Editing Imaginary book

{{short description|Book that only exists within a work of fiction}}
{{distinguish|Book of fiction}}
{{Missing information|functions, sub-types, and most prominent examples of fictional books|date=March 2025}}
An '''imaginary book''' or '''fictional book'''<ref name=Fitzsimmons>Fitzsimmons, Phillip, "Books Within Books in Fantasy and Science Fiction: 'You are the Dreamer and the Dream'" (2022). ''Faculty Books & Book Chapters''. 3.</ref> is a [[book]] which "traditionally exist only within secondary worlds" of works of fiction, where it can fullfill various functions<ref>Sezen, Tonguc. "Books Bleeding out of the Screen: Engaging with Imaginary Books on Screen Through Replicas." ''Participations'' 19.3 (2023).</ref> and may "act as keystones to the structure of both the stories and the worlds in which they appear."<ref name=Fitzsimmons/>

<!-- THIS SECTION NEEDS VERIFICATION AND CLEAN-UP: A fictional book may be created to add realism or depth to a larger work of fiction. For example, [[George Orwell]]'s novel  ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]'' has excerpts from a book by [[Emmanuel Goldstein]] entitled ''[[The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism]]'' which provides background on concepts explored in the novel (both the named author [Goldstein] and the text on collectivism are made up by Orwell).

A fictional book may provide the basis of the [[Plot (narrative)|plot]] of a story, a common thread in a series of books or other works, or the works of a particular writer or canon of work. An example of a fictional book that is part of the plot of another work (in addition to ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'') is [[Philip K. Dick]]'s ''[[The Man in the High Castle]]'', in which resistance members circulate a banned book entitled ''The Grasshopper Lies Heavy''. An example of a fictional book linking a series is ''[[Encyclopedia Galactica]]'', an imaginary set of encyclopedias created by [[Isaac Asimov]] and referred to in the novels in his [[Foundation Series]]. An example of an author referring to a fictional book in a number of unconnected works is [[Jack Vance]]'s quotes from an imaginary twelve-volume opus entitled ''Life'' by Unspiek, [[Baron Bodissey]] in Vance's novels (Bodissey is a fictional character created by Vance). -->

