I was wondering if anyone has come across a book about two people exchanging letters in the belief that they are writing to someone else.

I was thinking of basing my next project on a misunderstanding: an 11 year-old boy and a 22 year-old woman begin writing to each other by accident, following a postal fluke. The twist is this: the boy think's he's writing to a tyrannical and debauched (but attractively exotic) magnate, and the young woman thinks that she's writing to an experimental painter at the leading edge of a revolutionary artistic movement. They manage to keep up this "role play" for some time, effectively writing what the other person wants to hear, until...

You get the drift. My only concern is that this might have been done before; obviously any number of e-chat stories have played with this idea of mistaken or misled identity...but are there any major works that people have read that sound dangerously familiar?

When my sister was young - about ten years old, she got this Italian penfriend of the same age, through a girl's magazine. They wrote to each other for years, and then one day, this penfriend came clean about her age. She was in fact about twelve years older than my sister.

My poor sister was so upset, and the penfriend never wrote to her again.

Katerina

It's not quite the same setup as you describe, but the plot of You've Got Mail involves epistolary misunderstandings of a kind:

The owner of a large bookstore chain starts putting the owner of a small local bookstore out of business. Meanwhile they have been corresponding over the internet without knowing who either of them are. They can't stand each other in person but over the internet they are very attracted. He finds out who she is but she doesn't know.

This was a remake of The Shop Around The Corner whose plot was:

"Matuschek's" is the gift shop around the corner. Among the staff is Alfred Kralik, a likeable young man who's in love with a woman he has never met and whose name he doesn't even know (their "romance" has been conducted through a post office box). When Klara Novak comes to work as a clerk in the shop, the sparks begin to fly: she and Alfred can't stand each other. Of course, what neither knows is that Klara is the woman Alfred has been romancing through the mail!

The film, The Shop around the Corner has this set-up. It's a very good film, usually on around xmas. It was remade with Tom Hanks and the orgasm woman from When Harry Met Sally.

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The remake was called You've Got Mail and, in future, I shall read all posted posts before posting.

So, nothing in literary fiction, then? The book I'm planning will be set in the 30s between Belgium and India; no internet, and no rom-com. Sounds like a fairly safe proposal, by the sounds of it..

Babooshka by Kate Bush. I'm sure it's based on a longer literary work, but I doubt it would have the same impact without the dress and the pout.

No, I certainly can't think of anything along these lines in literary fiction.

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Good lord Colin, how did you remember the plotline of Babooshka! I'm sure all I can remember was the aforementioned pout and the dress. Actually I just found the whole video here for those who haven't the faintest idea what we're talking about. Not sure Babooshka was based on a novel though, I think it was all Ms.Bush's own loony invention.

I don't know of anything in literary fiction like this, either.

Very often, I think writers fret over whether something 'has been done before'. Usually, with over 300 years' worth of novels behind us, you can guarantee someone somewhere has done it.

The thing is, I think, that it's not the subject matter/themes that give a work its originality, but the way the author deals with it, and, of course, their individual style.

So, as far as I can see: Stuff it. Anything goes.

Usually, with over 300 years' worth of novels behind us, you can guarantee someone somewhere has done it.

Totally. I guess the danger is repeating a form that's recently been revamped and found popular success (for instance, all the spin-offs that followed Briget Jones; derivatives of the 30-something single career girl who keeps a witty journal of her struggles to find a man, chuck the fags, etc.) Just wanted to avoid something blindingly obvious...

Thanks, gang!

The thing is, I think, that it's not the subject matter/themes that give a work its originality, but the way the author deals with it, and, of course, their individual style.

This was discussed on another thread, and the issue of "high concept" was raised, high concept being the "big idea" that makes people want to read your novel/watch your filme. (The term originates from the movie industry).

So once Robert Harris has written Enigma, which is a classic high concept premise, there's little point someone writing the other novel about a mathematician at Bletchley Park saving the free world, as if you've read one, your appetite for a second is much diminished unless you really get off on that kind of thing.

Bridget Jones is not really high concept - it's a story, told in diary form, about the lives and loves of a modern career woman. It's a premise that bears repeating - even if I've already read one story along these lines, it doesn't mean I won't want to read a second one.

I would think a novel about the consequences of letters going astray would definitely fall into the second category.





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"filme" ? I knew I should never drink and post.

Mmm... yes. I think. But surely it's the diary format that keeps getting used and reused (not just for women; think Adrian Mole), and not the subject matter of single career girl? The Enigma example seems to prove the same is true: that subject matter is key?

(Btw, I fully agree with everything that's been said - just trying to separate the strands!)

I think it was all Ms.Bush's own loony invention

Wow, in that case, well done Kate. Here's the lyrics - the story tells itself.

She wanted to test her husband,
She knew exactly what to do,
A pseudonym to fool him,
She couldn't have made a worse move.
She sent him scented letters,
And he received them with a strange delight,
Just like his wife,
But how she was before the tears,
And how she was before the years flew by,
And how she was when she was beautiful.
She signed the letter:

(chorus)All yours. Babooshka, Babooshka, Babooshka - ya-ya

She wanted to take it further,
So she arranged a place to go,
To see if he,
Would fall for her incognito.
And when he laid eyes on her,
He got the feeling they had met before,
Uncanny how she
Reminds him of his little lady,
Capacity to give him all he needs,
Just like his wife before she freezed on him,
Just like his wife when she was beautiful,
He shouted out, I'm...

(chorus)All yours. Babooshka, Babooshka, Babooshka - ya-ya

Maybe it's a Greek myth????

Totally randome guessing on my part, but it sounds like the sort of thing they'd get up to.


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But sounds like a very good idea for a short story to me. Thanks, Colin!

Mmm... yes. I think. But surely it's the diary format that keeps getting used and reused (not just for women; think Adrian Mole), and not the subject matter of single career girl? The Enigma example seems to prove the same is true: that subject matter is key?

I think both the diary format and the travails of "single career girl" subject matter were both well-used before Bridget Jones came along. Not really my genre, but I think Adrian Mole and the movie Working Girl used the format and subject matter respectively long before BJD. (Admittedly, there were a lot more BJD-like books after it was published than before, I'm not denying that Fielding's book was brilliant and had a huge impact on everything since.)

I think it's to do with how much the "book/movie is the concept". With Jurassic Park, the concept is the central thing. Not so with a P.G.Wodehouse novel.

Take the Richard Curtis films (please etc).

With Four Weddings And A Funeral you have no real idea what it's going to be about before you watch it, except that it is an upper-class romantic comedy of some kind. The central plot (posh bloke goes to lots of social functions and finds love in unexpected circumstances) is eminently re-usable and I'm sure must have cropped up over and over.

Notting Hill on the other hand, is slightly more high concept - "ordinary" (!) chap falls in love with Hollywood film star. It's not as high concept as Enigma, but it would cast a faint shadow over anybody else deciding to write a story about an ordinary man romancing a film star, unless the subsequent story was obviously done very differently from the get-go.

I think it's to do with how much the "book/movie is the concept".

Yup - I think you've hit upon it there.

So, high-concept equates to less re-usable? Shall have to chew this one over for a bit...