Parallel Stories

I have a brother in-law who collects versions of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol , the original version being A Christmas Carol: In Prose, Being a Ghost Story of Christmas (1843) illustrated by John Leech. Several years ago my wife and I gave him Marley's Ghost (2000) by Mark Hazard Osmun (currently out of print) which tells more about Jacob Marley's life and his activities behind the scenes getting the various ghosts involved with Scrooge.

Around that time, I also read Orson Scott Card's Ender's Shadow (1999) which overlaps the award-winning story in Ender's Game (1985), also by Card, but from the character Bean's perspective instead of Ender's.

I have since then encountered several other classic or favorite stories with other books published telling the story from another character's point of view. Most of the time, the stories fill out the background on some of the minor characters, fill in gaps between events or give behind the scene activities, and then possibly carry the story beyond the end of the original - at least in regards to the originally minor characters.

In fact with Card, he has now created an entire Shadow series that continues the story of several of the characters introduced in Ender's Game, helping to bridge Ender's Game with Speaker for the Dead (1986) and other books in the Ender series.

I was aware that for Hamlet (ca 1600) by William Shakespeare, we have the parallel story of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1966) by Tom Stoppard. While I researching this I discovered not one, but two books written with Ophelia as the principal character - Dating Hamlet: Ophelia's Story (2002) by Lisa Fiedler and Ophelia (2006) by Lisa Klein. (Is there something with Lisas and Ophelia?)

Fiedler apparently followed up her Ophelia book with a companion story to Romeo and Juliet (ca 1596) by William Shakespeare titled Romeo's Ex: Rosalind's Story (2006).

For Macbeth (ca 1605) by William Shakespeare, there is Enter Three Witches (2007) by Caroline Cooney.

I wouldn't be surprised if other authors haven't already tackled more of the Bard's work in this way, although there seems to be a recent surge in this type of novel and they seem to be targeted to young adults.

As the movie The Lion King (1994) is draws several plot elements from Shakespeare's Hamlet, perhaps it is not too surprising Disney did a direct-to-video prequel/mid-quel in the vein of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead with The Lion King 1 1/2 (2004), showing that Timon and Pumba's lives intersected and inadvertently affect Simba's story before they actually appeared in The Lion King. (Both of these Disney movies are in moratorium at the moment.)

Gregory Maguire wrote Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (1996) which is not really a parallel story to the The Wizard of Oz (1900) by L. Frank Baum and originally illustrated by W. W. Denslow, but rather a story telling the perspective of the Wicked Witch of the West in an Oz that is an amalgamation of lands, creatures and characters from the other Oz books Baum wrote, with key elements from the movie The Wizard of Oz (1939), but I think it draws on enough of the original story it can be included here.

The last example I have is from the recent vampire novel Twilight (2005) by Stephenie Meyer. This is told from Bella's point of view. Meyer has started book chronicling this story from Edward's perspective which is currently called Midnight Sun. On Meyer's website you can download and read the first chapter by clicking on the links on this page: http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/otherprojects_midnightsun.html.

With the exception of the stories by Card and Meyer, the parallel versions were written by a different author. Most of these weren't done as a parody, but rather as a means of examining or enlarging on themes or plots covered or suggested by the original. Most of the time characters developed and grew beyond the scope their appearance in the first work allowed, increasing the depth of the original.

While Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is a comedy, it stands on its own as it deals with some philosophical issues that the original really couldn't go into. (As does The Lion King 1 1/2, although from what I remember the additional themes it deals with are rather shallow.)

If any of you know of other parallel stories out there, please share them.