| Orig. author | Book or character | PFF author | PFF title | Publisher | Date | Cat 1 | Cat 2 | Cat 3 | Notes |
| Barrie, James | Peter Pan, Wendy | Adair, Gilbert | Peter Pan and the Only Children | New York: E.P. Dutton, 1987 | 1987 | Expansion | Personalization | Sequel | Peter left Neverland and now lives under the Indian Ocean in Wet Land, enticing only children off of passing ships.Miranda is one. Meta: Many of the lost children have read about Peter. (Set 1920s? Guess from illustration of M's mother and mentions of India). Cameo by RP J.M. Barrie--unnamed Scottish author on ship who witnesses Miranda diving overboard. Peter is much more like the callous brat of the original and some of the storytelling is Barrie-ish and some is creepy. Hook shows up wearing the crocodile, which he killed. He is called Peter's shadow, in the Jungian sense, and his blood bleeds blue. It's implied he's from an aristocratic family the author dare not name (is Capt Hook a callback to this?). [spoiler] Peter has a second, Ralph, who he betrays. Hook is Peter's father, he realizes when he sees a birthmark on Peter's thigh. When the volcano erupts and creates a new Neverland, the children are returned to their parents but Peter and Hook remain to battle/play on and on.[/spoiler] |
| Barrie, James | Peter Pan, Wendy | Fox, Laurie | Lost Girls | New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004 | 2004 | Refocalization | Dislocation | Sequel | Five generations of the Darling women try to come to terms with the Pan legacy, each in her own way. Only the original Wendy seems to cope although she keeps trying to fly as an old woman and is institutionalized. Story told by her great-granddaughter, another Wendy, who has on and off struggles with reality and her own mother, Margaret, and mostly absent father. Her daughter Berry who is the first not to make the trip to The Neverland with Pan. Jane, Margaret's mother, is absent until the end and no one knows why. Forgiving mothers and daughters. Fathers not explicitly taken to task but don't escape blame completely. Interesting Hook--lots of good food but he's revolting and not at all seductive although Berry has sex with him off-stage. |
| Barrie, James | Peter Pan, Wendy | Hart, James V. | Capt. Hook: The Adventures of a Notorious Youth | New York: Harper Collins, 2005 | 2004 | Moral realignment | Prequel | The Eton days are quite enjoyable, but the last bit with the slave ship is very like Long John Silver. Capt. Hook is James Matthew, bastard son of Lord B. Best friend is Jolly Roger Peter Davies (so Barrie and Davies boys). King Jas., as he's known, has yellow blood and a pet spider named Electra. His nemesis at Eton is Arthur Darling. He falls in love with Sultana Ananova and daydreams of Neverland. Written with OK from GOSH (is that the same as authorized?) and influenced by movie Hook. | |
| Barrie, James | Peter Pan, Wendy | Somma, J.E. | After the Rain: A New Adventure for Peter Pan | Hamilton, ON: Daisy Books, 2002 | 2002 | ||||
| Barrie, James | Peter Pan, Wendy | Wallace, Karen | Wendy | New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003 | 2003 | Refocalization | Prequel | Wendy is 9, has an abusive nanny, a drunk and unfaithful father, and mostly useless mother. Other than names and date, it has nothing of the original in it--no foreshadowing even of Peter and Neverland except in not wanting to grow up because adults are awful, and the tone is devoid of whimsy. Reminded me of fan fic that creates an abused childhood for fan's favorite character. Explores the some realities of the age--society marriages and mores--but why choose this particular character? Wendy also has a retarded brother, although this is supposed to be a mystery since she suspects her mother is having an affair with him (Thomas) until she overhears the truth. Her uncle and aunt's house in the country, Rosegrove, where Thomas also lives and will never grow up because of his handicap, is her sort of Neverland. | |
