It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a popular book written in days of old will be paid deserved accolades. There is also a further truth universally known that some of the accolade will be in the form of an homage, be this academic or fictional. The fictional is where an author or aspiring author wishes to continue the “story” of their beloved character and to take the reader beyond “The End”.
I cannot strongly impress on you, gentle reader, how much I loathe the “homage” novel. I don’t want to know what Darcy & Elizabeth are having for breakfast, or that Jane & Rochester are sojourning in Bath or that Cathy has come back to life and searching for Heathlcliff, or that the Bronte siblings are now zombies terrorizing their village, or that Marguerite and Percy are separated and seeing other people…
Why such a market for these “classic” updates is beyond me. A book ends and that’s all folks, done, finished, complete. The charm or wonder of a book is that you don’t have to read about the mundane or minutiae of daily existence. The wonder of a story is the unknown future in the happily ever after. Do we really need to to make these wonderful and yes, even dull stories into more than they need to be.
It is actually quite fascinating – the psyche where some readers don’t care about “the after” of a books story resolution and those that are really interested in the “what happens”. I wonder if any studies/papers have been done on this?
Shallowreader 
This is one of the reasons I hate at least 50% of the epilogues I read. I don’t mind if it ties up loose threads a day or so after the big finale (bad guy was thrown in a cell, the little girl got her puppy etc) but I hate reading them if they are 6 months, a year, 20 years down the track. I don’t want to know that their first child was twins or that they went back to their favourite resort for their 20th wedding anniversary. As far as I am concerned, a Happily Ever After means the story has ended. Some times it works, but other times I have to skim read the epilogue for it’s cheesiness. It is one of my pet peeves.
If it is an aside in the actual story, it is okay if it draws out the suspense, or is sanctuary before the storm, but generally I prefer stories to be tight.
Oh, you would have LOVED Epilogue Lady at one of the panels I attended at ARRC. 😀 I do love epilogues. I don’t need them, but often they make me happy.
I haven’t read any of these, and don’t have any interest in doing so. One reason is because I haven’t often read the original, but also because I don’t necessarily see the need for them.
Same with mashups. So annoying.
The first chapter of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was very amusing, but I was told the rest of the book doesn’t live up to the promise, so I quit while I was ahead.
Didn’t Julia Quinn sell a bunch of epilogues (e-novellas) for the Bridgerton series? Now THAT I don’t get.
Yes, she had a whole heap of second epilogues that I refused to pay for.
Not as bad as the one that Eloisa James had to write to explain the ending of one of her novels.
I don’t really get why Eloisa James had to do that. It wasn’t that difficult to figure out. The whole thing was a fantasy.