When we think about classic and timeless novels or stories, there’s likely a list that comes to mind, whether you’ve read them on your own or had to check them off a reading list in school. And there are reasons why these novels have stood the test of time: they speak to universal truths or ongoing struggles, despite being written decades, or even centuries, ago.
And the wisdom and insight from the classics can be found in the reimagined novels included in this list. Authors were inspired to write their own take and twist on timeless stories and bring these storylines into different settings, whether historical or contemporary. The best retellings are able to stand on their own with readers unfamiliar with the original and also pay homage to the original in ways those familiar with the source material can appreciate.
Whether you have a soft spot for timeless classics or you remember reading them in high school, keep scrolling to see if any of these reimaginings capture your interest.
The Heart of Bennet Hollow
By Joanne Bischof DeWitt
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
In this Southern historical retelling of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennet is transformed into Lizbeth Bennet, a farmer’s daughter, and Fitzwilliam Darcy becomes William Darcy, wealthy coal baron. When the mine in New River, Virginia, goes up for sale in 1904, New York coal barons descend on the town. As William investigates whether the mine is worth investing in, he tries to keep his distance from the townspeople. But he continues to cross paths with Lizbeth, a spirited young woman he can’t stay away from. For author Joanne Bischof DeWitt, it felt natural to merge her love of an Appalachian setting with her love of Jane Austen novels. In her Q&A, Joanne also mentions she enjoyed finding commonalities and differences between the two time periods.
Indigo Isle
By T. I. Lowe
Beauty and the Beast
The Parable of the Prodigal Son from the Bible
Indigo Isle combines retellings of both Beauty and the Beast and the prodigal son parable into one story set against the backdrop of the Me Too movement. The novel focuses on Sonny, a Hollywood location scout who returns to South Carolina after fifteen years to find sites for an upcoming movie. Sonny stumbles across a picturesque island and tries to convince Hudson, the reclusive owner dubbed The Monster of Indigo Isle by locals, to let her company film there. As Sonny begins to see a different side to Hudson, she has to fend off advances from her pushy Hollywood boss. As the movie shoot drags on, Sonny will have to reckon with the past she left behind, her messy present, and a future she could have that she never expected. As Sonny embodies both the beauty and the prodigal, readers will find it’s a fairytale for the modern world.
The Lady’s Mine
By Francine Rivers
The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare
This retelling of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew is set in the aftermath of the Civil War. In Francine Rivers’s historical romance, the “shrew” from the original becomes Kathryn, a New England suffragette coming to a California mining town to claim her inheritance. The man aiming to tame her is Matthias, a local saloon owner who’s wary of her interference with town business. As Kathryn and Matthias continue to butt heads, bicker, and banter, they realize they might have more in common than they thought. Like other adaptations of the famous play like Kiss Me Kate and 10 Things I Hate About You, The Lady’s Mine has a fiery female lead. In Francine’s Q&A, she mentions that she enjoyed writing Kathryn: “She’s fiery, opinionated, earnest, and determined to make the town she lives in better (whether men agree or not).”
This Promised Land
By Cathy Gohlke
The Parable of the Prodigal Son from the Bible
This Promised Land finds Ginny at a crossroads: does she pursue her lifelong ambition, or go home to claim an inheritance she never expected? Hoping to sell her family’s Christmas tree farm quickly, she returns home. There she finds her angry older nephew and her younger nephew and his three children in tow. As she gets to know her family again, Ginny hopes they can set aside their differences to restore all that’s broken. In most retellings of the prodigal son story, the main character is the son who’s left home and comes back to be welcomed by his father. But in Cathy Gohlke’s novel, Ginny inhabits characteristics from all three men in the original story. As Cathy mentions in her author’s note, Ginny left home and “[is] in desperate need of returning” like the younger son; she’s been judgmental like the older son; and she’s found an opportunity for second chances like the father.
