Epilepsy in literature

Cumulative catalogue of works of fiction with epilepsy motives

Prof. Dr. Peter Wolf, Bielefeld

Update: March 30, 1999

ABSE, Dannie
"Ash on a Young Man's Sleeve" - 1954, England

AHLIN, Lars
"Här är paradiset" - 1944, Sweden

ALLENDE, Isabel
"De amor y de sombra" - 1984, Chile

ANONYMOUS
"Chin Ping Mei" - 16. century, China

AIKEN, Joan
"The Weeping Ash" - 1980, England

ANDERSEN, Tryggve
"Mot kvæld" - 1900, Norway

ATWOOD, Margaret
"Life Before Man" - 1979, Canada
In: "Bluebeard's Egg and Other Stories" - 1983:
"The Salt Garden"
"The Handmaid's Tale" - 1985
"Cat's Eye" - 1989
"Alias Grace" - 1996

AXELSSON, Majgull
"Aprilhäxan" - 1997, Sweden

BARNES, Julian
"Flaubert's Parrot" - 1984, England

BARNHARDT, Wilton
"Gospel" - 1993, USA

BECKETT, Samuel
OA: "Molloy" - 1950, France/Ireland

BEN JELLOUN, Tahar
"L'enfant de sable" - 1985, France
"La nuit sacrée" - 1987

BERNHARD, Thomas
"Amras" - 1964, Austria
BRAGG, Melvyn
"Credo" - 1996, England

BURNIER, Andreas
"Een tevreden lach" - 1965, Netherlands

CAILLOIS, Roger
"Ponce Pilate" - 1961, France

CAREY, Peter
"Illywhacker" - 1985, Australia

CAVE, Nick
"And the Ass Saw the Angel" - 1989, USA

CHANDLER, Raymond
"The Big Sleep" - 1939, USA

CHRISTIE, Agatha
"The Murder on the Links" - 1923, England
"The ABC Murders" - 1936
"Nemesis" - 1971

COLLINS, Wilkie
"Poor Miss Finch" - 1872, England
"The Dead Secret" - 1861
"Jezebel's Daughter" - 1880

COOKSON, Catherine
"The Gillyvors" - 1990, England

CORNWELL, Patricia
"From Potter's Field" - 1995, USA

CRICHTON, Michael
"The Andromeda Strain" - 1969, USA
"The Terminal Man" - 1972

DA CUNHA, Euclides
"Os Sertões" - 1902, Brasil

DE CRESCENZO, Luciano
"Elena, Elena, amore mio" - 1991, Italy

DALGAS, Ernesto
"Lidelsens vej" - 1898, Denmark
"Dommedags bog" - 1899

DICKENS, Charles
"Oliver Twist" - 1837/38, England

DOBYNS, Stephen
OA: "The Wrestler's Cruel Study" - 1993, USA

DOERMER, Laura
"Vergehendes Blau" - 1996, Germany

D'ORMESSON, Jean
"Histoire du Juif errant" - 1990, France

DOSTOJEWSKIJ, Fjodor Michailowitsch
"Chozjajka" - 1847, Russia
"Unishennye i oskorblennye" - 1861
"Prestuplenie i Nakasanie" - 1866
"Idiot" - 1868/69
"Vechnyj mush. Rasskaz" - 1869
"Besy" - 1871/72
"Bratja Karamazovy" - 1879/80

DREWITZ, Ingeborg
"Eingeschlossen" - 1986, Germany

ELIOT, George (i.e. EVANS, Mary Ann)
"Silas Marner" - 1861, England

EVANS, Margiad
"A Ray of Darkness" - 1952, England

FÄHRMANN, Willi
"Jakob und seine Freunde" - 1993, Germany

FARMER, Penelope
"Snakes and Ladders"- 1993, England

FENNELLY, Tony
"The Closet Hanging" - 1987, USA
"Kiss Yourself Goodbye" - 1989

FERNANDEZ, Dominique
"Tribunal d'honneur" - 1996, France

FICHTE, Hubert
"Das Waisenhaus" - 1965, Germany

FINDLEY, Timothy
"The piano man's daughter" - 1995, Canada

FORD, Richard
"Independence day" - 1995, USA

FRAME, Janet
"Owls do cry" - 1957, New Zealand
"The Edge of the Alphabet" - 1962
"To the Is-Land. Autobiography 1" - 1982
"An Angel at My Table. Autobiography 2" - 1984
"The Envoy from Mirror City. Autobiography 3" - 1984

