21 Novels based on plays

Barmy in Wonderland is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on 21 April 1952 by Herbert Jenkins, London, and in the United States on 8 May 1952 by Doubleday & Company, New York, under the title Angel Cake. The novel may be considered part of the expanded Drones Club canon, since the main character Barmy Fotheringay-Phipps is a member of the club.

Black Coffee is a novelisation by the Australian-born writer and opera expert Charles Osborne of the 1930 play of the same name by crime fiction author Agatha Christie.

Doctor Sally is a short novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on 7 April 1932 by Methuen & Co., London. In the United States, it was serialised in Collier's Weekly from 4 July to 1 August 1931 under the title The Medicine Girl, and was included under that name in the US collection The Crime Wave at Blandings (1937).

The Frolic of the Beasts is a 1961 novel by Yukio Mishima. Drawing inspiration from Noh plays, specifically the 14th-century Motomezuka, the novel centers on a tragic love triangle depraved by adultery and violence. It is a short novel in length and has a nonlinear narrative structure. The novel was first serialised thirteen times in the weekly magazine Shukan Shincho between 12 June 1961 and 4 September 1961. It was published in hardcover format by Shinchosha on 30 September 1961. It was published in paperback by Shincho Bunko on 10 July 1966. The novel was translated into Italian by Lydia Origlia and published by Feltrinelli in September 1983. The novel was translated into English by Andrew Clare and published in paperback format in the United States and Canada by Vintage International on 27 November 2018. Clare's translation was later published in paperback in the United Kingdom by Penguin Modern Classics on 4 April 2019.

The Gods Are Not To Blame is a 1968 play and a 1971 novel by Ola Rotimi. An adaptation of the Greek classic Oedipus Rex, the story centres on Odewale, who is lured into a false sense of security, only to somehow get caught up in a somewhat consanguineous trail of events by the gods of the land.

A History Maker is a novel by Alasdair Gray first published in 1994. The sources of the novel are to be found in a play by Gray in the 1970s which was titled "The History Maker". The novel was described in The Daily Telegraph as "Sir Walter Scott meets Rollerball" and is set in the future in the Scottish borders, when society is matriarchal and its male members amuse themselves with fighting battles as a spectator sport.

Juliet is a novel by Danish American author Anne Fortier. It was first published in 2010 by Random House. Paramount Pictures owns the movie rights to the book.

Just Macbeth is an alternate version of William Shakespeare's play Macbeth. It was written by Australian children’s author Andy Griffiths and produced by Bell Shakespeare as well as being released as a book.

The Klingon Hamlet is a translation of William Shakespeare's Hamlet into Klingon, a constructed language first appearing in the science fiction franchise Star Trek.

The Last King of Scotland is a novel by journalist Giles Foden, published by Faber and Faber in 1998. Focusing on the rise of Ugandan President Idi Amin and his reign as dictator from 1971 to 1979, the novel, which interweaves fiction and historical fact, is written as the memoir of a fictional Scottish doctor in Amin's employ. Foden's novel received critical acclaim and numerous awards when it was published. In 2006, an eponymous film adaptation was released.

The Method is a 2009 novel by the German writer Juli Zeh. The story is set in a future "health dictatorship", where laws have been written to optimize the citizens' health. The novel was developed from Zeh's 2007 play with the same title. Reviews in major German newspapers complimented Zeh's focus points and narrative structure, and compared the book to works by authors such as Ray Bradbury and Friedrich Dürrenmatt.

P.S. Your Cat Is Dead is a novel by James Kirkwood Jr., originally published in 1972, adapted from his play. The book and play later were adapted to film in 2002.

Ring for Jeeves is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on 22 April 1953 by Herbert Jenkins, London and in the United States on 15 April 1954 by Simon & Schuster, New York, under the title The Return of Jeeves.

Romiette and Julio is a young adult novel by Sharon Draper, published in 1999 by Atheneum Books. It is an updated version of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. Many of the characters in Draper's novel closely parallel those in Shakespeare's play. The plot updates the family feud between the Capulets and Montagues to reflect modern racial tensions between African-Americans and Hispanics in the United States. The book received mixed reviews.

South Pacific (1992) is a book by American author James A. Michener. As retold by Michener, the book is based on Rodgers and Hammerstein's award-winning musical, "South Pacific" based on Michener's 1947 book Tales of the South Pacific, about the lives of officers, nurses, a French expatriate, and natives on the islands of the South Pacific during World War II. Includes discussion of the original Broadway production and its cast. Unpaginated glossy pages with some beautiful full-page color illustrations.

Spider's Web is a novelization by Charles Osborne of the 1954 play of the same name by crime fiction writer Agatha Christie and was first published in the UK by HarperCollins in September 2000 and on November 11, 2000 in the US by St. Martin's Press.

The Unexpected Guest is a novelization by Charles Osborne of the 1958 play of the same name by crime fiction writer Agatha Christie and was first published in the UK by HarperCollins on 6 September 1999, and on 1 October 1999 in the US by St. Martin's Press.

Scenes of Bohemian Life is a work by Henri Murger, published in 1851. Although it is commonly called a novel, it does not follow standard novel form. Rather, it is a collection of loosely related stories, all set in the Latin Quarter of Paris in the 1840s, romanticizing bohemian life in a playful way. Most of the stories were originally published individually in a local literary magazine, Le Corsaire. Many of them were semi-autobiographical, featuring characters based on actual individuals who would have been familiar to some of the magazine's readers.

Vinegar Girl is a 2016 novel by American author Anne Tyler. It is the third book of Random House's "Hogarth Shakespeare" project, in which contemporary novelists retell stories from Shakespeare's plays. Interviewed by Ron Charles in The Washington Post, Tyler said " 'The Katherina in Shakespeare’s play is insane... She’s shrieking at Petruchio from the moment she meets him. And he’s not much better. So you know I had to tone them down. I’m sure that somebody is out there, saying, ‘This isn’t a shrew at all.’ "

Warm Bodies is a novel by author Isaac Marion. The book was described as a "zombie romance" by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and makes allusions to William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The author, based in Seattle, originally wrote a short story titled "I Am a Zombie Filled with Love". Atria Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, acquired the publishing rights to the full novel in early 2010.

Wyrd Sisters is Terry Pratchett's sixth Discworld novel, published in 1988, and re-introduces Granny Weatherwax of Equal Rites.