| Baum, L. Frank | Wizard of Oz | Farmer, Philip Jose | A Barnstormer in Oz | NY: Berkley Books, 1982 | 1982 | ||||
| Baum, L. Frank | Wizard of Oz | Ryman, Geoff | Was | NY: Penguin, 1992 | 1992 | Dislocation | Personalization | Orphaned Dorothy Gael, whose parents were actors, goes to live with her aunt and uncle, Emma and Henry Gulch, in Kansas. Actor Jonathan, who has a close emotional tie to the film Wizard of Oz, is dying of AIDS. His counselor, Bill, worked in a nursing home where Dorothy ended her days. Frances Gumm, her mother Ethel Milne, and Millie the make up artist each have parts of narrative . Substitute teacher Frank Balm comes to Kansas, an out of work actor, he accidentally sparks Dorothy's big revelation [spoiler] Uncle Henry molests her.[/spoiler] J&B go to Kansas to find the real school and Gulch homesteads and J is apparently sucked into Oz or something. Life's a bitch and then you die, or get sucked into Oz. | |
| Baum, L. Frank | Wizard of Oz | Maguire, Gregory | Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West | NY: Regan Books, 2000 | 1995 | Moral realignment | Prequel | Meh. Religion and politics in the land of Oz. Elphaba is born green, and it's not easy being green. Mother is bored and horny, father is crazy religious nut, sister Nessrose is born without arms. E's father might be the Wizard, it isn't clear. Galinda, later Glinds, is schoolmate and later friend at Shiz University, Fiyero the Winkie becomes E's lover. Fiyero may be father of Liir, who is probably E's son (she was unconscious? for several months following her failed assassination attempt on Madame Morrible, who may or may not also be Yackle, a mysterious force in E's life. Animals and other races are suppressed under the Wizard's Nazi-like rule. Dense and sf-ish in the worst way. | |
| Baum, L. Frank | Wizard of Oz | Maguire, Gregory | Son of a Witch | NY: Regan Books, 2005 | 2005 | Refocalization | Gave up on 240 of 337. OC Liir, son of Elphaba and Fiyero probably. Army, prison, more politics of Oz. Dragons. Yawn. | ||
| Bronte, Charlotte | Jane Eyre | Rhys, Jean | Wide Sargasso Sea | NY: W.W. Norton, 1992 | 1966 | Moral realignment | Recontextualization | Prequel | Opaque and odd style. The West Indies make you crazy, y'all. Part 1 narrated by Antoinette Cosway Mason, daughter of crazy white Creole mother. Their house burned down by blacks following the Emancipation Act, and there's lots of resentment against former slave-owners (no, really?). Part 2 told by Rochester after marriage. Antoinette goes crazy and he doesn't exactly help. Weird and angry locals tell stories that may or may not be true. R calls Antoinette Bertha. Part 3 told by A in England. Characters have no interiors. I don't understand it's appeal and why it's so famous. Was it the first modern published sequel to a literary classic? |
| Bronte, Charlotte | Jane Eyre | Tennant, Emma | Adele | NY: HarperCollins, 2002 | 2002 | Refocalization | Once again Tennant exhibits her peculiar gift of rendering all characters unlikable and unengaging. Keeps flipping between past and present tense. Told from alternating povs of Adele and Rochester, before, during, and after events in Jane Eyre. | ||
| Bronte, Charlotte; Bronte, Emily | Wuthering Heights; Jane Eyre | Haire-Sargeant, Lin | H: The Story of Heathcliff's Journey Back to Wuthering Heights | Thorndike ME: Thorndyke Press, 1993 | 1992 | Crossover | Recontextualization | Charlotte Bronte meets Lockwood on a train and he lets her read Heathcliff's letter to Cathy, long concealed by Mrs. Dean. H met Mr. Are (=R=Rochester) outside a Liverpool madhouse that H dimly remembers. R takes H to Thornfield and educates him. CB has heard of H but as a still-living person, from Emily Bronte. Narrative moves from letter to CB reactions, to brief bits from Mrs. D, then to Bronte sisters visiting Mrs D on deathbed. [spoiler] Cathy lived and she and H emigrated and had 5 years together. Various adventures of H with R, like partially catrating Edgar (H only takes one ball). H&R fall out when Jane shows up, but reconcile after the near-wedding for a bit. During this time, R reveals to H that H is his son, left at the Liverpool madhouse because he so strongly resembled his crazy mother. After killing his mother after she sets the fire, H returns to Thrushcross. [/spoiler] Emily is about as sympthetic a character as H, which means not at all. | |
