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[[folder:Real Life Examples]]
* The German fairy tale ''Literature/TheBremenTownMusicians'' is particularly famous in Brazil, largely due to the adaptation and translation of the 1976 Italian theatre stage adaptation ''I Musicanti'' made by the famous Brazilian composer Chico Buarque two years later, who also added new songs. Under the translated name "Os Saltimbancos" [[note]]saltimbancos are itinerant performers who travel from town to town[[/note]], Chico Buarque's version of the play and the album released have become one of the greatest classics in Brazilian children's songs, being referenced and adapted in several Brazilian works, like in ''ComicBook/MonicasGang'', and even adapted to cinema through ''Film/OsSaltimbancosTrapalhoes''.
** ''The Bremen Town Musicians'' is also big in Japan, to the point where domestically-produced works have referenced the story, such as ''VideoGame/LoveLiveSchoolIdolFestival'' and a ''Anime/SailorMoon'' {{edutainment}} game.
* Most of Creator/HansChristianAndersen's fairytales are ironically more popular overseas than in his own country, Denmark.
** ''Literature/TheLittleMermaid'' became more popular in Japan than in his own country, Denmark, since Japanese storytellers actually love telling stories about Mermaids.
* Literature/TheLandOfStories book series written by Glee’s Chris Colfer is very popular in North America but it seems to be more significantly popular in Japan.
* The German fairytale ''Literature/TheWolfAndTheSevenYoungKids'' by Creator/TheBrothersGrimm is very popular in Japan, parts of Asia, Italy, France, Russia, and the Netherlands. However, the story is unknown and obscure in other countries ([[MainstreamObscurity mainly English speaking countries]]) compared to other stories by the Brothers Grimm.
** In Japan, the story has gotten a total of 4 anime adaptations, made between the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s. There's also [[https://i.imgur.com/wh6JCOh.jpg a children's book made by an unknown Japanese illustrator in the 80s that adapted the tale]], as well as a Japanese StopMotion short, ''Anime/MyLittleGoat'', which is a {{Grimmification}} of the story that takes place after the events of the original tale. Plays and theatrical productions based on the story are very common in Japanese schools. Japanese disaster prevention awareness foundation "Everyone's disaster prevention + Sonae" formed in 2016, [[PublicServiceAnnouncement even created a 4-minute anime adaptation on January 28, 2021]] (starring the foundation's two mascots as one of the goat children), [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iFkMjTwJik to raise awareness on potential disasters to parents and younger children.]]
** In the Netherlands, the story was given its own attraction at the Dutch theme park Ride/{{Efteling}}. In Efteling's version, one of the goat kids is given a name. The goat kid that is hiding in the clock while the other goats get eaten by the wolf is named [[https://www.efteling.com/nl/-/media/images/kids/karakters/sprookjesboom/profielen/700x610-zeven-geitjes-profiel.png?h=610&w=700&la=nl&hash=77D2B660255D8C0A34AAABEDE41B799D948E06C1 "Benjamin"]]. [[KidAppealCharacter Benjamin is also very popular with child guests]] that visit the park and shows up in various live shows as a puppet.
** In 1957, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRAJ90rQX4o an animated feature film was made in Russia]] based on the tale, with a few creative liberties since it was made during the Soviet era. There was even a [[LiveActionAdaptation live-action]] [[TheMusical musical adaptation]] from 1976 called ''Mama/Rock'n'Roll Wolf'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puHGVep9Mks which loosely adapted the story]] that was a [[InternationalCoProduction collaboration with Romania, France, and the Soviet Union.]]
* ''Literature/LittleRedRidingHood'' is also very popular in Japan with The Wolf and Little Red being frequently parodies or adapted in numerous Japanese media and children's shows. This story alongside ''The Wolf And The Seven Kids'' are extremely popular with Japanese audiences compared to Europe and the rest of the world. One of Creator/{{Sanrio}}'s most popular characters is a [[BunniesForCuteness female bunny]] named [[Anime/OnegaiMyMelody My Melody]], who originally started out as the company's version of "Little Red Riding Hood" before she became an actual character in 1976. When ever Sanrio decides to make an adaptation of the story, My Melody is usually chosen as the titular character.
* The series of children's novels ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'' became popular in Canada long before they were in the U.S., and they were significantly more popular there.
* A historical use would be the immense popularity of the ''Literature/ArabianNights'' in Europe and America after they were first translated. While not hugely ''un''popular in the Middle East, the tales that came into Western knowledge were often not of massive importance and were actually looked down upon at several points in history. The popularity of translations, however, soared through the roof, having a huge influence on European and American writers and accumulating devoted fans and even fan societies.
* France was the only place where Creator/PhilipKDick achieved much fame as something more than a cult writer, until the last few years of his life. Possibly because the themes of his stories tended to dovetail with the ideas of then-current French [[PostModernism postmodernist]] philosophy.
* Creator/GeorgeOrwell is still moderately respected and read in his native Britain, but fittingly, his works have become very popular in Burma (where he served as a civil servant with the British Imperial Police) Eastern European nations, and especially Spain (where he fought for the Republicans against the Nationalists during the country’s civil war). The latter got to a point where a street near the trenches he fought in was named after him not too long ago, with his adopted son present at the ceremony.
* Creator/StanislawLem is hugely popular in German intellectualist circles and his works are even part of many philosophy lessons at universities.
