The Nine Tailors
Encyclopedia
The Nine Tailors is a 1934 mystery novel by British
writer Dorothy L. Sayers
, her ninth featuring sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey
.
, Sayers had to learn about change ringing
. In it, Lord Peter rings one of eight church bells in a record-setting series of sound patterns called "changes", and later uses his knowledge of bell-ringing to solve a 20-year-old mystery involving a stolen emerald
necklace.
The name of the tenor bell is a tribute to Paul Taylor of Taylor's bell foundry in Loughborough
, England. He provided detailed information on all aspects of ringing to Sayers during the writing of the book.
after a car accident, Wimsey helps ring a nine-hour peal of bells overnight after Will Thoday, one of the ringers, is stricken by influenza
. Lady Thorpe, wife of Sir Henry Thorpe, the local squire, dies next morning and Wimsey hears how the Thorpe family has been blighted for 20 years by the unsolved theft of jewels from a house-guest by the butler
, Deacon, and an accomplice, Cranton. Both men were imprisoned, but the jewels were never recovered.
At Easter
, Sir Henry himself dies and his wife's grave is opened for his burial. A body is found hidden in the grave, mutilated beyond recognition. It is first thought to be the body of a tramp labourer calling himself "Driver" who arrived and then vanished just after the New Year. An odd document found in the bell chamber
by Hilary Thorpe, Sir Henry's daughter, proves to be a cipher
. Acting on a hunch, Lord Peter enquires at the Post Office for any uncollected letters addressed to "Driver". Bunter, Wimsey's Butler, inveigles a postmistress into handing over a letter posted in France, which confirms a link with the body, which was wearing French underclothes. The letter is addressed not to "Driver" but to "Paul Taylor", a reference to "Tailor Paul", the tenor (largest) bell in the ring at Fenchurch St. Paul. When the writer of the letter is traced, the dead man is assumed to be Arthur Cobbleigh, a British soldier listed as missing in action but who evidently deserted and stayed in France after the war
. Cobbleigh appears to have known where the emeralds were hidden, and to have plotted to recover them, probably with "Driver". "Driver" is discovered to be an alias of Cranton, the accomplice in the original theft.
Wimsey assumes the two men did recover the emeralds and Cranton then killed Cobbleigh for them, but cannot prove it. However, when he decodes the cipher (which requires knowledge of change-ringing) it leads him to the emeralds, still untouched in their hiding place in the church.
Without any particular purpose, Wimsey shows the cipher to Mary Thoday, Will's wife and Deacon's widow. The Thodays abscond to London. Wimsey guesses the true identity of Cobbleigh, and confirms this through the Sûreté
in France. He also discovers the Thodays' whereabouts through the Archbishop of Canterbury
.
Cranton is interviewed by Wimsey and his brother in law, Detective Inspector Charles Parker
. Much becomes clear when Cobbleigh turns out to have been Deacon, the thieving butler. In 1918 he murdered a warder and escaped from prison. A body, apparently his, was later found, but in fact Deacon had murdered a soldier and swapped identities with him. He married bigamously
in France and waited several years to return for the emeralds, which he had hidden before his arrest. Since he risked hanging if caught, he finally asked Cranton to help, sending him the cipher as a clue to the hiding place as a token of good faith. Cranton could not solve it but knew it related to the bells, so he came to Fenchurch as "Driver" on New Year's Day. He went to the bell-chamber on the night of 4 January, but found Deacon's dead, bound body in the chamber and fled, dropping the cipher.
