Buzz
Throughout history, some of the most memorable literary characters, such as Dr. Frankenstein, Quasimodo, and Winnie the Pooh, have captured our imaginations. Whether we adored English class or not, we all encountered their stories. Writers often draw inspiration from real individuals, and many famous literary figures were based on actual people who closely mirrored those described in these timeless tales.
10. Deacon William Brodie - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
The character of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in Robert Louis Stevenson's novella is rooted in a chilling real-life figure. The story, famous for its portrayal of a man struggling with his darker side, was inspired by the life of Deacon William Brodie, a respected figure who secretly lived a double life that was as shocking as the one Stevenson created in his fiction.
Deacon William Brodie was born in Scotland in 1745 into a large family of 11 children, all descending from an ancient lineage. His father, a respected cabinetmaker and an influential figure in city politics, was known for his high moral standing. Brodie, who was described as having a youthful appearance, pale complexion, dark eyes, and a distinctive walking style, grew up under his father’s example.
In his thirties, Brodie found himself drawn to the darker side of life after attending a performance of The Beggar’s Opera. The play fascinated him, especially the theme of a world where everything, even ideals, could be bought for a price and where prison loomed as a constant threat. Though he became increasingly enamored with this world, he still adhered to his father's wishes by day, taking over his father’s cabinetmaking business and becoming Deacon of the Wrights, a position that earned him respect and a role in Edinburgh's local governance.
As a cabinetmaker, Brodie gained access to the homes of Edinburgh’s wealthiest and most influential figures. He soon began to steal from them, making wax imprints of their keys, which enabled him to break in and rob them with his newly formed gang. He used the stolen wealth to fund his secret life, balancing his role as a respected official with his nighttime exploits as a gambler. He also fathered at least two children with mistresses. In 1788, Brodie and his partner in crime, George Smith, were tried, convicted, and executed. Brodie’s attempt to use a steel collar to survive the hanging failed.
In a curious twist of fate, some of the furniture in Robert Louis Stevenson’s childhood home was crafted by Brodie. Intrigued by Brodie's double life, Stevenson went on to write a play titled Deacon Brodie before creating his iconic novella Jekyll and Hyde.
9. Thomas-Alexandre de la Pailleterie, The Count Of Monte Cristo
What do the characters in The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers share, besides their creator? They were all inspired by a single man—Thomas-Alexandre de la Pailleterie, a Haitian-born son of a French nobleman and an enslaved woman. In 1775, his father, seeking to reclaim his family’s lands in France, sold his son into slavery to finance the trip. After settling in France, the elder de la Pailleterie brought the young boy over. As he grew older, Thomas-Alexandre decided to join Napoleon’s army, but had to abandon his noble title and instead took his mother's surname, becoming known as Alexandre Dumas.
The incredible life of Thomas-Alexandre de la Pailleterie was nothing short of legendary, making it no surprise that his son, Alexandre Dumas, would use his memory as inspiration for some of literature’s most enduring heroes. Dumas, Sr. was a master swordsman and horseman, gaining recognition for fighting on behalf of the oppressed in post-revolutionary France. His greatest triumph came when he led a small force to successfully defend Paris against an Austrian invasion. Despite being offered 5,000 men, he chose only 20 and together they repelled 1,000 invading soldiers. He later met his future wife during a battle where he defended her from brigands, and at the peak of his military career, he commanded 53,000 soldiers.
Tragically, his fate took a cruel turn while he was serving with Napoleon in Egypt. Mistaken for his superior officer, he was left behind in an enemy prison. By the time he returned to France, slavery had been reinstated, and orders were issued to execute any black officer in uniform. Dumas passed away from stomach cancer at the age of 43, leaving behind his young son, just four years old. When Alexandre Dumas, the future author of The Count of Monte Cristo, learned of his father’s death, he vowed to confront God in heaven and demand his father’s return. Though his lofty ambition never came to pass, the immortal tale inspired by his father’s tragic end in prison remains a lasting tribute.