* Creator/EnidBlyton's "St Clares" series is hugely popular in Germany and has spawned TWENTY-ONE ghostwritten sequels which were published under the name Enid Blyton, as well as three movies. ''Mallory Towers'' is also extremely popular and has 12 ghostwritten sequels.
** The Famous Five is also popular in both Germany and France. There are ghostwritten sequels exclusive to both languages as well as a number of German film adaptions of the books. The original TV series was also co-produced with a German company.
* The ''[[WesternAnimation/NoddysToylandAdventures Noddy series]]'' (another Enid Blyton creation) is ''huge'' in France, where it's known as [[DubNameChange Oui-Oui]]. The country got a lot of merchandise and the various incarnations of the show air multiple times a day. There were actually two musical live shows based on ''Noddy In Toyland'' exclusively shown in France with the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcnzQXgo7k4 first being "Oui-Oui et le cadeau Suprise"]] ("Noddy And The Surprise Gift") from 2009 ([[MilestoneCelebration to celebrate the character's 60th Anniversary]]) complete [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xlCvVgilfk&list=OLAK5uy_mSlvaR-bnhtq3JNbW2o92Mf4iD5K-Jfhk&index=1 with its own album.]] The second was from 2013 called [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-jeIgdvCqk "Oui-Oui Et Le Grand Carnaval"]] ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_bnt_Dfxpc "Noddy And The Big Carnaval"]]) which also gained an album in France. The most recent incarnation of the show, ''Noddy: Toyland Detective'', was actually co-produced in France and [[ShortRunInPeru aired there before other parts of the world]] due to Noddy's massive popularity there. Noddy is so big there that it has beaten home-grown productions like ''Literature/{{Babar}}'' and ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}}'' in polls with parent and toddler participants in France. The original books sell about 600,000 copies annually in that country.
* ''Literature/{{Jennings}}'', a series of humorous English children's books set in a boarding school, was fairly successful in their native country but were (and are) overshadowed by the more famous ''Literature/JustWilliam'' stories by Richmal Crompton. They became hugely popular in Norway under the name ''Stompa''. The Norwegian translations of the books spawned four feature films and a radio sitcom series in the fifties and sixties. Reruns of the radio episodes are still being broadcast regularly, by popular demand.
* Given that there have been manga, anime, and video game adaptations of the Australian fantasy book series ''Literature/DeltoraQuest'', it must be mighty popular in Japan.
* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'':
** It became extremely popular in Sweden in the 1970s; so much that their national non-commercial TV made a film of the first half of ''Fellowship of the Ring'' (it was pretty bad, suffering from too much cheap blue-screen technology). Interestingly, the trilogy had already been translated in 1958 but spent the 1960s in relative obscurity -- the [[BlindIdiotTranslation infamously botched]] job Creator/AkeOhlmarks did probably didn't help.
** It became insanely popular in the late 90s in Russia, spurring a huge fan subculture and lots of fanfics, several of which were printed. Creator/NickPerumov, for example, debuted with one of those. Although this subculture has mostly faded through the last decade, Tolkien-themed [=LARPs=] are still among those with the most participants.
** Rather weirdly, the series (both [[Film/TheLordOfTheRings Peter Jackson films]] and the books) enjoyed brief popularity in UsefulNotes/{{Romania}} during [[TurnOfTheMillennium the early 2000s]] (while helped by a stroke of luck to arrive at the right moment when [[OurOrcsAreDifferent fantasy video games]] like ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'' were just at the pinnacle of their popularity) and [[InvertedTrope they were absolutely forgotten immediately after 2006]]. Eliminated from public life for good. No fan works, no blog posts, no comments, no jokes, no puns, no quotations. [[{{Unperson}} Wiped out like they never existed in the first place]]. ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'' reverted part of this and brought attention back on the franchise, as the show was relatively well received and was the most watched show during its run.
* The Spanish illustrated children's book series ''Literature/LosXunguis'' (which is reminiscent of ''Where's Waldo''/''Wally'' but is centered around aliens who cause mayhem all over) is much more well-known in Denmark (where it's called ''Flunkerne'') than in its native Spain. It even got to the point where four video games were exclusively released by Krea Medie in Denmark for PC and Nintendo DS between 2008 and 2010, and two Denmark-only entries in the book series (''Flunkerne i Danmark'' and ''Flunkernes Danmarkshistorie'') were released in 2016 and 2017 respectively!
* The Canadian novel ''Literature/AnneOfGreenGables'' is very popular in Japan. There's even an anime based on it (''Anime/AnneOfGreenGables1979''). The touristy areas of the real province of Prince Edward Island (where [=AoGG=] takes place) tend to have signs written in Japanese underneath English ones, also, because Japanese tourists are extremely common there.
* The Irish novelist Daren O'Shaughnessy AKA Creator/DarrenShan's horror works are apparently popular amongst female Japanese teenagers. Go figure. His vampire series even had a manga adaptation.
* ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_the_Steel_Was_Tempered How Steel Was Tempered]]'', a classic example of SocialistRealism, was removed from school syllabi as soon as the USSR kicked the bucket and quickly became passe in Russia. In China, it is still popular enough to warrant a miniseries (!).
* [[{{Creator/JackLondon}} Jack London]], for obvious reasons, was practically a hero in the Eastern Bloc and his popularity peaked during the Cold War. There is even [[http://siberiantimes.com/other/others/features/f0269-call-of-the-wild-the-beauty-of-jack-london-lake-in-eastern-russia/?comm_order= a lake]] named after him since 1932 in the Russian Far East.
