Classics Retold

Classic novels rewritten for modern audiences and introduced to new generations of readers.
Updated September 19, 2022
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Circe
Miller, Madeline
Paper Book
This #1 New York Times bestseller is a "bold and subversive retelling of the goddess's story" that brilliantly reimagines the life of Circe, formidable sorceress of The Odyssey (Alexandra Alter, TheNew York Times). In the house of Helios,...
The fleshed-out story of Circe, a character from the Odyssey.
On beauty
Smith, Zadie
Paper Book
Set in New England mainly and London partly, On Beauty concerns a pair of feuding families - the Belseys and the Kipps - and a clutch of doomed affairs. It puts low morals among high ideals and asks some searching questions about what life does to love. For the Belseys and the Kipps, the ...
Loosely based on E.M. Forster's Howard's End, set in modern day U.K.
The hours
Cunningham, Michael
Paper Book
A daring, deeply affecting third novel by the author ofA Home at the End of the WorldandFlesh and Blood. InThe Hours, Michael Cunningham, widely praised as one of the most gifted writers of his generation, draws inventively on the life and work of Virginia...
Three women of different generations whose lives are interconnected by Mrs Dalloway.
Wicked : the life and times of the Wicked Witch of the West : a novel
Maguire, Gregory
Paper Book
A special 25th anniversary hardcover edition of the multi-million-copy-bestselling novel and basis of the Tony Award-winning musical. This is the book that started it all! The basis for the smash hit Tony Award-winning Broadway musical, Gregory Maguire's breathtaking New York...
An exploration of the characters & setting of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.
The daughter of Doctor Moreau a novel
Moreno-Garcia, Silvia
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the bestselling author of Mexican Gothic and Velvet Was the Night comes a lavish historical drama reimagining of The Island of Doctor Moreau set against the backdrop of nineteenth-century Mexico. "This is...
A reimagining of The Island of Doctor Moreau set in nineteenth-century Mexico.
Bridget Jones's diary : a novel
Fielding, Helen.
Paper Book
Now a major motion picture starring Renee Zellwegger and Hugh Grant! "130 lbs. (how is it possible to put on 4 pounds overnight? Could flesh have somehow solidified becoming denser and heavier (repulsive, horrifying notion)); alcohol units 2 (excellent) cigarettes 21 (poor but...
Roughly based on Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice.
Pride and prejudice and zombies : the classic Regency romance -- now with ultraviolent zombie mayhem
Austen, Jane
Paper Book
TheNew York Timesbest selleris now a major motion picture starring Lily James and Sam Riley, with Matt Smith, Charles Dance, and Lena Headey. Complete with romance, heartbreak, swordfights, cannibalism, and thousands of rotting corpses,Pride and Prejudice and Zombies<...
Inspired, of course, by Pride & Prejudice.
Pride
Zoboi, Ibi Aanu
Paper Book
In a timely update of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, National Book Award finalist Ibi Zoboi skillfully balances cultural identity, class, and gentrification against the heady magic of first love in her vibrant reimagining of this beloved classic. A smart, funny, gorgeous...
A retelling of Pride & Prejudice set in Brooklyn with a much more diverse cast of characters than the original.
Cinder
Meyer, Marissa
Paper Book
The first book in the #1 New York Times- and USA Today-Bestselling Lunar Chronicles series by Marissa Meyer like you've never seen it before, now with new cover art! See where the futuristic YA fairytale saga all began, with the tale of a teenage cyborg who must fight for Earth's...
A futuristic retelling of Cinderella.
The song of Achilles
Miller, Madeline
Paper Book
Greece in the age of Heroes. Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been exiled to the kingdom of Phthia. Here he is nobody, just another unwanted boy living in the shadow of King Peleus and his golden son, Achilles.Achilles, 'best of all the Greeks', is everything Patroclus is not - strong,...
Homer's Iliad as told from the perspective of the character Patroclus.
The Eyre affair
Fforde, Jasper.
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The first novel in the renowned Thursday Next series, which "combines elements of Monty Python, Harry Potter, Stephen Hawking, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (The Wall Street Journal). "A literary wonderland [that] recalls...
Set in an alternative 1985, where the protagonist pursues a master criminal through the world of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre.
Ophelia
Lisa Klein
Audiobook
The Penelopiad
Atwood, Margaret
Paper Book
"Homer's Odyssey is not the only version of the story. Mythic material was originally oral, and also local -- a myth would be told one way in one place and quite differently in another. I have drawn on material other than the Odyssey, especially for the details of Penelope's...
Nutshell
McEwan, Ian
Paper Book
New from the bestselling author of Atonement and The Children Act Trudy has betrayed her husband, John. She's still in the marital home--a dilapidated, priceless London townhouse--but John's not there. Instead, she's with his brother, the profoundly banal Claude,...
The story of Hamlet narrated by a fetus in his mother's womb.
March
Brooks, Geraldine
Paper Book
As the North reels under a series of unexpected defeats during the dark first year of the war, one man leaves behind his family to aid the Union cause. His experiences will utterly change his marriage and challenge his most ardently held beliefs. Riveting and elegant as it is meticulously researched...
Wide Sargasso sea
Rhys, Jean
Paper Book
Jean Rhys's late, literary masterpiece Wide Sargasso Sea was inspired by Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, and is set in the lush, beguiling landscape of Jamaica in the 1830s. Born into an oppressive, colonialist society, Creole heiress Antoinette Cosway meets a young Englishman who is drawn to...
A feminist prequel to Jane Eyre
The other Bennet sister
Hadlow, Janice
CD
Longbourn
Baker, Jo
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR * "Fans of Austen...will take particular pleasure" (People) in this irresistibly imagined belowstairs answer to Pride and Prejudice. While Elizabeth Bennet and her sisters fuss over balls and husbands, Sarah, their...
A story of the lives of the servants at Longbourn, the house of the Bennetts in Pride & Prejudice.
Emma
McCall Smith, Alexander
Paper Book
'It's comfort reading at its most soothing' Independent 'Funny, heartfelt and very readable' Good Housekeeping In this reimagined modern classic, prepare to meet a young woman who thinks she knows everything... Fresh from university,...
Home fire
Shamsie, Kamila
Paper Book
_______________ WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION WINNER OF THE LONDON HELLENIC PRIZE A BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE GUARDIAN, OBSERVER, TELEGRAPH, NEW STATESMAN, EVENING STANDAND AND NEW YORK TIMES _______________...
A retelling of Sophocles's Antigone set among British Muslims.

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