Writing a novel based on a public domain novel

I've seen it done brilliantly: Longbourn, by Jo Baker, is just wonderful. But I've also seen it done very badly indeed, so tread carefully.

Longbourn worked because it gave us such an interesting perspective on the book which inspired it: it's Pride and Prejudice rewritten from the point of view of the staff at the Bennets' house. The same events happen, even down to someone being sent to a shop a few miles away to buy shoe-ribbons. It works beautifully, and would be a great book even if it didn't have such a close connection to Pride and Prejudice.

If you're thinking of doing something similar then consider what you're going to do to make your book add to the original text. How will you improve on it? What makes it special? Because I think the books like this which don't work tend to be the ones which don't provide that new perspective.

It's fair game, and as Old Hack says, it can be done brilliantly, or it can be done horribly.

If it's no more than fan fiction you can legally publish, it probably won't go very far.

I have a paranormal historical romance coming out later this year where one of the characters is the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come (the faceless wraith from A Christmas Carol).

Faceless wraiths need love too.

Fruitbat said:

You know, like fan fiction that you can legally publish. I'm playing around with one. I might write my own version after I finish re-reading it because I don't remember all of it now. (The Picture of Dorian Gray)

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The only thing that I can think of is that some public domain novels have been dragged back into the private domain by 'franchising' them. For example, Dorian Gray appears in 'The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen'. It might be possible for the owner of the franchise to claim Dorian Gray as a trademark. The law on this is murky as hell, quite apart from the fact that I know so little about it.

I know that Andrew Lloyd Webber settled a million pounds on the family of the author of the original Phantom of the Opera novel, even though it was long out of copyright. This was considered a decent investment to forestall lawsuits, at least from the family.

On the whole, though, I'd say you have not much to worry about, unless your story itself becomes a best-seller or a franchise. But by then, you'd need your own army of lawyers anyway. Ask JKR.

dangerousbill said:

The only thing that I can think of is that some public domain novels have been dragged back into the private domain by 'franchising' them. For example, Dorian Gray.

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The novel has not "been dragged back into the private domain." The moviemakers may have trademarked their depictions of the characters such that you can't depict them in the context of the movie or its specific details. But Wilde's novel most certainly is in public domain. In the U.S., once a work enters public domain, it stays there.

caw

Both Frankenstein and Dorian Grey got shoehorned into Penny Dreadful, so you can certainly use the characters. Doing a modern retelling might work very well, and there are plenty of examples of those around. But I think you do need a new perspective or clever twist to make it work, otherwise it's just a pale copy of the original.

At a WisCon discussion last year, some people working on Sherlock Holmes said some elements of his portrayal belong to the old Rathbone movies and are not out of copyright, but other material was. I can't remember what belonged to the movie. The hat and pipe maybe?

dawinsor said:

At a WisCon discussion last year, some people working on Sherlock Holmes said some elements of his portrayal belong to the old Rathbone movies and are not out of copyright, but other material was. I can't remember what belonged to the movie. The hat and pipe maybe?

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IIRC, the Doyle estate (which, if I continue to RC, isn't quite related to the late Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) somehow still has claim to the cap and pipe image - which came from the movies, not Doyle's works, so how they got their claws on it I don't know. There's been a lot of weirdness about the Sherlock Holmes copyrights - enough that I'd hesitate to use the character at all, even if the original stories are technically fair game now after a court ruling.

Brightdreamer said:

IIRC, the Doyle estate (which, if I continue to RC, isn't quite related to the late Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) somehow still has claim to the cap and pipe image - which came from the movies, not Doyle's works, so how they got their claws on it I don't know. There's been a lot of weirdness about the Sherlock Holmes copyrights - enough that I'd hesitate to use the character at all, even if the original stories are technically fair game now after a court ruling.

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The original stories are not just technically fair game, dozens of very good writers have used them repeatedly in movies, books, and TV shows. There simply is no danger in using the characters. I've read everything from Sherlock Holmes westerns, to Sherlock Holmes SF, and everything between, including plain old Sherlock Holmes mysteries. The Characters are being used not only in America, but also in England, and in several other countries.

Even slush piles have a ridiculously large number of Sherlock Holmes stories.

The only real reason not to use these characters is because the market is pretty well saturated.

Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) is a prequel to Jane Eyre (1847). It stands on its own merits, but understanding Jane illuminates Antoinette in contrast.


Added: Generally I'm more interested in reading prequels than sequels for this sort of fiction. Prequels tend to pull more from the source material in my experience. It may also be that they are harder to write, and this might drive self-selection in their authors.

Fruitbat said:

Thoughts?

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What thoughts are you looking for? Right now I'm thinking pizza makes a good dinner, but that probably won't affect your decision. Whether or not you do this is entirely your choice. It's been done before and will be done again and, until we read it, we'll never know if you did it well or wasted the ink.

Jeff

blacbird said:

The novel has not "been dragged back into the private domain." The moviemakers may have trademarked their depictions of the characters such that you can't depict them in the context of the movie or its specific details. But Wilde's novel most certainly is in public domain. In the U.S., once a work enters public domain, it stays there.

caw

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Now I have to go look up some precedents.

True that once out of copyright, it's out to stay, but if the character is used in another context, that's when trademark law may come into effect. Like I said, trademark law is murky and expensive, and judicial outcomes arbitrary. But that's only a worst case scenario, very unlikely in the case of fan fiction---unless you happen to make a lot of money at it.

As far as I know, no one's made a movie or retelling of 'Paul Clifford', of 'It was a dark and stormy night' infamy. Judging by my reading of the first few pages, it's a tale that might stand retelling.

dangerousbill said:

Now I have to go look up some precedents.

True that once out of copyright, it's out to stay, but if the character is used in another context, that's when trademark law may come into effect. Like I said, trademark law is murky and expensive, and judicial outcomes arbitrary. But that's only a worst case scenario, very unlikely in the case of fan fiction---unless you happen to make a lot of money at it.

As far as I know, no one's made a movie or retelling of 'Paul Clifford', of 'It was a dark and stormy night' infamy. Judging by my reading of the first few pages, it's a tale that might stand retelling.

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Blacbird is entirely correct. You cannot copywrite a preexisting character, only a specific depiction of them. Almost all of Sherlock Holmse is in the public domain, but the BBC Sherlock version created by Moffatt and Gratis isn't. Neither is the Robert Downy Jr. portrayl. However, you can write a story involving a modern Sherlock or a Victorian Sherlock. See Elementry and all the various takes on a period version of Sherlock Holmse. There was even a Sherlock cartoon when I was younger that was firmly SF, and set in the future. All those versions were legal. Likewise all the versions of ANY domain work are legal, as long as they don't completely rip off things from the others.

dangerousbill said:

True that once out of copyright, it's out to stay, but if the character is used in another context, that's when trademark law may come into effect.

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One of the major issues with trademark is that, in contrast to copyright protection, it isn't automatic. You have to specifically seek (and pay for) trademark protection, specifying the kinds of usage you wish to protect. One of the best literature examples of this contrast is the Tarzan universe created by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Many early Tarzan novels are now in public domain in the U.S., and can be freely reprinted. But the characters/setting etc. have long been protected by trademark, now owned (I believe) by the Burroughs estate. You can't create a new Tarzan story without obtaining their permission.

caw

Fruitbat said:

You know, like fan fiction that you can legally publish. I'm playing around with one. I might write my own version after I finish re-reading it because I don't remember all of it now. (The Picture of Dorian Gray)

Thoughts?

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Well, I'm playing with two ideas that are like that right now. I think that says what I think of it.

One of my ideas is a collection of Annabel Lee inspired novellas, but I'm just focusing on fixing the one I've already written. It was a scrap and redo, so I'm actually putting thought into the imagery, language, whether I'm going to use first person or not for this version. I've even analyzed the plot and boiled it down before deciding how or whether I wanted to modify it.

The other is a Lesbian Romeo & Juliet retelling, set in a near future earth setting. Two of my three MCs are aliens, while the Juliet character is human. I'm worldbuilding, and writing down the plot for R&J so I can manipulate it the way I want to.

I do wonder though, exactly what sort of thoughts are you looking for?

Lillith1991 said:

You cannot copywrite a preexisting character

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Just for clarification, the term involved here is "copyright", not "copywrite", the latter of which is a completely different and unrelated animal.

caw