Classics Retold

Classic novels rewritten for modern audiences and introduced to new generations of readers.
Updated September 19, 2022
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Circe
Madeline Miller
Paper Book
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2019 THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER THE NEW YORK TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER SELECTED AS BOOK OF THE YEAR BY BUZZFEED, THE DAILY TELEGRAPH, GUARDIAN, I...
The fleshed-out story of Circe, a character from the Odyssey.
Ayesha At Last
Uzma Jalaluddin
Paper Book
A big-hearted, captivating, modern-day Muslim Pride and Prejudice, with hijabs instead of top hats and kurtas instead of corsets.
A modern day Muslim Pride & Prejudice
Boy, Snow, Bird
Helen Oyeyemi
Paper Book
In the winter of 1953, Boy Novak arrives by chance in a small town in Massachusetts, looking, she believes, for beauty — the opposite of the life she’s left behind in New York. She marries a local widower and becomes stepmother to his winsome daughter, Snow Whitman.
The reimagined story of Snow White set in 1950s America.
On Beauty
Zadie Smith
Ebook
WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER From the acclaimed author of Swing Time, White Teeth and Grand Union, discover a brilliantly funny and...
Loosely based on E.M. Forster's Howard's End, set in modern day U.K.
Eligible
Curtis Sittenfeld
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Wonderfully tender and hilariously funny, Eligible both honors and updates Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Tackling gender, class, courtship, and family, Curtis Sittenfeld reaffirms herself as one of the most dazzling authors writing today....
A modern retelling of Pride & Prejudice
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
Gregory Maguire
Ebook
The New York Times bestseller and basis for the Tony-winning hit musical, soon to be a major motion picture starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande With millions of copies in print around the world, Gregory Maguire's Wicked is established not only as a commentary on...
An exploration of the characters & setting of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.
The Daughter of Doctor Moreau
Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Paper Book
Carlota Moreau: A young woman, growing up in a distant and luxuriant estate, safe from the conflict and strife of the Yucatan peninsula, the only daughter of a genius - or a madman.Montgomery Laughton: A melancholic overseer with a tragic past and a propensity for alcohol, an outcast who assists Dr...
A reimagining of The Island of Doctor Moreau set in nineteenth-century Mexico.
Bridget Jones's Diary
Helen Fielding
Paper Book
"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 will give up totally tomorrow); number of correct lottery numbers 2 (better, but...
Roughly based on Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Seth Grahame-Smith
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
Ibi Zoboi
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
Marissa Meyer
Paper Book
A forbidden romance. A deadly plague. Earth's fate hinges on one girl . . . CINDER, a gifted mechanic in New Beijing, is also a cyborg. She's reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister's sudden illness. But when her life becomes...
A futuristic retelling of Cinderella.
The Song of Achilles
Madeline Miller
Paper Book
**OVER 3 MILLION COPIES SOLD** WINNER OF THE ORANGE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION THE INTERNATIONAL SENSATION A SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 'Captivating' DONNA TARTT 'I loved it' J K ROWLING
Homer's Iliad as told from the perspective of the character Patroclus.
The Eyre Affair
Jasper Fforde
Paper Book
The first book in the phenomenally successful Thursday Next series, from Number One bestselling author Jasper Fforde. 'Always ridiculous, often hilarious ... blink and you miss a vital narrative leap. There are shades of Douglas Adams, Lewis Carroll, 'Clockwork...
Set in an alternative 1985, where the protagonist pursues a master criminal through the world of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre.
Jane Steele
Lyndsay Faye
Paper Book
The reimagining of Jane Eyre as a gutsy, heroic serial killer that The New York Times Book Review calls "wonderfully entertaining" and USA Today describes as "sheer mayhem meets Victorian propriety"--nominated for the 2017 Edgar Award for Best Novel. "Reader, I...
A reimagining of Jane Eyre as a serial killer.
Tiger Lily
Jodi Lynn Anderson
Paper Book
In this stunning reimagining of J. M. Barrie's beloved classic Peter Pan, New York Times bestselling author Jodi Lynn Anderson expertly weaves a gripping tale of love, loss, and adventure. This young adult novel is an excellent choice for accelerated tween readers in grades 7 to 8,...
The Penelopiad: The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus
Margaret Atwood
Ebook
In a splendid contemporary twist, Margaret Atwood tells Penelope's story. In Homer's account, Penelope is the constant wife. It is she who rules Odysseus's kingdom of Ithaca during his twenty-year absence at the Trojan War. She raises their wayward son and fends off over a hundred insistent...
