The Mookse and the Gripes discussion

Forgive the oddball question, but which authors can you think of whose names are used as adjectives (e.g. Orwellian, Kafkaesque, Borgesian)? Every time I run into one of these, I feel compelled to read their writing. Bernhardian is the latest reference, and I hate to admit that I've never read anything by him.

And why are there so few female author adjectives? Or minority? If I do a Google search for Woolfian or Woolfesque, the only definition I find is "related to author Virginia Woolf", which I don't think counts for much as an adjective.

Homeric, Sapphic, and Shakespearean were the first to come to mind.

Aww, Sapphic! I forgot about that one.

Sebaldian

Dickensian

Machiavellian

Austenesque

Pynchonesque

Wellsian (H. G.), mostly in discussions of science fiction, but sometimes in other contexts. (He was a prominent socialist, popular historian, a promoter of World Government, and wrote a great deal of fiction dealing with social issues.)

Byronic

Some of these are used in common parlance and have an obvious meaning e.g. Orwellian and Machiavellian, but I'm less clear on some of the others e.g. Pynchonesque and Sebaldian (even though I've read Austerlitz). I suppose you need to read more than one book by an author to get a sense of their writing.

Hardyesque, Tolstoyan, Dostoyevskyan and Brontëesque all sound vaguely familiar too.

Ovidian

Virgilian, Freudian, Vonnegutesque. I’d also put in Marxist and Draconian, though at this point I’m not sure how well acknowledged it is that the latter is descended from a name.

I find the ways some names become almost separated from the authors’ works when they become adjectivised very interesting - my MA dissertation was partially about what the word ‘Shakespearean’ actually means now in causal usage (rather than in academic contexts which tend to use the word with more precision).

See Draco (lawgiver) in Wikipedia. He promulgated a code of laws for Athens which. was regarded as very harsh. (Drakon in Greek: Various spellings in modern languages.) The adjective is apparently nineteenth century, and refers to his reputation, not directly to the written code, which does not survive.

From the Booker shortlist - Garnish

Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer wrote: "From the Booker shortlist - Garnish"

AKA parsley that only looks like parsley

I think I know what Rabelaisian means without having read anything.

Rabelaisian is new to me. And I had no idea Draco was a person.

Quixotic is another that has a particular meaning.

And godly, if you count the best-selling book of all time. ;-)

Debra wrote: "And godly, if you count the best-selling book of all time. ;-)"

Or Pauline, depending on one's view of authorship.

Relatedly, Thomist.

David wrote: "Debra wrote: "And godly, if you count the best-selling book of all time. ;-)"

Or Pauline, depending on one's view of authorship.

Relatedly, Thomist."

And possibly 30+ other writers

Proustian, Nabokovian, Plathian, Hypatian

Joycean and Jamesian

Lovecraftian and Bellovian

Fulcherian for fans of derivatives.

Faulknerian for a long complex sentence style; Hemingwayesque for rather its opposite.

Sadeian as in The Sadeian Woman: And the Ideology of Pornography. Pinteresque as in pauses! Lawrentian.

WndyJW wrote: "Fulcherian for fans of derivatives."

I think Fulcherian is more a sensible length book. My one (self-)published work is the perfect length for a novel - 120 words.