More Classic Riffs

I’m still thinking about pairing classic novels with contemporary riffs on the classics based on the plots or characters of the originals.  Groton Public Library Book Club has had some fun comparing a classic with a contemporary author’s re-imagining of the classic novel.  Maybe your book group would like to try doing the same thing.  There are many pairs that would work well together, but I have chosen a few that would generate interesting and lively book discussions.

Fans of the gothic romance genre have a wealth of classics from which to choose but none better than Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre.  Bronte’s 19^th century novel tells the tale of a poor abused orphan girl who grows up to be a plain but intelligent young woman, employed as a governess on a large estate.  She falls in love with the brooding master of the house who returns her love, but tragedy strikes on their wedding day.  The love story of Jane and her Mr. Rochester is timeless and complete with all the gothic trappings of the creepy mansion, the mad woman in the attic, and various obstacles to happiness. 

Pair Jane Eyre with Margot Livesey’s The Flight of Gemma Hardy, a re-imagining of Jane Eyre set in Scotland in the early 1960s.  Gemma, like Jane, is orphaned, neglected by a cruel aunt, and sent to a ghastly boarding school. Gemma overcomes her hardships to become an independent young woman, accepting a job as an au pair on the isolated but beautiful Orkney Islands.  Now she begins a journey of discovery that leads to a new life she never expected.

Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca revived the gothic romance when it was published in 1938 and is now considered a classic in its own right.  Rebecca, the glamorous mistress of the great English estate of Manderley, died eight months before Maxim de Winter brought his young, frightened second wife home.  Mystery, intrigue, and violence gradually reveal the circumstances leading to Rebecca’s death.  Who can resist the memorable opening line of Rebecca:  “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.” 

The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson is a good contemporary partner for Rebecca.  Eve follows her older lover, Dom, from London to Provence, to renovate a farmhouse called Le Genevriers, the French version of Manderley.  While living there Eve becomes obsessed with Dom’s first wife and a ghost that haunts the estate – the sister of a blind woman who disappeared mysteriously decades ago.

Leaving the English gothic romance for American literature, you could try reading one of the seminal classics, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter.  For those of you who don’t remember the plot, Hester Prynne is sentenced to wear the scarlet letter “A” on her dress for the crime of adultery in Puritan New England.  Her child, Pearl, was fathered by Reverend Dimmesdale, a fact she refuses to reveal.

You could pair Hillary Jordan’s new novel, When She Woke, with The Scarlet Letter for a great book discussion. Jordan remakes The Scarlet Letter as a cautionary tale set in the not-so-distant future when the United States is a theocracy that no longer punishes convicted felons with imprisonment but rather chromes and releases criminals back into the population - to survive if they can.  Hannah Payne has lived a life dedicated to church and family, but she awakens to a horrifying new reality after her arrest. She is lying on a table in a bare room, dressed only in a paper gown, all recorded by cameras for millions to view at home. Watching new Chromes, convicts whose skin color has been genetically changed to match their crimes, is the newest form of entertainment. Hannah is a Red as her crime, according to the State of Texas, is the murder of her unborn child. To make matters worse, Hannah refuses to reveal the identity of the baby’s father, a well-known public figure with whom she had a passionate, but forbidden, love affair.

I could go on, but I’ll stop now.  These are just some of the recent novels that could be paired with classics for thought-provoking book discussions. This is so much fun – why don’t you try it?