8. Winnipeg The Bear, Winnie The Pooh
The beloved character Winnie the Pooh, the honey-loving, forgetful bear from children’s literature, was actually based on a real bear. Her name was Winnipeg, and her story is a rather tragic one.
The tale begins with an Englishman who made the journey to Canada in 1905. Captain Harry Colebourn, a graduate of veterinary science from the Ontario Veterinary College, was tasked with overseeing the army’s horses when he joined the Canadian Army Veterinary Corps during World War I. As they were heading to the port to ship out, he encountered a hunter who, for reasons unknown, had rescued a young bear cub after killing her mother.
Captain Colebourn purchased the bear cub, naming her Winnipeg, and took her along as he traveled overseas. Winnipeg, or Winnie as she came to be called, sailed on the troop ship to England, where she quickly became a favorite among the soldiers. When it was time for the men to be deployed into combat, Colebourn, not wanting to endanger Winnie’s life, entrusted her to the London Zoo. Initially a temporary arrangement, her popularity with the public led Colebourn to grant the zoo permanent custody of her after the war.
Winnie became a beloved figure at the zoo, allowing children to ride on her back and feed her by hand. Among her regular visitors were A.A. Milne and his son, Christopher Robin. Christopher, taken with the bear, renamed his own teddy bear ‘Winnie’ in her honor.
Winnie the Pooh was first published in 1926. Tragically, the real bear behind the character, Winnie, was euthanized in 1934 after suffering a stroke that left her partially paralyzed.
7. Cushman Albert Rice And Max Gerlach, The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald himself may have been somewhat vague when discussing the inspiration for Jay Gatsby, but his wife, Zelda Fitzgerald, was more direct. Before her death in 1948, she identified a man named Max Gerlach as the real-life model for one of Fitzgerald’s most captivating characters.
Gerlach was a family friend, as confirmed by letters, notes, and even handwritten messages on family photos. He was a complex individual, and while some of Gatsby’s characteristics, such as his deep love for a woman, were clearly drawn from Fitzgerald’s own life, much of Gatsby’s backstory was inspired by Gerlach. Even Gatsby’s signature phrase, “Old Sport,” can be found in several letters Gerlach wrote to Fitzgerald.
Gerlach was a well-known bootlegger, and some sources suggest that he may have been the one who provided Fitzgerald with alcohol during Prohibition. Known for his lavish lifestyle and extravagant parties, Gerlach’s wealth ultimately couldn’t sustain his way of life. In 1939, while visiting a girlfriend and reading the newspaper, he was overwhelmed by his mounting debts and the collapse of his legitimate car business. In a moment of despair, he shot himself in the head. Although he survived, he was left blind, and he would die alone in 1958.
Another possible inspiration for Gatsby is the man who gave Gerlach a reference when he enlisted in the army. Cushman Albert Rice was a larger-than-life figure, a renowned big-game hunter and war hero who always kept his military medals close by as he traveled the world, throwing parties that would have made Gatsby himself proud.
6. Delphine Delamare And Louise Pradler, Madame Bovary
While Gustave Flaubert has always denied any connection between Delphine Delamare and his infamous character Madame Bovary, many scholars argue that the parallels are too striking to be mere coincidence. The fictional Madame Bovary was a pampered daughter of a French farmer, dissatisfied with her dull country existence with her simple doctor husband. She engaged in a series of affairs and, unable to cope with the ensuing despair, ultimately took her own life with arsenic.
In a tale that mirrors the plot of Flaubert's novel, Delphine Delamare was dissatisfied with her life, married to a somewhat inadequate village doctor. Though she was often described as dowdy, she had a string of lovers before ultimately taking her own life. It is believed that Flaubert’s family knew Delamare and her husband, even lending them money at one point, which may explain his reluctance to acknowledge her as one of the inspirations for Madame Bovary.