| Bronte, Emily | Wuthering Heights | Caine, Jeffrey | Heathcliff | Boston: G.K. Hall, 1978 | 1978 | Recontextualization | Opening narrated by Lockwood, describing how the letter that comprises half of the text came into his possession. The letter is from Heathcliff to Cathy, describing what happened to him in London during his 3 year absence. Narrative then picked up by Elizabeth Durrant, wife of H's employer. H employed by godfather-type, Alexander Durrant, aka Mr. Sherall, who controls whore houses, money lending, protection, rents, etc. H is sullen, humorless, and not very bright. It takes half the book for him to understand the advantage to learning manners. H hired to guard/spy on wife, who "subverts" him by teaching him to read, write, etc. but he remains a brute. If only he'd had some self-awareness and humor, he'd be quite an attractive anti-hero. But doesn't, so he isn't. | ||
| Bronte, Emily | Wuthering Heights | Conde, Maryse | Windward Heights | NY: Soho Press, 1995 | 1995 | Dislocation | Wuthering Heights set in Guadeloupe and other islands. Razye=Heathcliff, Cathy=Cathy, Irmine=Isabella, Justin=Hindley, Aymeric=Edgar. Everything in the Caribbean is rotting and awful, everyone is miserable, as I was while trying to read this book. Set after the emancipation of slaves. Race=class. Use of WH because? People who just can't quit each other, races locked together from an unhealthy bond? Ugh. Felt like 360 pages of slogging through a rain forest with snakes. | ||
| Bronte, Emily; Bronte, Charlotte | Wuthering Heights; Jane Eyre | Haire-Sargeant, Lin | H: The Story of Heathcliff's Journey Back to Wuthering Heights | Thorndike ME: Thorndyke Press, 1993 | 1992 | Crossover | Recontextualization | Charlotte Bronte meets Lockwood on a train and he lets her read Heathcliff's letter to Cathy, long concealed by Mrs. Dean. H met Mr. Are (=R=Rochester) outside a Liverpool madhouse that H dimly remembers. R takes H to Thornfield and educates him. CB has heard of H but as a still-living person, from Emily Bronte. Narrative moves from letter to CB reactions, to brief bits from Mrs. D, then to Bronte sisters visiting Mrs D on deathbed. [spoiler] Cathy lived and she and H emigrated and had 5 years together. Various adventures of H with R, like partially catrating Edgar (H only takes one ball). H&R fall out when Jane shows up, but reconcile after the near-wedding for a bit. During this time, R reveals to H that H is his son, left at the Liverpool madhouse because he so strongly resembled his crazy mother. After killing his mother after she sets the fire, H returns to Thrushcross. [/spoiler] Emily is about as sympthetic a character as H, which means not at all. | |
| Bronte, Emily | Wuthering Heights | Wheatcroft, John | Catherine: Her Book | NY: Cornwell Books, 1983 | 1983 | Recontextualization | Cathy's journals during the time of Wuthering Heights and marriage to Edgar, based on a brief passage in WH. | ||
| Burnett, Frances Hodgson | Secret Garden | Moody, Susan | Return to the Secret Garden | NY: Penguin, 1998 (originally published in UK 1995 as Misselthwaite) | 1995 | Expansion | Sequel | The worst kind of fan fiction: untrue to the characters, tone, and universe of the original, and utterly dreary. [spoiler] Mary marries the soldier who found her, has a child, child dies, she leaves India. Colin is bi but mostly gay. Mary and Dickon become lovers but she marries Colin when she's pregnant. Child Richard dies in ww2 leaving a pregnant American bride. Dickon kills himself. Colin dies.[/spoiler] On and on with the joylessness. Loses the twee dialect of the original but sadly maintains the tell-don't-show practice. So glad I didn't read and love SG as a child because this book would've made me furious. | |
