{"id":3921,"date":"2021-12-14T15:04:09","date_gmt":"2021-12-14T21:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lfs.org\/blog\/?p=3921"},"modified":"2025-05-05T22:57:30","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T03:57:30","slug":"orwells-prometheus-hall-of-fame-classic-nineteen-eighty-four-inspires-a-sequel-but-will-it-measure-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/orwells-prometheus-hall-of-fame-classic-nineteen-eighty-four-inspires-a-sequel-but-will-it-measure-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Orwell\u2019s Prometheus Hall of Fame classic Nineteen Eighty-Four inspires a \u201csequel\u201d (but will it measure up?)"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Michael Grossberg<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Sequels to classic works of literature by deceased authors rarely measure up to the originals, but that doesn\u2019t stop different authors and publishers from trying.<\/p>\n

Yet, the new novels often spark interest, especially by fans of the earlier works, and sometimes they even become bestsellers – only to fade while the original works continue to be celebrated. (Does anyone today remember Scarlett,\u00a0<\/em>a popular sequel to Margaret Mitchell\u2019s still-read\u00a0Gone with the Wind?)<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
George Orwell in 1943 (Creative Commons license)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The latest effort, recently announced and of special interest to Libertarian Futurist Society members, will offer a retelling of a Prometheus award-winner that ranks among the 20th\u00a0<\/sup>century\u2019s most influential and best-known novels: George Orwell\u2019s Nineteen Eighty-Four.<\/em><\/p>\n

Julia,\u00a0<\/em>an upcoming novel by Sandra Newman, will refocus the events of the dystopian tale of totalitarian dictatorship, propaganda, mind control, newspeak and doublethink from the perspective of Winston Smith\u2019s illicit love interest.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Orwell\u2019s estate has approved the project as a \u201cfeminist retelling\u201d of the 1949 novel. The story reportedly will cover roughly the same time period and overlap with the same events that Orwell\u2019s hapless Smith experienced, only through the eyes of Julia, a fellow \u201cthoughtcriminal\u201d who secretly meets with Winston for an affair.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Kayla Kibbe, writing about books for Inside Hook\u2019s website,<\/a> reports on the news with a lighthearted and humorous tone:
\n\u201cFor those of you who weren\u2019t paying attention in sophomore English class, Julia is the secretly sexually liberated \u2018rebel from the waist downwards\u2019 who Winston, the book\u2019s protagonist, initially despises from afar, then begins an affair with after a secret love note reveals that she, too, is a fellow thoughtcriminal. They meet for secluded\u00a0outdoor hookups<\/a>\u00a0in the country for a bit, then set up a little love nest above an old antiques shop. They have some illicit sex and dabble in obviously ill-fated plans to rebel against the dystopian regime, before being captured, tortured and ultimately betraying each other to the government. (Sorry, spoilers.)\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps, Kibbe adds, the new novel will illuminate some of Julia\u2019s \u201carguably unclear\u201d motives for her affair with Winston while also dramatizing how Julia survived earlier scrutiny while rising through the oppressive hierarchy of the communist party that Orwell modeled on the Soviet Union under Lenin and Stalin.<\/p>\n

That sounds promising, although you never know.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Even an acclaimed author of another dystopian and Prometheus-winning classic tried his hand at a sequel to Orwell\u2019s classic and came up short. (I\u2019m referring to Anthony Burgess, whose A Clockwork Orange\u00a0<\/i><\/a>was inducted into the Prometheus Hall of Fame in 2008. Few people recall, though, 1985,\u00a0<\/em>Burgess\u2019s sequel to Nineteen Eighty Four.<\/em><\/p>\n

If Julia <\/em>touches upon Orwell\u2019s anti-authoritarian and libertarian themes through its feminist retelling, it might prove rewarding to read \u2013 and perhaps even worth nominating for a Prometheus Award. Who knows? (We won’t, until we read it.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>My hope is that Newman\u2019s novel will probe deeper, exposing and illuminating Orwell\u2019s cautionary and urgent themes in a more timely fashion for our era of increasing social control, Twitter-driven mob panics (often surprisingly similar to Orwell\u2019s depiction of \u201cTwo Minute Hates\u201d) and cancel culture.<\/p>\n

For sadly, Big Brother is Watching again, in so many ways, around the world.<\/p>\n

Newman\u2019s novel might prove even more insightful and thought-provoking if it also dramatizes, as Orwell did in his classic novel and other writings, the key links between \u201cfacts and freedom \u2013 the deep psychological, social and philosophical connections between broad cultural respect for objective reality and respect for rights \u2013 while also showing how the corruption of science, truth, reason, academia and journalism makes tyranny more likely and workable by undermining the freedom, ability and \u201csocial space\u201d for people to see and think for themselves.\u201d (That\u2019s an excerpt from the Prometheus Blog appreciation<\/a> of Nineteen Eighty Four,<\/em>\u00a0worth reading in full.)<\/p>\n

Even if Newman\u2019s effort falls short of an enduring masterpiece, though, it could merit reading \u2013 especially for Orwell\u2019s fans.<\/p>\n

