History Main / LiteraryNecrophilia

!This trope is [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=16694612240.25906100 under discussion]] in the Administrivia/TropeRepairShop.

->''"The Warble, Peddle and Leek Publishing Company proudly announces ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet II''--a sweeping saga of lust and passion that begins where the best-selling original left off! The story begins with the discovery that the two lovers didn't really stab themselves hard enough to die, and follows them through their lustful and passionate efforts to escape the clutches of their warring families and find a peaceful life of lust and passion! Now on sale at every drugstore and supermarket in the world."''
-->-- '''Creator/DaveBarry''', "Compressed Classics"

This is what happens when you write a sequel to a series that was finished long ago, or continue the work of a dead author without his or her permission. Not to be confused with [[ILoveTheDead literal necrophilia]] or LiteraryMashUps that involve zombies.

Some authors, such as Creator/JRRTolkien and Creator/CSLewis, are famous for avoiding this by virtue of a throng of [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment fanatic fans]]. (Not [[Creator/NickPerumov in Russia]] though.)

See also OutlivedItsCreator and SequelGap. FranchiseZombie is when the franchise was ''supposed to die'', but against the creator's blessing continued.

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!!Examples:

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[[folder:Art]]
* The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hastings_Embroidery Hastings Embroidery]] was created in 1965 as a companion to the Bayeux Tapestry, telling the story of the 900 years in between.
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[[folder:Comic Books]]
* ''Comicbook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'' is basically a Literary Necrophiliac orgy.
* As is another work by Creator/AlanMoore, ''Lost Girls''. In a more [[PornWithPlot literal]] sense.
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%%[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
%%* [[Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon Walt Disney]]
%%[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* ''Film/Hamlet2'' isn't itself a sequel to ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'', but it's about a drama teacher who [[ShowWithinAShow tries to write one]].
* ''Film/SupermanReturns'' is a case of ''Cinematic'' Necrophilia, being a sequel to ''Film/SupermanII'' made 26 years after that movie and 19 years after [[Film/SupermanIVTheQuestForPeace the last movie]] [[CanonDiscontinuity in the series]].
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[[folder:Literature]]
* Jean Rhys's ''Literature/TheWideSargassoSea'' relates the plot of ''Literature/JaneEyre'' from the POV of Rochester's mad Creole wife. It's unimaginably brilliant.
* ''Scarlett'', the sequel to ''Film/GoneWithTheWind.''
** And ''The Wind Done Gone'', telling the original story from the point of view of the slave characters.
** And ''Rhett Butler's People'', from the point of view of... guess. The difference is, this one is authorized, and it adds a new ending.
* Creator/JaneAusten's work are very prone to this treatment:
** ''Literature/PrideAndPrejudice'':
*** There are a billion and one sequels to this novel. Readers apparently can't stand NoHuggingNoKissing and never seeing the act happen on-page. E.g. ''Wild And Wanton Pride & Prejudice'' includes all the [[HotterAndSexier dirty naughty bits]] that readers have been hungering for. Jane Austen's ghost will come to haunt Michelle Pillow yet...
*** For every continuation of the original story, there must be at least ten versions of the original novel told from [[PerspectiveFlip Mr. Darcy's perspective]].
*** ''Literature/PrideAndPrejudiceAndZombies'', a twofer zombification of the original.
** Joan Aiken:
*** She did a continuation of ''Literature/MansfieldPark'', featuring Fanny's lively young sister Susan and Edmund's brother Tom, called ''Mansfield Revisited''.
*** She wrote a PerspectiveFlip of ''Literature/{{Emma}}'' called ''Jane Fairfax''.
* ''The Time Ships'' is a sequel to ''Literature/TheTimeMachine'' written by Stephen Baxter.
* ''Literature/{{Flatland}}'', of all things, has many, including one penned by the original square's granddaughter, Victoria A. Line.
* ''Literature/TheTripods'' is a weird double example. The original trilogy is essentially a sequel to ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds'', written 70 years later. Then 20 years after the conclusion of the original trilogy, Creator/JohnChristopher decided to write a prequel to his old series, which winds up being basically ''The War of the Worlds'' all over again.
