Reimagination Actualization

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Four years ago, I blogged about fiction that uses previous fiction as a jumping-off point — and perhaps reimagines well-known characters. This post is sort of a sequel to that post, taking a somewhat different angle and including several novels I’ve read since 2021.

In general, I’m not a huge fan of fiction that’s heavily inspired by a famous work; I’d rather writers be more original than that. Still, there have been some excellent novels that offer insights into the previous work and might be great in their own right.

My latest encounter with this reimagining phenomenon was Queen Macbeth, Val McDermid’s 2024 novella that takes a fascinating approach to characters in Shakespeare’s iconic Macbeth play. The book is excellent, giving Lady Macbeth a more positive (and more historically accurate) persona as a compelling plot unfolds in two different timelines.

McDermid’s book reminded me a bit of Margaret Atwood’s 2005 novella The Penelopiad (mentioned in my 2021 post) that gives Penelope a bigger and more feminist role than she had in Homer’s ancient Odyssey poem.

There’s also Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver’s 2022 tour de force that gives Charles Dickens’ 1850 classic David Copperfield a modern spin in America’s Appalachian region during the opioid epidemic.

Kristin Hannah’s gripping 2021 novel The Four Winds was obviously inspired by John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath (1939), but it’s still plenty original and differs in featuring a female protagonist. (The title character in Demon Copperhead is male.)

Zadie Smith has described the structure/focus of her novel On Beauty (2005) as an homage to E.M. Forster’s Howards End (1910).

In her also-published-in-2005 novel March, Geraldine Brooks takes the father from Louisa May Alcott’s 1868-released Little Women and gives him his own story.

I haven’t read it yet, but Percival Everett’s acclaimed James (2024) reimagines Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) from the perspective of the escaped slave Jim.

In my 2021 post, I mentioned the 1966 novel Wide Sargasso Sea, in which Jean Rhys gives three-dimensionality to the “madwoman in the attic” of Charlotte Bronte’s novel Jane Eyre; Rhys’ creation is in effect a prequel to Bronte’s 1847 book. I also discussed the novel (by Gregory Maguire) and the play Wicked, which sympathetically portray the Wicked Witch from L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz novel (1900) and The Wizard of Oz movie (1939).

Mentioned as well in that post were Isabel Allende’s 2005 novel Zorro, Jasper Fforde’s 2001 novel The Eyre Affair, and Seth Grahame-Smith’s 2009 Jane Austen parody Pride and Prejudice and Zombies — the last of which I haven’t felt the “Persuasion” to read.

Comments about, and examples of, this theme?

Misty the cat says: “My right turn has nothing to do with politics.”

My comedic 2024 book — the part-factual/part-fictional/not-a-children’s-work Misty the Cat…Unleashed — is described and can be purchased on Amazon in paperback or on Kindle. It’s feline-narrated! (And Misty says Amazon reviews are welcome. 🙂 )

This 90-second promo video for the book features a talking cat: 🙂

I’m also the author of a 2017 literary-trivia book…

…and a 2012 memoir that focuses on cartooning and more.

In addition to this weekly blog, I write the 2003-started/award-winning “Montclairvoyant” topical-humor column every Thursday for Montclair Local. The latest piece — about a badly maintained lower-income apartment building, a change in venue for a senior center, and more — is here.

105 thoughts on “Reimagination Actualization”

  2. Orthodox Judaism just as meshugah over the mitzva of Moshiach as the Av tuma avoda zara Xtian church.

    _MASHIACH: The Night Watchman

    ArtScroll Staff·The Official ArtScroll Blog·Aug 11, 2025

    Adapted from: Yearning for Redemption by Rabbi Daniel Glatstein

    The following verse (Tehillim 130:6) requires explanation: נַפְשִׁי לַה’ מִשֹּׁמְרִים לַבֹּקֶר שֹׁמְרִים לַבֹּקֶר.,
    _____________________
    ______________________
    Mitzva of Moshiach requires making הבדלה just as does shabbat observance separates מלאכה מן עבודה. Both this and that, Av tohor time-oriented Torah commandments! This Av type of commandment requires k’vanna. תולדות secondary – positive and negative and halachot mitzvot – do not require k’vanna. This represents a chiddush, a huge מאי נפקא מינא. T’NaCH\Talmud common law requires precedents. Rabbi Yishmael’s 13 middot refers to precedents as בניני אבות. To ascertain the k’vanna of tohor time-oriented commandments requires the wisdom how to correctly interpret prophetic mussar from the T’NaCH\Aggadah & Midrashim. The latter, specifically the T’NaCH Primary Sources, they determine the k’vanna of all Torah time-oriented commandments. Just that simple. No fancy dance’n. Prophets function as the police-enforcement teeth of the Great and Small Sanhedrin common law courts, within the borders of the oath sworn Cohen lands. Sworn by an oath brit between HaShem and the Avot as the eternal inheritance of the chosen Cohen People.

