Politics in fiction

This is a list of fictional stories in which politics features as an important plot element. Passing mentions are omitted from this list.

Plato

Thomas More

Miguel de Cervantes

Ignacy Krasicki

Benjamin Disraeli

Turgenev

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Henrik Ibsen

Henry Adams

Henry James

Anthony Hope

Bolesław Prus

Joseph Conrad

Władysław Reymont

Upton Sinclair

Martín Luis Guzmán

Aldous Huxley

Tadeusz Dołęga-Mostowicz

George Orwell

Robert Penn Warren

Gore Vidal

Barbara Boxer

Written works

• The Republic (ca. 360 BCE) by Plato
• Panchatantra (ca. 200 BCE) by Vishnu Sarma
• Utopia (1516) by Thomas More
• The Dismissal of the Greek Envoys (1578) by Jan Kochanowski
• Don Quixote (1605) by Miguel de Cervantes
• Simplicius Simplicissimus (1668) by Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen
• The Pilgrim's Progress (1678) by John Bunyan
• Persian Letters (1721) by Montesquieu
• Gulliver's Travels (1726) by Jonathan Swift
• Candide (1759) by Voltaire
• The History and Adventures of an Atom (1769) by Tobias Smollett
• Fables and Parables (1779) by Ignacy Krasicki
• The Return of the Deputy (1790) by Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz
• The Partisan Leader (1836) by Nathaniel Beverley Tucker
• Barnaby Rudge (1841) by Charles Dickens
• The Betrothed (1842) by Alessandro Manzoni
• Coningsby (1844) by Benjamin Disraeli
• Sybil, or The Two Nations (1845) by Benjamin Disraeli
• Tancred (1847) by Benjamin Disraeli
• Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) by Harriet Beecher Stowe
• A Tale of Two Cities (1859) by Charles Dickens
• Max Havelaar (1860) by Multatuli
• Fathers and Sons (1862) by Ivan Turgenev
• The Palliser novels (1864–79) by Anthony Trollope
• Felix Holt, the Radical (1866) by George Eliot
• War and Peace (1869) by Leo Tolstoy
• Demons, also known as The Possessed or The Devils (1872) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• The Way We Live Now (1875) by Anthony Trollope
• Honest John Vane (1875) by John William De Forest
• The Gilded Age (1876) by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner
• Democracy: An American Novel (1880) by Henry Adams
• An Enemy of the People (1882), play by Henrik Ibsen
• An American Politician (1884) by F. Marion Crawford
• The Princess Casamassima (1886) by Henry James
• Prince Otto (1886) by Robert Louis Stevenson
• The Bostonians (1886) by Henry James
• Noli Me Tangere (1887) by José Rizal
• Looking Backward (1888) by Edward Bellamy
• El filibusterismo (1891) by José Rizal
• The Prisoner of Zenda (1894) by Anthony Hope
• Pharaoh (1895) by Bolesław Prus
• Heart of Darkness (1899) by Joseph Conrad
• NEQUA or The Problem of the Ages (1900) by Jack Adams, pseudonym for A.O. Grigsby and Mary P. Lowe
• The Riddle of the Sands (1903) by Erskine Childers
• Nostromo (1904) by Joseph Conrad
• The Czar's Spy (1905) by William Le Queux
• The Four Just Men (1905) by Edgar Wallace
• King Leopold's Soliloquy (1905) by Mark Twain
• The Clansman: An Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan (1905) by Thomas Dixon, Jr.
• The Jungle (1906) by Upton Sinclair
• The Secret Agent (1907) by Joseph Conrad
• The Iron Heel (1908) by Jack London
• Under Western Eyes (1911) by Joseph Conrad
• Philip Dru: Administrator (1912) by Edward M. House
• The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists (1914) by Robert Tressell
• The Underdogs (1915) by Mariano Azuela
• The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915) by John Buchan
• Herland (1915) by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
• The Fall of a Nation (1916) by Thomas Dixon, Jr.
• We (1921) by Yevgeny Zamyatin
• Bunt (The Revolt) (1922) by Władysław Reymont
• Metropolis (1925) by Thea von Harbou
• The Trial (1925) by Franz Kafka
• The Castle (1926) by Franz Kafka
• The Shadow of the Caudillo (1929) by Martín Luis Guzmán
• Brave New World (1932) by Aldous Huxley
• The Career of Nicodemus Dyzma (1932) by Tadeusz Dołęga-Mostowicz
• Stamboul Train (1932) by Graham Greene
• Black Mischief (1932) by Evelyn Waugh
• The Forbidden Territory (1933) by Dennis Wheatley
• Antoine Bloye (1933) by Paul Nizan
• Fontamara (1933) by Ignazio Silone
• Burmese Days (1934) by George Orwell
• The House of the Four Winds (1935) by John Buchan
• It Can't Happen Here (1935) by Sinclair Lewis
• Bread and Wine (1936) by Ignazio Silone
• The Pretender (1936) by Lion Feuchtwanger
• Alamut (1938) by Vladimir Bartol
• The Confidential Agent (1939) by Graham Greene