GIBSON, Margaret
"Opium Dreams" - 1997, Canada

GIDE, André
"Les faux-monnayeurs" - 1925, France

GREENE, Graham
"A Sort of Life" - 1971, England

GRUMBACH, Doris
"Chamber Music" - 1979, USA

GUIMARÃES ROSA, João
"Grande Sertão: Veredas" - 1964, Brazil

GUR, Batya
"Lo Kach Tearti Li" - 1994, Israel

HÄRTLING, Peter
"Das Windrad" - 1983, Germany

HAWTHORNE, Susan
"The Falling Woman" - 1992, Australia

HELLER, Joseph
"Catch - 22" - 1955, USA

HILL, Susan
"A Bit of Singing and Dancing" - 1971, England
(Short story "In the Conservatory")

HOFFMANN, Alice
"White Horses" - 1982, USA

HOWATCH, Susan
"The Rich are Different" - 1978, USA

HUSTVEDT, Siri
"The Blindfold" - 1992, USA

IMMERMANN, Karl
"Die Epigonen" - 1823/35, Germany

JACOBSEN, Jens Peter
"Niels Lyhne" - 1880, Denmark

JAFFE, Rona
"Class Reunion" - 1979, USA
"After the Reunion" - 1985

JAMES, Phyllis Dorothy
"The Children of Men" - 1981, England

JENS, Walter
"Die Verschwörung" (TV play) - 1969, Germany

JONES, Thom
"The Pugilist at Rest. Stories" - 1991, USA
"Cold Snap" - 1995

KADARÉ, Ismail
"Le pont au trois arches" - 1981 (French translation of the Albanian original by Jusuf Vrioni)

KAHANOWITSCH, Pinhas
"Di mischpoche Maschber" - USSR, 1939/48

KARINTHY, Frigyes
"Utazás a koponyám körül" - 1937, Hungary

KESEY, Ken
"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" - 1962, USA

KRISTEVA, Julia
"Possessions" - 1996, France

KRONACHER, Brigitte
"Das Taschentuch" - 1994, Germany

KUBIN, Alfred
"Die andere Seite" - 1909, Austria

KUROSAWA, Akira
"Something Like an Autobiography" - 1982, Japan/USA

LACHAUER, Ulla
"Paradiesstraße. Lebenserinnerungen der ostpreußischen Bäuerin Lena Grigoleit" - 1996, Germany

LENZ, Siegfried
"Deutschstunde" - 1968, Germany

LEVI, Primo
"La tregua" - 1963, Italy

LICHTENBERG, Georg Christoph
"Sudelbücher" - 18. century, Germany

LION, Ferdinand
"Der Golem" (Opera libretto) - 1923, Germany

MAC LAVERTY, Bernard
"Lamb" - 1980, North Ireland

MC MILLAN, Terry
"Disappearing Acts" - 1989, USA

MANN, Thomas
"Buddenbrooks" - 1901, Germany
"Der Zauberberg" - 1924
"Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull" - 1922/36/54

MARON, Monika
"Animal triste" - 1996, Germany

MAURENSIG, Paolo
"Canone inverso" - 1996, Italy

MEYRINK, Gustav
"Der Golem" - 1915, Austria

MORANTE, Elsa
"La storia" - 1974, Italy
"Aracoeli" - 1982

NICHOLS, Peter
"A Day in the Death of Joe Egg" (Play) - 1967, England

NOTHOMB, Amélie
"Péplum" - 1996, Belgium

OE, Kenzaburo
"Shizuka na seikatsu" - 1990, Japan

OLLER, Narcis
"La bogeria" - 1899, Spain (in Catalonian)