* Frances Gordon (calling herself 'Bridget Wood') wrote a series of fantasy novels about psychic Celts and animal rape. It's mostly porn, gore, and {{Gorn}} with a generous helping of bestiality. In the Netherlands, the (badly) translated books were marketed as YA and became one of the most popular fantasy series for teens for a while. Gordon even dedicated one of the books to her teenage Dutch readers at one point.
* ''Literature/WarriorCats'':
** ''Warriors'' seems to be much more popular in America than in its author's home country of Britain, though that may be because the publisher is based in the US.
** There have actually been more books released in foreign languages than there have in the British editions.
** The books are quite popular in Taiwan, which translates the books rather quickly - the books come with trading cards there, and there's an official fan club, which gives them exclusive merchandise such as [[http://ext.pimg.tw/warriorcats/normal_4b148d5f54bbf.jpg?v=1259638118 mugs]].
** The series is also pretty popular in Germany, which has an official message board, is also translating the books at a rapid pace, has audiobooks, and is the only country outside the US (not counting a single day-long event in the UK) that has had the author tour there.
** After Nowa Baśń began publishing the series there in 2015, Warriors has found a large audience in Poland. It's so popular there that the Polish editions of the books have specially-illustrated covers that are regarded as being better than the American ones.
* Frank [=McCourt's=] autobiography ''Literature/AngelasAshes'' was better received in America (where it won a Pulitzer) than in Ireland, undoubtedly due to its less than glowing depiction of Limerick. Ironically, much of its international popularity was likely thanks to the late 90s surge in Hibernophilia.
* Austrian author Thomas Brezina is quite well known in his home country, but extremely popular in China (especially ''The Tiger Team''), where he managed not only to get into the Top 10 but at some point ''was'' the Top Ten -- yep, all of the ten most popular books were his ones.
* Israeli humourist Creator/EphraimKishon, while relatively well known in his home country, was (and to some extent still is) a huge name in Germany.
* Czech writer Creator/MilanKundera is hugely popular in Mexican intellectual circles. ''Literature/TheUnbearableLightnessOfBeing'' is rather common in some high school curricula over there. However, he is also hugely popular, widely discussed, and part of high school curricula in the Czech Republic. A scandal revealing his collaboration with the communist regime's secret police before he emigrated somewhat destroyed his reputation, though.
* British writer Anthony Horowitz's ''Literature/AlexRider'' series is popular in the United States (in a similar manner to the James Bond books as Alex Rider is basically a teen Bond) despite its British context, and spawned many imitations by writers from America and other countries.
* In 1872, a British author named "Ouida" (Marie Louise de la Ramee) published a book called ''Literature/ADogOfFlanders''. It's a sentimental TearJerker set in impoverished rural Flanders about a boy and his dog. It faded from memory rather fast and is now quite obscure in the Western world... but a Japanese diplomat loved it, brought it back to his home country, and now it's considered a classic of Western children's literature there. The novel even draws Japanese tourists to Belgium, and the city of Antwerp in particular, where they are moved to tears by the cathedral (it has to do with the notorious DownerEnding), leading Belgians to wonder ''what the heck is going on''. Like ''Anne of Green Gables'', the popularity of the novel among the Japanese has led to the production of not one, but '''THREE''' anime adaptations (one 52-episode anime, one 26-episode anime, and a movie)! This also fits under "Anime and Manga," since the anime adaptations are part of the reason the story is so popular. Heck, it's had fans [[http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/buried-treasure/2008-03-06/the-dog-of-flanders since 1908.]]
** ''A Dog of Flanders'' is also very popular in South Korea. Creator/BongJoonHo's debut feature film, ''Film/BarkingDogsNeverBite'', was actually titled ''A Dog of Flanders'' in the original Korean (플란다스의 개) as a BlackComedy ShoutOut to this book (the film is about a man who wants to kill his neighbor's MisterMuffykins).
* France really loves [[Creator/HPLovecraft Lovecraft]] and his Franchise/CthulhuMythos (and other similar authors, to a degree). A 3-DoorStopper omnibus of his entire collected writings is perennially reprinted since the 80s at least, and at any one time several publishers have a number of short story collections in print; for at least a decade (before Lovecraft's renewed popularity and the advent of Project Gutenberg) it was easier to find his books in French bookstores than in American ones. There's even a publisher, Nouvelles editions Oswald ([[FunWithAcronyms NeO for short]]), specializing in late 19th/early-to-mid 20th-century pulp authors, which runs collections of the works of Creator/ClarkAshtonSmith and Creator/RobertEHoward (also Creator/LordDunsany and Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs) that are long out of print (or rarely reprinted) in English. Strangely enough, this can be at least partly traced to the high popularity of the ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' role-playing in the hexagon (see the TabletopGames section), which made French geeks curious about the rest of Anglo-Saxon pulp literature.
** In Spain and Latin America The Myths of Cthulhu are still very popular, and Lovecraft novels and comics in Spanish continue to appear. Not only Lovecraft but also other writers like Robert Bloch or August Derleth are still read and occasionally reissued.
* Creator/EdgarAllanPoe has traditionally also been very popular in France, where he was taken seriously as a writer much earlier than in America. What their love for American horror writers says about the French is a topic for another day. His poetry was translated by Charles Baudelaire, one of their most eminent poets at a time when he was forgotten in America. Of course, he eventually achieved widespread popularity in both countries (and elsewhere), but only after his death. Poe's international fame even reached Russia, where Creator/FyodorDostoevsky (who as a Great Russian hated the West, and that included America), admired his writing and praised him as a great talent.