Parker then places a hidden microphone in the interview room where Will Thoday and his sailor brother Jim are waiting. It becomes apparent that both brothers thought that the other was guilty of killing Deacon, but were willing to take the blame themselves or at least shield the other. When they are interviewed, Will relates that he encountered Deacon, who had come to retrieve the emeralds, in the church on 30 December. Will had married Mary after the war, believing her a widow. Now he realised Deacon was still alive, making his and Mary's marriage bigamous and their daughters illegitimate. Desperate to prevent Deacon exposing his family to pain and scandal, Will tied him up in the bell-chamber, planning to bribe him to leave, but became helpless with Spanish influenza next day (which is why Wimsey rang Will's bell in the New Year peal). Will's delirious talk led Jim to find Deacon's body in the bell-chamber on 2 January. He assumed that Will had murdered him. Appalled but loyal, he waited until the night after Lady Thorpe's funeral on 4 January, made the body unrecognisable and hid it in the new grave, then left for sea. When the body was discovered, Will assumed Jim had killed Deacon. Neither can explain how Deacon died. Both are released. Will marries Mary (who had recognised the cipher as being in Deacon's handwriting) again in Bloomsbury under Archbishop's licence, and returns to Fenchurch St. Paul.
The mystery is almost over; Deacon's death alone remains inexplicable. It is only when Wimsey returns to Fenchurch the following Christmas that he understands. Floods inundate the countryside, and Wimsey climbs the tower as the bells are ringing the alarm. The appalling noise in the bell-chamber convinces him that Deacon, tied there for hours between New Year's Eve and New Year's Day while Wimsey helped with the all-night peal, could not have survived. Deacon was killed by the ringers - or by the bells themselves.
Will Thoday is drowned in the flood trying to save another man who has fallen from a failing sluice-gate. Wimsey speculates that Will may not have wanted to live, having guessed his part in killing Deacon.
judged it the best of his four "indispensables" ...".
"Dorothy L. Sayers incautiously entered the closed world of bell-ringing in The Nine Tailors on the strength of a sixpenny pamphlet picked up by chance -- and invented a method of killing which would not produce death, as well as breaking a fundamental rule of that esoteric art by allowing a relief ringer to take part in her famous nine-hour champion peal."
In his infamous essay attacking detective fiction
, Who Cares Who Killed Roger Ackroyd, American
critic Edmund Wilson
decried this novel as dull, overlong and far too detailed; describing how he skipped a lot of the prose about bell-ringing (quote: "a lot of information of the kind that you might expect to find in an encyclopaedia article on campanology
"), and also large amounts of Sayers’ focal sleuth character, "the embarrassingly named" Lord Peter Wimsey
.
at Bluntisham-cum-Earith
, where her father was Rector.
Hilary Thorpe, the resourceful and independent-minded 15-year old daughter of Sir Henry Thorpe - who bravely faces the loss of both parents during the book, and who provided vital help to Wimsey in solving the mystery - is mentioned as intending to study at Oxford and become a writer, just as the author did.
as Lord Peter. In a significant plot difference, the original theft of the emeralds is introduced by showing a young Lieutenant Wimsey of the Rifle Brigade attending Henry Thorpe's wedding shortly before the War and unsuccessfully pursuing the fleeing Cranton. (In the books, Wimsey did not join the Army until after the outbreak of the War.) Deacon's escape from prison and the murder of the soldier Arthur Cobbleigh (renamed to Watkins) are also shown in the first episode.
Other parts were played by:
There were brief appearances by Geoffrey Russell
(Sir Henry Thorpe), Desmond Llewelyn
(Sir Charles Thorpe, father of Sir Henry); Mark Eden
(Detective Chief Inspector Charles Parker
, Wimsey's brother in law), John Duttine
(Wally Pratt, bellringer) and Kenneth Colley
("Potty" Peake, local resident)
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
writer Dorothy L. Sayers
Dorothy L. Sayers
Dorothy Leigh Sayers was a renowned English crime writer, poet, playwright, essayist, translator and Christian humanist. She was also a student of classical and modern languages...
, her ninth featuring sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey
Lord Peter Wimsey
Lord Peter Death Bredon Wimsey is a bon vivant amateur sleuth in a series of detective novels and short stories by Dorothy L. Sayers, in which he solves mysteries; usually, but not always, murders...
.
Plot introduction
For this novel, set in the FensThe Fens
The Fens, also known as the , are a naturally marshy region in eastern England. Most of the fens were drained several centuries ago, resulting in a flat, damp, low-lying agricultural region....
, Sayers had to learn about change ringing
Change ringing
Change ringing is the art of ringing a set of tuned bells in a series of mathematical patterns called "changes". It differs from many other forms of campanology in that no attempt is made to produce a conventional melody....
