Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site caip.RUTGERS.EDU
Path: utzoo!lsuc!pesnta!amd!amdcad!lll-crg!caip!winalski%tle.DEC
From: winalski%tle.DEC@decwrl.DEC.COM
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: trilogies and other multi-volume works
Message-ID: <811@caip.RUTGERS.EDU>
Date: Sun, 22-Dec-85 11:58:27 EST
Article-I.D.: caip.811
Posted: Sun Dec 22 11:58:27 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 24-Dec-85 04:42:25 EST
Sender: daemon@caip.RUTGERS.EDU
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
Lines: 18

From: winalski%tle.DEC@decwrl.DEC.COM  (Paul S. Winalski)


Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary defines 'trilogy' as follows:

	a series of three dramas or sometimes three literary or
	musical compositions that although each is in one sense
	complete are closely related and develop a single theme

By this definition, neither THE LORD OF THE RINGS nor THE BOOK OF THE
NEW SUN is a trilogy or tetralogy.  Rather, these are single stories
published in multiple volumes.  The individual volumes of LOTR cannot
stand alone as complete stories.

On the other hand, the Xanth books, the Riverworld series, and the Hitchhikers
tetralogy *do* fit the definition.

--PSW