[Brian Watson]

When reading a novel with a sufficiently large and complex cast, I'll often chart the network of relationships among the characters, to keep track of who's who. The diagram is essentially a family tree, with the addition of friendships, business partnerships, animosities, etc. It may take several tries to get a sensibly organized and legible map. That may sound like overkill, but for e.g. The Age of Innocence, Richard III, or almost any Russian novel, I'm lost without some such diagram.

It occurs to me that there might be a piece of software out there that does what I want. Perhaps a program for drawing family trees, or an application for an equivalent problem arising from an entirely different context. Any ideas?