    The Yom Tov of ר”ה, יום הזכרון specifically remembers the t’shuva consequent to the Golden Calf. HaShem annulled His vow to make from Moshe’s עולם הבא children the chosen Cohen people! Moshe caused HaShem to remember the oaths sworn to Avraham, Yitzak and Yaacov. Hence the k’vanna of ברכת כהנים, and also likewise the k’vanna of קריא שמע תפילה דאורייתא. The last word אחד, does not refer to monotheism. Monotheism profanes the 2nd Sinai commandment. The 10 plagues judged the Gods of Egypt. Therefore, the word אחד the Yidden remember the oaths sworn by the Avot themselves wherein they cut a brit alliance to create from nothing (תמיד מעשה בראשית) the chosen Cohen people through Av tohor time-oriented commandments like shabbat & Moshiach. All generations merit to sanctify tohor time-oriented commandments. The idea that Jews wait for the coming of the Moshiach – this narishkeit defines Xtianity!

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  3. What an interesting and thought-provoking post, Dave. As I read through the comments, I couldn’t think of anything until I remembered Wicked. I read the book first, loved it, saw the play, then the movie. I think all were well done. The book caused me to reset my thinking as to what we think of as good and evil. Besides, I would love it if our animals could really talk and be professors in a university.

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  4. Hi Dave
    I read last year Jo Nesbøs ‘Macbeth’. It was part of the Hogarth’s Press Shakespeare Project (2015-2018) with authors publishing like J. Winterson, A. Tylor, M. Atwood, T. Chevalier and Nesbø.
    Happy weekend
    The Fab Four of Cley
    🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

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  5. Hi Dave, another interesting topic for a post. Like you, I’m not a big fan of re-writes of previously published and famous books. Jane Austen and Arthur Conan Doyle’s works seem to particularly attract re-writes. I can’t think of any books I’ve read in this line although my son, Gregory, read the Young Sherlock Holmes books. If I can gather the courage, I’ll read Demon Copperhead. I found the Dickens version very tragic.

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  7. I have recently been reading some of Robert Howard’s works other than his sword and sorcery rather his works of horror. I didn’t know he wrote these, but I remember reading Stephen King’s commentary on Howard’s wikipedia page. Although King really complimented Howard’s horror story re Pigeons From Hell, he lambasted Howard for what he felt was Howard’s pastiching of Lovecraft since Lovecraft’s friendship with Howard became a thing. So I guess writers don’t often write an original whenever they feel inspired by other writers. Although I wonder if they are simply finding their way before they find their voice and/or experimenting with something inside them they are to a degree repressing. After all, what’s done in the dark will come out in the light…so there’s that.

    wikipedia: From Stephen King’s critique:

    On Howard in particular, he wrote:

    Howard overcame the limitations of his puerile material by the force and fury of his writing and by his imagination, which was powerful beyond his hero Conan’s wildest dreams of power. In his best work, Howard’s writing seems so highly charged with energy that it nearly gives off sparks. Stories such as “The People of the Black Circle” glow with the fierce and eldritch light of his frenzied intensity. At his best, Howard was the Thomas Wolfe of fantasy, and most of his Conan tales seem to almost fall over themselves in their need to get out. Yet his other work was either unremarkable or just abysmal.[190]

    An exception to this, in King’s opinion (again from Danse Macabre), was the author’s Southern Gothic horror story “Pigeons From Hell”. King referred to this work as “one of the finest horror stories of our century.

    Nice theme Dave. Susi

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    • Thank you, Susi! Very interesting details regarding Robert Howard, H.P. Lovecraft, and Stephen King — as well as their work and the question of originality. I’ve read plenty of King and Lovecraft, but never Howard.

      And, yes, the early-career work of authors might be somewhat derivative until they find their voice. A perfectly natural and understandable practice unless it lasts too long. 🙂

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  8. Dave, I’ve only read two of the novels you’ve mentioned: Wide Sargasso Sea and Demon Copperhead. In my view, there’s value in revisiting powerful stories that were set in a different time and place. While the inspired novel may “offer insights into the previous work,” as you suggest, it also offers us an opportunity to perceive how little human behavior/relationships may have changed over the years.

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  9. A couple of thoughts from me. There’s a relatively recent book called ‘Death Comes To Pemberley’ – marvellous. It says: In a pitch-perfect recreation of the world of Pride and Prejudice, P.D. James elegantly fuses her lifelong passion for the work of Jane Austen with her talent for writing detective fiction. I can’t really do better than that!