==List of notable imaginary books==
<!-- Masked entries need to be checked for relevance and then referenced or removed. -->
*The ''[[Necronomicon]]'' in [[H. P. Lovecraft]]'s books serves as a repository of recondite and evil knowledge in many of his works and the work of others. Despite the evident tongue-in-cheek origin of the book, supposedly written by the "Mad Arab [[Abdul Alhazred|Abdul al-Hazred]]", who was supposed to have died by being torn apart by an invisible being in an Arab marketplace in broad daylight, many have been led to believe that the book is real.<ref>Laycock, Joseph P. "How the Necronomicon Became Real: The Ecology of a Legend." In ''The Paranormal and Popular Culture'', 1st ed., 184–97. Routledge, 2019.</ref>
<!-- *[[William Goldman]]'s ''[[The Princess Bride (novel)|The Princess Bride]]'' is presented as an abridgment of ''The Princess Bride'' by "S. Morgenstern". -->
*''The Grasshopper Lies Heavy'' is a mysterious and forbidden book important to the story of [[Philip K. Dick]]'s ''[[The Man in the High Castle]]'', written by the title character (Hawthorne Abendsen). Dick's book describes an [[alternate history (fiction)|alternate history]] where the [[Axis Powers]] were victorious in [[World War II]] and the [[United States]] has been divided between [[Japan]] and [[Nazi Germany]]. The book-within-a-book is an alternate history itself, depicting a world in which the Allies won the war but which is nonetheless different from our own world in several important respects. Towards the end of the story, Abendsen admits to writing ''The Grasshopper Lies Heavy'' under the direction of the ''[[I Ching]]'' (which influenced ''The Man in the High Castle'' as well).<ref>Thrall, James H. "Shifting Histories, Blurred Borders, and Mediated Sacred Texts in Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle." ''Literature & Theology'' 32, no. 2 (2018): 211–25.</ref>
<!-- *All of the stories in [[Robert W. Chambers]]' 1895 collection ''[[The King in Yellow]]'' feature a fictional play of the same name, which drives all readers mad and/or shows them another reality. Very little of the play is transcribed in the stories, although it is shown to be set in the kingdom of [[Carcosa]], created by [[Ambrose Bierce]].
*[[Guillaume Apollinaire]]'s short fiction "L'Hérésiarque" ("The Heresiarch" or "The Heretic") describes two heretical Christian gospels written by the [[Excommunication|excommunicated]] [[Roman Catholic Church|Catholic]] [[Cardinal (Catholicism)|cardinal]] Benedetto Orfei. Orfei's [[heresy]] is that the three figures of the [[Trinity]]—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—were incarnate in [[Jesus]]' time, and were crucified alongside him. Orfei's first work is ''The True Gospel,'' describing the human life of God the Father, an embodiment of virtue about whom little is known. Orfei's second work describes the human life of God the Holy Spirit; the title of this work is not mentioned, but is referred to only as his 'second gospel'. In this 'gospel,' the Holy Spirit is a thief who willfully indulges in all manner of vice, including violating a sleeping virgin who then gives birth to Jesus Christ, or God the Son. Later, both the Holy Spirit and the Father are arrested as thieves and crucified, the latter unjustly. Orfei's heresy is intended to illustrate man's contradictory but coexistent aspects of [[sin]]ner and [[martyr]]. -->
*Fictional books and authors figure prominently in several short stories by the Argentine author [[Jorge Luis Borges]]. A few of Borges's fictional creations include ''[[The Book of Sand]]'',<ref>Bloch, W. L. G. "The Unimagined: Catalogues and ''The Book of Sand'' in the 'Library of Babel.'" ''Variaciones Borges.'' Jorge Luis Borges Center for Studies & Documentation 19, no. 19 (2005): 23–40.</ref> [[An Examination of the Work of Herbert Quain|Herbert Quain]] (author of ''April March,'' ''The Secret Mirror,'' etc.), Ts'ui Pen (author of ''[[The Garden of Forking Paths]]''), Mir Bahadur Ali (author of ''[[The Approach to Al-Mu'tasim]]''), as well as the imaginary ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'' of the story "[[Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius]]". In "[[Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote|Pierre Menard, Author of the ''Quixote'']]", a fictional poet named Pierre Menard attempts to recreate ''[[Don Quixote]]'' exactly as [[Miguel de Cervantes]] wrote it.
* [[Anthony Powell]] included over thirty fictional books in ''[[A Dance to the Music of Time]]'', among them ''Fields of Amaranth'', ''Match Me Such Marvel'', ''Dust Thou Art'', ''The Heart is Highland'', ''Never to the Philistines'', ''E'en the Longest River'', and ''Mimosa'', all works of fiction by fictional author, St. John Clarke; ''Camel Ride to the Tomb'', ''Death Head's Swordsman'' and ''Profiles in String'' by the fictional author X Trapnel; and ''Pistons as Engine Melody'' by the character [[Kenneth Widmerpool]]. Writing about Powell's fictional books, Robin Bynoe notes that there is a fictional bookcase of these works in the Powell papers.<ref>Bynoe, Robin. (2022) "Furnishing a Meta-Room" ''The Anthony Powell Society Newsletter'' 86 (spring):21-24.</ref>
* [[William Boyd (writer)|William Boyd]] includes the fictional novel, ''The Girl Factory'', by Logan Mountstuart in his 2002 novel, ''[[Any Human Heart]]''.<ref>Darling, Rachel Jane. "Fools and Heroes: The Changing Representation of the Novelist-Character." ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2014.</ref>
*[[Stanislaw Lem]] [[Stanislaw Lem's fictitious criticism of nonexisting books|wrote several books]] containing methods and ideas similar to [[Jorge Luis Borges]]'s fiction. Between ''[[One Human Minute]]'' and ''[[A Perfect Vacuum]]'', he reviews 19 fictional books (and one fictional lecture). In ''[[Imaginary Magnitude]]'', there are several introductions to fictional works, as well as an advertisement for a fictional encyclopedia entitled ''Vestrand's Extelopedia in 44 Magnetomes''.
*In [[Chuck Palahniuk]]'s ''[[Lullaby (Palahniuk novel)|Lullaby]]'', the characters are searching for all the remaining copies of the book ''Poems and Rhymes Around the World'', which contains a poem that can kill anyone who hears it spoken or has it thought in their direction.<ref>Francisco Collado-Rodríguez. (2013) "Textual Unreliability, Trauma, and The Fantastic in Chuck Palahniuk's 'Lullaby.'" ''Studies in the Novel'' 45, no. 4: 620–37.</ref>
