CONTEXT

Historical

This story takes place in the modern day as evidenced by Scarlett using the bus system, cellphones, and boys  & girls primary school system.

 

Throughout the novel Gaiman takes great enjoyment using the age of the Graveyard inhabitants. For instance when young Bod goes off with a band of Ghouls in chapter 3 they tell Bod their names:

The Duke of Westminster (3.throughout)

The Bishop of Bath and Wells (3.throughout)

The 33rd President of the United States, Harry Truman (3.throughout)

The Famous Author Victor Hugo

Chinese Emperor

The Ghouls earn their names by taking it from the first person they eat (alive, I presume) after become a ghoul.

 

The ghosts such as Tom Sands  who "had lived and died during the Hundred Years Year with France" and Miss Euphemia Horsfall who "had been buried in Victorian times" (chapter 6, page 176).  

 

 

 

Literary Allusions

Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book (title)

In her review of the book, Louise Morgan (2010) states, "Gaiman was greatly influenced by The Jungle Book in writing this (even the title alludes to it) and, like the world Kipling created for Mowgli, little Bod (full name: Nobody Owens) is furnished with a wealth of friends and neighbours in his new home in the graveyard–from the homely and well-meaning ghosts of Mr and Mrs Owens who never had a child of their own and become his surrogate parents, to the tricky Liza Hempstock who only wants a gravestone of her own."

 

 

Dr. Seuss, The Cat in the Hat (2.17)Victor Hugo (3.164)Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (6.4, 6.25, 6.219)