    I also thought about this particular book which I really enjoyed. It’s called ‘Burning Your Boats’ by Angela Carter, and these were short stories, many of which were retelling fairy tales. She was an English novelist, short story writer and poet, and all great. I would say you should try to get this, Dave (maybe).

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    • Thank you, Chris! I’ve read P.D. James once and liked her writing, but shied away from trying “Death Comes To Pemberley.” Maybe I should reconsider after seeing your enthusiastic recommendation…

      Retelling fairy tales…that’s a great idea!

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  12. An interesting topic, as usual, Dave, but one that caught me a bit on the hop. I’ve never been much of a one for ‘fan fiction’, and I hated ‘Wild Sargasso Sea’. Having said that, I’ve written two books iwhich take ‘flat’ figures from paintings and give them an up-to-date story – so I’m guilty as charged. One of them led on to other books of my own devising, however, so I can’t regret the inspiration they gave. In defence of it all – mine and others – I’d have to say that all themes/tropes etc have come down the ages and been remodelled many times on the way; so there’s very little that can be called truly original. Thanks for this one, however, and have a good week. 🙂

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  14. Thank you very much, Dave, for mentioning all these great books, which you have made come up to my mind. The last I read in this section and which made me think of Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield is Demon Copperhead, which touched me very much because I felt it as very close to me. Four Winds by Kristin Hannah also seems to be an interesting idea!

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  15. Cool post, Dave. I had no idea that Kristin Hannah’s novel The Four Winds was inspired by John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath — maybe I should’ve known? I have yet to read either book, but will do so; that way I can look out for one influencing the other (and their differences, too!). 📚

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    • Thank you, Ada! Definitely some similarities amid the differences between “The Grapes of Wrath” and “The Four Winds” — each of which has characters going west during the Dust Bowl/Great Depression 1930s and facing some major difficulties.

      “The Grapes of Wrath” is one of my very favorite novels, and I liked “The Four Winds” a LOT, too. Far from upbeat books, but they both have their inspiring moments.

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  16. Yet another fascinating post, Dave! I haven’t read anything based or inspired by another work/book. Like you, ‘reimagination actualization ‘ wouldn’t typically be my type of thing! However, anything by Val McDermid would be excellent! I have a copy of ‘On Beauty’ by Zadie Smith waiting to be read! The other books you have listed sound fantastic! Thanks Dave.
    Have a great week!

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  17. A great theme and I do remember your other post. I am a fan of stories like Wild Sargasso Sea, ones that take an existing character and tell their story–as imagined by the author of course.. a sort of prequel if you like. And of course if an author wants to pick up their own character for a sequel that’s fine by me. But I am less sure re books written years after by some other authoI, as in the sequel to Wuthering Heights where Heathcliff seeks to become the very fellah who would have won Cathy’s devotion (which I thought he’d already done albeit in a warped way). Or here’s Rhett Buterl reunited with Scarlet, when Margaret Mitchell made it plain that that wasn’t going to happen in a million years. Putting aside literature, I saw a film recently about the Brontes focusing on the events that inspired Wuthering Heights, or rather many of the scenes in it, so there’s also that kind of things that a book can spawn

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  18. Oh, there’s so much more! Just to mention here (and recommended): The Hours (1998) by Michael Cunningham, which was made into an Oscar-winning movie a couple of years after the novel was published. But those interested and not having done so already will read the book first, of course. The Hours is a masterful novel whose protagonists, style and composition are a prolonged tribute to one of the greatest writers that ever lived, Virgina Woolf. Just the booktitle reveals the connection to her works – cf. The Years, The Waves. This is renforced by the writing style Cunningham chose for this novel. Pivotal to the narrative is Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs. Dalloway. Obviously, all Vriginia Woolf works, and the essayistic A Room of One’s Own, Quentin Bell’s biography of Virginia Woolf, and Frances Spalding’s biography of Woolf’s sister (the painter) Vanessa Bell shall be read first to fully appreciate Cunningham’s novel. Another novel I might mention to honor the theme: Glahn, by Norwegian author Knut Faldbakken. Glahn repurposes the novel Pan (1894) by Knut Hamsun, or rather its main character, Lieutenant Glahn, whose personality is contextualized and ruthlessly demystified in the setting of a modern-society psychiatric institution.

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    • Thank you, Dingenom! “The Hours” is a terrific mention, and your take on it is very well said! I haven’t read the novel (yet), but saw and really liked the movie. (When there’s a screen adaptation of a novel, it’s usually the opposite for me; more often I read the book but never see the screen adaptation. 🙂 )

      “The Hours” must have be really good to have won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for fiction over one of that year’s finalists: Barbara Kingsolver’s superb”The Poisonwood Bible.”