The Girl from the Papers
By Jennifer L. Wright
Bonnie and Clyde
Unlike most other inspirations featured in this post, The Girl from the Papers is based on real people. Bonnie and Clyde captured the nation’s attention during their crime spree in the public enemy era of the mid-1930s. And interest has continued in the modern era with movies like Bonnie and Clyde and The Highwayman. But as Jennifer L. Wright writes in her guest post, her take on the infamous criminals is from a different perspective. Questions started to come to mind, like “what if those seeds of faith planted in Bonnie and Clyde’s youth had fully bloomed?” And so Jennifer’s Beatrice is a struggling actress who gets swept up in Jack Turner’s charm. As their criminal life together intensifies, Beatrice starts to question if the life of infamy she’s leading is the one she really wants.
In a Far-Off Land
By Stephanie Landsem
The Parable of the Prodigal Son from the Bible
Like many main characters in stories inspired by the prodigal son parable, Mina thinks she’s done too much wrong to ever be forgiven: she’s caught in a downward spiral of poverty and desperation in Hollywood and carries a secret she won’t be able to hide forever. And on the eve of her big break that might make up for it all, Mina finds herself on the run for a murder she didn’t commit. The prodigal son story is mixed with the glamor of Hollywood and a murder mystery that will keep readers guessing and cheering for the heroine, despite the mess Mina thinks she’s made of her life.
The Orchard House
By Heidi Chiavaroli
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
The title of Heidi Chiavaroli’s novel comes from the name of Louisa May Alcott’s family home in Concord, Massachusetts. The house also served as the location where Louisa wrote her most famous novel, Little Women. As Heidi mentions her guest post, she knew the Orchard House would play a large part in her story and connect her two storylines. While Heidi incorporates themes and nods to Little Women, she also includes Louisa as a cameo character. In The Orchard House, author Taylor returns home to Concord when her adoptive mother gets sick. As she deals with family issues best left in the past, Taylor is drawn to a woman who lived in Louisa’s house. Centuries before, Johanna lives in the Orchard House to take care of Louisa May Alcott’s parents while Louisa is traveling. Johanna falls in love with a local man whose dark side reveals itself too late.
The Seamstress
By Allison Pittman
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Author Allison Pittman was inspired to write The Seamstress based on a short scene in A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, a novel set during the French Revolution. In the scene, a main character talks to an unnamed seamstress, both prisoners awaiting execution, who wonders if she’ll ever see her cousin again. But Allison’s author imagination started to question why Dickens included the detail of a cousin at all. And soon the story that would become The Seamstress was fully formed. In the novel, the unnamed seamstress from A Tale of Two Cities becomes Renée, Queen Marie Antoinette’s seamstress. Rounding out the novel, Renee’s cousin Laurette falls in love with a rebel, and her guardian Gagnon is helpless to watch as the revolution ignites around them.
Bridge to Haven
By Francine Rivers
The Parable of the Prodigal Son from the Bible
Lena leaves behind all that she knows—her small town, her adoptive father, her closest friend—to find fame in Hollywood. But she soon learns fame comes at a price. When Lena’s naiveté is exploited by those around her, all she wants is to go back to Haven. But as the stand-in for the prodigal son, she feels like she’s burned every bridge back to her home. Meanwhile, her adoptive father, who has never stopped loving her, knows he has to let Lena find her way back on her own. And he’s waiting for her with open arms. Writing as only Francine Rivers can, Lena’s reimagining of the prodigal son story is filled with broken characters on the twisting road to redemption.
If It Rains
By Jennifer L. Wright
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum
Set during the Dust Bowl, If It Rains tells the story of survival of two sisters, Kathryn and Melissa. After her beloved sister marries and leaves her in the care of her father and stepmother, Kathryn is left only with the comfort of a worn copy of her favorite book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. When a dust storm reminiscent of the cyclone in the famous novel separates Kathryn from her family, she has to survive on her own and determine if the companions she meets along the way are friends or foes. As Jennifer mentions in her guest post, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz not only provides comfort to Kathryn and Melissa as a favorite novel, but also a reminder of happier times and “a source of stability . . . in a world of unimaginable change.”
