The End is NOT Near
Posted by: Kaite Stover
I can’t think of any readers who don’t have at least one literary character for whom they wish there were more adventures. From Sherlock Holmes to Harry Potter, Jane Austen to Margaret Mitchell, there are characters and authors that just can’t be left alone by some writers, much to the delight, and occasional ire, of many readers.
Bernard Drew understands the pull of the sequel and has collected quite a few literary sequels, continuations, parallel stories, and off-shoots in Literary Afterlife: The Posthumous Continuations of 325 Authors’ Fictional Characters.
Book groups fond of reading the classics may find this latest resource useful. Especially those book groups with a fixation on Jane Austen. Drew has listed every pastiche connected to Austen and her Regency world he could find.
A few quibbles: there are quite a few entries for authors of children’s works. These titles are generally easy to find and seasoned librarians, with even more wily children’s librarians, don’t need a source for those books. There are few too many typos and grammatical errors in titles of listed works and the short descriptions of the classic characters. The table of contents isn’t very useful. This work would have been better served by listing all the authors alphabetically or chronologically. It’s a little incongruous to see Michael Crichton sandwiched between Edgar Rice Burroughs and C.S. Forester. Austen and the Bronte sisters deserve a better category than ‘Romance’ and ‘Pulps’ is unnecessary. Those authors could find a spot in other genre/subject headings.
All in all, this book is a good resource for readers looking for “further adventures of…”
