thumb|200px|Key to vol. 2 of New Atalantis (1709)./" class="wiki">Delarivier Manley's, New Atalantis (1709). A roman à clef or roman à clé (French for "novel with a key", French pronunciation: /ʁɔ.mɑ̃n a kle/ ), also known as faction, is a novel describing real life, behind a façade of fiction. "Key" in this context means a table one can use to swap out the names, see figure. The reasons an author might choose the roman à clef format include: - Writing about controversial topics and/or reporting inside information on scandals without giving rise to charges of libel
- The opportunity to turn the tale the way the author would like it to have gone
- The opportunity to portray personal, autobiographical experiences without having to expose the author as the subject
- Avoiding self-incrimination or incrimination of others that could be used as evidence in civil, criminal, or disciplinary proceedings
Biographically inspired works have also appeared in other literary genres, art forms, and media; for example, the film Citizen Kane, a thinly disguised biographical film about William Randolph Hearst; Victor Hugo's banned play, Le Roi s'amuse, the basis for the opera Rigoletto; as well as Dreamgirls, the Broadway musical and the film of the same name, both based on the career of The Supremes. Notable romans à clefFiction- Virtually all of the novels of Thomas Love Peacock (1785–1866) presuppose a knowledge of English intellectuals and currents of thought of the time.
- Ruth Hall (1854) by Fanny Fern (Sarah Payson Willis) describes Fern's own struggle to become a successful newspaper columnist, and puts her family (including her brother, Nathaniel Parker Willis) and two of her early editors in a most unflattering light.
- The Fiery Angel (1908) by Valery Bryusov depicts the real-life triangle of black magic, obsession and love between himself, Andrei Bely and Nina Petrovskaya while describing a story of witchcraft in 16th Century Germany.
- The Benson Murder Case (1926), the best-selling first entry in the series of detective novels by S. S. Van Dine featuring detective Philo Vance, is based on the unsolved murder of bridge expert Joseph Elwell, who was found shot to death in a room locked from the inside, minus his toupee, physical circumstances which are duplicated in the novel.
- Mephisto (1936) by Klaus Mann. Mann's brother-in-law, the actor Gustaf Gründgens, was so offended by the main character Henrik Hoffgen (based on Gründgens himself) that the novel was banned after a libel case.
- Power Without Glory (1950) by Frank Hardy is an unveiled and highly critical account of the life of Australian business man and political figure John Wren (referred to by Hardy as John West). Hardy, a socialist, blamed Wren for what he saw as the corruption of the Australian Labor Party during the early 20th century. Hardy was sued for criminal libel for having depicted Wren's wife having an affair.
- The Ugly American (1958) by Eugene Burdick and William Lederer, a book that criticized American foreign policy in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War; the book uses the fictional country of Sarkhan (a fictional country in Southeast Asia that closely resembles Burma, but is meant to allude to Vietnam) as the setting and includes several real people, most of whose names have been changed.
- The Bell Jar (1963) by Sylvia Plath, her semi-autobiographical novel, detailing a young girl's attempts at suicides and her mental breakdown.
- A Scanner Darkly (1977) by Philip K. Dick, a fictionalized account of Dick's experiences in the 1970s drug culture. Dick said in an interview, "Everything in A Scanner Darkly I actually saw."
- The Lords of Discipline (1980) by Pat Conroy, supposedly about the integration of the first black cadets into The Citadel. The accuracy of the events depicted within is vehemently denied by other alumni who attended at the time.
- Vasily Aksyonov's Say Cheese (1983) recounts in a fictionalized form the story of the Metropol anthology by Soviet writers, the first project of its kind not subject to censorship.
- Queenie (1985) by Michael Korda, nephew of Alexander Korda and the actress Merle Oberon. In the novel, Queenie Kelley, a girl of Indian and Irish descent, is based on Oberon, who went to great lengths to disguise her mixed-race background.
- The Devil Wears Prada (2003) about a woman constantly bullied by her boss while working as an assistant at a fashion magazine. Although author Lauren Weisberger worked as an assistant at Vogue magazine, she denies that the book's antagonist, Miranda Priestly, is modeled after the magazine's editor-in-chief Anna Wintour.
- 2666 (2004) by Roberto Bolaño, which places the hundreds of real rape/murders in Juárez, Mexico in a fictional border-town in the State of Sonora (west of Juárez).
- Lunar Park (2005) by Bret Easton Ellis is partly a ghost story and an autobiographical novel describing his early years of fame and difficult relationship with his father.
Verse and dramaFilmIn other mediaSee also
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