| Chandler, Raymond | Big Sleep | Parker, Robert | Perchance to Dream | NY: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1991 | 1991 | Expansion | Sequel | Better than the other Chandler/Parker. Marlowe is recalled to the Sternwood mansion by Norris the butler because Carmen has disappeared from the sanitarium Vivian put her in. A Howard Hughes-ish gazillionaire and shady land deals...seems familiar. Where in the world is Carmen Sternwood? Passages from The Big Sleep used throughout. | |
| Chandler, Raymond | Big Sleep | Parker, Robert | Poodle Springs | NY: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1989 | 1989 | Unfinished MSS | Sequel | Marlowe is married to fabulously wealthy Linda and living in stinking rich desert community Poodle Springs. Marlowe sets up as a PI, hardboiled hijinx involving naughty photos, gambling debts, etc. ensue. M gets what few good lines there are, and they aren't that good. Best part is the unintentionally funny cover on which Marlowe seems to be wearing false eyelashes and enough bronzer for several starlets. | |
| Chaucer, Geoffrey | Canterbury Tales | Doherty, P.C. | A Tournament of Murders: The Franklin's Tale | New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996 | 1996 | Recontextualization | Personalization | Doherty's Franklin's tale is about Richard, a squire who is directed by his dying master to go to Essex to discover his true heritage. [spoiler] Which turns out to be that his father was framed for murder, sentenced to execution, escaped and died en route to the Holy Land, and his mother entered a convent and died.[/spoiler] The Franklin and several others on the Canterbury Tales pilgrimage had roles in the tale. No relation to the Franklin's Tale in the CT, as far as I can tell. The framing story links all books in the series and presumably the final one would explain all the links between the pilgrims. 3rd in series. | |
| Chaucer, Geoffrey | Canterbury Tales | Doherty, P.C. | Tapestry of Murders: The Man of Law's Tale | NY: St. Martn's Press, 1996 | 1996 | Recontextualization | Personalization | The series is meant to be the stories told by the pilgrims at night, a second set of stories to the ones told in Canterbury Tales. In this one, the lawyer investigates the murders surrounding the squire of dead queen Isabella. Chaucer is among the pilgrims in the framing story. Second in series. | |
| Chaucer, Geoffrey | Canterbury Tales | Doherty, P.C. | Hangman's Hymn: The Carpenter's Tale | NY: St. Martin's Minotaur, 2001 | 2001 | Recontextualization | Personalization | Murder and possibly witchcraft in the Forest of Dean. Chaucer in the framing story. | |
| Chaucer, Geoffrey | Canterbury Tales | Doherty, P.C. | Ancient Evil: The Knight's Tale | NY: St. Martin's Press, 1994 | 1994 | First in series. | |||
| Chaucer, Geoffrey | Canterbury Tales | Doherty, P.C. | Ghostly Murders: The Priest's Tale | NY: St. Martin's Press, 1998 | 1998 | 4th in series | |||
| Chaucer, Geoffrey | Canterbury Tales | Doherty, P.C. | Haunt of Murder: The Clerk of Oxford's Tale | London: Headline, 2002 | 2002 | ||||
| Chaucer, Geoffrey | Troilus & Cressida | Henryson, Robert | Testament of Cresseid | 1500 | |||||
| Childers, Erskine | Riddle of the Sands | Llewellyn, Sam | Shadow in the Sands | London: Headline Features, 1998 | 1998 | ||||
| Coleridge, Samuel Taylor; Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning | Christabel; letters | Byatt, A.S. | Possession | NY: Random House, 1990 | 1990 | ||||
| Conrad, Joseph | Heart of Darkness | Naipaul, V.S. | A Bend in the River | NY: Knopf, 1979 | 1979 | ||||
