearly all of his fourteen years living with his great-uncle. There they live as if […]

First published: 1853 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Bildungsroman Time of work: Nineteenth century Places Discussed Villette Villette. VilletteCapital city of the fictional country of Labassecour. With a name that literally means “little city,” Villette is not large; students walk out to the surrounding countryside before breakfast from the city center. The city […]

First published: 1915 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Psychological realism Time of work: Early twentieth century Places Discussed Samburan Samburan Victory (sahm-BEWR-ahn). Also known as Round Island, one of the thousands of small islands in the Malaysian archipelago, on which Baron Axel Heyst establishes the center of his Tropical Belt Coal Company. At […]

First published: Derevnya, 1910 (English translation, 1923) Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Social criticism Time of work: Early twentieth century Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed Durnovka Durnovka Village, The (door-NOF-kah). Fictional Russian village in which the novel is set. Its name might be translated into English literally as “Evil Town” […]

First published: 1766 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Domestic realism Time of work: Eighteenth century Places Discussed Wakefield Wakefield. Vicar of Wakefield, TheEnglish town in which the vicar, Dr. Primrose, settles after losing his fortune. Its locale is never named, but to Primrose it is more than a place where there is a […]

First published: English translation, 1786; original French edition, 1787 as Vathek Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Gothic Time of work: The past Places Discussed Palace of Alkoremmi Palace Vathekof Alkoremmi. Vathek’s own palace, situated on a hill above the city of Samarah (Sāmarrā), situated upriver from Baghdad on the Tigris, in what is […]

First published: serial, 1847-1848; book, 1848 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Social satire Time of work: Early nineteenth century Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed Vanity Fair Vanity Vanity FairFair. Place on the way to the Celestial City that John Bunyan created in The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678, 1684), which represents the […]

First published: La Vagabonde, 1911 (English translation, 1954) Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Psychological realism Time of work: Early twentieth century Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed *Paris *Paris. Vagabond, TheSections of the city that are seen most in The Vagabond include Renée’s apartment on the avenue du Ternes quarter, near […]

First published: 1963 Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Satire Time of work: 1898-1956 Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed *New York City *New VYork City. During the 1950’s, Benny Profane goes wherever events lead him. He spends time in Manhattan hanging out with a group of nihilistic bohemians who call themselves […]

First published: De Optimo Reipublicae Statu, deque Nova Insula Utopia, 1516 (English translation, 1551) Type of work: Novel Type of plot: Social morality Time of work: Reign of Henry VII of England Asterisk denotes entries on real places. Places Discussed *Antwerp *Antwerp. UtopiaFlanders city (now part of Belgium) in which More’s novel opens. In 1515 […]