* ''Literature/TheNightOfTheTriffids'' was published 50 years after ''Literature/TheDayOfTheTriffids'', and 30 years after the death of the original author (though with the permission of his estate). It adds extra gunfire and explosions and throws in some HollywoodEvolution as well, yet still manages a pretty fair stab at emulating Creator/JohnWyndham's style of writing. Not exactly high art, but a decent page-turner.
* The ''Franchise/{{Dune}}'' series [[FanonDiscontinuity purportedly]] received a number of prequels, ''pre''-prequels, interquels, midquels, and finally sequels written by the original author's son Brian Herbert and the inimitable Creator/KevinJAnderson. Their reception is famously summed up in [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2003/10/15/ this]] ''Webcomic/PennyArcade'' strip.
* ''Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz'' has [[Literature/LandOfOz 39 official sequels]], 26 of which were written by other authors after Creator/LFrankBaum's death. The unofficial sequels number [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_published_Oz_Apocrypha in the hundreds]] - ''Literature/{{Wicked}}'' is just the most famous of them.
* All {{Public Domain Character}}s. This plus the FirstLawOfResurrection means that {{Dracula}} will never stay in the ground.
* The estate of Creator/ArthurConanDoyle has [[http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110118/od_nm/us_britain_sherlock_odd approved]] one such attempt at a new ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'' novel. In this case, it's by Creator/AnthonyHorowitz.
** Of course, given the above point about Public Domain Characters, people were coming up with new adventures for Holmes and Watson long before this. At least one has sardonically parodied this by noting that if Dr. John Watson wrote ''everything'' that has been published purporting to be a newly discovered Sherlock Holmes case, then he would have been among the most prolific authors to have ever lived.
** Another noteworthy example is the ''Literature/EnolaHolmes'' books, which stars Sherlock's [[SpiritedYoungLady irrepressible younger sister]], whom he managed to never mention in all his adventures.
* ''H: The Story of Heathcliff's Journey Back to Literature/WutheringHeights'' by Lin Haire-Sargeant, covers what exactly Heathcliff did during his [[TimeSkip three years spent away.]] It eventually turns into a crossover with ''Literature/JaneEyre'', as Heathcliff turns out to be [[spoiler: the son of Rochester and his mad first wife.]]
* ''Literature/AlicesAdventuresInWonderland'' has ''Alice Through the Needle's Eye'' by Gilbert Aldair, ''Automated Alice'' by Jeff Noon, and the revisionist series ''Literature/TheLookingGlassWars''.
* ''Literature/PeterPan'' has fallen victim to this countless times. Examples include:
** The authorized sequel, ''Literature/PeterPanInScarlet''.
** ''Literature/PeterAndTheStarcatchers'' (a reimagined backstory series)
*** Also adapted to a stage play titled ''Theatre/PeterAndTheStarcatcher''.
** The Franchise/DisneyFairies series
** ''Wendy'' (a DarkerAndEdgier prequel)
** ''Lost Girls'' (a HotterAndSexier sequel)
** ''Capt. Hook: Adventures of a Notorious Youth'' (a prequel about Captain Hook's school days)
** ''Tigerheart'' (centered around a CanonForeigner Lost Boy)
** ''Peter Pan and the Only Children'' (written by Gilbert Aldair, who had previously indulged in this trope with a third ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'' book)
** ''Tiger Lily'' (YoungAdultLiterature about the Indian maiden, who turns out to be nursing a crush on him)
* ''Literature/TheAdventuresOfTomSawyer'' has ''Becky: A Novel'', basically a romantic drama PerspectiveFlip with feminist leanings, centered around Becky Thatcher as a grown woman. It retcons most of the original book by explaining that Creator/MarkTwain was their UnreliableNarrator buddy who idolized Tom and skewed the story for the sake of RuleOfCool. (For instance, Injun Joe was falsely accused, and Becky accompanied the boys on all their adventures. In other words, what ''really happened'' was a lot more PC.)
* And while we're at it, ''Literature/TheAdventuresOfHuckleberryFinn'' has the PerspectiveFlip prequels ''Finn'', about Huck's dad, and ''My Jim'', about Jim's wife.
* ''Literature/{{Grendel}}'' by John Gardner goes all the way back to ''Literature/{{Beowulf}}'' and, like the previous example, has philosophical overtones which make it a school staple.
* ''Literature/MistressMashamsRepose'' by T. H. White is a two-and-a-half-centuries-later sequel to the Lilliputian parts of ''Literature/GulliversTravels''.
