In the realm of literary reimagining of old stories, I can highly recommend Lavinia by Ursula le Guin, based on the Aeneid. I would love to hear about other retellings you have enjoyed.
In the realm of literary reimagining of old stories, I can highly recommend Lavinia by Ursula le Guin, based on the Aeneid.
I would love to hear about other retellings you have enjoyed.
I have enjoyed Ava Reid's work. The Wolf and the Woodsman is a reimagining of red riding hood. Juniper and Thorn is a reimagining of a Grimm fairy tale, and I enjoyed it much more, but it has some...
I have enjoyed Ava Reid's work. The Wolf and the Woodsman is a reimagining of red riding hood. Juniper and Thorn is a reimagining of a Grimm fairy tale, and I enjoyed it much more, but it has some serious trigger warnings I wrote about here.
T. Kingfisher/Ursula Vernon has a few good ones: Bryony and Roses (beauty and the beast) and Thornhedge (sleeping beauty). Both are in her style of seeming pretty light, then taking an unexpected turn toward horror.
Edit to add:
I was browsing my audiobook backlog looking for and was reminded of the Tufa series by Alex Bledsoe. First book is The Hum and the Shiver. It's urban fantasy reimagining the Fae in the backwaters of modern Appalachia. A very gothic feel, not too deep, but enjoyable.
Tennyson's Ulysses comes to mind—though now it, too, is an old story. (I'd like to read the newer Ulysses, but haven't done it yet, and it is a big commitment.) And, in keeping with the theme,...
Tennyson's Ulysses comes to mind—though now it, too, is an old story. (I'd like to read the newer Ulysses, but haven't done it yet, and it is a big commitment.) And, in keeping with the theme, Miyazaki's Nausicaä (the comic; I've not watched the movie, though I'm sure it's good too). Like all really good modern fantasy, it really is fantasy, not just fantasy-themed (insert Le Guin 'From Elfland to Poughkeepsie' here), but it also has a deep and abiding respect for its characters and avoids losing them to their archetypes. And the art is nice—it is grounded and integrated (e.g. the framing never feels forced or artificial), and the relationship between foreground and background is superbly done.
...it's not really clear to me where the line is between reimagination, influence, and fan fiction. (My dad argues fan fiction is conceptually bankrupt, but I think he is just conveniently and arbitrarily defining it that way—fan fiction is defined to be that class of literary works which is bankrupt in a particular way.) The linked article talks about how reimaginations can inform our understanding of the work they are based on, but it can't be that the purpose of a reimagination is to speak for the work it's based on; a work always speaks for itself. And, even though Nausicaä is called Nausicaä, and was explicitly borne out of Miyazaki's frustration that she didn't get more air time in the Odyssey, I think it ultimately says much less about the Odyssey than Brave Story says about The Neverending Story. And, for that matter, what about mythological traditions wherein the same stories get retold over and over, potentially over the course of hundreds or thousands of years—how much distance does there need to be between two renditions for the one to be an reimagining of the other, as opposed to their both existing in the same mythological tradition? On which note, I should point at Paradise Lost, which is just exquisitely written, if you can get past the archaic moralisation.
I know I must know better examples, but they are not coming to mind. Two more. Coraline was apparently based on a 19th-century story. I think I like the new version better, but am still not quite sure what to make of the original (this time I am comparing to the movie, as I have not read the book). And Loreena McKennitt has made a career out of (not exclusively) adapting old poems to song. Even where the text is unchanged, the interpretation feels very intentional—she owns her presentation of the work.
In the realm of literary reimagining of old stories, I can highly recommend Lavinia by Ursula le Guin, based on the Aeneid.
I would love to hear about other retellings you have enjoyed.
Bea Wolf was a fun read for kids.
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/60316971
I have enjoyed Ava Reid's work. The Wolf and the Woodsman is a reimagining of red riding hood. Juniper and Thorn is a reimagining of a Grimm fairy tale, and I enjoyed it much more, but it has some serious trigger warnings I wrote about here.
T. Kingfisher/Ursula Vernon has a few good ones: Bryony and Roses (beauty and the beast) and Thornhedge (sleeping beauty). Both are in her style of seeming pretty light, then taking an unexpected turn toward horror.
Edit to add:
I was browsing my audiobook backlog looking for and was reminded of the Tufa series by Alex Bledsoe. First book is The Hum and the Shiver. It's urban fantasy reimagining the Fae in the backwaters of modern Appalachia. A very gothic feel, not too deep, but enjoyable.
Tennyson's Ulysses comes to mind—though now it, too, is an old story. (I'd like to read the newer Ulysses, but haven't done it yet, and it is a big commitment.) And, in keeping with the theme, Miyazaki's Nausicaä (the comic; I've not watched the movie, though I'm sure it's good too). Like all really good modern fantasy, it really is fantasy, not just fantasy-themed (insert Le Guin 'From Elfland to Poughkeepsie' here), but it also has a deep and abiding respect for its characters and avoids losing them to their archetypes. And the art is nice—it is grounded and integrated (e.g. the framing never feels forced or artificial), and the relationship between foreground and background is superbly done.
...it's not really clear to me where the line is between reimagination, influence, and fan fiction. (My dad argues fan fiction is conceptually bankrupt, but I think he is just conveniently and arbitrarily defining it that way—fan fiction is defined to be that class of literary works which is bankrupt in a particular way.) The linked article talks about how reimaginations can inform our understanding of the work they are based on, but it can't be that the purpose of a reimagination is to speak for the work it's based on; a work always speaks for itself. And, even though Nausicaä is called Nausicaä, and was explicitly borne out of Miyazaki's frustration that she didn't get more air time in the Odyssey, I think it ultimately says much less about the Odyssey than Brave Story says about The Neverending Story. And, for that matter, what about mythological traditions wherein the same stories get retold over and over, potentially over the course of hundreds or thousands of years—how much distance does there need to be between two renditions for the one to be an reimagining of the other, as opposed to their both existing in the same mythological tradition? On which note, I should point at Paradise Lost, which is just exquisitely written, if you can get past the archaic moralisation.
I know I must know better examples, but they are not coming to mind. Two more. Coraline was apparently based on a 19th-century story. I think I like the new version better, but am still not quite sure what to make of the original (this time I am comparing to the movie, as I have not read the book). And Loreena McKennitt has made a career out of (not exclusively) adapting old poems to song. Even where the text is unchanged, the interpretation feels very intentional—she owns her presentation of the work.