Another significant influence on Flaubert’s creation of Madame Bovary’s passionate character was one of his own lovers, Louise Pradler. Trapped in an unloving marriage, Pradler had married merely to escape her father. She led a life of empty luxury in Paris, hosting a revolving door of poets, writers, and artists, until she crossed paths with Flaubert. He was captivated by her, a woman who seemingly had everything anyone could desire, yet remained profoundly unhappy. Eventually, her husband grew weary of her and expelled her. Flaubert was able to gain insight into her life through a biographical manuscript she had started but never completed.
5. Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
There’s ongoing debate about how much of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is based on the real person of the same name, but during his time in San Francisco, Mark Twain was known to frequent establishments where he could often be found drinking and playing cards with a young man named Tom Sawyer.
Sawyer was born in Brooklyn and started his career as a firefighter. Twain and he became fast friends after discovering they both had a shared profession and a love for riverboats. Sawyer worked as a fire engineer aboard the steamboat Independence, which ran aground during its regular route between San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, Acapulco, and finally San Francisco. As the steamboat began to sink and catch fire, Sawyer became responsible for saving 90 lives, carrying passengers—men, women, and children—on his back while swimming between the doomed vessel and the shore. Once lifeboats were lowered into the water, Sawyer used them to ferry people to safety.
Sawyer eventually ended up in San Francisco, where he worked as a customs inspector while also volunteering with local fire departments. It was there that he crossed paths with Twain during a two-month hiatus, a visit that eventually led to him staying in the city for three years.
4. Alexander Selkirk, Robinson Crusoe
Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe is often regarded as one of the earliest masterpieces of British literature. The inspiration behind the character came from a real person, Alexander Selcraig, a Scottish man born in the late 1600s. Known for his rebellious nature, Selcraig was described as a hotheaded, arrogant young man quick to anger. One of the final incidents leading to his life at sea involved a violent altercation with his two brothers, father, and stepmother.
Selcraig soon concluded that life on the sea offered a better future than anything on land. However, his cruel and arrogant demeanor didn’t help him in the cramped quarters of a ship. After enduring a miserable year of piracy, scurvy, starvation, dysentery, and cholera, Selcraig—who had changed his name to Selkirk upon leaving Britain—had a clash with the captain. The ship, infested with worms, had to be grounded on an island so that the crew could make necessary repairs. After the repairs were completed, the ship was ready to set sail again, but Selkirk got into a disagreement with the captain. The captain, deciding to make an example of Selkirk, ordered him off the ship and left him stranded on the island with just a handful of survival supplies. Despite his pleas to be taken back, Selkirk was abandoned, left standing in the sea as the ship sailed away.
For four years and four months, Selkirk survived by consuming fish, crabs, and goats. He even made friends with some wild cats, who helped keep the rats away from his makeshift shelter. He carefully avoided Spanish ships and crews that landed on the island, all of whom would have enslaved him, and during his isolation, he also found solace in prayer.
Although Selkirk's extraordinary story could have been dismissed as a fabrication, the ship that finally rescued him was captained by William Dampier, one of the men who had originally abandoned him. Dampier’s crew took Selkirk aboard and after a journey that lasted eight years, they returned him to England. Selkirk recounted his story to the biographer Woodes Rogers, whose account turned Selkirk into something of a local legend. Though it’s unclear if Daniel Defoe, the political activist of the time, ever met Selkirk, it is documented that Defoe had several discussions with Rogers.
Robinson Crusoe was published in 1719 while Selkirk was still alive. In 1720, Selkirk, now increasingly withdrawn from society, signed up to return to the sea on the HMS Weymouth. He died on December 13, 1721, with little more than a brief mention in the ship's log.