* Susan Hill's ''Mrs. De Winter'' is a sequel to Daphne Du Maurier's ''Literature/{{Rebecca}}''.
** ... which in its turn was followed by Sally Beauman's ''Rebecca's Tale'', which veers into {{Prequel}} territory in part of its narrative.
* ''Literature/LesMiserables'' has two sequels... both of which are titled "Cosette". Laura Kalpakian's ''Cosette: The Sequel To Les Misérables'' (1995) follows the plot of the musical rather than the original novel. François Cérésa's ''Cosette, [[EitherOrTitle or the time of illusions]]'' is also an act of literary necromancy, bringing [[spoiler:Inspector Javert]] back from the dead to take a central role, and got Cérésa sued by Victor Hugo's heirs.
* ''Literature/TheBourneSeries'': After the death of Creator/RobertLudlum, Eric Von Lustbader carried on with the Bourne adventures, writing ''eleven'' novels at last count.
* ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'': Death's too good for them. Eight years after Creator/DouglasAdams' death, Eoin Colfer wrote ''And Another Thing...'', improbably picking up where ''Mostly Harmless'' left off.
* ''Literature/TheMillenniumTrilogy'': With original author Stieg Larsson having died before the first book of the series was published (though he had completed three), the publishers hired David Lagercrantz to write further books in the series. Lagercrantz has written three ''Millennium'' books to date.
* John Gregory Betancourt wrote a prequel series to Creator/RogerZelazny's ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfAmber''. This was criticised by authors like Creator/NeilGaiman and Creator/GeorgeRRMartin, because even though Betancourt had received permission from the Zelazny estate, Zelazny himself had stated that he did not want other authors writing ''Amber'' books. In any case, the series was cut short when Betancourt's publisher went bankrupt.
* ''The Hand of the Dead Man'' is a sequel to ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo'' written by Alfredo Possolo Hogan but attributed to Creator/AlexandreDumas.
* ''Franchise/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'' examples:
** Susan Kay's ''Literature/{{Phantom}}'' fleshes out the backstory Gaston Leroux gave Erik and goes on to retell the novel's events from the points of view of Erik, Christine, and Raoul.
** ''Literature/ThePhantomOfManhattan'' is a Creator/FrederickForsyth novel that follows on from the Creator/AndrewLloydWebber musical rather than the novel (with a lengthy preface in which Forsyth justifies doing so), as it originated from the early development of a sequel to the show. Many elements of it wound up in the actual stage sequel ''Theatre/LoveNeverDies''.
* ''Literature/TheAeneid'' was written as a sequel to ''Literature/TheIliad'' and ''Literature/TheOdyssey'', which were composed several hundred years before at least. Given that ''The Aeneid'' itself is now over ''two thousand'' years old, we can safely assume that this trope has been around for [[OlderThanDirt a long time itself]].
* Andrzej Stojowski wrote ''W ręku Boga'' (''In God's Hand''), a sequel to Henryk Sienkiewicz's ''[[Literature/{{SienkiewiczTrilogy}} Trilogy]]''.
* Creator/GeorgeMacDonaldFraser lifted the character of Flashman from the 1840s boarding school adventure ''Literature/TomBrownsSchooldays''. At least two of the books in the series revisit characters from the original book as adults, and the first book, ''{{Literature/Flashman}}'', directly begins with the school bully's expulsion in disgrace from Rugby School. Now [=MacDonald Fraser=] is himself deceased, it remains to be seen which author takes up the challenge to complete unfinished Flashman stories. The one involving Flashman in UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar, for instance.
* ''Return to the Hundred Acre Wood'' is a sequel to the original ''Literature/WinnieThePooh'' books. It was published in 2009, 83 years after the original. Followed by ''The Best Bear in All the World'' in 2016 to mark the 90th anniversary.
* OlderThanTheyThink: ''Literature/OrlandoFurioso'' (Ludovico Ariosto, 1516) is much more famous (it has a TVT entry, QED) than its predecessor "Orlando Inammorato" (Matteo Maria Boiardo 1494, unfinished)
* A man claiming to be the original author's illegitimate son wrote a sequel to ''Literature/AConfederacyOfDunces'' called ''A Cornucopia of Dunderheads'' that focused on Ignatius' adventures in [[BigApplesauce New York]].
* Creator/SophieHannah has written three ''Literature/HerculePoirot'' novels: ''The Monogram Murders'' (2014), ''Closed Casket'' (2016) and ''The Mystery of Three Quarters'' (2018).
