33 works across 28 centuries, back to Iliad and Odyssey.
Following one thread, 4 works from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone to The History of Sir Charles Grandison. Back to all 33 works
1997
J. K. Rowling
Late 20th century. Britain. written in English.
An orphan raised by cruel relatives learns at eleven that he is a wizard and enters Hogwarts, a boarding school for magic, where he and two friends uncover a plot to steal an alchemical stone that grants immortality. It joins the British boarding-school story to the English children's fantasy tradition and sets the plot up as a clue-planted mystery.
1815
Jane Austen
Regency. England. written in English.
Novel of a confident young woman who meddles in her neighbours' romances and misreads nearly all of them. The true situation is hidden in plain sight until the end.
Structural model, probable.
Rowling has said she has read Emma at least twenty times and admires how Austen hides the truth in plain sight. The Philosopher's Stone works the same way: clues to Quirrell's guilt sit in the narrative while Harry, like Emma, misreads the obvious suspect, Snape.
1796
Frances Burney
Georgian. England. written in English.
Novel of a young woman's courtship troubles, driven by misunderstandings among a large family circle.
Thematic kinship, probable.
Austen subscribed to Camilla and praised it by name in Northanger Abbey. Burney's comedy of a heroine misled by misunderstandings in a family circle anticipates Emma's errors of judgement.
1753
Samuel Richardson
Georgian. England. written in English.
Epistolary novel about a virtuous gentleman and the circle of families around him, built on close observation of everyday social life.
Stylistic influence, well documented.
Henry Austen recorded that Grandison was his sister's favourite novel, and she adapted it as a short play for family performance. Its close attention to the conversation and manners of a small social circle is a model for the village world of Emma.
Stylistic influence, probable.
Burney admired Richardson, and her novels continue his concern with a young woman's moral conduct under social pressure. She moved from his letter form to third-person narration but kept his detailed domestic scenes.
The line stops here: richardson's sources are conduct books and his own letter-writing manual, not a literary model.
