# Same story, more than one book **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 13, 2017, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-story-more-than-one-book/782113 "2017-03-13T20:28:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-story-more-than-one-book/782113/21 "2017-03-14T16:55:06Z")
\*\*Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern are Dead \*\*? Takes place during Hamlet. ---
**Author:** ![It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/it_s_not_rocket_surgery/32/312_2.png) [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-story-more-than-one-book/782113/22 "2017-03-14T17:17:32Z")
The 1955 scenes in _Back To The Future II_ almost all take place on the fringes of scenes from the first _BTTF_. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-story-more-than-one-book/782113/23 "2017-03-14T18:24:38Z")
If we are including TV episodes the episode Expose from Lost shows the first season from the POV of the background extras. That’s one of the reasons I like it a lot when everyone else hates it. ---
**Author:** ![MHaas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@MHaas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MHaas)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-story-more-than-one-book/782113/24 "2017-03-14T18:59:40Z")
How about a film to written work crossover? Peter Watts’ fantastic short story _The Things_ tells the story of the film _The Thing_ from the alien’s point of view. [http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/watts\_01\_10/](http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/watts_01_10/) ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-story-more-than-one-book/782113/25 "2017-03-14T21:50:24Z")
Deep Space Nine’s episode “Trials and Tribble-ations” is a retelling of the original series’ episode “The Trouble With Tribbles” from a different perspective. ---
**Author:** ![psiekier](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psiekier/32/116_2.png) [@psiekier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psiekier)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-story-more-than-one-book/782113/26 "2017-03-14T22:08:36Z")
> [@Sattua](#): > > _Grendel_ is a telling of _Beowulf_ (or the first part of Beowulf; I haven’t actually read it so I’m not sure) from the POV of the monster. Along similar lines, there’s Michael Chrichton’s _[Eaters of the Dead](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eaters_of_the_Dead)_, filmed as _[The 13th Warrior](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_13th_Warrior)_ starring Antonio Banderas. It tells the story of an exiled Arabian courtier who falls in with (press-ganged by, you might say) a band of Norsemen who are returning to their homeland… and he finds himself in the middle of the _Beowulf_ saga! * * * I also like the take on _War of the Worlds_ presented in the second _League of Extraordinary Gentlemen_ book. The Martians didn’t simply fall prey to Earth’s diseases because they had no defense. Rather, Allan Quatermain and Mina Harker convince [Dr. Moreau](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Island_of_Doctor_Moreau) to supply the British military with custom hybrid strains of anthrax crossed with strep, which the Brits load into their big lobbas and shell the tripods with! ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-story-more-than-one-book/782113/27 "2017-03-15T01:11:53Z")
> [@naita](#): > > I was thinking today about the choices made in telling a story. POV, tense, framing etc. The same story could have a different impact and/or find a different audience by changing choices like that. Anyone able to think of someone who’s done just that? Are you looking for authors who’ve written two different versions of the same story themselves, or authors who’ve done an alternate take on a story originally written by someone else? There are probably more of the latter, and most of the examples offered in this thread fall into that category. It’s a single book, but _Fingersmith_ by Sarah Waters is told from the perspectives of two different characters. Part One has Sue as the narrator, then it switches to Maud in Part Two, with some overlap in the events described. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-story-more-than-one-book/782113/28 "2017-03-15T01:34:26Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > The thing is, as a historical romance novel, it wasn’t that bad. As a sequel to GWTW it was horrible. Main character Scarlet, completely different. GWTW was not even a romance in the first place. You know it. When Scarlett just plain hands over Tara to Suellen, I threw the book over my shoulder and never touched it again. Scarlett would’ve murdered Suellen with her bare hands before letting that happen. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-story-more-than-one-book/782113/29 "2017-03-15T03:38:33Z")
Em…isn’t there a Twilight book from Edward’s point of view, instead of Bella’s, for the same events? Looks like it’s called **Midnight Sun**. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-story-more-than-one-book/782113/30 "2017-03-15T12:12:13Z")
We’ve had threads on this in the past. There are plenty of cases where a story, especially a famous one, is told from the point of view of a different character. Many have already ben cited, of course, but here are some others About ten years ago, Christopher Moore told the story of _King Lear_ from the point of view of The Fool in **Fool**. Moore managed to take Shakespeare’s darkest tragedy and turn it into a hilarious, obscene, anachronistic romp. Well worth the read. Part of Robert Heinlein’s last novel **To Sail Beyond the Sunset** , retells the events in his earlier novel **Time Enough for Love** from the POV of a different character. A 1970s humor book, **My Side** by Walter Wager, tells the story of King Kong from his POV. Fred Saberhagen did the same sort of thing with his 1975 novel **The Dracula Tape** , which tells the story of Dracula from his POV. Dracula actually doesn’t appear “on screen” all that often in Bram Stoker’s novel, so it’s odd to see him getting a lot of “screen time” in this. John Gardner (the one who wrote all the James Bond sequels) wrote three novels about Sherlock Holmes’ nemesis, Professor Moriarty. It’s been too long since I read the first two (the third just came out a decade ago, but I haven’t read it) to recall if they tell any of the events that Doyle wrote about from the opposite POV. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-story-more-than-one-book/782113/31 "2017-03-15T12:31:17Z")
