60 pages • 2 hours read
Christopher PaoliniInheritance
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2003A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Literary Context: Young Adult Fantasy
Born in 1983, Christopher Paolini is an Italian American author of fantasy and science fiction who is best known for his Inheritance Cycle. The series comprises a main tetralogy that includes Eragon (2002), Eldest (2005), Brisingr (2008), and Inheritance (2011), as well as a collection of short stories set in the same universe called The Fork, the Witch, and the Worm (2018) and a spin-off novel based on a secondary character, Murtagh, published in 2023. Although Eragon would go through several drafts and a self-published edition before it was finally picked up by Random House, Paolini first began writing The Inheritance Cycle at the age of 15. The tetralogy has received several awards and nominations and garnered popularity among its young-adult audience despite mixed reviews at the time of its original publication.
Paolini’s work relies heavily upon tropes and plot patterns from the works of classic epic fantasy authors such as J.R.R. Tolkien, Ursula K. Le Guin, Frank Herbert, Raymond E. Feist, and 
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