Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's Good Omens. Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.
Good Omens: Introduction
Good Omens: Plot Summary
Good Omens: Detailed Summary & Analysis
Good Omens: Themes
Good Omens: Quotes
Good Omens: Characters
Good Omens: Symbols
Good Omens: Theme Wheel
Brief Biography of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
Historical Context of Good Omens
Other Books Related to Good Omens
- Full Title: Good Omens
- When Written: 1988–1990
- Where Written: England
- When Published: 1990
- Literary Period: Contemporary
- Genre: Fantasy Novel; Humor Novel
- Setting: England
- Climax: Adam decides that he doesn’t want to bring about Armageddon and chooses to save the world instead
- Antagonist: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse; Hastur; Ligur
- Point of View: Third Person
Extra Credit for Good Omens
Isn’t it Ironic? Upon Pratchett’s death, he left Gaiman a letter asking him to continue working on a film adaptation of Good Omens. The result, Amazon’s 2019 limited series Good Omens, starred David Tennant as Crowley, Michael Sheen as Aziraphale, and Frances McDormand as the voice of God. Gaiman was delighted when its release spawned a petition from an American religious group asking Netflix—rather than Amazon—to cancel the show, which he saw as free publicity.
Comedy of Errors. The specific Bibles in Aziraphale’s collection of misprinted Bibles may be fictional, but there are a number of Bibles, known as Bible errata, with printing errors. Some of the most famous are the Printers Bible, which reads “Printers have persecuted me without a cause” instead of “Princes have persecuted me without a cause,” and the Wicked Bible. In addition to writing that God “shewed us his [...] great-asse” instead of “his greatnesse,” the Wicked Bible also changes the Seventh Commandment from “Though shalt not commit adultery” to “Though shalt commit adultery”—and the printers were fined for the mistakes.