Books where legendary character fails to live up to expectations e.g. Heart of Darkness

[Rachel]

So it's kind of hard to explain what I'm looking for but... I'm hoping for suggestions for books where a character is mythologised, idealised, surrounded in mystery etc and then when they finally appear, they are either a letdown or completely different to what the other characters expected.

A good example would be Kurtz in Heart of Darkness, or the wizard in the Wizard of Oz.

There's also a similar plotline in Stephen King's The Stand, where Stuart is following Harold's trail in order to track down other plague survivors. He thinks that Harold will be extremely intelligent, and is surprised to discover Harold is actually an obnoxious teenage boy.

[Ket]

Patricia A. McKillip's Od Magic toys with a larger-than-life character who turns out to be very different than expected.


Swamplandia! has the mysterious character who turns out to be a complete letdown. *shudder*


The Last King of Scotland takes this to a disturbing level.


In Sense and Sensibility, the "sensibility" love story turns out this way - in fact, the major crash-and-burn makes it my favorite of Austen's novels.


I would say that in Y: The Last Man, the main character is the mythologised character that keeps appearing and being a complete letdown to the other characters.


Are you interested in works like The Great Gatsby, where fraud is gradually discovered after the mysterious character has been onstage for a while? Or do you want that sudden stomach-dropping disappointment of the far-off hope instantly revealed to be a letdown?

[Rachel]

Tana, thanks for your suggestions. I can't believe I didn't think of Gatsby as an example! I don't have a preference about "the big reveal", just interested in any books where this is a theme.

[Peter]

Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly might qualify, though it's not a huge part of the plot. A major character is the only person to have killed a dragon in living memory. Another character, a young man, is star struck upon meeting this legendary hero, thinking it was an epic and noble fight. The dragon-slayer then explains how he really managed it, which was more impressive as far as I'm concerned but not the stuff of legends.

Another dragon-related example woudld be The Blood of a Dragon by Lawrence Watt-Evans. A young boy who wants to become a wizard or other magician is told he has no aptitude. Bitter over this, he decides he wants to apprentice to the man who sells rare and powerful ingredients such as dragon's blood to the wizards. He follows the man out of town and falls into a series of misadventures, finally discovering that the glamorous man he wants to emulate isn't really that admirable.

[Michele]

Stephen R. Donaldson's Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, starting with Lord Foul's Bane turn on this very issue. Thomas Covenant is dropped into The Land, whose people believe he is the reincarnation of mythical hero Berek Half-Hand. Covenant's response is to firmly believe that The Land and everything in it are some kind of hallucination that he's suffering. It does not go well.

Hm, I think I need to re-read those...

[Joseph]

The only title that I could think of is Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets where the character Professor Gilderoy Lockhart turns out quite different than the students expect.

[Michele]

Joseph wrote: "The only title that I could think of is Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets where the character Professor Gilderoy Lockhart turns out quite different than the students expect."

Not to mention Snape. Although that's in the other direction.

[Hillary]

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford might work - Robert Ford is seeking Jesse James the legend, and Jesse James the man is not all that he has been built up to be.

[Hillary]

To Kill a Mockingbird for the character of Boo Radley.

[Ket]

Michele wrote: "Joseph wrote: "The only title that I could think of is Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets where the character Professor Gilderoy Lockhart turns out quite different than the stude..."

I'd say that James Potter fits this theme as well...

[Rebekah]

For a YA, I'd try The Fault in Our Stars. It's not the focus of the book, but the main character's favorite author turns out to be not quite the hero she expected

[Justanotherbiblophile]

How about Sanderson's Mistborn series? The Hero of Ages' reveal is historical... so this is a bit more meta.

[Rebekah]

Find a Stranger, Say Goodbye The main character is searching for her birth mother.

[Will]

Try the Thomas Covenant stories. Lord fouls bane. I've never seen such a hated hero.