* Creator/KateDiCamillo's children's novel ''Literature/TheMiraculousJourneyOfEdwardTulane'' was elevated to bestseller status in South Korea. This elevation was helped by the [[KoreanDrama K-drama]] ''Series/MyLoveFromAnotherStar'', in which an ageless HumanAlien identifies with the book's protagonist.
* The Australian novel ''[[Literature/TheTomorrowSeries Tomorrow, When the War Began]]'' was selected by the Swedish government in 2000 as one of the books most likely to inspire a love of reading in young people, and financed its translation and distribution to every school-age child in Sweden. This trope was likewise [[AmericansHateTingle inverted]] with the cold reception that the books received when they were released in America.
* [[UsefulNotes/DichterAndDenker German philosopher Oswald Spengler's]] ''Literature/TheDeclineOfTheWest'' is popular among a small group of people (but consider that nowadays few people read Spengler in general) in Russia who like him because he predicted that in the future, a new culture might develop in Russia and bring the country (probably) to greatness.
* ''Literature/LesMiserables'' was extremely popular among Confederate soldiers during the UsefulNotes/AmericanCivilWar, due to their identification with the book's doomed rebellion. Some even took to calling themselves "Lee's Miserables". It's unknown if Creator/VictorHugo knew about it, but if he did he would likely be [[MisaimedFandom aghast]] since he was a vocal abolitionist, a supporter of the Union, and who had a written a letter to the American Government in support of John Brown's actions in Harper's Ferry.
* Brazilian author Paulo Coelho is quite popular in most places that are not Brazil.
* In America and Britain 'Literature/TheSecondComing' is ''by far'' the most famous work by Creator/WilliamButlerYeats. In his native Ireland it is no more famous than any of his other poems (possibly ''less'' so in fact as poems like 'Easter 1916' are more likely to be studied in school due to their historical content.)
* The ''[[Literature/TheMoomins Moomin]]'' series, written by Finnish author Tove Jansson, is highly popular in Japan, and has had several anime adaptations there. It is also a staple of children's reading in Russia.
* The self-help book ''[[http://www.amazon.com/Servant-Simple-Story-Essence-Leadership/dp/0761513698/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1349966752&sr=1-1&keywords=the+servant+james+hunter The Servant]]'' is hugely popular in Brazil. In the US, it sold 200.000, but in Brazil, it sold 2.4 million and it was on best-seller lists for at least two years.
* ''Literature/GoneWithTheWind'' (the book version; [[BannedInChina the movie is banned]]) has found a huge, huge audience in UsefulNotes/NorthKorea. Apparently, it's because North Koreans can relate to the themes of struggling to survive in the face of war, hunger, and deprivation. It also became very popular in post-UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Japan.
* ''Literature/TheHanSoloAdventures'' series was a big enough hit in Hungary to prompt four sequel novels to be written in Hungarian by local authors (although they are not official ''Legends'' installments due to the publishers not bothering to get copyright approval but lying to the authors that they had).
* [[Literature/TheLeatherstockingTales James Fenimore Cooper]], not least due to Creator/MarkTwain [[Literature/FenimoreCoopersLiteraryOffenses repeatedly panning him]], has somewhat gone out of fashion in his native United States, but in Europe, he still is regarded as one of the more important American authors. In the former Eastern bloc, academic study of American Lit contained and contains an amount of analysis and teaching about Cooper that astonishes many Americans. During his lifetime, Cooper was lionized in France (where he e. g. wrote ''Literature/TheLastOfTheMohicans'') and had a huge influence on European and specifically French writers, e. g. Balzac and Dumas ''Père''.
* [[http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/12/magazine/big-in-japan.html?_r=0 David Gordon]], a pretty unknown American writer, wrote a book called ''The Serialist'' in 2010. It was a modest success, winning the Edgar Award[[note]]An industry award for mystery writers.[[/note]] for Best First Novel. After a Japanese translation came out, he started winning Japanese literary awards. It became the #1 best-selling book there, titled "Niryuu Shousetsuka'', which means "Second-Rate Novelist". It got so big that they even made a movie adaptation. They invited him over for the screening and he was mobbed. He became so popular, that his Japanese publishers released the Japanese translation of his next book a month before its planned English release date. Supposedly, he became popular because of the book's perspective on women. The best part is, he was already an [[JustForFun/OneOfUs otaku!]]
* The Literature/{{Percy Jackson|AndTheOlympians}}-verse, especially with the SequelSeries ''Literature/TheHeroesOfOlympus'', has proven to be extremely popular in Brazil.
* Creator/NormanSpinrad's ''Little Heroes'' got a brief surge of popularity in [[TheNineties the early 1990s]] in UsefulNotes/{{Romania}} among teenagers and youngsters. In the [[WhyWeReBummedCommunismFell bleak atmosphere of poverty after the fall of Communism]], the appearance of the computer, Internet, and video games and their rejection by the older generation, they [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture found a version of the reality and near future]] they could relate to.
* The works of Irish author Creator/JamesJoyce, weirdly enough, are quite popular in China. Notably a translation of ''Literature/FinnegansWake'', a book that for many native English speakers might as well have been written in Chinese anyway, wound up selling out in no time flat. Joyce in his lifetime was quite controversial in Ireland at least until the '30s or so, and he was far more respected in Continental Europe and America.
* The ''Literature/VampireAcademy'' books have a huge fan base in Australia.
