# Literary Works Instantly Identifiable By A Single Image **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 25, 2007, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-works-instantly-identifiable-by-a-single-image/393595 "2007-02-25T08:54:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sir\_Rhosis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-works-instantly-identifiable-by-a-single-image/393595/1 "2007-02-25T08:54:19Z")
If we (well, intelligent Dopers and readers) see a picture depicting an intense young man staring at a skull he is holding in his hand we instantly know the illustration is of good ol’ Hamlet. No questions asked. What are some others? Not talking about iconic images from films, etc. Just pictures (paintings, drawings) of literary characters/scenes from the work. Also not looking for the obvious, i. e. a guy who looks like Ted Nugent hanging on a cross, etc. Sir Rhosis ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-works-instantly-identifiable-by-a-single-image/393595/2 "2007-02-25T09:04:33Z")
Huck and Jim drifting down the Mississippi on a raft. Maybe the wine in the street scene from A Tale of Two Cities. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Rhosis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-works-instantly-identifiable-by-a-single-image/393595/3 "2007-02-25T09:08:14Z")
Hate to say that I don’t remember the wine scene. I’d guess “Tale” if I saw a picture of a handsome noble man standing by a guillotine, but that’s just me. Any man at a guillotine evokes Sidney Carton. Sir Rhosis ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-works-instantly-identifiable-by-a-single-image/393595/4 "2007-02-25T09:10:20Z")
I think many would catch the referance in a picture of an empty small pet cage, and flowers to Daniel Keyes’ “Flowers for Algernon”. Ten Indian figurines with a hand stealthily removing one would suggest “And Then There Were None” by Agatha Christie. A bee flying at sunset, with a viking hall in the background and a monstrous figure skulking towards it would suggest “Beowulf: A New Telling” by Robert Nye to me. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-works-instantly-identifiable-by-a-single-image/393595/5 "2007-02-25T09:20:33Z")
[QUOTE=Tangent] Huck and Jim drifting down the Mississippi on a raft. [/QUOTE] That’s the one I came in to mention. Similarly, I think a picture of Tom Sawyer getting the other boys to whitewash that fence would be instantly recognizable. A scruffy, bearded man in ragged clothes with a spyglass and a deferential “native” would instantly bring to mind Robinson Crusoe. A picture from just about any scene of “Alice in Wonderland” would do; ditto “The Wizard of Oz” and many other children’s/fantasy books. A man in 18th century British dress on his back being tied down by tiny creatures? “Gulliver’s Travels.” Or are these too obvious ones of the sort you said in the OP you didn’t want? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![enigm4tic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@enigm4tic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enigm4tic)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-works-instantly-identifiable-by-a-single-image/393595/6 "2007-02-25T09:42:17Z")
Juliet on the balcony talking to Romeo comes to mind, since you mentioned Shakespeare. ---
**Author:** ![Sevastopol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cdc98d/32.png) [@Sevastopol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevastopol)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-works-instantly-identifiable-by-a-single-image/393595/7 "2007-02-25T09:50:37Z")
A hunchback in a French Cathedral with a single tear welling would ring a bell. A madeleine partly just touched in a cafe beside a diary should stir some remembrances. A great, fat man in elizabethan dress could be none other. A philosopher-alchemist in discourse with a demon indicates a unique bargain taking place. A sleepwalking woman who will not stop her handwashing motions speaks of a sad end. A handful of dust. A damsel with a dulcimer. A knight in armour alone and pale’ly loitering. A woman’s derriere extended out an ill lit window. A gallant swordsman with a prominent nose. A painting in an attic showing the decay of a handsome young man. A prism monolith. ---
**Author:** ![Sevastopol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cdc98d/32.png) [@Sevastopol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevastopol)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-works-instantly-identifiable-by-a-single-image/393595/8 "2007-02-25T09:58:04Z")
A blind young man in the dress of ancient greeks, blood streaming from his eye-sockets. A blind old man in ancient dress, blood streaming from his eye sockets. ---