New Boy
Tracy Chevalier
Paper Book
'O felt her presence behind him like a fire at his back.' Arriving at his fourth school in six years, diplomat's son Osei Kokote knows he needs an ally if he is to survive his first day - so he's lucky to hit it off with Dee, the most popular girl in school. But one student...
A play on Shakespeare's Othello set in the 70s on a school playground.
Nutshell
Ian McEwan
Paper Book
**The Number One Sunday Timesbestseller**A Daily Telegraph / Guardian / Irish Times / Spectator / Sunday Times / The Times Book of the YearTrudy has betrayed her husband, John. She's still in the marital home - a dilapidated, priceless...
The story of Hamlet narrated by a fetus in his mother's womb.
Fool
Christopher Moore
Paper Book
This is a bawdy tale. Herein you will find gratuitous shagging, murder, spanking, maiming, treason, and heretofore unexplored heights of vulgarity and profanity,. . . If that's the sort of thing you think you might enjoy, then you have happened upon the perfect story!' So speaks...
The story of King Lear's Fool
March
Geraldine Brooks
Audiobook
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize--a powerful love story set against the backdrop of the Civil War, from the author of The Secret Chord. From Louisa May Alcott's beloved classic Little Women, Geraldine Brooks has animated the character of the absent father, March, and...
Mr. Rochester
Sarah Shoemaker
Paper Book
Uncover the secrets of Edward Fairfax Rochester, the beloved, enigmatic hero of Jane Eyre, as he tells his story for the first time in Mr Rochester, Sarah Shoemaker's gorgeous retelling of one of the most romantic stories in literature. On his eighth birthday,...
The Other Bennet Sister
Janice Hadlow
Paper Book
Longbourn
Jo Baker
Audiobook
* Pride and Prejudice was only half the story *   If Elizabeth Bennet had the washing of her own petticoats, Sarah often thought, she'd most likely be a sight more careful with them.   In this irresistibly imagined belowstairs answer to...
A story of the lives of the servants at Longbourn, the house of the Bennetts in Pride & Prejudice.
Emma
Alexander McCall Smith
Paper Book
Beloved and bestselling author Alexander McCall Smith lends his delightful touch to Emma, the next book in The Austen Project. Prepare to meet a young woman who thinks she knows everything. Fresh from university, Emma Woodhouse triumphantly arrives home in Norfolk ready to embark on adult life with...
Frankissstein
Jeanette Winterson
Paper Book
***LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2019*** **SHORTLISTED FOR THE COMEDY WOMEN IN PRINT PRIZE 2020** **LONGLISTED FOR THE POLARI PRIZE 2020** A radical love story for right now, from 'one of the most gifted writers working today' (New York Times)<...
Frankenstein in Baghdad
Ahmed Saadawi
Paper Book
  WINNER OF THE INTERNATIONAL PRIZE FOR ARABIC FICTION A SATIRICAL REIMAGINING OF MARY SHELLEY'S FRANKENSTEIN SET IN MODERN-DAY BAGHDAD, BRILLIANTLY CAPTURING THE HORROR OF A CITY AT WAR From the rubble-strewn...
Home Fire
Kamila Shamsie
Paper Book
_______________WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION WINNER OF THE LONDON HELLENIC PRIZEA BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE GUARDIAN, OBSERVER, TELEGRAPH, NEW STATESMAN, EVENING STANDAND AND NEW YORK TIMES_______________'The book for our times' - Judges of...
A retelling of Sophocles's Antigone set among British Muslims.
Lavinia
Ursula K. Le Guin
Paper Book
'Like Spartan Helen, I caused a war. She caused hers by letting men who wanted her take her. I caused mine because I wouldn't be given, wouldn't be taken, but chose my man and my fate. The man was famous, the fate obscure; not a bad balance.' Lavinia is the daughter of the King of Latium, a...
An imagining of the life of Lavinia, a minor character in Virgil's Aeneid.
Alice
Christina Henry
Paper Book
The Ballad of Black Tom
Victor LaValle
Paper Book
One of NPR's Best Books of 2016, winner of the Shirley Jackson Award, the British Fantasy Award, the This is Horror Award for Novella of the Year, and a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, World Fantasy, and Bram Stoker Awards People move to New York looking for magic...
A retelling H. P. Lovecraft's "The Horror at Red Hook" from the viewpoint of a black man.

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