• Exit a Dictator (1939) by E. Phillips Oppenheim
• The Gladiators (1939) by Arthur Koestler
• Darkness at Noon (1940) by Arthur Koestler
• Animal Farm: A Fairy Story (1945) by George Orwell
• A Bell for Adano (1945) by John Hersey
• El Señor Presidente (1946) by Miguel Ángel Asturias
• All the King's Men (1946) by Robert Penn Warren
• Lonely Crusade (1947) by Chester Himes
• Walden Two (1948) by B. F. Skinner
• Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) by George Orwell
• Dark Green, Bright Red (1950) by Gore Vidal
• Who Goes Home (1953) by Maurice Edelman
• In the Wet (1953) by Nevil Shute
• The Outsider (1953) by Richard Wright
• The Quiet American (1955) by Graham Greene
• The Shark and the Sardines (1956) by Juan José Arévalo
• The Last Hurrah (1956) by Edwin O'Connor
• Atlas Shrugged (1957) by Ayn Rand
• The Short Reign of Pippin IV (1957) by John Steinbeck
• The Ugly American (1958) by William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick
• Things Fall Apart (1958) by Chinua Achebe
• Act of Mercy [U.S. title: Guns of Darkness] (1959) by Francis Clifford
• The Manchurian Candidate (1959) by Richard Condon
• Advise and Consent (1959) by Allen Drury
• The Best Man (1960) by Gore Vidal (play)
• Catch-22 (1961) by Joseph Heller
• The Golden Notebook (1962) by Doris Lessing
• Seven Days in May (1962) by Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Bailey
• Corridors of Power (1964) by C.P. Snow
• The Man (1964) by Irving Wallace
• Dune (1965) by Frank Herbert
• The Squares of the City (1965) by John Brunner
• All in the Family (1966) by Edwin O'Connor
• A Man of the People (1966) by Chinua Achebe
• The Comedians (1966) by Graham Greene
• The Late Bourgeois World (1966) by Nadine Gordimer
• Cancer Ward (1967) by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
• Washington, D.C. (1967) by Gore Vidal
• Z (1969) by Vassilis Vassilikos
• The Godfather (1969) by Mario Puzo
• Being There (1971) by Jerzy Kosiński
• The Lorax (1971) by Dr. Seuss
• Burr (1973) by Gore Vidal
• Reasons of State (1974) by Alejo Carpentier
• I, the Supreme (1974) by Augusto Roa Bastos
• The Chocolate War (1974) by Robert Cormier
• Remember Ruben (1974) by Mongo Beti
• The Autumn of the Patriarch (1975) by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• Guerrillas (1975) by V. S. Naipaul
• The Monkey Wrench Gang (1975) by Edward Abbey
• Kiss of the Spider Woman (1976) by Manuel Puig
• 1876 (1976) by Gore Vidal
• A Flag For Sunrise (1977) by Robert Stone
• The Public Burning (1977) by Robert Coover
• The Shad Treatment (1977) by Garrett Epps
• The Dead Zone (1979) by Stephen King
• A Married Man (1979) by Piers Paul Read
• An Enemy of the State (1980) by F. Paul Wilson
• A Very British Coup (1982) by Chris Mullin
• Legend of the Galactic Heroes (1982–88) by Yoshiki Tanaka
• V for Vendetta (1982–88) by Alan Moore and David Lloyd
• The Day the Leader was Killed (1983) by Naguib Mahfouz
• The Floating Island (1983) by Garrett Epps
• The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta (1984) by Mario Vargas Llosa
• First Among Equals (1984) by Jeffrey Archer
• The Butter Battle Book (1984) by Dr. Seuss
• The Handmaid's Tale (1985) by Margaret Atwood
• Anthills of the Savannah (1987) by Chinua Achebe
• Favorite Son (1988) by Steve Sohmer
• House of Cards (1989) by Michael Dobbs
• The Remains of the Day (1989) by Kazuo Ishiguro
• Redemption (1990) by Tariq Ali
• The Fourth K (1990) by Mario Puzo
• Vineland (1990) by Thomas Pynchon
• Patriots (1991) by Steve Sohmer
• To Play the King (1991) by Michael Dobbs
• Fatherland (1992) by Robert Harris
• The Final Cut (1992) by Michael Dobbs
• American Hero (1994) by Larry Beinhart
• Blindness (1995) by Jose Saramago
• Primary Colors (1996) by Joe Klein (as "Anonymous")
• Absolute Power (1996) by David Baldacci
• Yo-Yo Boing! (1998) by Giannina Braschi
• The Feast of the Goat (2000) by Mario Vargas Llosa
• Snow (2002) by Orhan Pamuk
• The Coast of Utopia (2002) by Tom Stoppard
• The Gospel According To Larry (2003) by Janet Tashjian
• The Successor (2003) by Ismail Kadare
• Seeing (2004) by José Saramago
• A Time to Run (2005) by Barbara Boxer
• The Ghost (2007) by Robert Harris
• American Savior (2008) by Roland Merullo
• The Best Laid Plans (2008) by Terry Fallis
• United States of Banana (2011) by Giannina Braschi
• What You Don't Know (2012) by David Belbin
• Faultline 49 (2012) by David Danson
• Occupied (2015) by Joss Sheldon
• The Little Voice (2016) by Joss Sheldon
• Money Power Love (2017) by Joss Sheldon

