Cast List

[StillStunned]

In fairness to Tolstoy, I don't think that he wrote the cast list for W&P. I think that the publishers added it years later.

The list is terrible too. It lists a couple of characters that are only in the first act and never heard from again. One of them only has ONE scene in like chapter 3 or something. Then there are some important characters like Bagration that figure heavily in later parts that aren't even listed.

Perhaps they assumed most readers would know one of the most prominent Russian generals of the Napoleonic era? I never got beyond the first dozen pages of W&P, though, and my e-reader's on the blink, so I don't know whether other famous names are included in the cast list.

 

[LetsMisBehave]

My current project is, Passion at the Opera and my cast are the members of a theater company and associated locals. So far, fourteen and I'll likely end up closer to twenty. At some point, do you ever add a cast list? "Get your programs, can't tell the players without a program!"
I was thinking about adding one to the foreword. I have seen some in fiction before, but I can't think of any by name right now. Thoughts?

I know you have said you have dropped the idea, but perhaps think about it for additional chapters, especially if there is a gap between chapters. Some detective novels from the thirties did this, and it helped if your reader did not have time for reading for a few days and had to go back to the story. At least one current historical crime novelist has a lot of fun with her dramatis personae lists, which contain jokes as well as pointers towards who the characters are.
I am tempted by the idea as I am currently working on a story/series of stories which will involve or at least refer to most of the main characters who have appeared in my 30-plus stories. Stupidly self-indulgent but an interesting challenge.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Perhaps they assumed most readers would know one of the most prominent Russian generals of the Napoleonic era? I never got beyond the first dozen pages of W&P, though, and my e-reader's on the blink, so I don't know whether other famous names are included in the cast list.

No, just the families of the first act. Neither Napoleon nor Kutuzov (nor any other real people) are in the list.

 

[Rollinbones]

I sometimes keep a cast list in my notes so that I can flesh out characters with idiosyncratic traits and give them unique voices. Personally I feel one can engage readers more thoroughly by giving them the skeleton of a character and letting the reader hang the flesh on them. I don’t really like an introduction that reads like a police description.