So I was reading this article about a Iranian spy in the British army, which contained this statement:
And its occurred to me that the use of the term a “Walter Mitty”, to describe some how fantasizes about a life that is more exciting than his own, it still pretty widespread, though I don’t know anyone (myself included before researching this post) who could describe The Secret Life of Walter Mitty in any detail at all, let alone have actually read it.
What other example of this are there ? There are plenty of fictional characters that are commonly used as analogies, but they are usually from pretty well known works (Shakespeare, Orwell, etc.). What other examples are there when the work in question has disappeared from the public consciousness, but the character remains ?