Classic books have never fallen out of fashion. Readers of all ages still find pleasure and wisdom in tried-and-true novels like Anna Karenina, Beloved, and The Great Gatsby. But contemporary authors are doing wonderful things to revive classic works of literature: updating them with modern settings, rewriting them from other characters’ perspectives, and envisioning new endings.
As we stock our new bookstore, opening in Huntsville’s Five Points area this September, we are planning a section for “Classics Old and New” where well-known books sit beside new takes, with the hope that you’ll find a passion for literature past and present. It’s already one of our favorite sections in the store, and we think you’ll love it, too! Here are a few reimagined classics we recommend.
One of the most buzzed-about books of this year is James, by Percival Everett, which is a retelling of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, this time from Jim’s viewpoint. In this masterful novel, the enslaved Jim writes himself into existence with a stolen pencil and finds the courage to resist the power structure that tries to contain him.
Charles Dickens has proven popular for contemporary writers, too. In The Golfer’s Carol, Huntsville author Robert Bailey gives us a version of A Christmas Carol set on famous golf courses, where a father encounters several ghosts of golf’s past, including Arnold Palmer and Ben Hogan, and learns lessons that change his life. In the prize-winning Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, a young orphan in southern Appalachia has to navigate a series of challenges, from the foster-care system to the opioid epidemic, modeled on the kinds of difficulties faced by his 19th-century counterpart, David Copperfield.
It’s no surprise that Shakespeare’s stories crop up in new releases. One read we’ve been recommending lately is the lighthearted A Daughter of Fair Verona. Author Christina Dodd wonders what might have happened if Romeo and Juliet didn’t die—but lived, married, and became parents to seven kids. The oldest daughter gets to tell this charming, funny mystery in her own voice. For teen readers, a popular Romeo and Juliet retelling is Chloe Gong’s These Violent Delights, set in 1920s Shanghai, with rival gangs and a monster who lurks in the nearby river.
Kids who think they know Frankenstein should pick up Frances and the Monster, a charming middle-grade novel that plays on the plot of Mary Shelley’s famous novel about a scientist and the creature he accidentally brought to life.
And even people reluctant to read the ancient Greeks are enjoying the new adaptations: Madeline Miller’s Circe gives a new back story to the “witch” we know from Homer’s Odyssey. Similarly, we explore new sides to the sorceress Medea in Eilish Quin’s recent novel of that name. And, for teens and adults, Lovely War by Julie Berry brings the gods and goddesses of Greek myth down to World War I and II, to give us an epic combination of tragedy, comedy, romance, and history in one sweeping book.
We also recommend:
Hello Beautiful, by Ann Napolitano (based on Little Women)
The Wife Upstairs, by Rachel Hawkins (based on Jane Eyre)
A Haunting on the Hill, by Elizabeth Hand (based on The Haunting of Hill House)
Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors, by Sonali Dev (based on Pride and Prejudice)
Browse these and more, and let us deliver to your doorstep, at www.snailonthewall.com. The Snail on the Wall’s new brick-and-mortar store will open in September at 816 Wellman Avenue in the Five Points area of Huntsville.
One of the most buzzed-about books of this year is James, by Percival Everett, a retelling of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
It’s no surprise that Shakespeare’s stories crop up in new releases.