Tetralogy

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A tetralogy is a compound work that is made up of four (numerical prefix tetra-) distinct works. Compare to a trilogy; made up of three works.

The name comes from the Attic theater, where tetralogies were meant to be played in one sitting at the Dionysia. In more recent times, Shakespeare wrote two tetralogies, the first consisting of the three Henry VI plays and Richard III, and the second consisting of Richard II, the two Henry IV plays, and Henry V. Richard Wagner's "Der Ring des Nibelungen"(The Ring of the Nibelung) - "The Ring Cycle" - is also referred to as a tetralogy.

The word "tetralogy" is not commonly used in the marketing of collections of works. An invented term quadrilogy has also been used, basing the prefix on Latin prefix quadri- instead of the Greek prefix. The Alien and Die Hard series have also been released in sets under the title The Alien Quadrilogy(The films for which the term was coined) and The Die Hard Quadrilogy.

Contents 1 Famous tetralogies 1.1 Literary works 1.2 Movies 1.3 Music 1.4 Video games 1.5 Historical works 2 See also

[edit] Famous tetralogies

[edit] Literary works

In literature, the term Tetralogy has also been applied to novels, plays, and poetry, such as:

• A. S. Byatt's Frederica Quartet (The Virgin in the Garden, Still Life, Babel Tower and A Whistling Woman)
• Claude Royet-Journoud's Le Renversement, La Notion d'Obstacle, Les Objects contiennent l'infini, and Les Natures indivisibles (poetry published between 1972 and 1997)
• Christopher Paolini's Inheritance Cycle
• E. E. Smith's Skylark series
• Ford Madox Ford's Parade's End
• Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun and Book of the Long Sun
• Harry Turtledove's Settling Accounts
• Henry de Montherlant's Les Jeunes Filles
• John Updike's Rabbit series (Rabbit, Run; Rabbit Redux; Rabbit is Rich, Rabbit at Rest) There is also (Rabbit Remembered), the fifth part of "Rabbit..." series.
• Jonathan Bayliss's Gloucesterman
• L. Frank Baum's Ozma of Oz, Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, The Road to Oz, and The Emerald City of Oz.
• Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet
• Maggie Furey's Artefacts of Power
• Paul Scott's Raj Quartet
• Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series
• Tamora Pierce's The Song of the Lioness
• Terry Brooks's The Heritage of Shannara quartet
• T. H. White's The Once and Future King
• Thomas Harris's Hannibal Lecter quartet
• Thomas Mann's Joseph and His Brothers
• Yaşar Kemal's İnce Memed
• William Shakespeare's sequence of history plays: Richard II; Henry IV, Part 1; Henry IV, Part 2; Henry V (major tetralogy) and Henry VI, Part 1, Henry VI, Part 2, Henry VI, Part 3, Richard III (minor tetralogy)
• Sergei Lukyanenko's Watch series
• S. M. Stirling's Emberverse series (Dies the Fire, The Protector's War, A Meeting at Corvallis)
• Yukio Mishima's The Sea of Fertility

[edit] Movies

• Alien Quadrilogy
• Die Hard series
• Indiana Jones franchise
• Jaws
• Lethal Weapon
• Rambo
• Rebuild of Evangelion
• Scary Movie
• Superman
• The Karate Kid
• Tremors
• Terminator
• Home Alone

[edit] Music

• Coheed and Cambria's The Amory Wars concept albums.
• Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, a series of four epic music dramas.
• Thrice's The Alchemy Index Vols. I & II and The Alchemy Index Vols. III & IV
• Planisphere (Parts 1, 2, 3, and Final) by Justice. For more info, see Justice discography

[edit] Video games

• Devil May Cry (series)
• .hack//Games
• Metal Gear Solid (series)
• Metroid (series) The original Metroid series, not the Prime Sub Trilogy or the spinoffs
• Monkey Island
• Persona
• Phantasy Star (original series, Phantasy Star Online and its sequels do not count)
• Wario Land
• Chzo Mythos

[edit] Historical works

• A History of the English-Speaking Peoples by Winston Churchill.

[edit] See also

Look up Tetralogy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Heptalogy
• Sequel
• Trilogy