Heptalogy

A heptalogy (from Greek ἑπτα- hepta-, "seven" and -λογία -logia, "discourse") is a compound literary or narrative work that is made up of seven distinct works.^[1] Whilst not in wide usage, it has been used to describe such examples as the Harry Potter series of books.^[2]

Examples

Heptalogy	Dates	Author
The Cycle of Life[3]		Edward Maryon
In Search of Lost Time[4]	1913–1927	Marcel Proust
The Chronicles of Narnia[5]	1949–1954	C. S. Lewis
Le Livre des questions (The Book of Questions)[6]	1963–1973 (1976–1984 in English)	Edmond Jabès
Narratives of Empire[7]	1967–2000	Gore Vidal
Licht[8]	1977–2003	Karlheinz Stockhausen
Tomorrow series[9]	1993–1999	John Marsden
Harry Potter[2]	1997–2007	J. K. Rowling
Septimus Heap	2005–2013	Angie Sage
Bunnicula	1979–2006	James Howe

Film Heptalogy	Dates	Author
Police Academy Movie Franchise	1984 - 1994	New Line Cinema Warner Bros.
Star Wars Movie Franchise	1977 - 2015	Lucas Arts Warner Bros.

Planned heptalogy	Dates	Author
Luther[10]	1613–1630	Martin Rinkart
Eugene Gant[11]	1935–1941	Thomas Wolfe
The Ages of Man[12]	1956	Thornton Wilder
Seven Dreams: A Book of North American Landscapes	1994-20??	William T. Vollmann
The Children of Kronos[13]	1987–1991	Alexandros Kotzias
Heptalogía de Hieronymus Bosch[14]	1997-2006	Rafael Spregelburd
A Song of Ice and Fire[15]	1996–20??	George R. R. Martin

See also

• Trilogy
• Tetralogy

References

1. "77 things about the #7". The Canberra Times. January 2, 2007. p. A6. A series of seven works of art is called a heptalogy. In the case of films, Harry Potter and The Chronicles of Narnia (both to be completed), are examples.
2. • Chris Leadbeater (October 20, 2007). "Hooray for half-term!". Daily Mail. p. 68. This two-man stage show [Potted Potter] squashes the heptalogy into 60 frenetic minutes.
   • Robert McCrum (July 22, 2007). "The Hallows, and then the goodbyes: Tolkien it isn't, but J K Rowling's latest marks a triumphant literary achievement". The Observer. p. 17. The completion of this world-shaking heptalogy is something close to a triumph.
   • "Rowling tops revenue list". The Bookseller. January 25, 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-09.
3. • "Section 3". Musical News and Herald 46: 610. January–June 1914. So he has written his heptalogy, the titles of the dramas being "Lucifer", "Cain", "Magdalen", "Krishna", "Christos", "Psyche", and "Nirvana"" The title of the whole is The Cycle of Life...
   • "Edward Maryon". The Musical Times 95 (1333): 152. March 1954. ... his magnum opus being 'The Cycle of Life', a heptalogy ....
4. Michael Wright (January 2, 2000). "The Marcel wave". The Times. The pressure to read Proust is felt in different ways. Sir Richard Eyre ... confesses that he was shamed into reading the mighty heptalogy by Alan Bennett.
5. • Alan Farrell (2007). High Cheekbones, Pouty Lips, Tight Jeans. p. 227. ...while Lewis confected a heptalogy ... about the fictitious and snow-shrouded land of Narnia....
   • Michael Ward. Planet Narnia. The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C.S. Lewis. p. 13. Charles Wrong ... reports Lewis as adding, "I had to write three volumes, of course, or seven, or nine. Those are the magic numbers."
6. Walter Stauss, review of Warren F. Motte jr., Questioning Edmond Jabès (1990), in Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature 46:1/2 (1992), p. 99.
7. Fred Inglis (November 4, 2000). "News as history: history as fiction". Financial Times Books. p. 5. This is the final volume of Vidal's astonishing heptalogy, Narratives of Empire....
8. • Juan María Solare (July 2000). "Face to face with Stockhausen". Tempo 2 (213): 20–22. doi:10.1017/s0040298200007828. ISSN 0040-2982. The heptalogy LICHT (Light) is a cycle of seven operas....
   • Stoianova, Ivanka; Kohl, Jerome (Winter 1999). "And Dasein becomes music: some glimpses of Light". Perspectives of New Music 37 (1): 179–212. doi:10.2307/833631. JSTOR 833631. Since 1977, the year which marks the beginning of the composition of the heptalogy Licht....
9. School Library Association of New Zealand Aotearoa Newsletter 11, December 2003, p. 9. ISSN 1175-5555. .
10. Albert Freybe (1911). "Rinckart (Rinkart), Martin". In Samuel Macauley Jackson. The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge 10. Funk & Wagnalls Company. p. 41. Retrieved 2008-02-09. A third drama, the Indulgentiarius confusus, was written..., forming the third part of the author's intended heptalogy on Luther.
11. Willard Thorp (1960). American Writing in the Twentieth Century. Harvard University Press. p. 174. Here was stuff, not for a naturalistic trilogy but for a heptalogy! In the four novels which stand complete and in the fragment of a fifth (The Hills Beyond, 1941), Wolfe took one hero, Eugene Gant....
12. "Short List". The Village Voice. May 18, 1999. Thornton Wilder left this heptalogy of one-acts unfinished at his death in 1975
13. Michael Moschos (September 25, 1992). "Obituary: Alexandros Kotzias". The Independent Gazette. p. 31. He completed four in this projected "heptalogy" under the general title "The Children of Kronos"
14. • James Woodall (February 16, 2004). "F.I.N.D. Schaubuhne, Berlin". Financial Times Arts. p. 8. Argentine Rafael Spregelburd's Stupidity, the fourth in the Hieronymus Bosch Heptalogy series, is a sprawling farce....
    • "Casa awards start the literary party in Cuba". Cuba Headlines. January 12, 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-09.
15. "New ‘Game of Thrones’ Trailer; Exclusive Preview on April 3rd". Screen Rant. March 7, 2011. Retrieved 2011-08-08. |