Literary Musing : Modern Renditions of Classics

We all know the stories of Pride and Prejudice, Little Women, Wuthering Heights, Sense and Sensibility, Other Jane Austen Titles, The Scarlet Letter, Moby Dick and Jane Eyre. When we see these titles we all know what they are about, we’ve either read the books “the originals” or if you are like me, then you have read modern day “What if ...... was set in the 21st Century or today’s society or even a time travel back to their time books, many of those which are adorning the bookshelves of teenage collections.





                                                            When it comes to Jane Austen, I am a sucker for her. I just love her stories and anything about her, her books and of course the hot Mr Darcy. She also happens to be one of the most written about authors and many of her books have been made into modern renditions.


Titles Include:


• Pies and Prejudice by Heather Vogel Fredrick , Prada and Prejudice by Mandy Hubbard , Prom and Prejudice , Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Van Riegler , According to Jane by Marilyn Brant , Jane in Scarsdale , Austenland by Shannon Hale , The Man who Loved Pride and Prejudice etc. The Secrets of the Dashwoods and other books by Rosie Rushton. For Renditions of Jane Austen, the majority of them are taken from the story of Pride and Prejudice with other’s being of her minority stories.

• With the rise of Supernatural Creatures and Fantasy, even the classic novels do not escape their wrath as we are presented with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Dawn of the Dreadfuls – A Prequel to PPZ, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, Mansfield Park and Mummies, Emma and the Werewolves, Mr Darcy, Vampyre, Jane Bites Back.


• We all know the tales of Little Women, now with the world becoming practically obsessed with Vampires, released has been Little Vampire Women. Just imagine what Louisa May Alcott would think with her novels being made into Supernatural Fantasies.


• We all know the story of Wuthering Heights by one of the Bronte Sisters, the infamous love triangles of Heathcliff and Cate or Kate, Edward and Isabel. The first rendition I read of this book was called Wuthering High – A Bard Academy book and it was set in a boarding school environment where the teachers were actually re-incarnations of the Wuthering Heights Characters, another new one that has a sense of Supernatural to it which I have heard is along the lines of Wuthering Heights is Immortal by Gillian Shields and of course Wuthering Bites – which are both on my Kobo e-reader to read and devour. One of my all-time favourite books which I was recommended ages ago by someone who worked in a 2nd Hand Book Shop was The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield, it is an adult’s book that is loosely based on the story /theme of Wuthering Heights and is definitely worth the read. Just recently I read Withering Tights by Louise Rennison.

• The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a book, I am not too familiar with the classic version but alas due to books in the modern day I have become wiser with the tale and the painted A. When we think of .A. hands up who has read the series “Pretty Little Liars” by Sara Shepard. It is one of my favourite book series and in one of the earlier books –it might actually be Pretty Little Liars –the first book. One of the main characters Aria is reading the Scarlet Letter for English and she decides to paint a red A on the dress of the teacher who her dad cheated on his wife for. The series that also writes Wuthering Bard also wrote a modernized version of the Scarlet Letter called The Scarlet Letterman (which is another book on my TBR List).


• Moby Dick by Herman Melville – he is about the only writer besides the writer of the book in the bible that Jonah is in , that can make a whale eating somebody an exciting story. It is also one of the more talked about Books that feature in Gilmore Girls as one of Rory’s many reads. Again this book is on my TBR List – but the creator of The Scarlet Letterman and Wuthering Bard has written one called Moby Clique.


• Jane Eyre, another tale that was written by one of the Bronte sisters and another classic that has been succumbed to the written word of remakes. This time in the format of Jane Airhead and the newer book Jane – (this is on my TBR List).








                                                       



• Of course, it wasn’t just books that were remade as where would we be without our media and even William Shakespeare didn’t miss the brunt of it as most of his plays have been remade into films – Romeo and Juliet, Letters to Juliet, She’s The Man –Twelfth Night, 10 Things I Hate about You – The Taming of the Shrew, Wuthering Heights – An MTV Version, Lost in Austen, Shakespeare in Love and many many more.

Thus to conclude , this shows us that no matter how many times they are re-written or pre-produced and it doesn’t matter what format. The novels that are Classics are still in a way popular than ever and are being re-read.

Did I miss anything? If you have a suggestion or a title that you think falls into this category, please comment and add it to the post. Also if you have any suggestions for future topics that you would like to see. Email the Phantom Paragrapher @ Paulazone@live.com