A new take on an old classic

[aurora]

I heard an interview with author Hanan al-Shaykh on NPR over the weekend.  Apparently she has written a re-telling of the classic One Thousand and One Nights (which admittedly I've never read).  The interview made it (the re-told version) sound really fascinating.  Has anybody here read either the original or the re-telling?

The NPR story can be found at

The story is at www.npr.org/2013/06/09/189539866/scheherazade-from-storytelling-slave-to-first-feminist


To make this thread more generally appealing, any other great re-tellings of classics you'd like to recommend?  Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad - a re-telling of The Odyssey from Penelope's point of view, and John Gardner's Grendel, a Beowolf re-write, both come to mind for me.

[charlatti]

I have not read either version, but the retelling has caught my ear a few times now. Might have to add it to the list.

I love C. S. Lewis's Till We Have Faces, which is a retelling of the Cupid and Psyche myth. There was that Jane Eyre book last summer or so, but I can't come up with the title and it wasn't a huge hit for me. I loved Edgar Sawtelle (loosely based on Hamlet), which I think gets mixed reviews around here.

[msmerymac]

Speaking of Hamlet, I love Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.

I have not read 1001 Nights, but my mom absolutely loves it.

[aurora]

Jun 10, 2013 12:47:16 GMT -5 charlatti said:

I have not read either version, but the retelling has caught my ear a few times now. Might have to add it to the list.

I love C. S. Lewis's Till We Have Faces, which is a retelling of the Cupid and Psyche myth. There was that Jane Eyre book last summer or so, but I can't come up with the title and it wasn't a huge hit for me. I loved Edgar Sawtelle (loosely based on Hamlet), which I think gets mixed reviews around here.

I hadn't heard of either Till We Have Faces or Edgar Sawtelle, so thanks!

msmerymac - we read Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead in high school English class and I really enjoyed it, too.

I bet there are more Shakespeare retellings than most other books (except maybe the Bible?).