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Aladdin
in the Arabian Nights a boy who acquires a magic lamp from which he can summon a genie
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Argonaut
(Greek mythology) one of the heroes who sailed with Jason in search of the Golden Fleece
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Babar
an imaginary elephant that appears in a series of French books for children
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Beatrice
the woman who guided Dante through Paradise in the Divine Comedy
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Beowulf
the legendary hero of an anonymous Old English epic poem composed in the early 8th century; he slays a monster and becomes king but dies fighting a dragon
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Bluebeard
(fairytale) a monstrous villain who marries seven women; he kills the first six for disobedience
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James Bond
British secret operative 007 in novels by Ian Fleming
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Brer Rabbit
the fictional character of a rabbit who appeared in tales supposedly told by Uncle Remus and first published in 1880
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Paul Bunyan
a legendary giant lumberjack of the north woods of the United States and Canada
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John Henry
hero of American folk tales; portrayed as an enormously strong black man who worked on the railroads and died from exhaustion after winning a contest with a steam drill
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Cheshire cat
a fictional cat with a broad fixed smile on its face; created by Lewis Carroll
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Chicken Little
a fictional character who was hit on the head with an acorn and believed that the sky was falling
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Cinderella
a fictional young girl who is saved from her stepmother and stepsisters by her fairy godmother and a handsome prince
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Colonel Blimp
a pompous reactionary cartoon character created by Sir David Low
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Dracula
fictional vampire in a gothic horror novel by Bram Stoker
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Don Quixote
the hero of a romance by Cervantes; chivalrous but impractical
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El Cid
the hero of a Spanish epic poem from the 12th century
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Fagin
a villain in a novel by Charles Dickens
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Sir John Falstaff
a dissolute character in Shakespeare's plays
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Father Brown
a Catholic priest who was the hero of detective stories by G. K. Chesterton
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Faustus
an alchemist of German legend who sold his soul to Mephistopheles in exchange for knowledge
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Frankenstein
the fictional Swiss scientist who was the protagonist in a gothic novel by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley; he created a monster from parts of corpses
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Frankenstein's monster
the monster created by Frankenstein in a gothic novel by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (the creator's name is commonly used to refer to his creation)
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Goofy
a cartoon character created by Walt Disney
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Gulliver
a fictional Englishman who travels to the imaginary land of Lilliput in a satirical novel by Jonathan Swift
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Hamlet
the hero of William Shakespeare's tragedy who hoped to avenge the murder of his father
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Captain Horatio Hornblower
a fictional English admiral during the Napoleonic Wars in novels written by C. S. Forester
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Iago
the villain in William Shakespeare's tragedy who tricked Othello into murdering his wife
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Commissaire Maigret
a fictional detective in novels by Georges Simenon
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Kilroy
a nonexistent person popularized by American servicemen during World War II
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King Lear
the hero of William Shakespeare's tragedy who was betrayed and mistreated by two of his scheming daughters
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Lilliputian
a 6-inch tall inhabitant of Lilliput in a novel by Jonathan Swift
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Philip Marlowe
tough cynical detective (one of the early detective heroes in American fiction) created by Raymond Chandler
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Wilkins Micawber
fictional character created by Charles Dickens; an eternal optimist
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Mother Goose
the imaginary author of a collection of nursery rhymes
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Mr. Moto
Japanese sleuth created by John Marquand
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Othello
the hero of William Shakespeare's tragedy who would not trust his wife
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Pangloss
an incurable optimist in a satire by Voltaire
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Pantaloon
a character in the commedia dell'arte; portrayed as a foolish old man
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Perry Mason
fictional detective in novels by Erle Stanley Gardner
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Peter Pan
the main character in a play and novel by J. M. Barrie; a boy who won't grow up
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Pied Piper of Hamelin
the title character in a German folk tale and in a poem by Robert Browning
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Pierrot
a male character in French pantomime; usually dressed in white with a whitened face
