Ten Favorite “Spin-Off” Novels
(I don’t see it as a sign of the robust good health of a culture’s literature when too much of it is extrapolated or reimagined from earlier books by other authors. That doesn’t mean that I haven’t tried it myself—see ”The Lady with the Pet Tribble” in The View from the Seventh Layer—or that it can’t be done well. The following ten novels, arranged alphabetically by author, are first-class examples of the genre (if it can be called a genre). I’ve excluded novels that riff on classic fairy tales or the Bible, each of which can be found on their own separate lists.)
Jack Maggs by Peter Carey (derived from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens)
The Hours by Michael Cunningham (derived from Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf)
Grendel by John Gardner (derived from Beowulf)
Pride and Prometheus by John Kessel (derived from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein)
Ithaca Forever: Penelope Speaks by Luigi Malerba (derived from Homer’s The Odyssey)
The Lost Books of the Odyssey by Zachary Mason (also derived from Homer’s The Odyssey)
Twins by Megan Milks (derived from Francine Pascal’s Sweet Valley High series)
Was by Geoff Ryman (derived from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum)
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis (derived from Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) by Jerome K. Jerome)
Pinocchio by Winshluss (derived from Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi)
— October 6, 2022