Works & People

A list of all the literary works and historical figures that inspired Red Dead Redemption 2. For more details, visit the Table of Contents or TL;DR. Allusions that are less certain are listed in the “Probable” and “Possible” sections. This list is still in progress. Last updated 9/29/25.

Allusions

Poetry

• Alighieri, Dante: The Inferno
• Anonymous: “King Arthur and King Cornwall”
• Alfred, Lord Tennyson: Idylls of the King
• Alfred, Lord Tennyson: “The Lady of Shalott”
• Marvell, Andrew: “On Paradise Lost”
• Milton, John: Paradise Lost
• Milton, John: Paradise Regained
• Shakespeare, William: “Sonnet 18”
• Shelley, Percy Bysshe: “Ozymandias”
• Shelley, Percy Bysshe: “Peter Bell the Third”

Drama

• Lord Byron: Cain: A Mystery
• Congreve, William: The Mourning Bride
• Ibsen, Henrik: Hedda Gabler
• Shakespeare, William: Hamlet
• Shakespeare, William: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
• Shakespeare, William: Richard III
• Shakespeare, William: Romeo and Juliet
• Shakespeare, William: The Tempest
• Shakespeare, William: The Winter’s Tale
• Tourneur, Cyril; or Thomas Middleton: The Revenger’s Tragedy

Fiction

• Anonymous: Mort Le Roi Artu
• Anonymous: The Quest of the Holy Grail
• Anonymous; various: The Mabinogion
• Beecher, Henry Ward: Pleasant Talk About Fruits, Flowers and Farming
• Brand, Max: Destry Rides Again
• Brontë, Emily: Wuthering Heights
• Chrétien de Troyes: “The Story of the Grail”
• Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan: Sherlock Holmes
• Eidson, Thomas: St. Agnes’ Stand
• Faulkner, William: Absalom, Absalom! and The Sound and the Fury
• Hall, Oakley: Warlock
• Irving, Washington: “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”
• Irving, Washington: “Rip Van Winkle”
• Lee, Harper: To Kill a Mockingbird
• Lippard, George: The Mysteries of Florence (also published as The Ladye Annabel)
• London, Jack: The Call of the Wild
• Ludlow, Fitz Hugh: The Heart of the Continent
• Malory, Sir Thomas: Le Morte Darthur
• McCarthy, Cormac: Blood Meridian, or The Evening Redness in the West
• Mitchell, Margaret: Gone with the Wind
• Polidori, John William: “The Vampyre”
• Rowling, J.K.: Harry Potter
• Shelley, Mary: Frankenstein
• Smith, Wallace: Prodigal Sons: The Violent History of Christopher Evans and John Sontag
• Twain, Mark: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• Williams, John: Butcher’s Crossing

Mythology

• The Bible:
  • Genesis
  • Deuteronomy
  • Ruth
  • Kings
  • Job
  • Song of Solomon (or Song of Songs)
  • Isaiah
  • Jeremiah
  • Hosea
  • Amos
  • Micah
  • Matthew
  • John
  • Revelation
• Greek myths:
  • Acrisius and Proetus
  • Bacchus and the Bacchae
  • Cassandra
  • The Elysian fields
  • Hera
  • Orpheus
  • Prometheus
  • Sisyphus
  • The Trojan War, inc. Helen, Achilles, Hector

Philosophy

• Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics
• Nietzsche, Friedrich: The Gay Science

Visual Art

• Bierstadt, Albert: Deer at Sunset
• Bierstadt, Albert: Estes Park, Colorado
• Bierstadt, Albert: Evening on Oneida Lake
• Bierstadt, Albert: The Fishing Fleet
• Bierstadt, Albert: Landscape with Sawmill on the Northern California Coast
• Bierstadt, Albert: Sunrise Over Forest and Grove
• Bierstadt, Albert: Sunset, Deer and River
• Bierstadt, Albert: Wapiti
• Bierstadt, Albert: Yosemite Valley
• Collier, John: Maenads
• Kemble, E. W.: Illustrations for Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

People

Outlaws, Gunfighters, & Associates

• Contant, George
• Evans, Chris
• Evans McCullough, Evelyn
• Evans, Molly
• James, Jesse
• James, Frank
• Morrell, Ed
• Sontag, John
• Younger, Cole

Writers

• Byron, George Gordon (Lord)
• Miller, Joaquin
• Plato
• Thoreau, Henry David
• Trollope, Anthony

Other People Associated with the Romantic Movement

• Byron, Anne Isabella (Lady)
• Trelawny, Edward John

Artists & Scientists

• Anning, Mary
• Bierstadt, Albert

Other

• Barnes, Joseph K. (M.D.)
• Huntington, Collis P.
• The Heaven’s Gate cult
• Moffat, Geraldine