Tetralogy

For the congenital heart condition, see Tetralogy of Fallot

A tetralogy is a compound work that is made up of four (numerical prefix ) distinct 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.

In modern times, the term has also been applied to novels, such as:

Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet
Ford Madox Ford's Parade's End
Henry de Montherlant's Les Jeunes Filles
Yukio Mishima's Sea of Fertility
Harry Turtledove's Settling Accounts
Thomas Mann's Joseph and His Brothers

The 20th Century Fox marketing team coined the synonym "quadrilogy" for the release of their Alien DVD box set The Alien Quadrilogy. This uses the Latin numerical prefix quadri-/quadr- instead of the usual Greek e.g. Tri- for Trilogy.

Tetralogy

See also