New Orleans in Fiction - Books and Plays

Books and Plays

• The Anti-Vampire Tale by Lewis Aleman (2010)
• The Awakening by Kate Chopin (1899)
• Blue Moon Over New Orleans by Anna Mayhall Munding (post WWII mystery novel set in New Orleans) (2011)
• Blues and Trouble: Twelve Stories by Tom Piazza (the first short story, "Brownsville", is set in New Orleans)
• Chasing the Devil's Tail and sequels by David Fulmer (jazz mysteries featuring Valentin St. Cyr)
• City of Refuge by Tom Piazza
• Clarimonde by Napier Bartlett (features a Creole tale and a description of New Orleans during the American Civil War)
• The Client (1993) and The Pelican Brief (1992) by John Grisham
• The Coffee Shop Chronicles of New Orleans - Part 1 by David Lummis (2010)
• Cold Streak by Lewis Aleman (2008)
• A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
• Crescent City by Belva Plain
• The Crystal City by Orson Scott Card (features an alternate-history version of New Orleans in which it is controlled by the Spanish and called 'Nueva Barcelona' or 'Barcy')
• A Density of Souls by Christopher Rice
• Dinner at Antoine's, Crescent Carnival, and others by Frances Parkinson Keyes
• Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite
• Faces in Time by Lewis Aleman (2009)
• Fantasy Lover and sequels, comprising The Dark-Hunter Series by Sherrilyn Kenyon
• Fat White Vampire Blues and sequel by Andrew Fox
• The Feast of All Saints by Anne Rice (1979)
• Flying Solo: An Unconventional Aviatrix Navigates Turbulence in Life by Jeannette Vaughan
• The three Frankenstein books by Dean Koontz, Kevin J. Anderson, and Ed Gorman
• A Free Man of Color and sequels (The Benjamin January Mysteries) by Barbara Hambly
• Gone with the Wind (1936) by Margaret Mitchell (location of Rhett and Scarlett's honeymoon)
• The Grandissimes by George Washington Cable
• A Hall of Mirrors by Robert Stone
• Hoodoo Money by Sharon Cupp Pennington
• Interview with the Vampire and sequels, collectively known as The Vampire Chronicles, by Anne Rice
• The epic fiction Jitterbug Perfume (1984) by Tom Robbins uses modern day New Orleans as one of 4 major settings along with 8th century Bohemia, modern day Seattle, and modern day Paris
• Junkie by William S. Burroughs
• Lafitte the Pirate by Lyle Saxon, the basis for the 1938 film The Buccaneer and the 1958 remake of the same name
• Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain (Chapter XLI: "The Metropolis of the South")
• Liquor and sequels by Poppy Z. Brite
• Lives of the Mayfair Witches by Anne Rice
• Manon Lescaut by Antoine François Prévost (features the early French colony at New Orleans at one point in the book)
• A Map of Moments by Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon (forthcoming)
• Midnight Bayou and Honest Illusions by Nora Roberts
• Monsieur Motte by Grace King
• Mosquitoes (Novel) and Pylon (novel) by William Faulkner (the latter novel takes place in "New Valois," a thinly disguised New Orleans)
• Moth and sequels (Lew Griffin mysteries) by James Sallis
• The Moviegoer by Walker Percy (winner of the 1962 National Book Award)
• Mules and Men by Zora Neale Hurston
• To My Senses, Recovery, Sacrifice by Alexandrea Weis
• Neon Rain and sequels (Dave Robicheaux mysteries) by James Lee Burke
• New Orleans, Mon Amour by Andrei Codrescu (collection of essays and short stories)
• New Orleans Mourning and sequels (Skip Langdon mysteries) by Julie Smith
• New Orleans Noir edited by Julie Smith (short stories by various authors)
• Off Magazine Street by Ronald Everett Capps, the basis for the 2004 film A Love Song for Bobby Long
• Paul Marchand, F.M.C. by Charles Chesnutt
• A Quiet Vendetta by R. J. Ellory
• Side Effects: A New Orleans Love Story by Patty Friedmann
• A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams (1947 play, winner of the 1948 Pulitzer Prize for drama)
• Tranquility Denied by novelist A. C. Frieden
• Twelfth Night by Michael Llewellyn
• Unmasked by Jody Gerbig
• Vieux Carre by Tennessee Williams (play)
• Violets and Other Tales and The Goodness of Saint Rocque and Other Stories by Alice Dunbar-Nelson
• Voodoo Dreams and Voodoo Season by Jewell Parker Rhodes
• A Walk on the Wild Side by Nelson Algren, the basis for the 1962 film Walk on the Wild Side

Authors who have repeatedly or frequently used New Orleans as a setting for their fiction include James Lee Burke, Poppy Z. Brite, Truman Capote, Nancy A. Collins, Barbara Hambly, Lafcadio Hearn, Frances Parkinson Keyes, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Anne Rice, James Sallis, Julie Smith, Alexandrea Weis and Tennessee Williams.