Derivative and Transformative Works
The Butterfly’s Ball and the Grasshopper’s Feast evoked a host of similar poetic accounts of parties given by animals, but The Butterfly’s Funeral is the only true sequel; the guests from the Ball return to mourn their host.
Goody Two Shoes’ Birthday gathers a coterie of well-known literary figures: the hostess; the fabled Dick Whittington; Pompey the Little, canine hero of a 1751 satire on fashionable society; and Old Mother Hubbard.
Tales from Shakespear retells some of Shakespeare’s plays for a juvenile audience, removing anything inappropriate for young readers.
Robinson Crusoe represents an extreme condensation of a long narrative — the original text filled 364 pages, while the chapbook has 16.
The author of Elsie’s Expedition imitated and reused story structure, setting, and events; he wrote in a foreword, ‘I admit that this book would, in all probability never have been written, had I not seen “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.”’
The Egyptian Struwwelpeter is a spoof of Hoffman’s parodic cautionary verses.