Literary sub-genre: Novel or play retells a classic from the perspective of a secondary character or characters. The new story tracks the the original but shifts some of its action offstage. The two versions intertwine, each now commenting on the other.
Examples:
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Tom Stoppard).
James (Percival Everett).
@JamesGleick A Thousand Ships, by Natalie Haynes, tells the story of the Trojan War from the perspective of the women (except, maybe that one woman…), starting, of course, with Homer’s muse.
Also want to echo others who mentioned Madeline Miller’s books; Circe in particular.
@JamesGleick
I can't offer suggestions as good as the others in this thread, but I can point out something that no one seems to have done yet, which is that there's a term for this: a "paraquel", which is technically a story running at the same time as another story (often, but not specifically, involving different characters' viewpoints).
@JamesGleick There are tons! The Wind Done Gone, for example, retells Gone with the Wind from the slaves' point of view. The Last Ringbearer is an alternative take on The Lord of the Rings from the Mordor viewpoint. And so on.
@cstross@JamesGleick See The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood, Lamb by Christopher Moore, and The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (though the latter two arguably aren't retellings of specific works of fiction by others).
@cstross@JamesGleick In the world of poetry, it might also be fun to look at Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach" followed by Anthony Hecht's "The Dover Bitch".
@csk@cstross That might be my favorite response. I last read that at least 30 years ago and it never occurred to me in this context. (The “secondary” character being the unnamed party to whom the original is addressed.)
@JamesGleick@cstross Yes. I particularly like that Hecht takes an oblique approach. The response isn't written directly in the voice of the woman addressed in Arnold's poem, but presented as hearsay via a friend of hers. That probably enables a more cynical tone, defusing the brooding sincerity of the first poem.
@JamesGleick@tito_swineflu Ah. I knew I had blanked on the title! I have been reluctant to read it because I consider Huck Finn to be something close to a sacred text.
@JamesGleick Somewhat along those lines – the Alexandria Quartet’s first three books. A friend of mine,Juli Crockett, has written some works along those lines: [or the whale], riffing off Moby Dick, The Dawn of Quixote, and Orpheus Crawling…
@JamesGleick Australian author Margo Lanagan has done several fairy tale retellings. The Goosle is a dark, rich version of Hansel and Gretel. Tender Morsels retells Snow White and Rose Red. Both are unsettling but ultimately inspiring explorations of what it means to be human. https://australianfairytalesociety.org/publications-margo-lanagan/
@JamesGleick The Simpsons episode "You Only Move Twice" is a Bond movie from the perspective of an oblivious employee of the villain (Homer, of course).
Marvels, by Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross, looks at the first 40 years or so of Marvel Comics from the perspective of a photojournalist at the Daily Bugle.
@JamesGleick C. S. Lewis's Till We Have Faces powerfully tells the Cupid and Psyche myth from Psyche's "jealous" sister's perspective.
All his life, he felt that Apuleius got one key thing wrong, so he changed one key idea to make it psychologically compelling. To do that effectively, he had to tell it from the sister's perspective.
"Finn" by Jon Clinch tells the story of Huck Finn's father. It tracks but barely interacts, as he did.
It is really good, but really dark and brutal. So much that it's hard to say I liked it. It's been a while, but I don't think I'd say it was gratuitous, which tends to make me mad.
"Marley" by the same author, but I haven't read it.