Derivative and Transformative Works
historically than in books for young readers. Popular works begat sequels and
series. Figures from well-known stories, including fairy tales and nursery rhymes,
featured in cheap anonymous works created rapidly by profit-conscious publishers.
Canonical texts, including the Bible, novels, and plays, were simplified, shortened, extracted,
and sanitized. And imitation and parody built on the strengths of already popular books.
The Butterfly’s Ball and the Grasshopper’s Feast evoked a host
of similar poetic accounts of parties given by animals, but The
Butterfly’s Funeral is the only true sequel; the guests from the
Ball return to mourn their host. Goody Two Shoes’ Birthday
gathers a coterie of well-known literary figures: the hostess; the
fabled Dick Whittington; Pompey the Little, canine hero of a
1751 satire on fashionable society; and Old Mother Hubbard.
The Tales retells some of Shakespeare’s plays for a juvenile
audience, removing anything inappropriate for young readers.
Robinson Crusoe represents an extreme condensation of a
long narrative — the original text filled 364 pages, while the
chapbook has 16. The author of Elsie’s Expedition imitated
and reused story structure, setting, and events; he wrote in
a foreword, ‘I admit that this book would, in all probability
never have been written, had I not seen “Alice’s Adventures
in Wonderland.”’ The Egyptian Struwwelpeter is a spoof of
Hoffman’s parodic cautionary verses.
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J. L. B. The Butterfly’s Funeral: A Sequel to The Butterfly’s Ball and Grasshopper’s Feast.
London: John Wallis, Jun., 1808.
A History of Goody Two Shoes’ Birth-Day, in Verse. London: J. Aldis, Printed for the
proprietor, and sold by the booksellers and toymen, 1809.
Lamb, Charles and Mary. Tales from Shakespear: Designed for the Use of Young
Persons. London: Printed for Thomas Hodgkins, 1807.
Cruikshank, George, illustrator. Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. Banbury: Printed
by J.G. Rusher, 1814.
Weatherly, Frederic Edward. Elsie’s Expedition. London (Bedford Street, Strand): Frederick
Warne and Co., 1874.
Netolitzky, Fritz. The Egyptian Struwwelpeter: Being the Struwwelpeter Papyrus: with Full
Text and 100 Original Vignettes from the Vienna Papyri. London: H. Grevel & Co., 1896.