. In it, Lord Peter rings one of eight church bells in a record-setting series of sound patterns called "changes", and later uses his knowledge of bell-ringing to solve a 20-year-old mystery involving a stolen emerald
Emerald
Emerald is a variety of the mineral beryl colored green by trace amounts of chromium and sometimes vanadium. Beryl has a hardness of 7.5–8 on the 10 point Mohs scale of mineral hardness...
necklace.
Explanation of the novel's title
The title refers to the ringing of a church bell to signal a death in the parish. There is a ring of eight bells at the local church, each with its own name and history. The largest, the tenor bell, is Tailor Paul, the great bell on which are rung nine "tailor" or "teller" strokes at the death of a man in the parish, six for a woman and three for a child. One stroke then follows at intervals of 30 seconds for every year of the deceased's life.The name of the tenor bell is a tribute to Paul Taylor of Taylor's bell foundry in Loughborough
Loughborough
Loughborough is a town within the Charnwood borough of Leicestershire, England. It is the seat of Charnwood Borough Council and is home to Loughborough University...
, England. He provided detailed information on all aspects of ringing to Sayers during the writing of the book.
Plot summary
Stranded in the Fenland village of Fenchurch St. Paul on New Year's EveNew Year's Eve
New Year's Eve is observed annually on December 31, the final day of any given year in the Gregorian calendar. In modern societies, New Year's Eve is often celebrated at social gatherings, during which participants dance, eat, consume alcoholic beverages, and watch or light fireworks to mark the...
after a car accident, Wimsey helps ring a nine-hour peal of bells overnight after Will Thoday, one of the ringers, is stricken by influenza
Influenza
Influenza, commonly referred to as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by RNA viruses of the family Orthomyxoviridae , that affects birds and mammals...
. Lady Thorpe, wife of Sir Henry Thorpe, the local squire, dies next morning and Wimsey hears how the Thorpe family has been blighted for 20 years by the unsolved theft of jewels from a house-guest by the butler
Butler
A butler is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantry. Some also have charge of the entire parlour floor, and housekeepers caring for the entire house and its...
, Deacon, and an accomplice, Cranton. Both men were imprisoned, but the jewels were never recovered.
At Easter
Easter
Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...
, Sir Henry himself dies and his wife's grave is opened for his burial. A body is found hidden in the grave, mutilated beyond recognition. It is first thought to be the body of a tramp labourer calling himself "Driver" who arrived and then vanished just after the New Year. An odd document found in the bell chamber
Bell tower
A bell tower is a tower which contains one or more bells, or which is designed to hold bells, even if it has none. In the European tradition, such a tower most commonly serves as part of a church and contains church bells. When attached to a city hall or other civic building, especially in...
by Hilary Thorpe, Sir Henry's daughter, proves to be a cipher
Cipher
In cryptography, a cipher is an algorithm for performing encryption or decryption — a series of well-defined steps that can be followed as a procedure. An alternative, less common term is encipherment. In non-technical usage, a “cipher” is the same thing as a “code”; however, the concepts...
. Acting on a hunch, Lord Peter enquires at the Post Office for any uncollected letters addressed to "Driver". Bunter, Wimsey's Butler, inveigles a postmistress into handing over a letter posted in France, which confirms a link with the body, which was wearing French underclothes. The letter is addressed not to "Driver" but to "Paul Taylor", a reference to "Tailor Paul", the tenor (largest) bell in the ring at Fenchurch St. Paul. When the writer of the letter is traced, the dead man is assumed to be Arthur Cobbleigh, a British soldier listed as missing in action but who evidently deserted and stayed in France after the war
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. Cobbleigh appears to have known where the emeralds were hidden, and to have plotted to recover them, probably with "Driver". "Driver" is discovered to be an alias of Cranton, the accomplice in the original theft.
Wimsey assumes the two men did recover the emeralds and Cranton then killed Cobbleigh for them, but cannot prove it. However, when he decodes the cipher (which requires knowledge of change-ringing) it leads him to the emeralds, still untouched in their hiding place in the church.
