I loved Demon Copperhead, which I’ve heard is a re-telling of David Copperfield.
I want to read more re-tellings or classics… but from searching discussions, I see people mention that classic books often take detours in the form of the author’s personal commentary (often social or political) as thoughts or essays that otherwise have nothing to do with the rest of the book because such commentary wasn’t widely available outside of books in the times they were written in.
Some examples I’ve seen cited are the agrarian and political sides of Levin’s story in Anna Karenina and whaling industry knowledge in Moby Dick.
Plus, it feels many classics have language that’s archaic or very tiring to read. I recently came across The Arabian Nights: Tales from a Thousand and One Nights and decided to check out the preview of Richard Burton’s book, figuring a book with interesting short stories would be a fun and breezy break in-between heavier works… and wow, was I wrong. The Amazon preview is way too heavy for me to read with any semblance of flow.
At the same time, I’ve heard abridged versions of Arabian Nights are heavily censored. Similarly, I worry most abridged versions of classics may lose the depth in characters and interactions.
I’m uninterested in political commentary and lack the historical context to appreciate it in classics. But I do like character depth and insights into people’s interactions with each other. Some books I’ve loved were Flowers for Algernon, Never Let Me Go, Demon Copperhead, Ender’s Game and The House of the Scorpion.
What abridged versions of classics or re-tellings would you recommend checking out for someone like me?
by sib43
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*The Chosen and the Beautiful* by Nghi Vo is a beautiful retelling of *The Great Gatsby*. In Vo’s version, the narrator is one of the minor characters from the original, but Asian (as opposed the original, where everyone was white) so she incorporates the very real racism of the time. Plus, there’s magic. Like, Gatsby’s house is enchanted so it’s always midnight (because who wants to party during the day?!), and instead of working for the mob, everyone thinks Gatsby might be working for the literal devil. It’s probably the best book I’ve ever read.
*The Song of Achilles* by Madeline Miller is an equally beautiful retelling, this time of Homer’s *The Iliad*. Instead of just covering the end of the Trojan War, though, it pulls from other Greek myths to be the story of Achilles’ entire life, as narrated by his childhood friend-turned-lover Patroclus. I had gone 2 years without reading a book when I took a shot with this and it completely rekindled my love for reading. It is so wonderful. And so much more readable than Homer.