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  19. Dave, I always enjoy your book lists and the way you connect literature across time—it’s like walking through a library where past and present are in quiet conversation. This is a great post to read after my blog break

    Your thoughts on reimagined fiction prompted a lot a thought for me today. I’m often drawn to these retellings not just for the reinterpretation of characters, but for what they say about us—how we’re still grappling with the same themes: power, justice, voice, memory. I haven’t yet read Queen Macbeth, but it’s now firmly on my list.

    Sometimes I think retellings are less about originality and more about asking, “Whose story haven’t we heard yet?” Thank you for continuing to ask those questions. I think that Ursula K. Le Guin says it best:

    “The story—from Rumpelstiltskin to War and Peace—is one of the basic tools invented by the mind of man for the purpose of understanding.”

    Here’s a story that might fit in. Recently, I read a modern translation of Beowulf by Maria Dahvana Headley. Her version opens with the line: “Bro! Tell me we still know how to speak of kings!” That one sentence reframed the entire story for me. It wasn’t just bold—it reflected our time and language, reminding me that the stories we retell continue to shape how we see power, identity, and legacy today.

    I’ll be checking back on your previous posts! I missed meeting up with you and the community while I was away.

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    • Thank you, Rebecca, and welcome back from being away! You were missed by many. 🙂

      You make a number of great points! Retellings of great literature can indeed reflect the different culture, norms, etc., of a more recent time — even as certain human emotions and other things don’t change THAT much over the centuries, as you note.

      “Queen Macbeth” is quite short — well under 200 small-sized pages — but packs a lot into that space.

      And, yes, modern language in a retelling of an older work can pack a punch!

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      • Thank you so much, Dave—it’s lovely to be back, and your words mean a great deal! I always appreciate the way you draw connections between literary time and timeless human emotion. There’s something comforting in knowing that while our language and context evolve, the core of what we wrestle with—ambition, regret, love, justice—remains deeply human.

        I just placed a hold on Queen Macbeth through the Vancouver Public Library—there’s a three-week wait. (I know it will be worth the wait)! I’m really looking forward to seeing how Val McDermid reshapes the familiar narrative. A short book with lasting impact is always a treasure. Thanks again for your thoughtful post. As ALWAYS you open new reading paths for me.

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        • I appreciate the kind words, Rebecca, and it is indeed comforting that various aspects of being human don’t change that much even as the world changes in various ways.

          Great that “Queen Macbeth” is in your future! Please let me know what you think of it! I know you’ve spotlighted Shakespeare and his writing at times in your blog posts. 🙂

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  20. I recently read and mentioned in a blog post a book called My Dear Watson by L.A. Fields. It’s a reimagining of the Holmes/Watson relationship narrated by Watson’s second wife (who is barely mentioned in one of Doyle’s stories).

    At risk of self-promoting I’ll mention my novel, The Friendship of Mortals, which is based on H.P. Lovecraft’s set of stories called “Herbert West, Reanimator.”

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    • Thank you, Audrey! Great Holmes/Watson-related example of this theme! It can be interesting when a minor and/or supporting character is reimagined into a more prominent role, as also in “The Penelopiad,” “March,” and “Wide Sargasso Sea” works mentioned in my post.

      Self-promotion is fine! 🙂 H.P. Lovecraft is excellent fodder to base a new work on.

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  21. I do like this theme, Dave but I think I’ve only ever read one book that fits. Time After Time by Karl Alexander (there are several books with that title). This novel has the Time Machine’s inventor chasing Jack the Ripper. I wasn’t a big fan of the book, but it was better than the movie.

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  22. I’ve heard a number of good things about a lot of these books, but I haven’t read any of them. I saw the stage version of “Wicked” with my daughter and we both enjoyed it (she liked the book, lots better than Oz I think). I feel like there have been a number of retellings of King Arthur. “The Once and Future King” is a favorite of mine. My daughter liked “The Mists of Avalon” but I have not read it. There’s also the musical “Camelot”. I also really liked John Gardner’s “Grendel” which is a retelling of Beowulf. (K)

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  24. Hello Dave,

    Gee, I can’t think of a book I’ve read that fits into this.

    I’ve thought of reading Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell.

    It’s about Shakespeare’s life pre writing Hamlet, and fictionalizing that the death of his son , Hamnet at 11 years, was the writers inspiration to write the play Hamlet.

    Still, this is borrowing more from a writers life, than an actual work, other than a play on Hamlet.

    Hmm – “play on Hamlet” – I may have inadvertently written a literary based joke.

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