Sûreté
Sûreté is a term used in French speaking countries or regions in the organizational title of a civil police force, especially the detective branch thereof.-France:...
in France. He also discovers the Thodays' whereabouts through the Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...
.
Cranton is interviewed by Wimsey and his brother in law, Detective Inspector Charles Parker
Charles Parker (detective)
Charles Parker is a fictional police detective who appears in several Lord Peter Wimsey stories by Dorothy L. Sayers, and eventually becomes Lord Peter's brother-in-law.He is first introduced in Whose Body? as a Detective Inspector from Scotland Yard...
. Much becomes clear when Cobbleigh turns out to have been Deacon, the thieving butler. In 1918 he murdered a warder and escaped from prison. A body, apparently his, was later found, but in fact Deacon had murdered a soldier and swapped identities with him. He married bigamously
Bigamy
In cultures that practice marital monogamy, bigamy is the act of entering into a marriage with one person while still legally married to another. Bigamy is a crime in most western countries, and when it occurs in this context often neither the first nor second spouse is aware of the other...
in France and waited several years to return for the emeralds, which he had hidden before his arrest. Since he risked hanging if caught, he finally asked Cranton to help, sending him the cipher as a clue to the hiding place as a token of good faith. Cranton could not solve it but knew it related to the bells, so he came to Fenchurch as "Driver" on New Year's Day. He went to the bell-chamber on the night of 4 January, but found Deacon's dead, bound body in the chamber and fled, dropping the cipher.
Parker then places a hidden microphone in the interview room where Will Thoday and his sailor brother Jim are waiting. It becomes apparent that both brothers thought that the other was guilty of killing Deacon, but were willing to take the blame themselves or at least shield the other. When they are interviewed, Will relates that he encountered Deacon, who had come to retrieve the emeralds, in the church on 30 December. Will had married Mary after the war, believing her a widow. Now he realised Deacon was still alive, making his and Mary's marriage bigamous and their daughters illegitimate. Desperate to prevent Deacon exposing his family to pain and scandal, Will tied him up in the bell-chamber, planning to bribe him to leave, but became helpless with Spanish influenza next day (which is why Wimsey rang Will's bell in the New Year peal). Will's delirious talk led Jim to find Deacon's body in the bell-chamber on 2 January. He assumed that Will had murdered him. Appalled but loyal, he waited until the night after Lady Thorpe's funeral on 4 January, made the body unrecognisable and hid it in the new grave, then left for sea. When the body was discovered, Will assumed Jim had killed Deacon. Neither can explain how Deacon died. Both are released. Will marries Mary (who had recognised the cipher as being in Deacon's handwriting) again in Bloomsbury under Archbishop's licence, and returns to Fenchurch St. Paul.
The mystery is almost over; Deacon's death alone remains inexplicable. It is only when Wimsey returns to Fenchurch the following Christmas that he understands. Floods inundate the countryside, and Wimsey climbs the tower as the bells are ringing the alarm. The appalling noise in the bell-chamber convinces him that Deacon, tied there for hours between New Year's Eve and New Year's Day while Wimsey helped with the all-night peal, could not have survived. Deacon was killed by the ringers - or by the bells themselves.
Will Thoday is drowned in the flood trying to save another man who has fallen from a failing sluice-gate. Wimsey speculates that Will may not have wanted to live, having guessed his part in killing Deacon.
Characters in "The Nine Tailors"
- Lord Peter WimseyLord Peter WimseyLord Peter Death Bredon Wimsey is a bon vivant amateur sleuth in a series of detective novels and short stories by Dorothy L. Sayers, in which he solves mysteries; usually, but not always, murders...
- Mervyn BunterMervyn BunterMervyn Bunter is a fictional character in Dorothy L. Sayers' novels and short stories featuring Lord Peter Wimsey.- Literary Background :Dorothy L...
, his manservant - The Reverend Theodore Venables, rectorRectorThe word rector has a number of different meanings; it is widely used to refer to an academic, religious or political administrator...
of Fenchurch St Paul - Sir Henry Thorpe, the local squire; his wife Lady Thorpe; their only daughter Hilary
- Superintendent Blundell, a policeman
- Jeff Deacon, once the Thorpes’ butler, convicted of a robbery in their house 20 years previously.
