Illegitimacy in Fiction - Written Works - Twentieth Century

Twentieth Century

  • Joseph Conrad, Under Western Eyes (1910): the protagonist, Razumov, is the illegitimate son of a Russian prince, by whom he is unacknowledged save to the extent of being supported as a student at the University of St. Petersburg. A fellow-student, Victor Haldin, a revolutionist who has just assassinated a savagely repressive government minister, asks Razumov to help him escape. Razumov, with his father's help, turns him in, and Haldin is hanged. Razumov finds himself admired by university companions as Haldin's associate in killing the detested minister. The authorities send him as a government spy to Geneva, a center of anti-tsarist intrigue. There, he finds, live Haldin's mother and sister, who share Haldin's liberal convictions; Razumov falls in love with the sister and eventually confesses having turned in her brother. He then confesses the same to the assembled revolutionists, who burst his eardrums, making him deaf for life. He staggers away, is knocked down by a streetcar, and finally returns as an obscure cripple to Russia.
  • C. S. Forester, Brown on Resolution (1929 novel): the protagonist, an illegitimate British sailor and the only survivor of his ship, escapes custody aboard an Imperial German raider making repairs off an island in the South Atlantic and delays the ship's departure long enough for a British ship to arrive and destroy it, losing his life on the island in the process. The captain of the ship finds the sailor's body and discovers it is his own illegitimate son whose existence he has denied.
  • Marcel Pagnol, Marius (1929 play)
  • Marcel Pagnol, Fanny (1932 play)
  • Dorothy L. Sayers, The Nine Tailors (1934 mystery novel): fear of uncovering illegitimacy and the social shame that that would bring are key plot drivers in the murder.
  • Marcel Pagnol, César (1936 play)
  • Grace Metalious, Peyton Place (1956 novel): The main plot follows the lives of three women in a small New England town — lonely, repressed Constance MacKenzie, her illegitimate daughter Allison, and her employee Selena Cross.
  • Marguerite Yourcenar, The Abyss (1968 historical novel): centres on a man's quest for meaning in his life, and the consequences of his illegitimate birth on his mother (devastating) and his father (very little). Belgian filmmaker André Delvaux adapted it into a movie in 1988.
  • John Irving, The World According to Garp (1982 novel): the eponymous protagonist is conceived outside of marriage, under bizarre circumstances that permeate the book.
  • Angela Carter, Wise Children (1991 novel): several generations of illegitimacy in a theatrical family.
  • Tanya Huff, Blood Books (1991–97 series of novels): Henry Fitzroy, the illegitimate son of Henry VIII, lives in modern-day Toronto, Canada, having long ago been turned into a vampire. He now earns a living writing romance novels and forms a relationship with Vicki Nelson, a former police officer.
  • Melina Marchetta, Looking for Alibrandi (1993 novel): involves a main theme of illegitimacy—of a year-12 student, whose father comes back into her life after having left her mother 18 years earlier. It also involves a massive theme of multiculturalism.
  • Dorothy Allison, Bastard Out of Carolina (1993 novel).
  • George R.R. Martin, A Song of Ice and Fire (series of novels, 1996–present): Illegitimacy is a central theme throughout the series, and many major character have illegitimate children.


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