<!-- * In [[Vladimir Nabokov]]'s 1941 novel ''[[The Real Life of Sebastian Knight]]'', the titular writer-hero is responsible for the novels ''The Prismatic Bezel, Success,'' and ''The Doubtful [[Asphodelus|Asphodel]]''. -->
*The text of [[Mark Z. Danielewski]]'s novel ''[[House of Leaves]]'' consists largely of the fictional book ''The Navidson Record'' by Zampanò (possibly based on Jorge Luis Borges),<ref>{{Cite book|title=Mosaic of Juxtaposition|last=Bolton|first=Micheal Sean|publisher=Brill Publishers|year=2014|isbn=978-9042038486|pages=174}}</ref> and commentary upon it by its discoverer and editor Johnny Truant. ''The Navidson Record'' is itself an academic critique of an apparently nonexistent or fictional [[documentary film]] of the same name, which may or may not exist in the world of ''House of Leaves''.<ref>Huber, I. ''Literature after Postmodernism Reconstructive Fantasies''. 1st ed. 2014. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2014.</ref><ref>Welsh, Timothy J. "When What's Real Doesn't Matter: ''House of Leaves''." In ''Mixed Realism'', 103–. University of Minnesota Press, 2016.</ref>
*[[Bill Watterson]] placed fictional children's books in his comic strip ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]'', saying that he could never reveal their contents for they were surely more outrageous in the reader's imagination. For several years, Calvin (perpetually six years old) demands that his father read him ''[[Hamster Huey and the Gooey Kablooie]]'' as a bedtime story. Occasionally, his father's patience snaps and he introduces new variations, which at least reveal what the original story is ''not'': "Do you think the townsfolk will ever find Hamster Huey's head?" An "actual" ''Hamster Huey'' book was written by Mabel Barr in 2004, years after the strip's conclusion.
<!-- *"[[Travels With My Cats]]," a [[Hugo Award|Hugo]]-nominated short story by [[Mike Resnick]] first appearing in ''[[Asimov's Science Fiction]]'' magazine, features a fictional travelogue of the same name.
*[[Paul Levinson]]'s novel ''[[The Plot To Save Socrates]]'' features a fictional ancient Platonic Dialogue, without title, that begins "PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE: [[Socrates]]; Andros, a visitor. SCENE: The Prison of Socrates". -->
*The ''[[Encyclopedia Galactica]]'' in [[Isaac Asimov]]'s [[Foundation (book series)|''Foundation'' series]] was created in [[Terminus (fictional planet)|Terminus]] at the beginning of the Foundation Era. It serves primarily as an introduction to a character, a place or a circumstance to be developed in each chapter. Each quotation contains a copyright disclaimer and cites Terminus as the place of publication. The ''Encyclopedia'' also makes an appearance in ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]'' by [[Douglas Adams]].
*''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]'' also features a fictional electronic guide book [[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (fictional)|of the same name]]. The fictional book serves as "the standard repository for all knowledge and wisdom" for many members of the series' galaxy-spanning civilization. 
*''[[The Magicians (Grossman novel)|The Magicians]]'' and its sequels, written by [[Lev Grossman]], feature a fictional series ''[[Fillory|Fillory and Further]]'' by fictional writer Christopher Plover. The series remain a major theme and a reference point throughout ''The Magicians'' trilogy, even when the characters arrive in actual Fillory.
<!-- *The literary journal ''[https://underneaththebunker.wordpress.com/ Underneath the Bunker]'' (the title of which may refer to a song left off the track listing for the [[R.E.M.]] album ''[[Lifes Rich Pageant]]''), founded in 2002 and online since 2005, has followed [[Stanislav Lem]] and [[Borges]] in publishing reviews of books that have never existed, such as Tosca Calbirro's ''Under An Unquiet Sun'', or ''Receding Rainfall'' by the eccentric Bosnian novelist Hoçe. -->
*''[[The Book of Counted Sorrows]]'' is a book invented by horror author [[Dean Koontz]] to add verisimilitude to some of his novels. "Quotations" from this fictional book were often used to set the tone of chapters of the novels. Koontz ultimately published a version of the book.
<!-- *The ''Anonymous Manuscript of XVII century'' which [[Alessandro Manzoni]] pretends to be translating in his novel ''[[The Betrothed (Manzoni novel)|The Betrothed]]'' -->
*The work and life of the elusive German novelist [[Benno von Archimboldi]] (a fictional character) is central to two of the five parts of ''[[2666]]'', the last novel written by [[Roberto Bolaño]].<ref>Omlor, Daniela. "Mirroring Borges: The Spaces of Literature in Roberto Bolaño's 2666." ''Bulletin of Hispanic Studies'' (Liverpool : Liverpool University Press : 1996) 91, no. 6 (2014): 659–70.</ref> 
*[[Juan de Mairena]] is an apocryphal author, invented by the Spanish poet [[Antonio Machado]]. According to Machado, Juan de Mairena is the author of several books about aesthetic theory, one of which is called ''Arte Poética'' (Poetic Art). Machado devotes several essays to analyze the aesthetic ideas exposed by Mairena in ''Arte Poética''.
*An imaginary book called ''The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows'' is the central [[MacGuffin]] in the movie ''[[The Ninth Gate]]'', based on [[Arturo Pérez-Reverte]]'s novel ''[[The Club Dumas]]''. This book was purportedly written in Venice in 1666, printed with nine woodcut engravings copied from the apocryphal ''[[Delomelanicon]]'', a book purportedly written by the Devil himself. It is said to contain knowledge to summon the Devil and assume great power. At the start of the film, three copies are known to survive after the author and his works were burned in 1667.
<!-- *[[Umberto Eco]]'s ''[[The Name of the Rose]]'' starts with a chapter where the author pretends to have learnt the story he's about to tell from an old manuscript that he translated. Additionally, most of the plot revolves around the search for an old book that might or might have not existed, the supposedly lost book of [[Aristotle]]'s ''[[Poetics (Aristotle)|Poetics]].'' The known part of this work talks about [[tragedy]] and its origins, while the lost part concerns [[comedy]]. -->