| Cooper, James Fenimore | Last of the Mohicans | Block, Paul | Song of the Mohicans | NY: Bantam Books, 1995 | 1995 | Expansion | Sequel | Written because of the author's longstanding love of Cooper augmented by 1992 film of Last of the Mohicans. This is a sequel starting a few days after LotM. Hawkeye, Chingachgook, and Astra Van Renssalaer have adventures. Author seems very concerned with fate of Mohicans. You know, calling a rifle by name (Killdeer) makes me think of Jayne and Vera. Or Ralphie and Old Blue. | |
| Cooper, James Fenimore | Leather Stocking Tales | Donati, Sara | Into the Wilderness | NY: Bantam Books, 1998 | 1998 | Refocalization | Sequel | Only continuing character is Chingachgook. Rest are OCs strongly reminiscent of Bumppo. Dan'l (oh, dear) and Cora Bonner, son Nathaniel. Dan'l (dear God) known as Hawkeye. Epic romance between Nathaniel and Elizabeth Middleton. So loosely based on Cooper that it shares one character and a general milieu. Sequel, Dawn on a Distant Shore, has no direct Cooper link. | |
| Daly, Elizabeth | Clara Gamadge | Boylan, Eleanor | Working Murder | NY: Holt, 1989 | 1989 | ||||
| Daly, Elizabeth | Clara Gamadge | Boylan, Eleanor | Murder Observes | NY: Holt, 1990 | 1990 | ||||
| Daly, Elizabeth | Clara Gamadge | Boylan, Eleanor | Murder Machree | NY: Holt, 1992 | 1992 | ||||
| Daly, Elizabeth | Clara Gamadge | Boylan, Eleanor | Pushing Murder | NY: Holt, 1993 | 1993 | ||||
| Daly, Elizabeth | Clara Gamadge | Boylan, Eleanor | Murder Crossed | NY: Holt, 1996 | 1996 | ||||
| Defoe, Daniel | Robinson Crusoe | Coetzee, J. M. | Foe | NY: Viking, 1987 | 1987 | Dislocation | Refocalization | First 3rd is the story of Susan Barton landing on Crusoe's island. Friday is mute, having had his tongue torn out. Meta: SB sells story to DD (then known as D Foe). Next third is her letters to Foe about story and trying to survive. Last third is SB and F meeting up with him again. Back cover says "allegory of the creative process." Tedious. | |
| Defoe, Daniel | Robinson Crusoe | Spark, Muriel | Robinson | NY: J. P. Lippincott, 1958 | 1958 | Dislocation | Refocalization | In 1954, January Marlow's plan crashes on man-shaped island called Robinson, owned by man called Robinson. Opaque and remote narrator. Something to do with religion and colonization. Boy Miguel sort of a Friday substitute. | |
| Defoe, Daniel | Robinson Crusoe | Tournier, Michel | Friday | Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc.: 1969 | 1969 | Recontextualization | Translated by Norman Denny. Friday doesn't turn up until p. 134 of 235. Mostly Robinson Crusoe conquering and Englandifying island, told in 3rd person narration and Crusoe's journal. F not mute but doesn't have a pov. | ||
| Dickens, Charles | Christmas Carol | Bayard, Louis | Mr. Timothy | New York: Harper Collins, 2003 | 2003 | Refocalization | Sequel | Sequel told in present tense, using dashes instead of "". So I gave up before p. 100. Tiny Tim is in his 20s, living in a brothel where he's teaching the madam to read. Bob and Mrs. C dead. Tim sees Bob's face in people on the street. Something about branded dead girls. Scrooge still alive. Peter a photographer, other C children not doing so well. | |
| Dickens, Charles | Christmas Carol | Bueno de Mesquita, Bruce | Trial of Ebenezer Scrooge | Columbus: Ohio State Un Press, 2001 | 2001 | Moral realignment | Crossover | Personalization | Like the title says, Scrooge is on trial in the afterlife with Tim as defense attorney. Ali Baba and various Dickens characters appear, Dickens himself is a witness (Meta). Reinterpretation of key Christmas Carol scenes to reveal the good in ES before his reclamation by the spirits. |
| Dickens, Charles | Christmas Carol | Dalrymple, Andrew Angus | God Bless Us Every One | New York: St. Martin's Press, 1985 | 1985 | Expansion | Personalization | Sequel | Sequel set 7 years after A Christmas Carol. Meant to be humorous. Bob is now senior partner of Cratchit and Scrooge, Tim is 14 and has been expelled from 3 schools, Bob is in line for knighthood, and sends Scrooge off to Paradise Hall work house. Meta: ACC really happened and Dickens needs Scrooge, Cratchit, et al to allow him to use their names in ACC which he gave to his publishers with "fake" names. |
