10,807 articles
Bard the Bowman
Bard the Bowman (Bard of Esgaroth) is the Man of Lake-town and heir of Girion, Lord of Dale, in Tolkien's The Hobbit who slays Smaug with the Black Arrow in T.A. 2941, then becomes first King of restored Dale (2944-2977), succeeded by Bain; played by Luke Evans in Jackson's films.
Barefoot Gen (はだしのゲン)
Barefoot Gen (はだしのゲン, Hadashi no Gen) is Keiji Nakazawa's semi-autobiographical manga, serialized 1973–1985, depicting a boy's survival of the Hiroshima atomic bombing; translated into over 20 languages and adapted to film.
Barkskins (TV series)
Barkskins is a 2020 National Geographic eight-part limited series created by Elwood Reid from Annie Proulx's novel, set in 1690s New France around a settler massacre, starring David Thewlis and Marcia Gay Harden, cancelled after one season.
Barnaby Rudge
Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty is Charles Dickens's 1841 historical novel, his first, set during London's anti-Catholic Gordon Riots of 1780, featuring the simple-minded Barnaby, his raven Grip, and an unsolved double murder.
Barnaparichay
Barnaparichay (বর্ণপরিচয়, "Introduction to Letters") is a Bengali alphabet primer by Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, published in 1855 and still the customary first book for Bengali children.
Baron Danglars
Baron Danglars, a character in Alexandre Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo (Le Comte de Monte-Cristo), is the Pharaon's purser who frames Edmond Dantès, rises to a wealthy Parisian banker and baron, and is financially ruined by the Count's revenge.
Baron Munchausen
Baron Munchausen, fictional tall-tale teller drawn from Karl Friedrich Hieronymus von Münchhausen (1720–1797), launched by Raspe's 1785 English book, fixed by Bürger's 1786 German version, and eponym of Munchausen syndrome.
Baron Trump novels
The Baron Trump novels are two 1890s children's adventure books by Ingersoll Lockwood, following Baron Wilhelm Heinrich Sebastian Von Troomp and his dog Bulger; rediscovered in 2017, with rejected Trump prophecy claims.
Baroque novel
The Baroque novel is the long, elaborate prose fiction of seventeenth-century Europe, written between roughly the 1620s and the early eighteenth century, best remembered for Grimmelshausen's Simplicissimus of 1668.
Barsoom
Barsoom is the fictional Mars of Edgar Rice Burroughs' eleven-novel John Carter series, begun as Under the Moons of Mars (1912) and A Princess of Mars (1917); the founding work of planetary romance, adapted in Disney's 2012 John Carter and a 2025 animated series.
Bartleby, the Scrivener
Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street (Melville, 1853, Putnam's Monthly Magazine; Piazza Tales 1856), short story of a copyist who refuses all work with "I would prefer not to," told by his lawyer-boss; read as labor protest, Christ figure, or alienated author.
Basain
Basain (बसाइँ) is a 1957 Nepali novel by Lil Bahadur Chettri, a work of social realism about a poor farmer forced from his ancestral home.
Basara (manga)
Basara (バサラ) is Yumi Tamura's post-apocalyptic shōjo manga, serialized in Bessatsu Shōjo Comic 1990-1998 in 27 volumes, winner of the 1993 Shogakukan Manga Award; Sarasa leads a rebellion as her dead twin against the Red King Shuri, with Viz English and Kana French editions.
Basava Ragale
Basava Ragale, fully the Basavarājadevara Ragale, is a Kannada narrative poem by Harihara, the first hagiographic account of the life of the twelfth-century saint Basava.
Basavanna's Vachanas
Basavanna's Vachanas (ಬಸವಣ್ಣನವರ ವಚನಗಳು) are a corpus of over one thousand short Kannada devotional poems by Basavanna, the twelfth-century Virashaiva leader in Karnataka who rejected caste discrimination.
Bashpajali
Bashpajali (ബാഷ്പാഞ്ജലി) is a Malayalam poetry collection by the poet Changampuzha Krishna Pillai, published in 1935, with about fifty lyric poems written between his seventeenth and twenty-first years.
Basti
Basti (بستی) is an Urdu novel by Intizar Husain, first published in 1979, that recounts the Partition of India through the memories of its protagonist, Zakir.
Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng
Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng, Kylie Lee Baker's 2025 adult horror debut (also titled Bat Eater), follows Chinese American crime scene cleaner Cora Zeng, haunted by hungry ghosts and a serial killer targeting East Asian women during the COVID-19 pandemic; winner of the 2025 Shirley Jackson Award for Novel.
Bata, Bata... Pa'no Ka Ginawa?
Bata, Bata... Pa'no Ka Ginawa? is a 1983 Tagalog novel by Lualhati Bautista about Lea, a working mother in Manila raising two children by different fathers.
Batatyachi Chal
Batatyachi Chal (बटाट्याची चाळ) is a humorous Marathi book by P. L. Deshpande, published in 1958 by Mauj Prakashan, Mumbai, satirizing the middle-class residents of a fictitious chawl in Girgaon.
Batman (comic book)
Batman is the name of two long-running DC Comics series, the self-titled Batman launched in 1940 and Detective Comics, home of the character since 1939.
Batman Beyond (comics)
Batman Beyond comics: DC Comics titles featuring Terry McGinnis, the teenage Batman created for the 1999 animated series. Covers the 1999 tie-in, the 2010 Hush Beyond bridge, 2015 Tim Drake and 2016 Rebirth runs, and Batman/Static: Beyond.
Batman: Knightfall
Batman: Knightfall is a 1993 DC Comics Batman crossover in which Bane exhausts Batman and breaks his back, and Bruce Wayne's successor Jean-Paul Valley grows violent.
Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight
Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight is a DC Comics Batman anthology launched in 1989, running to 215 issues through 2007, with standalone multi-part arcs like Shaman, Gothic, Prey, and Venom, and revived as digital-first anthologies in 2012 and 2021.
Batman: Resurrection
Batman: Resurrection (Random House Worlds, October 15, 2024) is John Jackson Miller's 336-page novel, a direct sequel to Tim Burton's 1989 Batman film set between it and Batman Returns, covering Smylex fallout, Joker gang arson, Vicki Vale's exit, and Clayface; followed by Batman: Revolution.
Batman: Revolution
Batman: Revolution is John Jackson Miller's 2025 Random House Worlds novel, the sequel to Batman: Resurrection, set in Tim Burton's Batman continuity between the 1989 film and Batman Returns, featuring a new Riddler, Norman Pinkus.
Batman: The Killing Joke
Batman: The Killing Joke is a 1988 DC one-shot graphic novel by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland in which the Joker shoots and paralyzes Barbara Gordon to drive Commissioner Gordon insane; it is the most accepted Joker origin and a lasting controversy.
Batman: The Long Halloween
Batman: The Long Halloween is a 13-issue DC limited series (1996-1997) by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale, also known as a Dark Knight Halloween Special, following the Holiday killer and Harvey Dent's fall into Two-Face; Eisner-winning, with sequels Dark Victory and The Last Halloween.
Batman: White Knight
Batman: White Knight is an eight-issue 2017-2018 DC Black Label miniseries by Sean Murphy in which a cured Joker, Jack Napier, campaigns against Batman; it spawned the White Knight universe sequels.
Batman: Year One
Batman: Year One is Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli's four-part 1987 Batman origin arc in Batman #404–407, colored by Richmond Lewis, lettered by Todd Klein, edited by Denny O'Neil; a post-Crisis canon origin adapted into a 2011 animated film and a key influence on Batman Begins.