For such sequels offer fans of the original author an opportunity to read more in that vein, while following familiar and favorite characters \u2013 an opportunity that authors no longer with us can no longer provide.<\/p>\n

This news prompted me to research some of the other sequels that have been written by different authors to classic novels. There are quite a few, it seems, offering sequels to Pride and Prejudice, Dracula, Treasure Island, War of the Worlds, Robinson Crusoe, The Catcher in the Rye, Winnie the Pooh, <\/em>and many other classic stories.<\/p>\n

Although a few initially prove popular (like Scarlett, <\/em>a bestseller), almost all prove inferior, and virtually all fade quickly, ending up in the dust bin behind used book stores.\u00a0 Only a small handful receive a consensus of good reviews and are still remembered and read today.<\/p>\n

THE BEST OF ‘SEQUELS’ – A SAMPLER<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here is a selective and somewhat subjective \u201ctop ten\u201d list, with an emphasis on science fiction and fantasy, of the most highly praised sequels to classics written by other authors:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>* The Time Ships,\u00a0<\/em>by Stephen Baxter (a 1995 sequel to H.G. Wells\u2019 The Time Machine)<\/p>\n

* A Feast Unknown, by Philip Jose Farmer <\/em>(a blended 2012 sequel to Tarzan and Doc Savage stories, with Jack the Ripper thrown in)<\/p>\n

* Grendel,\u00a0<\/em>by John Gardner (a 1971 retelling of the ancient tale of Beowulf from the monster\u2019s point of view)<\/p>\n

* The Further Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,\u00a0<\/em>by Greg Matthews (a 1988 sequel to Mark Twain\u2019s Huckleberry Finn)<\/em><\/p>\n

* Pym<\/em>, by Mat Johnson (a 2010 sequel to Edgar Allan Poe\u2019s Arthur Gordon Pym)<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>* Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West,\u00a0<\/em>by Gregory Maguire (a 1995 sequel to The Wizard of Oz\u00a0<\/em>and inspiration for the Broadway musicalWicked)
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

* Death Comes to Pemberley,<\/em> by P.D. James (a 2011 murder-mystery sequel to Jane Austen\u2019s Pride and Prejudice)<\/em><\/p>\n

* Wide Sargasso Sea,<\/em> by Jean Rhys ( a 1966 prequel to Charlotte Bronte\u2019s Jane Eyre)<\/em><\/p>\n

* And Another Thing…,<\/em> by Eoin Colfer (an estate-approved 2009 sequel by the bestselling author of\u00a0Artemis Fowl<\/em>\u00a0to Douglas Adams\u2019 The Hitchhiker\u2019s Guide to the Galaxy)<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>… and, since I\u2019m a theater critic, I\u2019ll include a play sequel:<\/p>\n

* Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, <\/em>Tom Stoppard\u2019s brilliant 1966\u00a0 existential comedy-drama retelling of Shakespeare\u2019s\u00a0Hamlet <\/em>from the perspective of two of its minor characters.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

* Prometheus winners:\u00a0<\/strong>For a full list of past winners \u2013 for the annual Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) categories and occasional Special Awards \u2013 visit the enhanced\u00a0Prometheus Awards page\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>on the LFS website, which now includes convenient links to all published appreciation-reviews of past winners.<\/p>\n

* Read\u00a0\u201cThe Libertarian History of Science Fiction,\u201d<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0an essay in the\u00a0 international magazine\u00a0Quillette<\/em>\u00a0that favorably highlights the Prometheus Awards, the Libertarian Futurist Society and the significant element of libertarian sf\/fantasy in the evolution of the modern genre.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0Join us<\/strong>! To help sustain the Prometheus Awards,\u00a0join\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>the Libertarian Futurist Society (LFS), a non-profit all-volunteer association of freedom-loving sf\/fantasy fans.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Michael Grossberg Sequels to classic works of literature by deceased authors rarely measure up to the originals, but that doesn\u2019t stop different authors and publishers from trying. Yet, the new novels often spark interest, especially by fans of the earlier works, and sometimes they even become bestsellers – only to fade while the original … Continue reading Orwell\u2019s Prometheus Hall of Fame classic Nineteen Eighty-Four inspires a \u201csequel\u201d (but will it measure up?)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[32,9,1862,10,2605],"tags":[1340,62,134,59,1341,1344,1058,1337,1338,1336,629,1345,1347,528,1346,1342,1343,1339],"class_list":["post-3921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-updates","category-essay","category-george-orwell","category-news","category-sequels","tag-1340","tag-a-clockwork-orange","tag-anthony-burgess","tag-george-orwell","tag-gone-with-the-wind","tag-gregory-maguire","tag-h-g-wells","tag-inside-hook","tag-julia","tag-kayla-kibbe","tag-nineteen-eighty-four","tag-sandra-newman","tag-stephen-baxter","tag-the-time-machine","tag-the-time-ships","tag-the-wizard-of-oz","tag-wicked","tag-winston-smith"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pe8nGl-11f","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3921"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3935,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3921\/revisions\/3935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}