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Why are so many fictional characters named Anna (or a variant), and what does this signify? The startling prevalence of Hannah/Anna/Anne moves from biblical literature (Old Testament Hannah and New Testament St. Anne) to classics (Anna Karenina and Anne Elliot) to popular fiction (Anna Dunlop in Sue Miller's The Good Mother), children's literature (Anne of Green Gables), films (Hannah and Her Sisters), and horror (Annie Wilkes in Stephen King's Misery). Does this represent a conscious or unconscious search for the ultimate or missing mother harking back to mythical and religious traditions?

Here twenty-two essayists--literary scholars, writers, historians, classicists, feminist theorists--rise to the challenge, examining Annas in individual literary works or making intriguing connections. Universals and particulars are sorted out as the related names and themes cross time, culture, gender, and racial borders. In the process, much new and fascinating literary criticism is revealed about dozens of authors, including Anthony Trollope, John Berryman, Sean O'Faolain, Edith Wharton, Elizabeth Bowen, Anne Sexton, Arnold Bennett, Doris Lessing, Tillie Olsen, Toni Morrison, Gwendolyn Brooks, Mona Simpson, Mary Lavin, and, yes, Sigmund Freud.