- Nobby Cranton, a London jewel-thief and Deacon’s accomplice
- Will Thoday, a farmer and bellringer
- Mary Thoday, his wife, originally married to Deacon
- Jim Thoday, Will’s brother, a merchant seamanMerchant NavyThe Merchant Navy is the maritime register of the United Kingdom, and describes the seagoing commercial interests of UK-registered ships and their crews. Merchant Navy vessels fly the Red Ensign and are regulated by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency...
Awards and nominations
- British Crime Writers Association - 1999 Rusty Dagger award for best crime novel of the 1930s.
Literary significance and criticism
"For many reasons, no great favourite ... despite Dorothy's swotting up of bell-ringing and the two good maps. The cause of death, however, is original, and the rescue scene in the church amid the flood shows the hand of the master. It should be added that this work is a favorite with many readers. Sinclair LewisSinclair Lewis
Harry Sinclair Lewis was an American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. In 1930, he became the first writer from the United States to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, "for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humor, new types of...
judged it the best of his four "indispensables" ...".
"Dorothy L. Sayers incautiously entered the closed world of bell-ringing in The Nine Tailors on the strength of a sixpenny pamphlet picked up by chance -- and invented a method of killing which would not produce death, as well as breaking a fundamental rule of that esoteric art by allowing a relief ringer to take part in her famous nine-hour champion peal."
In his infamous essay attacking detective fiction
Detective fiction
Detective fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator , either professional or amateur, investigates a crime, often murder.-In ancient literature:...
, Who Cares Who Killed Roger Ackroyd, American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
critic Edmund Wilson
Edmund Wilson
Edmund Wilson was an American writer and literary and social critic and noted man of letters.-Early life:Wilson was born in Red Bank, New Jersey. His father, Edmund Wilson, Sr., was a lawyer and served as New Jersey Attorney General. Wilson attended The Hill School, a college preparatory...
decried this novel as dull, overlong and far too detailed; describing how he skipped a lot of the prose about bell-ringing (quote: "a lot of information of the kind that you might expect to find in an encyclopaedia article on campanology
Campanology
Campanology is the study of bells. It encompasses the physical realities of bells — how they are cast, tuned and sounded — as well as the various methods devised to perform bell-ringing....
"), and also large amounts of Sayers’ focal sleuth character, "the embarrassingly named" Lord Peter Wimsey
Lord Peter Wimsey
Lord Peter Death Bredon Wimsey is a bon vivant amateur sleuth in a series of detective novels and short stories by Dorothy L. Sayers, in which he solves mysteries; usually, but not always, murders...
.
Autobiographical elements
As a child and young teenager, Sayers lived on the southern edge of the FensThe Fens
The Fens, also known as the , are a naturally marshy region in eastern England. Most of the fens were drained several centuries ago, resulting in a flat, damp, low-lying agricultural region....
at Bluntisham-cum-Earith
Bluntisham
Bluntisham is a village in the Huntingdonshire district of Cambridgeshire), England. It is near Earith east of St Ives.The Prime Meridian passes through the western edge of Bluntisham.Also known as Bluntisham-cum-Earith...
, where her father was Rector.
Hilary Thorpe, the resourceful and independent-minded 15-year old daughter of Sir Henry Thorpe - who bravely faces the loss of both parents during the book, and who provided vital help to Wimsey in solving the mystery - is mentioned as intending to study at Oxford and become a writer, just as the author did.
Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
The Nine Tailors was adapted for television as a four-part series in 1973, one of several adaptations of "Lord Peter Wimsey" novels starring Ian CarmichaelIan Carmichael
Ian Gillett Carmichael, OBE was an English film, stage, television and radio actor.-Early life:Carmichael was born in Hull, in the East Riding of Yorkshire. The son of an optician, he was educated at Scarborough College and Bromsgrove School, before training as an actor at RADA...
as Lord Peter. In a significant plot difference, the original theft of the emeralds is introduced by showing a young Lieutenant Wimsey of the Rifle Brigade attending Henry Thorpe's wedding shortly before the War and unsuccessfully pursuing the fleeing Cranton. (In the books, Wimsey did not join the Army until after the outbreak of the War.) Deacon's escape from prison and the murder of the soldier Arthur Cobbleigh (renamed to Watkins) are also shown in the first episode.