OP, would [_In A Grove_](http://fullreads.com/crime/in-a-grove-by-ryunosuke-akutagawa/) [count](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_a_Grove) as what you are looking for? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-story-more-than-one-book/782113/32 "2017-03-15T12:50:04Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > OP, would [_In A Grove_](http://fullreads.com/crime/in-a-grove-by-ryunosuke-akutagawa/) [count](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_a_Grove) as what you are looking for? The basis of Akira Kurasawa’s **Rashomon** , although Kurasawa’s script added even more variations. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-story-more-than-one-book/782113/33 "2017-03-15T14:23:17Z")
A lot of good examples that don’t quite add up to what I was looking for, which I think is pretty good evidence that it doesn’t exist. Or possibly that my search pattern wasn’t well formed. I think the core issue is what one would call “the story” of a book or work. In a Sherlock Holmes book for instance the solving of the mystery is a the major part of the story. Following the same events from the view point of the antagonist is an entirely different story. It would be closer to the same story if one simply changed the first person narrative, to third person, while keeping Watson as POV, but perhaps also uninteresting. Changing the tense ditto. Changing the POV to Holmes and more elements of what I’d call the story changes … ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-story-more-than-one-book/782113/34 "2017-03-15T14:48:39Z")
If you’re looking for Real Life examples (as you OP has), there are plenty of historical events told from different points of view, often by different participants, which can often make it seem like a very different story. Look at all the participants’ accounts of the OJ Simpson trial, for instance. My best example is the Salem Witchcraft Trials. I’ve read numerous accounts, and they often seem to be describing very different occurrences, although it’s all in the choice of the characters they focus on and the events they put front and center. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-story-more-than-one-book/782113/35 "2017-03-15T15:18:42Z")
[Zoe’s Tale](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoe's_Tale) is a retelling of [The Last Colony](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Colony) from the point of view of the colony leaders’ teenage daughter. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-story-more-than-one-book/782113/36 "2017-03-15T22:45:12Z")
**The True Story of the Three Little Pigs** by Jon Scieszka tells the familiar story from the wolf’s point of view. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2017, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-story-more-than-one-book/782113/37 "2017-03-16T01:00:30Z")
I just thought of another. _Longbourn_, by Jo Baker. It’s _Pride and Prejudice_, told from the servants’ point of view. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2017, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-story-more-than-one-book/782113/38 "2017-03-16T01:24:38Z")
Here is the TV Tropes webpage on different contrasting viewpoints in a single work of art: > **["Rashomon"-Style - TV Tropes](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RashomonStyle)** > > A Rashomon-Style story is where the same event is recounted by several characters, and the stories differ in ways that are impossible to reconcile. It shows that two or more people can view the same event quite differently. The author invites the … Here’s their webpage on different contrasting viewpoints in two works of art: > **[Perspective Flip - TV Tropes](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PerspectiveFlip)** > > A Sub-Trope of External Retcon, in which somebody takes a known — often classic — story, and retells it, turning it on its head. What you thought was the villain is now taken as a protagonist, and is portrayed with a greater degree of … And another such webpage: > **[External Retcon - TV Tropes](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ExternalRetcon)** > > While some works of fiction expose the "truth" about historical figures or events, others expose the "truth" behind the events of earlier works of fiction. This is mostly confined to parodies or works that attempt deconstruction of the work(s) … And still another such webpage: > **[Twice-Told Tale - TV Tropes](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TwiceToldTale)** > > Lots of works are based on earlier works. Sometimes a story is not only based on it, but really requires you to know the earlier story to fully appreciate it, or even appreciate it at all. A Sleeping Beauty story where the princess turns out to … Each of those webpages has links to other webpages with examples. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of such kinds of stories. This is one of the commonest sorts of narratives in many sorts of art forms. ---
**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2017, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-story-more-than-one-book/782113/39 "2017-03-16T23:51:01Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > We’ve had threads on this in the past. Yes, but this one is from a different point of view. ---
**Author:** ![JR\_Brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JR\_Brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JR_Brown)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2017, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-story-more-than-one-book/782113/40 "2017-03-17T19:30:19Z")
> [@naita](#): > > A lot of good examples that don’t quite add up to what I was looking for, which I think is pretty good evidence that it doesn’t exist. Or possibly that my search pattern wasn’t well formed. > > I think the core issue is what one would call “the story” of a book or work. In a Sherlock Holmes book for instance the solving of the mystery is a the major part of the story. Following the same events from the view point of the antagonist is an entirely different story. It would be closer to the same story if one simply changed the first person narrative, to third person, while keeping Watson as POV, but perhaps also uninteresting. Changing the tense ditto. > > Changing the POV to Holmes and more elements of what I’d call the story changes … I’m not quite sure I understand what you’re looking for; using the _Sherlock Holmes_ analogy, you’d accept as a suitable example one of Doyle’s stories rewritten to be in third-person present tense, but still keeping Watson as the POV character and following the same events? I don’t think that sort of minor tweak to an existing story happens very often in prose fiction, except in rare cases where the author is not happy with the originally-published form and decides to change things for a newer edition. It doesn’t seem like a significant enough change in effect to be worth another author’s trouble. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-story-more-than-one-book/782113.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/same-story-more-than-one-book/782113.md?page=3)