Editing Doppelgänger (section)

===Literature===
[[Lord Byron]] uses doppelgänger [[imagery]] to explore the duality of human nature.<ref name="Burwick2011">{{cite book|first=Frederick|last=Burwick|title=Playing to the Crowd: London Popular Theatre, 1780–1830|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NRTGAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA83|date=8 November 2011|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-0-230-37065-4|pages=83–}}</ref>

In ''[[The Devil's Elixirs]]'' (1815), one of [[E. T. A. Hoffmann]]'s early novels, a man murders the brother and stepmother of his beloved princess, finds his doppelgänger has been sentenced to death for these crimes in his stead, and liberates him, only to have the doppelgänger murder the object of his affection.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hoffman|first= E. T. A.|title=The Devil's Elixers (English Translation)|location= London|publisher= T. Cadell, Publishers|year= 1829|url=https://archive.org/details/devilselixirfrom01hoffuoft/page/n3}}</ref>

In addition to describing the doppelgänger double as a counterpart to the self, [[Percy Bysshe Shelley]]'s drama ''[[Prometheus Unbound (Shelley)|Prometheus Unbound]]'' (1820) makes reference to [[Zoroaster]] meeting "his own image walking in the garden".<ref>''Prometheus Unbound'', lines 191–199</ref>
[[File:39 rackham poe williamwilson.jpg|thumb|upright|William Wilson and his doppelgänger, in Edgar Allan Poe's story (illustration by [[Arthur Rackham]])]]
In [[Edgar Allan Poe]]'s 1839 short story "[[William Wilson (short story)|William Wilson]]", the main character is followed by a doppelgänger his whole life, with it troubling him and causing mischief. Eventually the main character kills his doppelgänger, and realizes that the doppelgänger was only mirroring him. First published in 1839, the story was also included in his 1840 ''[[Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque]]''.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.liveabout.com/what-is-a-doppelganger-2593447 | title=What is a Doppelganger? }}</ref>

[[Fyodor Dostoyevsky]]'s 1846 novel ''[[The Double (Dostoevsky novel)|The Double]]'' presents the doppelgänger as an opposite personality who exploits the character failings of the protagonist to take over his life. [[Charles Williams (British writer)|Charles Williams]]' ''[[Descent into Hell (novel)|Descent into Hell]]'' (1939) has character Pauline Anstruther seeing her own doppelgänger all through her life.<ref>Charles Williams, ''Descent into Hell'', Faber and Faber</ref> [[Clive Barker]]'s story "Human Remains" in his ''[[Books of Blood]]'' is a doppelgänger tale, and the doppelgänger motif is a staple of [[Gothic fiction]].

In [[Vladimir Nabokov]]'s 1936 novel [[Despair (novel)|''Despair'']], the narrator and protagonist, Hermann Karlovich, meets a homeless man in Prague, who he believes is his doppelgänger.

[[Jorge Luis Borges]]' [[The Other (short story)|''The Other'']] (1972) has the author himself find that he's sitting on a bench with his older doppelgänger, and the two have a conversation.

In [[Bret Easton Ellis]]'s novel, ''[[Glamorama]]'' (1998), protagonist actor–model Victor Ward ostensibly has a doppelgänger that people mistake for Ward, often claiming to have seen him at parties and events Ward has no recollection of attending. At one point in the novel, Victor heads to Europe but reports of him attending events in the states appear in newspaper headlines. Victor's doppelgänger may have been placed by Victor's father, a United States senator looking to present a more intelligent and sophisticated replacement for his son that would improve his own image and boost his poll numbers for future elections. While the novel is narrated by Victor, various chapters are ambiguous, leading the reader to wonder if certain chapters are being narrated by the doppelgänger instead.

In [[Stephen King]]'s book ''[[The Outsider (King novel)|The Outsider]]'' (2018), the antagonist is able to use the DNA of individuals to become their near-perfect match through a science-fictional ability to transform physically. The allusion to it being a doppelgänger is made by the group trying to stop it from killing again. The group also discusses other examples of fictional doppelgängers that supposedly occurred throughout history to provide some context.

In [[Neil Gaiman]]'s novel ''[[Coraline]]'' (2002), the heroine meets up with improved look-alikes of her parents and all her neighbors when she enters the Other Mother's world.