==See also==
*[[List of fictional diaries]]
*[[Found manuscript]]
*[[Story within a story]]

==References==

{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2008/oct/14/imaginary-books-borges-irving|title=Which are the best books that never existed?|work=The Guardian|date=15 October 2008|author=David Barnett}}
* {{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2009/jun/16/reading-books-don-t-exist|title=Reading books that don't exist|date=17 June 2009|author=David Barnett|work=The Guardian}}
*Byers, Reid, Grolier Club, and Book Club of California. 2024. ''Imaginary Books : Lost, Unfinished, and Fictive Works Found Only in Other Books''. First edition. Paris, New Castle, Delaware: Le Club Fortsas ; Oak Knoll Press.
* {{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/26/books/review/Park-t.html|title=Titles Within a Tale - The 'Invisible Library' Contained in Literature|work=The New York Times|date=July 23, 2009|author=Ed Park}}
* {{cite web|url=http://www.pw.org/content/invisible_library_0|title=The Invisible Library|work=Poets and Writers|date=1 September 2009|author=Alex Dimitrov}}
* {{cite web|url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/tip-sheet/article/71779-the-9-best-books-that-don-t-exist.html|title=The 9 Best Books That Don't Exist|work=Publishers Weekly|date=8 January 2014|author=Gabe Habash}}
* {{cite web|url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/fictional-books-within-bo_n_6024472|title=Fictional Books Within Books We Wish Were Real|work=HuffPost|date=23 October 2014|author=Claire Fallon}}
* {{cite web|url=https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2016/03/24/the-borges-memorial-non-lending-library-of-imaginary-books/|title=The Borges Memorial Non-Lending Library of Imaginary Books|work=The Paris Review|date=24 March 2016|author=Seth Gannon}}
* {{cite web|url=https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/fiction-books-real-books-essay-dj-taylor/|title=Made-up stories: What can fictional books tell us about real ones?|work=TLS|date=23 October 2020|author=D.J.Taylor}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060713200454/http://www.invisiblelibrary.com/] - an extensive collection of fictional books, founded and curated by Brian Quinette
* [http://webspace.webring.com/people/ph/hermester/hbinvisiblelibrary.html The Invisible Library, Malibu Lake Branch], curated by Fayaway & Hermester Barrington
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070215140940/http://www.underneaththebunker.com/ Underneath the Bunker - Reviews of Non-existent Books and other art-forms] edited by Georgy Riecke

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