I Own Next to Nothing
The basic premise of this story series is based upon the film The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, released in theaters July 11, 2003. The film in turn was based on the series of graphic novels of the same name by Alan Moore. In a general sort of way, everything you read in this series is the property of the much more clever people who were involved in those two projects, and I made absolutely no financial profit from the use thereof. The stories in this series were written out of affection and appreciation for the original works on which they were based.
The League:
- The characters of Dr. Henry Jekyll and Mr. Edward Hyde are from Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson.
- The character of Wilhelmina Harker is from Dracula by Bram Stoker.
- The character of Allan Quatermain is from King Solomon's Mines, Allan Quatermain, The Ivory Child, and other stories and novels by H. Rider Haggard.
- The character of Captain Nemo and his amazing Nautilus are from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne.
- The character of Rodney Skinner is patterned, loosely, after the original Invisible Man, from the book The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells. Personally, I prefer Skinner's company, but that's just me.
- The character of Tom "Special Agent" Sawyer is from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Tom Sawyer Abroad, and Tom Sawyer, Detective, all by Mark Twain.
Other Persons, Books and Characters:
- The characters of Moriarty (mentioned, but never seen) and Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes (seen in volume V) are from the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame, originally published in French as Notre-Dame de Paris, is by Victor Hugo.
- Leaves of Grass is a poetry volume by Walt Whitman.
- The Canterbury Tales is a medieval collection of tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.
- Dr. Howard Carter (1874-1939) was among the most famous of British Egyptologists. He was instrumental in some of the most important discoveries in Egypt at the turn of the 20th century, and achieved his greatest fame when he located the tomb of King Tutankhamen in 1922. He appears in volume II without anyone's consent, but as he's been gone for the better part of a century I didn't think he'd mind too much.
- A Christmas Carol is by Charles Dickens. You can't possibly write a Victorian Christmas scene without at least some vague reference to that book, now, can you? :)
- Much Ado About Nothing is one of William Shakespeare's comedies. Benedick and Beatrice are the main characters.
- Sense and Sensibility is a novel by Jane Austen (and also a really good movie with Emma Thompson). Elinor and Marianne Dashwood and Colonel Brandon are among the many fascinating and complex characters found therein.
- Again with the Dickens: Charles Dickens is the author of A Tale of Two Cities. Sydney Carton is a not-so-terrific guy who does some pretty incredible things in the name of love.
- He's also the author of Nicholas Nickleby, which is referenced briefly in volume IV.
The only things to which I can lay legitimate claim are the personality of Elizabeth (who says that she is perfectly capable of owning that herself, thank you very much) and a number of other original characters, about whom you can learn more by clicking that link. To learn more about Elizabeth and the League members, click here.
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