Pastiche Examples

Pastiche is a literary or artistic piece that is constructed to imitate a previous work. It is different from parody. The intention of a parody is to create a comical version of the original. A pastiche is meant to show respect and reverence for the work-imitation as a sincere form of flattery.

The novel Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley is a 1991 pastiche of Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell.

Elizabeth Aston wrote a pastiche of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice with her novel The Second Mrs. Darcy, which takes up the story of a Darcy cousin.

Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are Dead, by Tom Stoppard is a pastiche of Hamlet. Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are two minor characters in Shakespare's play, but they take center stage in Stoppard's imitation.

The following lines are from a pastiche of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven":

Long ago upon a hilltop (let me finish then I will stop)

I espied a curious traveler where no traveler was before.

As I raised an arm in greeting all at once he took to beating

At the air like one entreating passing boats to come ashore.

     Dave McClure's "The Traveler"