Books about secondary characters…

[SundayNightBluesAreHere]

I’ve recently really enjoyed reading a couple of books that tell the stories of secondary characters from well known stories…

The Five - telling the stories of the victims of Jack the Ripper

The Butchers Daughter - the story of Mrs Lovett, of Sweeney Todd fame

Does anyone know of any other books like this, I’d love to find some more!

TIA if anyone can help!

Nick by Michael Farris Smith, which is supposed to be a prequel for the narrator in The Great Gatsby. Good book—it’s a slightly brutal account of his time in WWI and wandering in the aftermath—but entirely uncompelling as a Gatsby prequel I thought.

I hadn’t realised there were so many examples. I don’t know when the ones in this thread date from (Nick is from about five years ago) but now you mention them I’ve seen more than one Lady Macbeth spinoffs in Waterstones recently.

Not sure how I feel about the trend? On one hand retelling the old stories is an important part of a culture – but on the other it does seem a bit like how franchises now dominate at the box office.

The Other Boleyn Girl.

Have read both of these and agree they’re v good, particularly Longbourn.

I know there’s a a book about Magwitch from Great Expectations, by Australian writer Peter Carey I think - but does any one know if there’s a « sequel » to GE?

Four of Barbara Trapido's seven novels have characters that are carried from one book to the next, in some cases going from being extremely minor. They are Brother of the More Famous Jack, Temples of Delight, Juggling and the Travelling Hornplayer. They're all brilliant.