MOVED from MAIN - "sequels" to the classics

[juli17 at aol.com]

Alla:

The best continuation of the famous story that I had ever read was 
the book called "Troy" by Russian author Irina Ismailova. Although 
again I am not sure if I loved the book so much due to its merit or 
because it changes the famous story development the way I always 
wanted it to go ever since I first read "Illiad" as a kid.

I should not call it a continuation, because it is not, it is a 
retelling of the Troyan war, let's put it this way and author plays 
it off very nicely by imagining basically that young historian finds 
in his possession the manuscript, which talks about Trojan war and 
how sometimes it is close to what Homer told in his story and so very 
different in other places.


Julie:

In this vein?there are a couple of recent authors who have "retold" classic 
tales or scenes/characters therein, both in very creative ways. The first is
Geoffrey McGuire, who has written several novels telling classic tales from a
different POV, resulting in quite different perspectives on the traditional heroes
and villians in?those tales. Wicked (from the POV of the Wicked Witch of the 
West in the Wizard of Oz) and Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister (from the POV
of one of Cinderella's much-maligned stepsisters) are both riveting novels, IMO. 

The other author is Jasper Fforde, who has written the Tuesday Next novels,
including The Eyre Affair and Lost in a Good Book. It would be impossible to
convey how incredibly inventive the alternate reality of these books is, but
in a nutshell Tuesday is a British literary detective in a?world where you can step
directly into books and interact with the characters. Her job is to keep people
from altering literary works (including the characters within the works themselves).
Fforde makes great use of classics and especially some of the characters (Hamlet
and Miss Haversham come to mind).

Of course they are also?using works that are now within the public domain, as the
Harry Potter books won't be so for however many (many) years.? But how I'd
dearly love to see McGuire retell the Harry Potter saga from?Snape's POV, or to 
see Tuesday Next wandering through the HP?books keeping all the characters
in line. (I do recall reading one fanfic crossover where the Snape character
had been corrupted--by fangirls--and had silky flowing black locks and all
the Hogwarts girls madly crushing on him. As I recall, Tuesday quickly returned
him to his?surly, undesirable, greasy-haired glory ;-)

Julie, who hasn't read any of the several Pride and Prejudice knockoffs that
are now out there


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