* The NordicNoir genre is huge in Britain and Germany.
* American series ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' is very popular in Europe, especially in Britain. This is largely due to being based on fantasy, which as a whole is more popular in Europe than in the US. This may be one of the reasons why Europeans dominate the casting in its adaptation ''Series/GameOfThrones'', which is also an American-made franchise.
* In contrast to publishers in the US and the UK, German publishers will often promote [[AustralianLiterature Australian books]] of various genres ''as'' Australian, relying on ‘brand Australia’ to create interest amongst German readers. This goes as far as the promotion of Australian literature as ‘quality literature’. Since the early 1980s, Australian romance authors writing about romance and love affairs in beautiful settings have been the most popular and economically successful Australian authors translated into German. Catherine Gaskin, Colleen [=McCullough=], and Tamara [=McKinley=] are examples of this. (An [[https://www.nla.gov.au/openpublish/index.php/jasal/article/viewFile/1478/2089 article]] available on the National Library of Australia website thoroughly analyses this phenomenon.)
* ''Literature/TheThreeInvestigators'' proved to be so popular in Germany that it was continued by a team of German authors long after the end of the original American series. As of 2020, the German ''Three Investigators'' series comprises more than 200 novels, some of which have even been translated into English.
* The English comedic novel "Literature/ThreeMenInABoat" was so popular in Russia that it became a standard part of the school curriculum even after the Soviets took over. Its popularity remained high enough that it was adapted for Soviet television - a rarity for a work by a western author.
* As noted in the movie section, the Italian novel series ''Fantozzi'' (detailing the struggles and misadventures of an Italian salaryman, brought up to eleven for comedic purposes) and [[Film/{{Fantozzi}} the movies adapted from it]] are wildly popular in the former Soviet Union since the ''Cold War''. Rather notable both for the timing and for using ''Film/TheBattleshipPotemkin'' for a ''massive'' TakeThat to wannabe intellectuals.
* Books by Creator/AstridLindgren, a Swedish children's writer, are a staple children's read in Russia. In fact, Russia (as noted by Website/TheOtherWiki) is the second largest producer of movies based on her works.
* French [[NewWeird weird fiction]] writer Serge Brussolo enjoyed great popularity in [[{{UsefulNotes/Romania}} Romania]] during [[TheNineties the 1990s]] and his books are in print there ever since.
* While Creator/HarryHarrison is fairly well-known in certain sci-fi circles in the US, he is much more well-known (even today) in Russian-speaking countries. There are even unauthorized sequels to some of his series being published by Russian authors that are never translated into English.
* [[Literature/TheTaleOfPeterRabbit Peter Rabbit]] created by Creator/BeatrixPotter is not only well-known in the United Kingdom, but is also very beloved in the United States and Canada since a couple of animated adaptations of the story were mostly made in the US over the past few decades while the UK made [[WesternAnimation/TheWorldOfPeterRabbitAndFriends two]] [[WesternAnimation/PeterRabbit animated adaptations]]. Even a musical adaptation was created in the US in 1991 as part of the [[{{Creator/HBO}} HBO Family]] series ''WesternAnimation/HBOStorybookMusicals'', which still airs on the channel to this day.
** Peter Rabbit is also intensely popular in Japan, with around 15,000 Japanese tourists traveling each year to Potter's home in Lake District, England. It’s popularity with Japanese tourists is such that The National Trust, who own the house, have made sure that all the information boards are written in both English and Japanese. In Japan, he's plastered all over baby goods and other products, but is still seen as acceptable for adults - illustrated in the fact that the Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking company has used him as a mascot for over 25 years, and has a 10-foot mural of the story in one of their buildings! However, he's very much perceived as a cute mascot character, with not many having actually read the story; some are "shocked" at reading how Peter's father was baked into a pie. Along those lines, not many of her other stories and characters are as well-known in Japan (or the U.S., for that matter).
* Shakespeare is and has almost always been a beloved poet and playwright in his native England, but German Shakespeare-craziness maybe even more insane. None other than Goethe (pretty much the most well-known German writer of all time) called Shakespeare the greatest genius ever. Some say the most famous translation of Shakespeare into German, that it actually improves upon the original. No theater in a major city can go without having Shakespeare on at least once every couple of years, and many replace a Shakespeare piece with a new Shakespeare piece when changing from season to season. The joke of Klingons considering their "Klingon original" better than the English version may or may not be an allusion to Shakespeare's popularity in Germany.
* Spanish people wishing to read about the UsefulNotes/SpanishCivilWar often prefer to read books written by foreigners, who are seen as less likely to be biased. One particularly notable example is ''The Battle for Spain'' (2006) by Antony Beevor. The Spanish edition was longer than the English edition, and was published earlier.
* ''Literature/{{Heidi}}'':
** ''Heidi'' has as big classic status in Germany as in its native Switzerland. It is also well-loved in Japan, due to the exoticness of the setting and the representation of the innocence of childhood. It is similarly huge in Italy, it's the third-best-selling book of all time there with over ''fifty million'' copies sold ("[[http://www.hitparadeitalia.it/cartoni/serie/heidi.htm only the Bible and Quran could do better]]").
** It is widely loved in Turkey, too.
* The entire genre of Western has at the very least undergone significant PopularityPolynomial in its native US, but in Germany, it gained popularity with the above-mentioned Fennymore Cooper, who influenced Creator/KarlMay to a big degree who in turn continued to be so popular that both Nazi Germany and UsefulNotes/EastGermany could not get rid of his books and the Easterners even felt compelled to make their own Film/DEFAWesterns. A made for TV Karl May film hit the screens as late as Christmas 2016 and some stages doing nothing but Western shows are going into their sixtieth season in Germany.
