Jo Allen kicks off the discussion:
I love the Brontes. Who doesn’t? (I mean, surely somebody, somewhere, doesn’t, but…)
So the novel I would like to rewrite for the modern day is the most rip-roaring of them all, Anne Bronte’s fabulous, scandalous The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. These days we’d call it romantic suspense and it has everything, so much so that if you don’t know it I recommend you go and look up a plot summary.
In short, Gilbert Markham falls for the mysterious widow in the neighbouring hall who it turns out, isn’t a widow at all but on the run from her drunken, violent husband. He, of course, comes after her and we have a chase and a misunderstanding, in the midst of which poor old Gilbert (who always struck me as not quite able to keep up with the extraordinary Helen Graham) doggedly pursues her, the love of his life.
If there’s a real kickass heroine in any of the Bronte novels it has to be Helen, unprepared to stand for the kind of nonsense her debauched husband and the restrictions of society place upon her. I love her to bits.
Having said all this, I don’t quite know how one would go about modernising a novel so far ahead of its time. Dare I say it, but I think Gilbert could do with a bit of a makeover. Then perhaps he’d be a match for Helen… and imagine what a film Hollywood could make of that…
Victoria Cornwall also chooses the Brontes:
Wuthering Heights was Emily Bronte’s only novel and was originally published under the pseudonym Ellis Bell. The initial reviews were mixed, some critics finding the unsavoury characters, hatred, revenge and violence difficult to accept, despite the novel being a compelling read.
Even today I find Heathcliff, the “hero” of the love story, difficult to accept. He starves a trapped bird, verbally and physically abuses his wife and damages the lives of all those around him … all in the name of love. Well in my opinion, loving someone does not give you the excuse to be a violent thug who destroys people who happen to be in their orbit. My adaptation would have Heathcliff coming to his senses and rescuing the bird in time and being emotionally distant from his wife (as he still loves Cathy) but not intentionally cruel to her. As he is Heathcliff, I will still allow him to behave badly, but ultimately he has to come to his senses and regret his behaviour. For my adaptation, Heathcliff has to deserve meeting up with Cathy in death, and unless he has changed his ways, I just wouldn’t let him. No woman deserves to be with a violent man, in life, in fiction or beyond the grave.
Rae Cowie picks something completely different:
Which literary classic would I re-write and why? For this writing challenge I’m reaching over to the dark side, choosing Daphne du Maurier’s chilling short story, The Birds (adapted for screen by Sir Alfred Hitchcock). However, I would never presume to improve upon such a perfect piece of Gothic literature, but instead would have a bash at composing a modern-day version.
In du Maurier’s original story, ever more violent flocks of birds attack the family of farmer Nat Hocken, who responds by fortifying his home. Today, many farmers feel assaulted not only by the usual stresses of unpredictable weather and rising costs, but also from the increasing divide between urban and rural life. This leads to a feeling that society no longer appreciates their work, compounded by abuse on social media from activists interested in veganism, animal welfare, the climate change lobby and so on… Pinching tricks from du Maurier, I’d build on the farm’s isolated location. What begins as a stranger trolling my farming family online, quickly turns towards the even more sinister, where barricades may not be enough…
Kath McGurl kind of dodges the question:
You know, I don’t think I’d ever attempt to rewrite any of the classics myself. I would be terrified that doing such a thing might open me up to loads of criticism from anyone who loved the original! Of course, like any other writer, I might ‘borrow’ elements from the classics, either intentionally or accidentally. I had a phase of reading nothing but classics in my twenties and am sure they rubbed off on me.
Having said that, I do quite like reading reworkings of great stories. Funnily, many writers like Victoria are drawn to rewriting Wuthering Heights! I’ve read Juliet Bell’s The Heights – which retells the story but set in 1980s Yorkshire. And Sue Barnard’s Heathcliff does something a little different – it fills in the missing years in the original tale, letting us know what happens to Heathcliff in the years when he disappears.
Sue Barnard is quite a master at reworking the classics. Her novel, The Ghostly Father, retells Romeo and Juliet, but gives the story a completely different, much happier and to my mind more satisfying, ending.
The reworkings I have not yet managed to bring myself to try are the ones where the original text, now out of copyright, is used with some weird additions. The ‘classic’ of this genre is Pride and Prejudice with Zombies. I suspect the title tells you all you need to know about it.
As well as rewrites of classics, I’ve also enjoyed books where a contemporary author has imagined mysteries in the life of a classic author. For instance in Dan Simmons’ Drood, Wilkie Collins is forced to confront the possibility his best friend Charles Dickens may be a murderer…
Finally, another book in this vein that I am looking forward to, bringing us neatly back to the Brontes again, is Bella Ellis’s The Vanished Bride. In which the Bronte sisters use their considerable talents to discover what happened to the bride in question…
What classics would you love to read a rewritten version of?
Thank you, Kath!
ReplyDeleteThis blog post was fun to do, although I have to stress that although I did not like the character of Heathcliff, I have great respect for Emily Bronte's writing and her courage and vision to write something that was considered, at the time, very controversial.
ReplyDeleteUm, sticking my head above the parapet here .... I've never been a Bronte fan. That said, I think TV and film have spoiled the Brontes for me, and possibly also Jane Austen because I find all the costumes and the body language of the characters a bit overdone. Don't shoot! That said, I think those who have posted are very brave to rewrite the classics.
ReplyDeleteI think it's time I brushed up on my Brontes! It's years since I read Wuthering Heights, however I do remember having similar concerns as Victoria about Heathcliff's behaviour. I'd like to reread it, perhaps with my book group, as a controversial character always makes for great discussion. Like Linda, I would never dare try rewriting a classic and take my hat off to those who do. My du Maurier retelling would rather be a case of loosely pinching a structure and setting it in the modern day. I might write it - just for fun.
ReplyDelete