ØRUM, Poul
"Lyksalighedens ø" - 1958, Denmark
"Kun sandheden" - 1974

OZ, Amos
"Lada'at ischa" - 1989, Israel

PALMEN, Connie
"De Wetten" - 1991, Netherlands

PARKER, Robert B.
"Perchance to Dream" - 1991, England

PAUL, Jean (i.e. RICHTER, Johann Paul Friedrich, 1763-1825)
"Titan" - 1800/02, Germany

PEAKE, Mervin
"Titus Groan" - 1946, England

PENNAC, Daniel
"Au bonheur des ogres" - 1985, France
"La fée carabine" - 1987
"La petite marchande de prose" - 1989
"Monsieur Malaussène" - 1995

PERCY, Walker
"The Last Gentleman" - 1966, USA
"The second coming" - 1980
"The Thanatos Syndrome" - 1987

PILCHER, Rosamunde
"The Shell Seekers" - 1987, England

POE, Edgar Allan
"Berenice" - 1835, USA
"The Fall of the House of Usher" - 1839
"The Premature Burial" -

POLLAK, Richard
"The Episode" - 1986, USA

PROULX, E. Annie
"Accordion Crimes" - 1996

PUTNEY, Mary Jo
"Dearly Beloved" - 1990, USA

PYNCHON, Thomas
"Low-Lands" - 1960, USA
(In "Slow Learner - Early Stories" - 1984)
"V." - 1961
"The Crying of Lot 49" - 1966
"Gravity's Rainbow" - 1973

QUADFLIEG, Roswitha
"Wer war Christoph Lau?" - 1996, Germany

QUENEAU, Raymond
"Le dimanche de la vie" - 1951, France

RANSMAYR, Christoph
"Die letzte Welt" - 1988, Austria

RESTREPO, Laura
"Dulce compañia" - 1996, Columbia

RICHLER, Mordecai
"The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz" - 1959, Canada

ROTH, Joseph
"Hiob, Roman eines einfachen Mannes" - 1930, Austria

RUSHDIE, Salman
"Midnight's Children" - 1981, England
"The Satanic Verses" - 1988

SADOVEANU, Mihail
"Fratii Jderi" - 1935-1942, Romania

SAND, George
"La mare au diable" - 1845, France

SCHNEBLE, Hansjörg
"Das Eigentor oder die Geschichte vom Peter Guck-in-die-Luft" - 1994, Germany

SCHNEIDER, Robert
"Schlafes Bruder" - 1992, Austria

SCHNURRE, Wolfdietrich
"Als Vaters Bart noch rot war" - 1958, Germany

SCHUMMEL, Johann Gottlieb
"Empfindsame Reisen durch Deutschland" - 1772, Germany

SIMENON, Georges
"Maigret et les témoins récalcitrants" - 1958, France
"Le haut mal" - 1977

SPARK, Muriel
"The Bachelors" - 1960, England

SPIEL, Hilde
"Der Mann mit der Pelerine" - 1985, Austria
(Short story "Das kleine Weh" in this collection)

STADLER, Arnold
"Mein Hund, meine Sau, mein Leben" - 1994, Germany

STEENBEEK, Rosita
"De laatste vrouw" - 1994, Netherlands

STENDHAL (Henri Beyle)
"Le rouge et le noir" - 1830, France

SUE, Eugène
"Les mystères de Paris" - 1842-43, France

TENNYSON, Alfred
"The Princess" - 1847/51, England

THACKERAY, William Makepeace
"Vanity Fair" - 1847/48, England

VARGAS LLOSA, Mario
"La Tia Julia y el Escribidor" - 1977, Peru
"La guerra del fin del mundo" - 1981, Spain

VONNEGUT, Kurt
"Hocus Pocus" - 1990, USA

WALLRAFF, Günter
"Ganz unten" - 1985, Germany

WILDER, Thornton
"The Ides of March" - 1948, USA

WIMSCHNEIDER, Anna
"Herbstmilch" - 1984, Germany

WOLF, Christa
"Medea. Stimmen" - 1996, Germany

WOOD, Barbara
"Green City in the Sun" - 1988, USA

XENOPHON OF EPHESOS
"Ephesiacorum libri V, De amoribus Anthiae et Abrocomae, ed. A.D. Papanikolaou"

ZIMMER BRADLEY, Marion
"The Firebrand" - 1987, USA

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