Part Two: Reflections on the Sequel ed. by Paul Budra, Betty A. Schellenberg (review)

HUMANITIES 147 Paul Budra and Betty A. Schellenberg, editors. Part Two: Reflections on the Sequel University of Toronto Press. x, 220. $19.95 In the introduction to Part Two: Reflections on the Sequel, Paul Budra and Betty A. Schellenberg pose the question: What do the continuations of Samuel Richardson's Pamela and The Terminator have in common? The contributors to Part Two: .Reflections on the Sequel establish several common features of literary and cinematic sequels from ancient times to postmodernity . Without exception, Part Two's articles are thought-provoking and well researched. Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the book as a whole is the way in wruch the contributors engage with each other's work, rendering it a genuinely collaborative effort. For example, Paul Budra's adept consideration of horror monsters in the film rnediurn forms a sparkling dialogue with Alexander Leggatt's feisty discussion of early modern villains such as Tamburlaine. The monsters of film, like Tamburlaine, are villains who (though unlikeable) stayed in the public eye. In turn, Carole Gerson's article on Anne of Green Gables, 'Dragged at Anne's Chariot Wheels,' presents an 'llilkillable' heroine of a different sort - a charming red-haired orphan whose popular success spurred L.M. Montgomery to produce further Anne books even after she had lost interest. Because sequels arise from an original 'charismatic' text, the essays raise the issue of whether a sequel will always be disappointing. Many of the contributors engage productively with the generic definitions of a sequel, and especially the status of sequels in relation to their originals. Lynette Felber's excellent article on Trollope's Phineas Diptych draws a distinction between sequels which promise the repetition of the original reading experience with those, such as Trollope's, which seek to prolong it. Ingrid E. Holmberg's essay on the Iliad and the Odyssey and Andrew Taylor's consideration of posthumous continuations to the Canterbury Tales focus on narrative continuation in an era where the author function was fluid. Michael Zeitlin's and Thomas Carmichael's essays explore the unique status of sequels in postmodernity, where all artistic production,is in some senses citational or sequelized. In many of the essays, sequelization is revealed as a unique combination of artistic goals and the demands of the literary market. Betty A. Schellenberg's article on eighteenth-century sequels links the growing professionalism of the author with economic forces that led to the production of novels; June Sturrocks's study of Charlotte Yonge's popular fiction shows how changes in cultural context between an originating and a sequel text make the second book very different from the first; Lianne McLarty offers an exciting reading of the recurrence of ideologies of masculinity in film sequels under the conditions of late capitalism. This collection could be of tremendous use in an upper-leveillildergraduate or graduate course in literary theory. Ranging over various literary 148 LETTERS IN CANADA 1998 genres and periods, it offers a unified set of issues for class discussion. It would be an ideal starting point for students to talk about the economic, biographicat literary, and cultural forces which inspire narrative, and the way that narratives are inspired by otherstories. I speak onlyslightly in jest when I say we could use a sequel to this one! (CARRIE HINTZ) Alberto Manguel. Into the Looking-Glass Wood Knopf Canada. 288. $33.95 Despite the suggestive title and occasional attempts to tie the contents together, Alberto MangueYs Into the Looking-Glass Wood is simply a collection of reviews, talks, and essays written over the past decade while the author was also working on his novel Newsfrom aForeign Country Came, his best-selling A HistonJ of Reading, and the anthology of gay writing, Meanwhile, in Another Part of the Forest. Unlike academic critics, Manguel assumes the continuing existence of Dr Johnson's and Virginia Woolf's common reader. It is an assumption that allows him to write from the vantage point and with the confidence of a man of letters, with the various strengths and limitations ofsuch a stance. Another way of placing him and his essays would be to say that he would recognize Edmund Wilson and Sven Birkets as fellow...