* After completing Creator/DorothyLSayers' unfinished ''Literature/LordPeterWimsey'' novel ''Thrones, Dominations'' in 1988, Jill Patton Walsh went on to write three original adventures for Lord Peter: ''A Presumption of Death'' (2002), which was loosely inspired by Sayers's magazine column ''The Wimsey Papers'', ''The Attenbury Emeralds'' (2010), based on the NoodleIncident of Peter's first case, and ''The Late Scholar'' (2013).
* ''Old Toffer's Book of Consequential Dogs'', written by Christopher Reid and published by Faber and Faber in 2019, is the canine companion to ''Literature/OldPossumsBookOfPracticalCats'' that Creator/TSEliot occasionally talked about but never actually wrote.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Literature/TheMoomins'', a Finnish series.
* ''Series/WarOfTheWorlds1988'' (although [[RecycledTheSeries it mostly follows]] [[Film/TheWarOfTheWorlds the 1953 movie]]).
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theater]]
* Creator/WilliamShakespeare examples:
** ''Theatre/RosencrantzAndGuildensternAreDead'' by Tom Stoppard is a perspective flip of ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' and a hallmark of [[{{Absurdism}} Theatre of the Absurd]].
** ''The Virgin Queen'' – by F.G. Waldron from 1797, is a sequel to ''Theatre/TheTempest'', in which Prospero returns home, bringing along Caliban, who causes trouble.
** ''Fortinbras'', by Lee Blessing, 1991. Set immediately following William Shakespeare's ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'', the play recounts the events after Hamlet's death that go on throughout Elsinore. The play includes almost every character from Hamlet returning as a ghost.
** ''Juliet in Mantua'' by Robert Nathan from 1966 presents Rosaline from ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'' as a fully developed character. In this sequel, in which Romeo and Juliet did not die, the pair live ten years later in exile in Mantua. When Rosaline shows up in Mantua with her husband County Paris, both couples must confront their disillusionment with their marriages.
** ''After Juliet'', written by Scottish playwright Sharman Macdonald, tells the story of Rosaline after Romeo dies. A main character in this play, she struggles with her loss and turns away the advances of Benvolio, who has fallen in love with her.
** ''The Doctor of Rome'', by Nat Colley, takes up from ''Theatre/TheMerchantOfVenice'', following Daniel, Shylock’s grandson, as he re-opens the decades-old court case of the previous play. Portia must once again appear in drag to defend herself.
** ''The Thyme of the Season'' by Duncan Pflaster takes place three months after the events of ''Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream'', on Halloween Night, when the fairies must sacrifice a human soul to hell.
** ''Romeo & Juliet & Zombies'' by Melody Bates begins with Act V of ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'' and gives them a second chance at love, as the living dead.
** ''Dunsinane'', by David Greig, follows the wife of Theatre/{{Macbeth}} after he dies, with an emphasis on historically accuracy (Shakespeare’s play was based on actual events, but he took several liberties).
** Creator/EphraimKishon wrote a play titled ''Oh, Oh, Juliet''. It's a sequel to ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'', in which it turns out they both faked their death and went on to live LikeAnOldMarriedCouple.
* ''Figaro Gets a Divorce'', Ödön von Horváth's 1936 sequel play to Beaumarchais' 1778 ''Theatre/TheMarriageOfFigaro''.
[[/folder]]
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* ''Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz'' has [[Literature/LandOfOz 39 official sequels]] (all together making up "[[FanNickname The Famous Forty]]"), 26 of which were written by other authors after Creator/LFrankBaum's death. The unofficial sequels number [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_published_Oz_Apocrypha in the hundreds]] - ''Literature/{{Wicked}}'' is just the most famous of them.

* ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'': Death's too good for them. Eight years after Creator/DouglasAdams' AuthorExistenceFailure, Eoin Colfer wrote ''And Another Thing...'', improbably picking up where ''Mostly Harmless'' left off.

* OlderThanTheyThink: ''Literature/OrlandoFurioso'' (Ludovico Ariosto, 1516) is much more famous (it has a TVT entry, QED) than its predecessor "Orlando Inammorato" (Matteo Maria Boiardo 1494, [[AuthorExistenceFailure unfinished]])

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
* [[Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon Walt Disney]] (arguably willingly) and his many less than happy subordinates and co-creators.
[[/folder]]