Under the Influence.

[𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr]

MP Shiel's The House of Sounds (there is an earlier version entitled Vaila) is influenced by Edgar Alan Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher, but avoids becoming a poor rehash by the sheer imaginative spin he does on the original. In The Fall of the House of Usher sound is a theme throughout, as Roderick, because of his condition finds most sounds unbearable; in The House of Sounds Shiel turns this idea on its head, rather than the minimalism in Usher we have the sense that sound everywhere, a constant bombardment.

What stories do you know that take their inspiration from someone else's work, yet manage to make it their own, with fresh new spins on the plot elements, thus creating fine new works in their own right that aren't just poor copies?

List them below with the original source story.

[helrunar]

Princess, you might enjoy the Shiel story "Xelucha." I used to have a beautiful edition of some of Shiel's tales that was edited under that title, and I think a lot came from The House of Sounds. It was a cloth edition from the mid 70s. And like so many of my teenhood books, long ago gone away.

New Year's cheer,

Hel

[dem bones]

From memory, Shiel's The Primate of the Rose is his tribute to The Cask of Amontillado (there have been several, but this is one of the good ones). E. F. Benson's The Bus Conductor owes much to an episode in Andrew Lang's The House of Strange Stories, which in turn drew influence from the 'true' ghost story concerning Lord Dufferin's curse. Robert Chambers' The Yellow Sign is in there, too. Ro's Ghosts & Scholars and it's spin-off Books of Shadows have featured prequels and sequels to every M. R. James story ....

[humgoo]

Jack Adrian has a whole book for this, but unfortunately it's one of those Ash-Tree titles that only about 5 people in the world have a copy. Add the TOC and blurb here for reference purposes only:

Jack Adrian - The Ash-Tree Press Annual Macabre 2005: Haven't I Read This Before?

Jack Adrian - Introduction

I. W. W. Jacobs
W. W. Jacobs - The Toll House
Michael Kent – Reconstruction
H. R. Wakefield - Blind Man's Buff
W. W. Jacobs - The Well
Peter Gladwin - The Well in the Garden

II. Agatha Christie
Edgar Jepson - Mrs Morrel's Last Séance
A. B. Cox - Over the Telephone

III. Daphne du Maurier
William Caine - The Starlings

IV. Barry Perowne
Douglas Newton - 'And There's Your Proof'
Barry Perowne - The Blind Spot

V. Arthur Conan Doyle
David Christie Murray - The Case of Muelvos y Sagra

VI. Andrew Lang
Andrew Lang - The House of Strange Stories
Katharine Tynan - A Sentence of Death
Mary E. Mann - Mrs Carabay's Curious Dream
Janet Deene - The Man on the Hearse

VII. Katharine Tynan
Katharine Tynan - The Dream House
A. M. Burrage - The House of His Fathers
A. M. Burrage - The Garden of Fancy

VIII. Lafcadio Hearn
Lafcadio Hearn - Mujina
Lady Cynthia Asquith - The Follower

Blurb:

The writer faced with a blank sheet of paper has to decide how the story he is going to write will develop: what will be its theme? what will be its outcome? He draws on his experience and talent to produce an original work for his reader's enjoyment. On occasion, however, his mind may be seeded with ideas drawn from something he himself has read.

This year's Annual Macabre looks at a number of writers whose work appears either to have been influenced, or been an influence upon, the work of others. In some of the stories, well-known writers have drawn on, and improved, earlier work. In others, lesser known writers have attempted their own variations on well-known stories.

In his fascinating introduction—which the reader is strongly urged to consider before reading the stories themselves—Jack Adrian discusses the theme of plagiarism and literary (and musical) theft. But outright plagiarism is not the sole theme of this Annual which, as ever, showcases stories that will, in the main, be unknown, even if certain themes and storylines will be at least vaguely familiar, if not instantly recognizable.

So turn down the light and enjoy twenty stories from the pens of such as W. W. Jacobs, H. R. Wakefield, Edgar Jepson, Douglas Newton, Andrew Lang, and A. M. Burrage (whose story 'The House of His Fathers' is reprinted for the first time since its original magazine publication in 1914).

[pbsplatter]

Lisa Tuttle's "The Mezzotint" and Stephen King's "The Road Virus Heads North" both work as effective riffs on MR James' "The Mezzotint"