* Somewhat similarly, the Swedish [[Literature/PettsonAndFindus Pettson and Findus]] is especially popular in Germany, even getting one of its adaptations (the live-action-CGI "Fun Stuff") co-produced there, including writing and the first acting (Sweden and the rest of the countries that got the movie dubbed the voices over in their versions).
* ''Literature/MrMen'' has quite a cult following in France. They are one of the only countries to get [[WesternAnimation/MrMenAndLittleMiss both of]] [[WesternAnimation/TheMrMenShow the animated adaptations]], and even got [[NoExportForYou exclusive books that were never released anywhere else (except Greece)!]]
* ''Literature/TheLittlePrince'' is extremely popular in Argentina. Every newsstand and supermarket has copies of "El Principito" for sale- even though it was released many decades ago.
* The Danish author Karl Gjellerup won the Nobel Prize in 1917, but was never much read in his home country and was almost forgotten after his death. However, one of his books, ''The Pilgrim Kamanita'', later became very popular in Thailand, and was part of the school curriculum for many years.
* ''Uncle Remus'' stories by Joel Harris are a beloved children’s classic in Russia, since the slavery controversy isn’t so well-known even to the older readers, let alone the younger ones (and the text implies slavery rather than tells of it straight, leading to many readers unfamiliar with the context to believe Uncle Remus simply a neighbor of Joel’s). “Br’er Fox, don’t throw me into the into this thorn-bush” is particularly a well-known meme.
* The character Literature/ArseneLupin is an incredibly popular figure in Japan, so much so that a ton of modern Japanese media references him, not the least being [[Manga/LupinIII a whole manga about his grandson]]. Spawning [[LongRunners an over 50-year-long franchise]].
* The Australian children's chapter book series, ''Literature/TheBadGuys'', is extremely popular in the United States. The series quickly landed on the New York Times's best-seller list and received [[WesternAnimation/TheBadGuys2022 a movie adaptation]] by Creator/DreamWorksAnimation.
* Mayne Reid’s novels (especially ''The Headless Horseman'' and ''The Quadroon'') have always been extremely popular in Russia (Creator/VladimirNabokov, for instance, admitted to being a fan). Reid is one of the few authors that have remained well-liked in the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and afterwards as well.
* Creator/JamesHadleyChase was extremely popular in the late Soviet Union and Russia of 1990th. He's still considered a great noir author.
* The ''[[Literature/ArabianNights Thousand and One Nights]]'' were mostly dismissed by Middle Eastern scholars. In the early 18th century they were translated into French by Antoine Galland, then later various other European languages, which opened the floodgates for [[MultipleDemographicAppeal multiple generations of Europeans]] to become [[ForeignCultureFetish obsessed with]] [[ArabianNightsDays the setting]] in a way that, in hindsight, strongly resembles the {{Otaku}} of today.
* Literally a BigInJapan example, ''Literature/DonQuixote'' is very popular and loved in Japan, having their own anime adaptation (''Zukkoke Knight - Don De La Mancha'' in 1980), being considered the UrExample for the {{Chuunibyou}} trope and even having a [[https://www.donki.com/en/ discount chain store]] (the biggest of Japan with some stores in Asia and Hawaii) named after him.
* ''Literature/Olivia1949'' became a hit in Britain and many other countries, but had a more lukewarm reception in France.
* While ''Literature/WinnieThePooh'' is a British children's storybook staple, it became huge in the United States after Creator/{{Disney}} made a series of featurettes, and later a movie, out of the franchise. Notably, ''Winnie The Pooh'' one of Disney's major {{Cash Cow Franchise}}s.
** ''Winnie-the-Pooh'' is also universally beloved in Russia and the other countries of the former Soviet Union, where [[Animation/VinniPukh the local animated adaptation]] has become quite the MemeticMutation in those countries. The Russian dub of ''WesternAnimation/TheNewAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh'' even re-used several names from the Russian adaptation... until it had to be redubbed in the 2010s due to [[ScrewedByTheLawyers legal issues]].
* ''Literature/GulliversTravels'', written by Irish author Creator/JonathanSwift, is published all over the world, but while [[FirstInstallmentWins everyone's heard of Lilliput]], the only country where Laputa has earned similar fame is Japan, mostly because of ''Anime/CastleInTheSky''. There was even a Japanese rock band named after the flying island.
* While remaining as a recognized children's writer in his native Italy, Gianni Rodari had a strong following in the Soviet Union - it helped that Rodari visited the Soviet country numerous times and was a member of the Italian Communist Party. Some of his poems were introduced to the school curricula while his fairy tale ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cipollino Le avventure di Cipollino]]'' had several Soviet live-action and cartoon adaptations, in one of which Rodari played the storyteller.
* A disproportionately high number of ''Literature/{{Redwall}}'' fan artists and/or fanfic writers are from the United States or Russia. Case in point: Brian Jacques made quite a few visits to the States during book tours, and Russia was one of the few countries that got a dub of the Nelvana cartoon.
* ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Xian_Ku You Xian Ku]]'', a short Chinese history written in the eighth century, is usually considered the first romance fiction in China. However, it is far more popular in Japan. During the author's lifetime, it's been reported that Japanese envoys have been trying to buy every copy of the book they can get their hands on which is highly influential in the development of Japanese literature. At home it fell into obscurity owing to the increasingly puritanical taste of Chinese readers; they saw it as PurpleProse erotica. It's at a point that it needs to be [[RecursiveImport re-introduced into China]] in the twentieth century.
* Creator/DougalDixon's ''Literature/AfterManAZoologyOfTheFuture'' is extremely popular in Japan due to their unusual fascination with SpeculativeBiology. They even made an AnimatedAdaptation of it! Its SpiritualSuccessor ''Literature/TheFutureIsWild'' has had similar success in Japan (minus the cartoon adaptation).
* ''Literature/TheVeryHungryCaterpillar'' is very popular in Japan, spawning exclusive merchandise and even a cafe themed around the book.
* The Israeli children's {{Edutainment}} book ''Literature/OnceUponAPotty'' was such a hit in the United States that author Alona Frankel was commissioned by the U.S. publisher to make a female version of the book, which didn't receive a RecursiveImport for Israeli audiences ''until the mid-2010s''.
* Similarly, the book ''Literature/EveryonePoops'' was originally Japanese, and was far more popular with Western audiences than it was in Japan.
* ''Literature/MayaTheBee'', particularly its animated adaptations, is immensely popular in continental Europe. Ironically enough, despite its original author's outspoken support of the Nazi regime and his antisemitism, the franchise is also very popular in Poland in spite of Germany's invasion of the country in 1939. In Poland, [[PeripheryDemographic the franchise has a very dedicated adult fanbase]] with popular Polish singing group [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCf0yQ3dTHQ Akcent making a hit song about Maya and her friends]]. The song has become a very popular song in Poland and is commonly performed [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4ua5Od7BPo at teen]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZneBWBT_V_s and adult clubs]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b40XJe6nkco dance parties]], adult gatherings, and even weddings! Even Zbigniew Wodecki ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qKi2yRdjCg singer of the Polish version of the song]]) [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idwmStNREzs often performed the series' theme song at]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wM2dnwUIz0 live concerts]] across Poland.
* Hungarian children's book author Veronika Marék is best known as the creator of ''Animation/TheRabbitWithTheCheckeredEars'', but in Japan her most famous work is the 1961 illustrated storybook ''Laci és az oroszlán'' (''Tommy and the Lion''), published there in 1965. Marék received passionate Japanese fan mail for decades, from people claiming it was one of their most beloved books, and the Japanese royalties gave her some support too. Calendars featuring the book's characters were also popular in Japan and Osaka even held an exhibit dedicated to her in the 2000s. In contrast, the book has become obscure in her home and she only received half of the standard sale royalties, which she suggests was because Hungarian publishers saw little value in children's literature.
* Creator/RachelHawkins' ''Royals'' books were successful enough in Brazil [[https://twitter.com/LadyHawkins/status/1535342794302267394 that]] her later book ''The Ex Hex'' was released under "Rachel Hawkins" (like the ''Royals'' books) instead of "Erin Sterling" like in its home country.
* Creator/HenryDeVereStacpoole, and especially ''Literature/TheBlueLagoon'' are ironically more popular overseas than in the British Isles, where the novel was first published.
** The 1929 Spanish-language translation of ''The Blue Lagoon'' by Carmen Ruiz del Árbol became more popular in Latin America than in Spain.
** The popularity of ''The Blue Lagoon'' in Brazil actually came out from the [[Film/TheBlueLagoon1980 1980 movie adaptation]] starring Creator/BrookeShields.
** The popularity of ''The Blue Lagoon'' in Australia actually came out from the [[Film/TheBlueLagoon1949 1949 movie adaptation]] starring Creator/JeanSimmons and Creator/DonaldHouston.
* Likely owing to his various ([[CaptainErsatz unofficial]]) crossovers with a certain [[Literature/ArseneLupin Gentleman Thief]], Literature/SherlockHolmes has found himself a rather large Japanese fanbase, to the point where many Japanese works that pay homage to both him and Arsène often adapt details that are found in the original Creator/ArthurConanDoyle novels.
* Pretty much everything that Creator/EdwardGorey has made is much more popular in Japan than in America, where his work is hardly remembered. This is quite understandable given that he took a lot of inspiration from Japanese Literature such as The Tale of Genji. Along with this, his art style, along with his style of cross-hatching, is very reminiscent of the kind you'd find in a lot of similar Japanese mangas, and make use of a lot of {{Retraux}}.
* Creator/MaryHigginsClark's books tend to be super popular in France (she herself was American with Irish ancestry); she's been a No.1 bestseller there, has won a few French literary awards and several of her novels have been adapted into TV movies in France.
* In the 1920s, Creator/SinclairLewis suffered from CriticalDissonance in his native United States, his books being bestsellers but critics feeling that he simply got lucky with his BreakthroughHit ''Main Street'' and that his later novels were garbage. Only a few critics, most notably Creator/HLMencken, defended him. In Europe, however, his social commentary on American society won him widespread praise, such that in 1930 he became the first American to win the MediaNotes/NobelPrizeInLiterature. American critics, needless to say, were horrified, to the point that Lewis Mumford called the honor a StealthInsult towards American culture by giving the award to one of its harshest satirists. Lewis would eventually come to be VindicatedByHistory in the US, however.
