Posted in Book Talk

Classics Remixed

I watched the movie Clueless countless times before I found out that it’s based on Jane Austen’s Emma. This revelation completely blew my mind and made reading Emma a much richer experience. Retellings are a chance to explore familiar stories and beloved characters from a different angle, whether the retelling modernizes Shakespeare, looks at Frankenstein from a side character’s point of view, turns Sherlock Holmes into Charlotte Holmes, or sets Pride and Prejudice in a fantasy world with dragons.

If contemplating classic retellings sounds good to you, there is a list below. Or if you want to read the originals first, consider joining our new classic literature lunchtime book club. You can give us a call, stop by the library, or attend our introductory meeting at 12:00pm this Thursday, July 18.

Shakespeare

  • The Only Thing Worse Than Me Is You by Lily Anderson (Much Ado About Nothing)
  • Exit Pursued by a Bear by E.K. Johnston (The Winter’s Tale)
  • Warm Bodies by Issac Marion (Romeo and Juliet)
  • Fool by Christopher Moore (King Lear)
  • As I Descended by Robin Talley (Macbeth)
  • Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler (The Taming of the Shrew)
  • The Steep & Thorny Way by Cat Winters (Hamlet)

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

  • Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors by Sonali Dev
  • Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding
  • Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin
  • Unmarriagable by Soniah Kamal
  • Heartstone by Elle Katherine White
  • Pride by Ibi Zoboi

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

  • Frankenstein: Prodigal Son by Dean Koontz
  • This Monstrous Thing by Mackenzi Lee
  • The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kiersten White

Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

  • A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro
  • Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz
  • Death Cloud by Andrew Lane
  • Sherlock Holmes and the Red Demon by Larry Millett
  • A Study in Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

  • The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor
  • Splintered by A. G. Howard
  • A Blade So Black by L. L. McKinney
  • Heartless by Marissa Meyer

More Retellings

  • Going Bovine by Libba Bray (Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes)
  • Tell the Wind and Fire by Sarah Rees Brennan (A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens)
  • The Hours by Michael Cunningham (Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf)
  • The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling)
  • We Are the Perfect Girl by Ariel Kaplan (Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand)
  • The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (Dracula by Bram Stoker)
  • Wicked by Gregory Maguire (The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum)
  • Circe by Madeline Miller (The Odyssey by Homer)
  • Sometimes We Tell the Truth by Kim Zarins (The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer)

-Emily

Author:

Meinders Community Library is a combined school and public library that serves the residents of Pipestone County in Southwestern Minnesota. It is part of the Plum Creek Library System.