**Author:** ![JoeSki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b487fb/32.png) [@JoeSki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoeSki)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-works-instantly-identifiable-by-a-single-image/393595/9 "2007-02-25T10:07:44Z")
A large blob of a man sitting by a lake off a dirt road with a short well defined man on a beautiful day. ---
**Author:** ![JoeSki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b487fb/32.png) [@JoeSki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoeSki)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-works-instantly-identifiable-by-a-single-image/393595/10 "2007-02-25T10:11:39Z")
A red convertible with the white top down flying sporadically across a desert road with the sun blazing and the sky filled with thousands of terrible bats. Oh yeah 🆒 . ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-works-instantly-identifiable-by-a-single-image/393595/11 "2007-02-25T12:04:56Z")
A sword being pulled from a stone. An old man on horseback with lance and armor, charging at a windmill. ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-works-instantly-identifiable-by-a-single-image/393595/12 "2007-02-25T12:12:02Z")
Since you didn’t specify an age limit on the literary work… (that is, it could be from last week, too, not necessarily an established classic): A young bespectacled man with unruly hair and a scar on his forehead, wielding a wand. It remains to be seen if this answer will still make sense to a (purported) reader of this response 20, 50, 100 years down the road, of course… ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Prize](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d2c977/32.png) [@Sir\_Prize](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Prize)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-works-instantly-identifiable-by-a-single-image/393595/13 "2007-02-25T15:13:46Z")
A big wooden horse. Men in a boat aiming a harpoon at a white whale. An old businessman looking at a robed figure whose skeletal hand is pointing. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-works-instantly-identifiable-by-a-single-image/393595/14 "2007-02-25T16:39:13Z")
Aliens that look like Satan. The hologram of a small bald man in a wheelchair. A woman riding a giant dragon, battling falling threads. A giant ring in space. A V2 Rocket A 19th Century gentleman in a deerstalker hat. A man in a loincloth, swinging through the jungle. An old woman wearing a wedding dress, with the remnants of a wedding cake covered with spider webs. ---
**Author:** ![Talon\_Karrde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Talon\_Karrde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Talon_Karrde)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-works-instantly-identifiable-by-a-single-image/393595/15 "2007-02-25T17:05:50Z")
A demon hunched over a desk, writing a letter. A filthy bedroom with a gigantic cockroach-like creature climbing on the wall. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-works-instantly-identifiable-by-a-single-image/393595/16 "2007-02-25T17:17:32Z")
A hobbit holding a ring. A man with a deerstalker hat hailing a hansom cab. ---
**Author:** ![JustAnotherGeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/58f4c7/32.png) [@JustAnotherGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustAnotherGeek)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-works-instantly-identifiable-by-a-single-image/393595/17 "2007-02-25T17:20:27Z")
a black 1 x 4 x 9 monolith: …with apes touching it …floating in space near Jupiter …with three beings inside of it …, one out of many, blocking the light from two suns. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-works-instantly-identifiable-by-a-single-image/393595/18 "2007-02-25T17:53:46Z")
A big-nosed fellow in the bushes feeding lines to his buddy trying to woo the girl in the balcony. I didn’t even read the book (or was it a play?), but for some reason it’s the first thing that came to mind. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/41988e/32.png) [@El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Cid_Viscoso)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-works-instantly-identifiable-by-a-single-image/393595/19 "2007-02-25T17:54:27Z")
**A** [sub].[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-works-instantly-identifiable-by-a-single-image/393595/20 "2007-02-25T18:08:16Z")
[QUOTE=El Cid Viscoso] **A** [sub].[/sub] [/QUOTE] Man, that is too cool! My image is one I may have seen somebody’s sketch of, but maybe not. It’s a stone torso in the desert. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/literary-works-instantly-identifiable-by-a-single-image/393595.md?page=2)