The Bronze Mask presents an analysis of 51 famous protagonists from some of the finest and most enduring works of fiction predominantly novels over the past five hundred years. The characters from the novels selected are mainly those critiqued from famous British and American authors, although characters from authors of Canadian, Australian and New Zealander backgrounds are also included. 51 of fictions notable novels and a selection of their central characters (protagonists) from Chaucers The Wife of Bath of The Canterbury Tales in the fifteenth century to Cormac McCarthys Father and Son of The Road in the twenty-first century, are discussed, explained and critiqued. The Bronze Mask casts critical light upon the writers works, the characters they have created, and the critics who have read them. The arrangement of the chapters and vignettes is chronological, enabling similarities, differences, and narrative and characteristic developments to be traced. The Bronze Mask portrays continuities and departures, congruencies and anomalies in the development of the fictional character over the past 500 years, primarily from an Anglo-American perspective.