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Pluto
a cartoon character created by Walt Disney
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Huckleberry Finn
a mischievous boy in a novel by Mark Twain
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Rip van Winkle
the title character in a story by Washington Irving about a man who sleeps for 20 years and doesn't recognize the world when he wakens
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Ruritanian
an imaginary inhabitant of Ruritania
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Tarzan of the Apes
a man raised by apes who was the hero of a series of novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs
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Tom Sawyer
the boy hero of a novel by Mark Twain
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Uncle Remus
the fictional storyteller of tales written in the Black Vernacular and set in the South; the tales were first collected and published in book form in 1880
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Uncle Tom
a servile black character in a novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe
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Uncle Sam
a personification of the United States government
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Sherlock Holmes
a fictitious detective in stories by A. Conan Doyle
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Simon Legree
the cruel slave dealer in an anti-slavery novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe
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Sinbad the Sailor
in the Arabian Nights a hero who tells of the fantastic adventures he had in his voyages
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Snoopy
a fictional beagle in a comic strip drawn by Charles Schulz
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Ali Baba
the fictional woodcutter who discovered that `open sesame' opened a cave in the Arabian Nights' Entertainment
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Emile
the boy whose upbringing was described by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
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protagonist
the principal character in a work of fiction
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Houyhnhnm
one of a race of intelligent horses who ruled the Yahoos in a novel by Jonathan Swift
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Little John
legendary follower of Robin Hood; noted for his size and strength
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Little Red Riding Hood
a girl in a fairy tale who meets a wolf while going to visit her grandmother
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Rodya Raskolnikov
a fictional character in Dostoevsky's novel `Crime and Punishment'; he kills old women because he believes he is beyond the bounds of good or evil
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Robin Hood
legendary English outlaw of the 12th century; said to have robbed the rich to help the poor
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Robinson Crusoe
the hero of Daniel Defoe's novel about a shipwrecked English sailor who survives on a small tropical island
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Rumpelstiltskin
a dwarf in one of the fairy stories of the brothers Grimm; tells a woman he will not hold her to a promise if she can guess his name and when she discovers it he is so furious that he destroys himself
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Shylock
a merciless usurer in a play by Shakespeare
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Tristram
(Middle Ages) the nephew of the king of Cornwall who (according to legend) fell in love with his uncle's bride (Iseult) after they mistakenly drank a love potion that left them eternally in love with each other
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Iseult
(Middle Ages) the bride of the king of Cornwall who (according to legend) fell in love with the king's nephew (Tristan) after they mistakenly drank a love potion that left them eternally in love with each other
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Scaramouche
a stock character in commedia dell'arte depicted as a boastful coward
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Svengali
the musician in a novel by George du Maurier who controls Trilby's singing hypnotically
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Sweeney Todd
fictional character in a play by George Pitt; a barber who murdered his customers
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Trilby
singer in a novel by George du Maurier who was under the control of the hypnotist Svengali
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Walter Mitty
fictional character created by James Thurber who daydreams about his adventures and triumphs
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Yahoo
one of a race of brutes resembling men but subject to the Houyhnhnms in a novel by Jonathan Swift
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King Arthur
a legendary king of the Britons (possibly based on a historical figure in the 6th century but the story has been retold too many times to be sure); said to have led the Knights of the Round Table at Camelot
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Sir Galahad
(Arthurian legend) the most virtuous knight of the Round Table; was able to see the Holy Grail
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Sir Gawain
(Arthurian legend) a nephew of Arthur and one of the knights of the Round Table
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Guenevere
(Arthurian legend) wife of King Arthur; in some versions of the legend she became Lancelot's lover and that led to the end of the Knights of the Round Table
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Sir Lancelot
(Arthurian legend) one of the knights of the Round Table; friend of King Arthur until (according to some versions of the legend) he became the lover of Arthur's wife Guinevere
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Merlin
(Arthurian legend) the magician who acted as King Arthur's advisor
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antagonist
the main character who opposes the protagonist in a narrative or play