Film

Mike Judge, director of Idiocracy (2006)

• The Birth of a Nation (1915)
• America (1924)
• Strike (1925)
• The Dark Horse (1932)
• The Phantom President (1932)
• Washington Merry-Go-Round (1932)
• Duck Soup (1933)
• Manhattan Melodrama (1934)
• Judge Priest (1934)
• The Prisoner of Zenda (1937)
• In Old Chicago (1938)
• Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
• The Great McGinty (1940)
• The Great Dictator (1940)
• Citizen Kane (1941)
• Meet John Doe (1941)
• The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941)
• Casablanca (1942)
• Angel on My Shoulder (1946)
• The Farmer's Daughter (1947)
• The Senator Was Indiscreet (1947)
• State of the Union (1948)
• Alias Nick Beal (1949)
• All the King's Men (1949)
• A Lion Is in the Streets (1953)
• Nikodem Dyzma (1956)
• Touch of Evil (1958)
• The Last Hurrah (1958)
• Advise and Consent (1962)
• The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
• The Best Man (1964)
• Dr. Strangelove (1964)
• Point of Order (1964)
• Seven Days in May (1964)
• Pharaoh (1966)
• Z (1969)
• The Man (1972)
• The Godfather (1972)
• The Candidate (1972)
• The Parallax View (1974)
• The Godfather, Part II (1974)
• Being There (1979)
• Seeing Red (1983)
• Secret Honor (1984)
• Power (1986)
• The Godfather, Part III (1990)
• Bob Roberts (1992)
• The Distinguished Gentleman (1992)
• Running Mates (1992)
• Batman Returns (1992)
• Dave (1993)
• With Honors (1994)
• The American President (1995)
• Absolute Power (1997)
• Murder at 1600 (1997)
• Air Force One (1997)
• The Peacemaker (1997)
• Wag the Dog (1997)
• Primary Colors (1998)
• The Siege (1998)
• Three Kings (1999)
• Election (1999)
• The Contender (2000)
• Running Mates (2000)
• Ali G Indahouse (2002)
• The Quiet American (2002)
• Gangs of New York (2002)
• The Career of Nicodemus Dyzma (2002)
• Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde (2003)
• The Manchurian Candidate (2004 remake of the 1962 film)
• Thank You for Smoking (2005)
• V for Vendetta (2005)
• All the King's Men (2006)
• An Unreasonable Man (2006)
• Man of the Year (2006)
• Idiocracy (2006)
• The Lives of Others (2006)
• Even Almighty (2007)
• The Dark Knight (2008)
• My Name Is Khan (2010)
• The Campaign (2012)
• The Dictator (2012)
• Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
• Captain America: Civil War (2016)
• The Purge: Election Year (2016)
• Joker (2019)

