Deborah van der LindeIs it just me, or have there been a lot of remakes in the book world recently? Everywhere I look, I seem to come across a new version of a classic. From Sherlock Holmes to Jane Austen and even Shakespeare, there are all sorts of old stories made new, and some of them are very well done.
I am a big Jane Austen fan – if you have never read one of her books, you really should. She is wonderfully sarcastic and has some amazing comments on life and society. Her story, Pride & Prejudice is one of my favourites, so I couldn’t help but read the latest remake of it Eligible, by Curtis Sittenfeld. I admit that I was very curious about how Sittenfeld would make the storyline work in a modern world, especially Lydia’s character, who is rather shocking in the early 1800s, but not very scandalous today. I was impressed with how well she pulled it off – she made the story relevant for today but still kept true to Austen’s original. While I will always prefer the original, I quite enjoyed Sittenfeld’s version, and would definitely recommend it. It’s a great choice when you are on vacation and want a feel-good read.
Pride & Prejudice was the inspiration for another story as well, Longbourn, by Jo Baker. This version of Austen’s classic story is told from the perspective of one of the Longbourn servants, Sarah, the housemaid. While it’s the same house and same time period as Elizabeth, Jane, and their sisters, this story takes place in a whole different world — the hidden world of the servants. Instead of the story of a wealthy gentleman’s daughters, this is now the story of a servant trying to make her way in the world.
I can’t write a post on book remakes and not mention Sherlock Holmes, whose stories are being remade not only in books but also in to television series. I’ve always been a mystery lover and am a big fan of the Sherlock Holmes stories. I absolutely loved what Sherry Thomas has done with the Sherlock stories in her Lady Sherlock Series. The first, A Study in Scarlet Women, was brilliant. In this series, “Sherlock Holmes” is a cover for Charlotte Holmes, a way for her to be a detective in a Victorian world that does not think women are capable. It is a clever, well-told story.
Gregory Maguire, author of the bestselling Wicked, recently released a different take on the Alice in Wonderland story, After Alice. In this tale, we follow Alice’s friend, Ada, down the rabbit hole shortly after Alice herself goes down. Ada is determined to rescue Alice, but is a moment too late, and so we follow Ada, who’s following Alice, and all the havoc the two cause in Wonderland.
In 2006, Margaret Atwood released a retelling of The Odyssey called The Penelopiad. It is told from the perspective of Odysseus’s wife, Penelope, and her experiences while Odysseus was away at war. Though a small novel, this is a well-told story from a very different perspective than we are used to on this subject.
I was fascinated to hear about Penguin’s Hogarth Shakespeare Project, where eight modern writers remake eight Shakespearian tales. Stories include:
- Margaret Atwood’s Hag-Seed, a retelling of The Tempest;
- Anne Tyler’s Vinegar Girl, a retelling of The Taming of the Shrew,
- Tracy Chevelier’s New Boy, a retelling of Othello;
- Jo Nesbø rendition of Macbeth,
- Edward St. Aubyn’s Dunbar, a retelling of King Lear,
- Howard Jacobson’s Shylock is My Name, a retelling of The Merchant of Venice, and
- Jeanette Winterson’s The Gap in Time retells The Winter’s Tale.
I must admit, I am enjoying these remakes. They are a fun way to revisit a much-loved story, and they show interesting perspectives and elements of a story that one may not have thought of before.
