Editing Absalom (section)

===Fiction===
* In the 1946 short story "Absalom" by [[C.L. Moore]] and [[Henry Kuttner]], the character Absalom is a [[child prodigy]], who does non-consensual brain surgery on his father (a former child prodigy, though not as intelligent as his son) to make the father totally focused on Absalom's success. This relates to the Biblical story of the son usurping his father.{{sfn|Webster|n.d.|p=}}{{sfn|Moore|Kuttner|2012|p=10}}
* [[Georg Christian Lehms]], ''Des israelitischen Printzens Absolons und seiner Prinzcessin Schwester Thamar Staats- Lebens- und Helden-Geschichte'' (''The Heroic Life and History of the Israelite Prince Absolom and his Princess Sister Tamar''), novel in [[German language|German]] published in [[Nuremberg]], 1710.{{sfn|Goosen |1999|p=26}}
* ''[[Absalom, Absalom!]]'' is a novel by [[William Faulkner]], and refers to the return of the main character [[Thomas Sutpen]]'s son.{{sfn|Urgo|Polk|2010|p=xi}}
* ''Oh Absalom!'' was the original title of [[Howard Spring]]'s novel ''My Son, My Son!'', later adapted for [[My Son, My Son!|the film]] of the latter name.{{sfn|Lennox|2010|p=62}}
* ''[[Cry, the Beloved Country]]'' by [[Alan Paton]]. Absalom was the name of Stephen Kumalo's son in the novel. Like the Biblical Absalom, Absalom Kumalo was at odds with his father, the two fighting a moral and ethical battle of sorts over the course of some of the novel's most important events. Absalom kills and murders a man, and also meets an untimely death.{{sfn|Jeffrey|1992|p=14}}
* Throughout [[Robertson Davies]]'s ''[[The Manticore]]'' a comparison is repeatedly made between the protagonist's problematic relations with his father and those of the Biblical Absalom and King David. Paradoxically, in the modern version, it is the rebellious son who has the first name "David". The book also introduces the term "Absalonism", as a generic term for a son's rebellion against his father.{{sfn|Lennox|2010|p=62}}
* Absalom appears as a prominent character in [[Peter Shaffer]]'s play ''Yonadab'', which portrays Amnon's rape of Tamar and his murder at Absalom's hands.{{sfn|MacMurraugh-Kavanagh|1998|p=74}}
* A scene in the Swedish writer [[Frans G. Bengtsson]]'s historical novel "[[The Long Ships]]" depicts a 10th Century Christian missionary recounting the story of Absalom's rebellion to the assembled Danish court, including the aging King [[Harald Bluetooth]] and his son [[Sweyn I of Denmark|Sweyn Forkbeard]]; thereupon, King Harald exclaims "Some people can learn a lesson from this story!", casting a meaningful glance at his son Sweyn—whom the King (rightly) suspects of plotting a rebellion.{{sfn|Anon|1988|p=30}}
* In the novel ''The Book of Tamar'' by Nel Havas, the story of Absalom is presented from the viewpoint of his sister. While closely following the main events as related in the Bible, Havas concentrates on the motives behind Absalom's actions, which Havas presents as more complex than depicted in the scriptures.
* In the novel ''Ender's Shadow'' by Orson Scott Card, the main character Bean invokes the quote to give solace to the kamikaze pilots Ender had unknowingly sent to their deaths to defeat the Formics.
*The role played by luxuriant hair in the death of Absalom is referenced to telling effect in the ghost story [[The Diary of Mr Poynter]] by master of the genre [[M.R. James]]. The ghost in question is that of dissolute young nobleman Sir Everard Charlett, known to his [[University of Oxford|Oxford University]] cronies by the nickname Absalom, on account of his beautiful, long hair and [[Libertine|debauched]] lifestyle. Sir Everard has commemorated his flowing locks by the unusual expedient of having them portrayed in a [[wallpaper]] pattern, which later proves to have the power to summon his malign, hair-covered ghost - much to the horror of James's unfortunate [[protagonist]], Mr. James Denton.<ref name="ge">M. R. James, "The Diary of Mr. Poynter," in ''Collected Ghost Stories'', ed. Darryl Jones (Oxford UP, 2011).</ref>