Television

• Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1962–63)
• Slattery's People (1964–65)
• The Prisoner (1967)
• Grandpa Goes to Washington (1978-1979)
• Kariera Nikodema Dyzmy (1980 Polish TV miniseries)
• Yes Minister (and its sequel, Yes, Prime Minister) (1980–88)
• Edge of Darkness (1985)
• First Among Equals (1986)
• The New Statesman (1987–94)
• A Very British Coup (1988)
• Tanner '88 (1988)
• House of Cards (1990)
• Babylon 5 (1993)
• To Play the King (1993)
• The Politician's Wife (1995)
• The Final Cut (1995)
• Spin City (1996–2002)
• Nostromo (1997)
• Smallville (2001–11)
• 24 (2001–10)
• The Wire (2002–08)
• The Project (2002)
• Absolute Power (2003, 2005)
• Battlestar Galactica (2004)
• Commander-in-Chief (2005)
• The Thick of It (2005-12)
• Brotherhood (2006)
• Party Animals (BBC Two, 2007)
• Parks and Recreation (2009–15)
• The Good Wife (2009–16)
• Boardwalk Empire (2010–14)
• Downton Abbey (2010–15)
• Game of Thrones (2011-19)
• The Hour (2011 TV series) (2011–12)
• Boss (2011–12)
• Homeland (2011-)
• Scandal (2012–)
• Political Animals (2012)
• Veep (2012–19)
• House of Cards (US) (2012–18)
• Orange is the New Black (2013–)
• Wentworth (TV series) (original Australian title Wentworth Prison) (2013–)
• The Politician's Husband (2013)
• Rectify (2013–16)
• The Best Laid Plans (2014)
• The Red Road (TV series) (2014–15)
• The Honourable Woman (2014)
• Madam Secretary (TV series) (2014–)
• The Code (2014 TV series) (2014–)
• Utopia (Australian TV series) (titled Dreamland elsewhere) (2014–)
• Gotham (2014–2019)
• American Crime (TV series) (2015–17)
• The Same Sky (TV series) (2016)
• BrainDead (2016)
• Designated Survivor (TV series) (2016–)
• The Good Fight (2017–)
• Wildflower (2017-2018)

Musicals

• George Washington, Jr. (1906)
• Disraeli (1911)
• Hamilton (1917)
• Show Boat (1927)
• The Threepenny Opera (1928)
• Of Thee I Sing (1931)
• Miss Liberty (1949)
• South Pacific (1950)
• Call Me Madam (1950)
• The King and I (1952)
• The Pajama Game (1955)
• Candide (1957)
• West Side Story (1958)
• Fiorello! (1960)
• The Sound of Music (1960)
• Fiddler on the Roof (1965)
• Man of La Mancha (1966)
• Cabaret (1967)
• 1776 (1969)
• Hair (1969)
• Jesus Christ Superstar (1971)
• Shenandoah (1975)
• Chicago (1976)
• 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (1976)
• Evita (1980)
• Sarafina! (1988)
• The Who's Tommy (1993)
• Rent (1996)
• Bring in 'da Noise/Bring in 'da Funk (1996)
• Ragtime (1998)
• Parade (1998)
• Urinetown The Musical (2001)
• Wicked (2004)
• Assassins (2004)
• Caroline, or Change (2004)
• The Color Purple (2006)
• Grey Gardens (2007)
• The Scottsboro Boys (2010)
• Hamilton (2015)

Comic strips

• Pogo
• Bloom County
• Doonesbury
• Opus
• Outland
• Pearls Before Swine

See also

• Assassinations in fiction
• Political fiction
• Proletarian literature

External links

• Political Film Society