Parallel novel
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A parallel novel is a subset of metafiction. Parallel novels exist within or derive from the framework of another work of fiction and so refer to it in a meta-fashion, but they are distinct in that they always refer to a previous work, typically by another author. They usually have the same setting and time period, and many of the same characters, but are told from a different perspective.
Examples include:
- Was by Geoff Ryman (parallels The Wizard of Oz books by L. Frank Baum)
- Wicked [1] by Gregory Maguire (parallels The Wizard of Oz books by L. Frank Baum and 1939 film The Wizard of Oz)
- Wide Sargasso Sea [2] by Jean Rhys (parallels Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte)
- Till We Have Faces [3] by C. S. Lewis (parallels Cupid and Psyche in Metamorphoses by Lucius Apuleius)
- The Wind Done Gone [4] by Alice Randall (parallels Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell)
- Ender's Shadow [5] by Orson Scott Card (parallels Ender's Game by the same author)
- Jane Fairfax [6] by Joan Aiken (parallels Emma by Jane Austen)
- March [7] by Geraldine Brooks (parallels Little Women by Louisa May Alcott)
- The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood (parallels The Odyssey by Homer)
- Mary Reilly by Valerie Martin (parallels The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson)
- Grendel by John Gardner (parallels Beowulf)
Although neither work is a novel, another example of parallel literature is Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard, which parallels Hamlet by William Shakespeare.
 |
This book-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