| Dickens, Charles | Christmas Carol | Kaye, Marvin | Last Christmas of Ebenezer Scrooge | Holicong, PA: Wildside Press, 2003 | 2003 | Refocalization | Sequel | Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim, and Paul Cohen (the boy sent to buy a turkey), retrace Scrooge's history because ES feels there is still a great wrong left unrighted. Meta: TT tells PC it's "almost like being characters in a book" and Wilkins' granddaughter Martha gets the deed to a house in Baker Street. | |
| Dickens, Charles | Christmas Carol | Osmun, Mark Hazard | Marley's Ghost | Corte Madera, CA: Twelfth Night Press, 2000 | 2000 | Moral realignment | Refocalization | Personalization | Prequel. Jacob Marley (ne Jake Turner) Jake Turner is sent to work in a mine with his brother Ezra when their father kills self. Jake is framed for murder, spends 7 years in prison until sprung by Bill Worthy for his card-playing skills. Worthy=Jorgenson in Sim ACC.After death, JM must choose one mortal to appear to 7 years after death (afterlife and rules of ghosts very sf/f, filled with pookas, Ruprecht, Berchta). Meta: JM tells Dickens ACC in dreams. Political in use of prison and poverty, more sf/f in afterlife. |
| Dickens, Charles | Christmas Carol | Powell, Dale | Timothy Cratchit's Christmas Carol, 1917 | Arkansas City, Kansas: DickensWorld, 1998 | 1998 | Refocalization | Sequel | Set in Cincinnati. On Xmas Eve 1917, 81 year old Timothy Cratchit, deeply depressed over the death of only grandson Luke in the war, is visited by the spirits of Ebenezer Scrooge and various Xmases. Lessons in racial and ethnic tolerance abound (although TC already enlightened beyond his time and place). | |
| Dickens, Charles | Great Expectations | Carey, Peter | Jack Maggs | New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997 | 1997 | Dislocation | Great Expectations retold. Jack Maggs=Magwitch, Henry Phipps=Pip. Maggs returns to London but HP has fled. JM takes position of footman at HP neighbor's house (Percy Buckle), becomes involved with author/mesmerist/Dickens avatar Tobias Oates. During mesmer sessions, JM spills all and TO reconstructs the story with changes<--Meta. [spoiler] JM also writes HP long letter about his childhood as a thief for Silas Smith being let into rich houses to open them/pick out best silver. Falls in love, loses girl and child. Meets HP en route to transportation, HP en route to orphanage. JM lives and returns to Australian children with Buckle maid Mercy. [/spoiler] Carey won Booker for Orlando & Lucinda. | ||
| Dickens, Charles | Great Expectations | Knight, Alanna | Estella | New York: St. Martin's Press, 1986 | 1986 | Recontextualization | Written in the spaces of Great Expectations to explain how Estella the minx becomes sadder and wiser, paralleling Pip. Everything happens to her, she has no direction herself. No connection between what she says she feels and how she acts. Feels like author is hamstrung by GE narrative. [spoiler]Mother is a gypsy who murdered her father's mistress, after two children that die in infancy Drummle family tries to kill E but she nearly kills D instead. On the run, becomes entangled with Flint and his incestuous sister and nearly kills him, then takes up with Dr. Faverly who is a good guy until her past threatened his impending knighthood. [/spoiler] At every step she is aided by Havisham servants--Jolly her maid and Bessie the housekeeper, and other persons of low birth, including gypsies. | ||