Other parts were played by:
- Glyn HoustonGlyn HoustonGlyn Houston , is an actor best known for his television work. He is the brother of the late film actor Donald Houston.-Early life:...
- Bunter - Donald EcclesDonald EcclesDonald Eccles was a British character actor.Born in Nafferton, East Yorkshire, he made his stage debut in New York City in 1930, and later became known as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company...
- The Rev. Theodore Venables, Rector of Fenchurch St. Paul's - Elizabeth BradleyElizabeth BradleyElizabeth Bradley was an English actress, perhaps most famous for playing battle-axe Maud Grimes in the fictional soap Coronation Street....
- Mrs. Venables - Neil McCarthy - Will Thoday
- Elizabeth Proud - Mary Thoday, née Russell, formerly Deacon
- David JacksonDavid Jackson (British actor)David Jackson was a British actor best known for his role as Olag Gan in the Blake's 7 first two seasons and as Detective Constable Braithwaite in Z Cars from 1972-1978...
- Jim Thoday - Kenneth Thornett - Superintendent Blundell
- Gail Harrison - Hilary Thorpe
- Patrick JordanPatrick Jordan-Selected filmography:* Companions in Crime * No Smoking * The Battle of the River Plate * Cloak Without Dagger * The Man Upstairs * The Angry Hills * The League of Gentlemen...
- Cranton - Keith DrinkelKeith DrinkelKeith Drinkel is a British actor, born in York on 14 November 1944. He was educated at St Michael's College, Leeds and is now based in Brighton....
- Deacon
There were brief appearances by Geoffrey Russell
Geoffrey Russell
Geoffrey Russell was a British actor. Russell appeared in a number of films and television dramas, including the 1990 BBC adaptation of The Silver Chair, when he appeared as King Caspian.-External links:**...
(Sir Henry Thorpe), Desmond Llewelyn
Desmond Llewelyn
Desmond Wilkinson Llewelyn was a Welsh actor, famous for playing Q in 17 of the James Bond films between 1963 and 1999.-Early life:...
(Sir Charles Thorpe, father of Sir Henry); Mark Eden
Mark Eden
Mark Eden is a British actor.-Career:Born in London, Eden has appeared in repertory theatre in England and Wales and at the Royal Court Theatre. His many television and film roles include the Doctor Who serial Marco Polo in which he played Marco Polo...
(Detective Chief Inspector Charles Parker
Charles Parker (detective)
Charles Parker is a fictional police detective who appears in several Lord Peter Wimsey stories by Dorothy L. Sayers, and eventually becomes Lord Peter's brother-in-law.He is first introduced in Whose Body? as a Detective Inspector from Scotland Yard...
, Wimsey's brother in law), John Duttine
John Duttine
John Arthur Duttine is an English actor noted for his roles on stage, films and television. He is well known for his role as Sgt George Miller in Heartbeat....
(Wally Pratt, bellringer) and Kenneth Colley
Kenneth Colley
Kenneth Colley is an English actor. A long-time character actor, he came to wider prominence through his role as Admiral Piett in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi....
("Potty" Peake, local resident)
See also
- Change ringingChange ringingChange ringing is the art of ringing a set of tuned bells in a series of mathematical patterns called "changes". It differs from many other forms of campanology in that no attempt is made to produce a conventional melody....
- Ring of bellsRing of bells"Ring of bells" is a term most often applied to a set of bells hung in the English style, typically for change ringing...
- Illegitimacy in fictionIllegitimacy in fictionThis is a list of fictional stories in which illegitimacy features as an important plot element. Passing mentions are omitted from this article. Many of these stories deal with the social pain and exclusion felt by illegitimate "natural children"....