10,807 articles
Rostam (رستم)
Rostam (رستم, Rustam), the paramount legendary hero of Ferdowsi's Shahnameh (completed 1010 CE): rider of Rakhsh, hero of the Seven Labors, father who unknowingly slays Sohrab, and a figure killed through his brother's treachery, distinct from the Sasanian commander Rostam Farrokh-Hormozd.
Rothschild's Fiddle
Rothschild's Fiddle (Skripka Rotshilda) is an 1894 short story by Anton Chekhov in which the coffin-maker Yakov Ivanov leaves his violin to Rothschild, the flutist he had hated.
Roughing It
Roughing It is Mark Twain's semi-autobiographical 1872 travel book about his years in the American West, including prospecting in Nevada and reporting in Virginia City.
Roughing It in the Bush
Roughing It in the Bush is Susanna Moodie's 1852 autobiographical account of pioneer life in Upper Canada, based on her family's emigration in 1832 and a foundational text of Canadian literature.
Routledge
Routledge, British academic publisher of humanities and social sciences books and journals, founded by George Routledge (bookseller 1836, publisher 1843), famed for the Railway Library and Uncle Tom's Cabin, now a Taylor & Francis imprint.
Royal Assassin
Royal Assassin (1996) by Robin Hobb is the second Farseer Trilogy novel, following assassin FitzChivalry Farseer at Buckkeep amid Red-Ship Raider attacks and Prince Regal's intrigues; not to be confused with other works titled Royal Assassin.
Royal Flush Gang
Royal Flush Gang, DC Comics supervillain team created by Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky, debuting in Justice League of America #43 (1966); card-themed members King, Queen, Jack, Ten, Ace founded by Amos Fortune, recurring Justice League and Batman foes.
Ru Meng Ling: Last Night's Rain
Ru Meng Ling: Last Night's Rain (如梦令·昨夜雨疏风骤) is a 33-character ci lyric written around 1100 by the Song poet Li Qingzhao, known for the closing phrase 绿肥红瘦, "green lush, red thin."
Rub-a-dub-dub
Rub-a-dub-dub is an English nursery rhyme (Roud 3101) first printed in 1798 in James Hook's Christmas Box as 'Dub a dub dub'. Early versions had three maids in a tub at a fairground peep show; Victorian editors sanitized it into three men sailing to sea.
Rübab-ı Şikeste
Rübab-ı Şikeste ("the broken lute") is the first poetry collection of Turkish poet Tevfik Fikret, published in 1900 and regarded as a milestone of modern Turkish poetry.
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (رباعیّات خیّام), Persian quatrains attributed to Omar Khayyam (ca. 1048-1123), famous through Edward FitzGerald's free 1859 English verse adaptation of 75 quatrains, later expanded to a longest version of 110, one of the best-selling poetry books in English.
Rubeus Hagrid
Rubeus Hagrid, Hogwarts Keeper of Keys and Grounds and Care of Magical Creatures teacher in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series; gentle half-giant (human father, giantess Fridwulfa), Gryffindor, expelled in his third year for a crime he did not commit, voiced on screen by Robbie Coltrane and played by Nick Frost in the HBO series.
Rubrication
Rubrication is the addition of red (or blue, green) lettering, initials, and headings to manuscripts and early printed books, done by specialist rubricators; it aided navigation, survived into incunabula via hand work or two-color presses, then gave way to woodcuts.
Rudin
Rudin is the first novel by Ivan Turgenev (1856). It features Dmitri Rudin, an idealist who exemplifies the Russian literary type known as the "superfluous man."
Rudramadevi
Rudramadevi (ருத்ரமாதேவி) was a thirteenth-century Kakatiya queen of Warangal who ruled under the masculine regnal name Rudradeva, completing Warangal Fort and inspiring Telugu novels, a 2015 film, and a 2021 serial.
Rudyard Kipling bibliography
Rudyard Kipling bibliography: the record of the British author's printed works (1881-1944), from Departmental Ditties and Plain Tales from the Hills to Jungle Book and Kim. Covers the Sussex Edition, Livingston, Stewart, and the definitive Richards 2010 bibliography.
Ruhnama
The Ruhnama, meaning Book of the Soul, is a two-volume spiritual and moral text written by Turkmenistan's first president, Saparmurat Niyazov, published in 2001 and 2004.
Ruins (comics)
Ruins is a 1995 two-issue Marvel Alterniverse limited series by Warren Ellis with painted art by Cliff and Terese Nielsen, a dark inversion of Marvels (Earth-9591) in which every superhero origin ends in death, disease, or catastrophe, reprinted as one issue in 2009.
Rukminiharana
Rukminiharana (रुक्मिणीहरणम्), "the abduction of Rukmini," is an Assamese narrative poem and one-act play on the love of Rukmini and Krishna, composed by the Vaishnavite saint-poet Srimanta Sankaradeva.
Rules of Engagement (Larsen novel)
Rules of Engagement (Tom Clancy Rules of Engagement) is a 2026 techno-thriller by Ward Larsen, his first Jack Ryan novel, in which President Ryan investigates a plane crash in Turkey that killed the Secretary of Commerce.
Rum Tum Tugger
Rum Tum Tugger is T. S. Eliot's contrary 'Curious Cat' from Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats (1939), later a rock-number character in Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Cats, played on film by Jason Derulo and on Broadway by Sydney James Harcourt.
Rumah Kaca
Rumah Kaca, published in English as House of Glass, is a 1988 novel by Indonesian writer Pramoedya Ananta Toer, the final volume of the Buru Quartet.
Rumours of Rain
Rumours of Rain (Gerugte van reën) is a 1978 novel by André Brink, shortlisted for the Booker Prize, set on the eve of the Soweto riots.
Runaways (comics)
Runaways, Marvel Comics series by Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona, debuted April 16, 2003: six teens, including Nico Minoru and Alex Wilder, discover their parents are the supervillain Pride.
Runeberg Prize
The Runeberg Prize (Finnish: Runeberg-palkinto, Swedish: Runebergspriset) is a Finnish literary prize awarded since 1987 on 5 February in Porvoo for fiction or poetry written in Finnish or Swedish.
Rừng xà nu
Rừng xà nu (Xa Nu Forest) is a 1965 short story by Nguyễn Trung Thành, pen name of Nguyên Ngọc, set in the Central Highlands village of Xô Man.
Rupasi Bangla
Rupasi Bangla ("Bengal the Beautiful") is a posthumous collection of 61 Bengali poems by Jibanananda Das, published in August 1957 by Signet Press, Calcutta, three years after his death.
Ruri Rocks
Ruri Rocks (瑠璃の宝石, Introduction to Mineralogy) is Keiichirou Shibuya's mineral-collecting manga serialized in Harta since 2019, adapted into a 13-episode Studio Bind anime aired July to September 2025, following high schooler Ruri Tanigawa and mineralogy graduate student Nagi Arato.
Ruslan and Ludmila
Ruslan and Ludmila (Руслан и Людмила) is a narrative poem in six cantos by Alexander Pushkin, completed in 1820, telling how the knight Ruslan rescues his bride from a sorcerer.
Russia and Europe
Russia and Europe (Россия и Европа) is an 1869 book by Nikolay Danilevsky arguing that Russia and the Slavic world form a cultural-historical type separate from Western Europe.