| Dickens, Charles | Great Expectations | Noonan, Michael | Magwitch | New York: St. Martin's Press, 1982 | 1982 | Recontextualization | Moral realignment | Pip goes to Australia on business and to see what Magwitch had amassed before losing it all, and is told that M had hidden a second fortune with clues in his Testament and deck of cards. [spoiler] Pip meets Lucy Brewster, associate/lover of M who is later revealed to be the illegitimate daughter of Miss Havisham by Compeyson. Also falls for Charlotte, M's other illegitimate daughter who looks like a dark Estella (mother was Aboriginal). Jaggers also appears. Charlotte and her outlaw paramour Spikey discover the secret stash (which is 10 gold filled coffins in the chuchyard where Pip and M first met). [/spoiler] Guilt a major theme--Pip coming to terms with all that M did to make money to make him a gentleman, although much is forgiven because of the treatment of convicts in Australian society--but it's not a political rewrite. Dickens dialogue in italics. Lucy speaks in a ghastly rendering of Cockney dialect. 'ave an 'eart, guv. Pastiche opening! Forward claims the ms was found bundled with bound volumes of GE and Pip refers to writing his earlier chronicle. | |
| Dickens, Charles | Great Expectations | Roe, Sue | Estella: Her Expectations | Brighton: Harvester Press, 1982 | 1982 | Dislocation | Present tense. Argh! | ||
| Dickens, Charles; Doyle, A.C. | Mystery of Edwin Drood; Sherlock Holmes | Rowland, Peter | Disappearance of Edwin Drood | NY: St. Martin's Press, 1992 | 1991 | Crossover | Personalization | Pastiche intro. John Jasper asks Holmes to investigate the disappearance of Edwin Drood. JJ is nuts and thinks it's 1987 when it's 1894. Holmes & Watson go to Cloisterham and interact with all the ED characters. Meta: When they arrive, there's a convention of Admirers of a Great Author who's been dead 24 years (Dickens) with people dressing as characters in the books. Discussion of fact and fiction blurring. [spoiler]ED not dead but now a painter/illustrator under a pseud and pretending to be French. OK until the end when H summons JJ's "fetch" a sort of astral projection of his younger self as JJ lay dying elsewhere. Suggestion JJ has split personality like Jekyll/Hyde.[/spoiler] | |
| Dickens, Charles; Doyle, A.C. | Mystery of Edwin Drood; Sherlock Holmes | Fleissner, Robert | Master Sleuth on the Trail of Edwin Drood: Sherlock Holmes & the Jasper Syndrome: An Annotated Pastiche | US: Xlibris, 2002 | 2002 | Crossover | Personalization | Prequel | More Dickens than Holmes, although Holmes is sort of the main character, along with Harris. Apparently Harris performs a Watsonian role to Datchery in ED and does so here to 19 y.o. Holmes. Both are searching for the real-life inspiration for John Jasper. A lot of tedious linguistic discussions of names in Dickens with Clinch (sometimes Clinchy) Magink (really) as the r.l. Jasper trying to commit preposterously whimsical murders in implausibly public situations. Giant Rat, Nessie. Meta: people in Dickens costumes, a Dickens conference. |
| Dickens, Charles | Tale of Two Cities | Alleyn, Susanne | Far Better Rest | New York: Soho Press, 2000 | 2000 | Recontextualization | Moral realignment | Personalization | Filling in the missing scenes of how Sydney Carton got to the point of replacing Darnay. Told by Carton in 1794, as a memoir written as he waits for a plan to save Darnay to go into action, and then while waiting for execution. Met Darnay in school where other classmates were RPs Desmoulins and Robespierre. [spoiler] Almost marries golddigger and is disinherited, becomes bitter, self-pitying drunk. Fathers a daughter on barmaid/mistress but only sees her once. Failed courtship of Lucie. Returns to Paris, becomes friends then husband of Darnay cousin (OC) Eleonore and becomes embroiled in revolution with other famous names. Sickened by the bloodletting, unable to save Eleonore and others from guillotine, and finally learns he's Darnay's cousin by way of wicked uncle Saint-Evremonte who raped Syd's mom on her return to France to attend wedding of her sister to Gabelle.[/spoiler] Really good, moving even though you know Carton is doomed. |