* While Creator/ElleryQueen was popular in their own time, they dropped off in popularity hard, and you'd have a hard time finding anyone who things about them all that often after [[Series/ElleryQueen 1976]]. In Japan, where the Golden Age of Mystery never really ended, though, Queen is widely known as one of the greatest mystery writers who ever lived, and an influence on some of the top writers in the country. References to Queen range from their own books being frequently used for [[LiteraryAllusionTitle Literary Allusion Titles]], multiple authors copying their "Giving a character from their most prominent series the same name as their own pen name" trick, using many tropes from Queen such as long, multi-step chains of deduction, [[SherlockScan deep analysis]] of single pieces of evidence, and [[MetaFiction metafictional analysis]] of just how fair a FairPlayWhodunnit can really be and how responsible the GreatDetective is for events in their stories. The president of the Traditional Mystery Writer's Club of Japan, Rintaro Norizuki, is even a noted Queen expert whose entire literary career is a deliberate copy of Queen's, starring Japanese {{Exp|y}}ies of the whole series cast!
* ''Literature/TheKnightInRustyArmor'' is very popular in Latin America, to the point where it's more well-known there than in its native United States. Due to its short length, it is a popular book for young students to [[MediaNotes/SchoolStudyMedia read in schools]].
* ''Danmei'' author Creator/MoXiangTongXiu isn't very popular in Chinese ''danmei'' circles who view her works as average that she's rarely listed on top of popularity lists. Coupled with many various controversies her works have generated,[[note]]Her adapted novels attracted a volatile fandom that caused ruckus on other ''danmei'' fandoms, The 227 Xiao Zhan incident that was rumored to have led Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn being banned in China, rumors of being prisoned, plagiarism accusations from other authors taking advantage of her popularity.[[/note]] her popularity dropped so much that she's considered a social pariah in danmei circles. For international audiences, she is the most well-known ''danmei'' writer as all the adaptations of her novels found huge success, and even casual BL fans who don't read ''danmei'' praise or have heard of her works. She's also the default number 1 in many reader lists when it comes to ''danmei''.
* Italian children's book series ''Literature/LaBambinaDellaSestaLuna'' has a bit of fandom in Russia, mostly because the protagonist Nina is half-russian.
* Creator/GeraldDurrell as an author is very beloved in Russia, almost to a larger extent than in the Anglosphere, and Soviet Young Pioneers wrote tons of letters to him in the 1960s (the writings of Lawrence Durrell, by comparison, aren't terribly known in Russia). It helps a bit that Gerald Durrell visited the Soviet Union and even made a documentary series about nature there (''Durrell in Russia'', which also has an episode where Durrell met with his fans in Moscow).
* The obscure 1970 science fiction novel ''Literature/RecallNotEarth'' by C. C. [=MacApp=], about a group of human men who become mercenaries for hire after the rest of humanity gets wiped out, was surprisingly popular in Poland. It had several editions, and even an attempt at an unofficial comic adaptation (published throughout 1984 in the ''Świat Młodych'' magazine). It was one of the few officially published Western sci-fi novels available in Poland in the 1980s, which might explain its popularity.
* British novelist Rosamunde Pilcher's romantic novels set in the English county of Cornwall are very popular in Germany, because since 1993, ZDF, one of Germany's main television channels has adapted more than a hundred of them as made-for-TV movies.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:In-Universe Examples]]
* Briefly discussed in the first Billy Chaka book, ''Tokyo Suckerpunch'', when Billy catches part of the latest single from an American band ([[InnerMonologue so he assures the reader]]) called "Boring Toaster" on the radio.
* In a novel in the men's adventure series ''The Destroyer'', the French love Jerry Lewis as much as they hate America. And they hate America.
* In ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKidDiperOverlode'', Sebastian Sleeves claims that he's been living off on money from royalty checks he gets from the Metallichihuahua Pups cartoon still airing in Denmark.
* In-universe, Rowling notes that ''Literature/HarryPotter'' wizards from all over the world love Scottish rugby. This was thanks to the autobiography of a Squib, who joined the Scottish rugby team, which was translated into many different languages and sold around the world, as well as it being much more brutal and fun to watch than sports like cricket. It's apparently become an in-joke among wizards to talk about Scottish rugby to identify one another, and wizards, regardless of nationality, root for Scotland in any international tournaments.
* ''Literature/ThePianistFromSyriaAMemoir'' is an {{autobiography}} of a Palestinian-Syrian man during the Syrian Civil War. He mentions that the "popular manga show" ''Anime/HelloSandybell'' is a smash hit in Syria to the point one of his classmates is named after the main character. In RealLife, ''Hello! Sandybell'' has this status not just in Syria, but in the whole Middle East as well.
* In Meg Cabot's ''Literature/ThePrincessDiaries'' series, the character Lilly's TV series has a huge following in South Korea, even though it's broadcast on community stations where she lives.
* ''Literature/JaineAustenMysteries'': The book ''Death of a Neighborhood Scrooge'' has Jaine looking into the murder of a man named Scotty Parker, a former child actor who played the role of Tiny Tim in a remake of ''Literature/AChristmasCarol''. InUniverse, the remake that Scotty was in isn't aired often in the US, but is very popular in Japan.
* In the TV show ''Series/{{Monk}}'' Lt. Randy Disher makes a DissTrack towards his boss, Captain Stottlemeyer known as "I Don't Need A Badge". In the InSeries book "''Literature/MrMonkIsMiserable''", it's revealed the song has a cult following in France. Disher performs it to screaming fans who even throw their underwear at him, which naturally freaks out Monk.
[[/folder]]

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