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First-Person Peripheral Narrator: Difference between revisions
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* Weirdly, Lockwood and Nelly in ''[[Wuthering Heights (novel)|Wuthering Heights]]''. The main story (about Cathy, Heathcliff, Edgar and that lot) is being told to Lockwood - an outsider to the area - by Nelly, a servant whose active role in the story varies a lot.
** Even more weirdly in the same novel, by Isabella, who writes a note about her time with Heathcliff later found by Nelly and recited from memory to Lockwood. Also, the contents of the entire novel are really Lockwood's diary. That's right—the reader reads a diary of a man who faithfully records lengthy monologues by a character who in turn faithfully relates a pages-long letter she herself read years ago. [[Lampshade Hanging]]?
* There are two main viewpoint characters in ''[[
** Originally Carrot was going to be the viewpoint character, but then Pratchett decided it would be more interesting to leave his thoughts out of the narrative, and shifted the viewpoint to Vimes. This ended up having [[Ensemble Darkhorse|very interesting results]]. In fact, in the entire series, there is exactly one page written from Carrot's point of view, even if the story is revolving around him. Sometimes the book spends some time on other characters' thoughts on what Carrot is thinking, because he's like a well: both extremely simple, and extremely deep.
* ''[[John Dies at the End]]'' is narrated by the titular John's best friend David, who, while quite interesting and conflicted and well-designed in general, is nothing compared to John's utter insanity. John is generally considered the protagonist.
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** Similarly, his short story ''[[The Door In The Wall]]'' is told by someone whose friend is seeking the titular door.
* Professor Arronax from [[Jules Verne]] novel ''[[Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea]]''. He is placed in the position of the First-Person Peripheral Narrator against his will by the main character (Captain Nemo) and escapes in the end.
* In ''[[The Mad
* Captain [[Alatriste]]'s squire Íñigo de Balboa, although Íñigo sometimes furthers some plots himself.
* Richard MacDuff in ''[[Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency]]'', whose main purpose is to be completely bewildered by title-character Dirk. In the second book, this device is abandoned, and it turns out Dirk himself is a lot more bewildered than he lets on.
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* Phineas is the First-Person Peripheral Narrator in ''John Halifax, Gentleman'', a Victorian novel by Dinah Craik.
* In ''[[The Master Of Ballantrae]]'', the story is told after all the important characters are dead by Mr. McKellar, the steward of the Durrisdeer estate, because he wants to set the record straight and clear the reputation of the late Lord Durrisdeer. McKelllar narrates the events he was present at in the first person, and his actions have some influence on the course of events, but he's not central.
* Tim Wynne Jones' short story [http://www.hapon.com/9pdf/kerdydickussty.pdf ''Save The Moon For Kerdy Dickus'']{{Dead link}} begins with the line "This is Ky's story."—Ky being a friend of the young narrator, and her story being about a Stranger who came to Ky's family's house one evening {{spoiler|and thought that they were aliens}}. The friend telling the story was not there for the main events of the story at all. The First-Person Peripheral Narrator perspective is effective here because, as the narrator says flat out in the first paragraph, "In this story, the way things look is really important," and the fact that the narrator is neither as familiar with those things as Ky nor as unfamiliar with them as the Stranger emphasizes the fact that this story is all about the perspective from which it's told.
* The ''[[Silverwing (novel)|Silverwing]]'' series' third book actually ''has'' a character named Ishmael, though he appears near the end of the story, isn't given much characterization, and [[Red Shirt|dies during the climactic battle]].
* Just about all of H.G. Wells' books, including the above-mentioned ''Island of Dr. Moreau'' and ''The Time Machine,'' fall prey to this. Perhaps the only novel to avert this is ''[[The War of the Worlds (novel)|The War of the Worlds]],'' where the unnamed narrator is the protagonist by default because no other major characters last for more than a handful of chapters or have any real motives or character development.
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* The viewpoint character in the archaeology segment of the [[Interactive Fiction]] work ''The Beetmonger's Journal'' is a textbook First-Person Peripheral Narrator; they're largely a complete cipher, and present primarily to chronicle the exploits of the more dynamic Lapot, and the ''other'' viewpoint character—the eponymous beetmonger—as dictated to them by Lapot from a journal they discovered.
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* In the musical ''[[Rent]]'', Mark is an aspiring filmmaker who passively observes the dramas and adventures of the rest of the cast while he films them. His role is to narrate to the audience and reflect on their situations.
* The Stage Manager from ''[[Our Town]]''.
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[[Category:Narrator Tropes]]▼
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▲[[Category:Narrator Tropes]]
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