3. Giovanni Aldini and George Foster: Dr. Frankenstein and His Monster
Giovanni Aldini, the Italian physicist who inspired Dr. Frankenstein, believed he could resurrect the dead using electricity. Aldini initially experimented on animals, following in the footsteps of his uncle, Luigi Galvani, who was known for making frogs' legs twitch with electrical currents. Aldini went even further by publicly applying these experiments to dead animals, including cows, sheep, and pigs, demonstrating seemingly successful results.
In Italy, Aldini's public demonstrations were a unique form of entertainment. He was certain that he could bring a human back to life, but he needed a complete corpse to prove it. Unfortunately, criminals in Italy were executed by beheading, and Aldini couldn’t work with a headless body. As a result, he turned to England, where criminals were hanged, providing him with the opportunity he sought.
When George Foster was executed for the murder of his wife and children, Aldini obtained the body and attempted to reanimate it at the Royal College of Surgeons. Despite making the body twitch and convulse, it remained lifeless. Aldini blamed the failure on the battery of his device, which had run out of power during the experiment.
Aldini’s experiment became a sensation in London, and one of the people who witnessed it was Dr. Anthony Carlisle. Afterward, Carlisle attended a social gathering at the home of William Godwin, where the gruesome tale of the twitching dead body was discussed. Among those present were Godwin’s wife, Jane Clairmont, and his daughter from his first marriage, Mary Wollstonecraft. This young woman, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, would later become known as Mary Shelley, the author of *Frankenstein*.
2. Simon MagnusFaust
Faust tells the tale of a man who strikes a bargain with the devil, exchanging his soul for worldly wealth during his lifetime. Goethe’s interpretation of this story is often seen as heavily influenced by Gnostic thought. It emphasizes achieving transcendence through intuition, while all earthly existence is marked by suffering, which serves merely as a stepping stone. Moreover, it suggests that this suffering is not humanity’s fault, but rather the fault of the creator of humanity.
In Gnostic mythology, there is a figure named Simon Magnus, or Simon the Sorcerer. He is sometimes called Simon Faustus, derived from the Latin *favustus*, meaning 'the favored one.' In *The Book of Acts*, Simon attempts to purchase divine power from the apostles John and Peter. Simon is said to possess the ability to fly, transform base metals into gold, and manipulate objects with telekinesis. When Peter refuses his offer and rebukes him for seeking power selfishly, Simon challenges the apostle to a duel, which reveals him as a charlatan. Within the church, he was regarded as a fraud and a heretic, sometimes even linked to the Antichrist. He embodies the ideal character to sell his soul to the devil.
In Goethe’s rendition, Faust is seen alongside a woman whom he believes to be the reincarnation of Helen of Troy. Similarly, Simon Magnus is often accompanied by a woman, sometimes called Sophia, other times referred to as Helena.
1. The StonemasonsQuasimodo And Jean Valjean
The origins of two of Victor Hugo’s most iconic characters, Quasimodo from *The Hunchback of Notre-Dame* and Jean Valjean from *Les Misérables*, have been traced back through some remarkable detective work.
In 1999, a journal was discovered in the attic of a house in Cornwall. This journal, written by Henry Sibson, a British sculptor working at Notre Dame cathedral during the same time that Hugo was penning his famous novels, provided valuable insights. Victor Hugo was deeply interested in architecture and strongly opposed the restoration work happening at the cathedral. He championed the preservation of its Gothic features, believing the renovations were stripping away the cathedral's original beauty and replacing it with a more neoclassical style.
Sibson was among a group of sculptors and stonemasons tasked with restoring the cathedral. In his writings, he describes a man involved in the project as a “hunchback sculptor,” noting his solitary, introverted nature and his aversion to socializing with the other workers. He also frequently mentions a man named Trajan, whom he describes as a kind and affable father figure.
In an earlier draft of *Les Miserables*, the protagonist was named Jean Trejean. The journals mention both the names Trajin and Trajan, and it is noted that he resided in Saint Germain-des-Prés, the same neighborhood where Hugo lived at that time.
