prillalar | It takes two.

I've been thinking about identical twins in literature and I decided to make a list. There's no real point to it, except that I think there's a higher than usual number of redheads among them.

Tom and Pat Bartlett
Time For the Stars by Robert Heinlein
Hair: Not sure, but not red

Castor and Pollux Stone
The Rolling Stones by Robert Heinlein
Hair: Red, I believe

Sandy and Dennys Murray
A Wrinkle in Time interalia by Madeleine L'Engle
Hair: No idea. In fact, I'm not even sure they're identical.

Elladan and Elrohir, sons of Elrond
Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
Hair: Dark

Brent and Stuart Tarleton
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Hair: Red

Fred and George Weasley
Harry Potter books by JK Rowling
Hair: Red

Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield
Sweet Valley High sort of by Francine Pascal
Hair: Blonde
And they were the only girls I could think of.

Who did I miss? Looking for identical twins here, so please don't bring up the Bobbsey Twins.

[Edited to correct spelling of "Bobbsey"]
[Edited again to correct factual error that nobody called me on]

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I'm pretty sure that Sandy and Dennys had red -- oh, no, wait, maybe that was Calvin. Somebody was gangly and redhaired.

Never mind.

Bobbsey. {g}

So do Mary-Kate and Ashley count? {eg}

I do think Sandy and Dennys are idents. And their hair may be chestnut... it's been a while since I read Many Waters.

Do Laz and Lor count? Heinlein, redheads, girls.

Yeah, Calvin had the red hair. And d'oh! about the spelling error. I've edited.

You dare mention Mary-Kate and Ashley? You will feel my wrath! After I finish up on my other work.

Aieeeee! I'd been trying to scrub that particular Heinlein novel out of my brain. But, yes, they count.

So Heinlein is like the Twin Champion or something. I wonder what that's about.

This is going to be so unhelpful....

I read a book that I checked out of the library that was about a strange family with a pair of identical twin boys and their weird gay uncle, but I can't remember the title or the author, only that he was French and the book was translated. The twins were named Jean and Paul, often called Jean-Paul because no one could tell them apart, including apparently themselves sometimes. It was very philosophical and French and I loved it and wish I could remember more about it.

Weren't Cor and Corin in C.S. Lewis's "A Horse And His Boy" identical twins?

Which also brings to mind "The Prince and the Pauper" but I forget any sort of details about that one.

Mark Twain's "Puddinhead Wilson" but I don't know if they were identical.

"Puddn'head Wilson" features twins, but they aren't identical. One is fair and one is dark. They were originally Siamese twins.

Weren't Cor and Corin in C.S. Lewis's "A Horse And His Boy" identical twins?

Yes! I can't believe I forgot them. I think they were blond.

The Prince and the Pauper were just freakishly identical, not related at all.

Kit and Evelyn Fancot
False Colours by Georgette Heyer
"locks more chestnut than gold" - male

And how about Shakespeare's "A Comedy of Errors"?

So Heinlein is like the Twin Champion or something. I wonder what that's about.

Kinky sex fantasy? Desire to merge with the One?

Deety Carter and Libby Long (in hir girl form) were supposed to be as alike as twins, so were Jill and Dawn from Stranger in a Strange Land but that was due to mystical cosmetic surgery.

I just know too much about Heinlein novels, don't I?

Time Enough for Love? That's one of the Heinlein novels I *don't* regret reading, along with Number of the Beast and I Will Fear No Evil. To Sail Beyond the Sunset.... *shudder*

You know, so long as I read one Heinlein (talking about his adult novels here), I'm good. But if I read more than one at once, it just starts to get creepy. He had some rather odd ideas.

I like the way his textual attitude to male homosexuality changed from negataive in Stranger (begun in the 40s), "those poor inbetweeners", to his later positive 80s novels where he allowed that a man would manfully stand by his co-husband between the sheets while his subtext was always pro. Or what else would you call a father figure urging one man to go back and get it on with his naked friend and his naked friend's naked wife in the name of courtesy?

Just me, then?

I don't think I've ever read his novels in close to chronological order, so that never occurred to me. Good point, though. :)

Robert A Heinlein: closet slasher.

Two girls, whose names I don't offhand remember, in Sheri Tepper's The Gate To Women's Country. I don't think hair color was mentioned.

The Belmonte boys in The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Kay. Don't remember hair color, but I think dark.

Both of those pairs did have weird psychic things going on, though.

Callista and Ellemir in Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Spell Sword, redheads. Although that was par for the course in Darkover.

Tepper girls: Kostia and Tonia.
Kay boys: Diego and Fernan.

The only set I can think of that hasn't already been mentioned is Maharet and Mekare in the Vampire Chronicles - The Witching Hour, specifically. More redheads. *g*

Niles and Holland in The Other, by Tom Tryon, I read the book before the movie came out in 72-- they are tow-headed in the book and movie.

Weren't there twins on Full House? Ooops, never mind.... (g)

I am ~~stalking Hal~~ just wandering through, and my freakish love-hate obsession with the Olsen twins compels me to say that they actually played one character on Full House becasue of child labor regulations and such things.

Other twins in literature: Marilyn and Carolyn Arnold in the BSC series, and Anna and Abby Stevenson, also from the BSC. I think Marilyn and Carolyn have red hair, but that's just from my memory of the cover illustration. Anna and Abby have "dark, curly hair."

Anne Shirley was surrounded by twins her entire life, but never identical, if I recall correctly. See Davy & Dora and Nan & Diana. Oh, wait, their landladies while they were at university "Were born identical twins," but at age sixty, they stopped, when one "grew old, none too gracefully, and the other stayed sixty, less gracefully still." They, naturally, had white hair when Anne knew them.

There are identical baby twins in Lois Lowry's Switcheroo.

I don't know the color of the twins' hair in the original Parent Trap, but in the remake, they had red hair.

Do we know whether Padma and Pavarti are identical or not?

In both the Parent Trap versions, the 'twins' were played by a single individual, Hayley Mills (very blonde) in 61 and Lindsay Lohan (the red head) in 98. It was the 61 movie that gave television the split screen technology that allowed Patty Duke (ash brown) to play identical cousins Patty & Cathy in 63. Another example of that is Dead Ringer with Jeremy Irons.

I don't recall Padma and Parvati being twins, but I could have been imparting my own interpretation. They are not portrayed by twins in Goblet of Fire.

Yes, I do recall that the twins in both Parent Traps were played by the same actor.

"Moon"..., "Nott"..., "Parkinson"..., then a pair of twin girls, "Patil" and "Patil" (SS 121) Dunno if they're ident, but definately twins. (And if Harry knows they're twins, isn't it probable that they're identical?

Parvati & Padma are identical, yes. From GoF:

"Brothers and sisters usually go in the same Houses, don't they?" [Harry] said. He was judging by the Weasleys, all seven of whom had been put into Gryffindor.

"Oh no, not necessarily," said Hermione. "Parvati Patil's twin's in Ravenclaw, and they're identical. You'd think they'd be together, wouldn't you?"

It takes two.

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Aha

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here's another

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Parent Trap

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