Ophelia: Hamlet through a Female Lens

I like stories told from the woman’s perspective, especially if they shed insight into a familiar story. So when I found out they were filming Ophelia, the story of Hamlet, but with some changes, I was so impatient to see it I rented it the morning of its streaming release. Shakespeare has never been one...

Not Another Vampire Movie: Dracula Untold

There’s no sense retelling a story if you’re just going to tell it the same way it’s been told before, is there? Remakes and retellings and reimaginings are everywhere right now. On a whole, I’m a fan. I love seeing a classic story or legend given a new setting or a new twist. To me,...

How to Become a Dreamer: The Princess and the Frog

1912. Louisiana. New Orleans. Aspiring chef Tiana meets Naveen, Prince of Maldonia, and they begin an exciting adventure together. Or will they wind up croaking together in the same swamp? What does the era of jazz and foxtrot have in common with the old German fairy tale about the Frog Prince? A lot, thanks to...

Taming Things: A Modern Shrew

Stories which last from generation to generation usually do so because they are good, and very few wordsmiths can boast more longevity than William Shakespeare himself. This means he often updated to a modern setting. Because Shakespeare was writing over five centuries ago, it’s inevitable that public attitudes towards many things have changed and contemporary...

A Court of Thorns and Roses: An Addendum to an Old Moral

Sarah J. Maas’ A Court of Thorns and Roses introduces us to a determined girl with a heart of gold who seems to be the key to ending a curse set upon a temperamental ruler and his household.  Tale as old as time, right?  While the ACOTAR series is more than capable of standing on...

Troy

Troy was a story I thought I understood. A bunch of men in armor charge up on a beach, spend ten years parked at the base of a city trying to get in, and eventually breach the walls through Odysseus’ trick of a big wooden horse full of military men. Simple. Tragic. Devastating. A story...

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries

Pride and Prejudice is a timeless classic, and the basis for many of today’s romcoms. Boy meets girl, boy offends girl, girl hates boy, girl inspires boy to become a better man, boy and girl live happily ever after. There have been countless updated retellings. Countless. You Got Mail is by far one of the...

Jane Austen, Unrelatable? As If!

When Autumn de Wilde’s adaptation of Emma came out in 2020, several of my friends noted to me, “This is the same plot as Clueless!” I’ve earned a reputation among my friend group as the resident Jane Austen fan, and most of my attempts to persuade them classics are cool got dismissed. We were in...

Sept / Oct 2021: Old Stories, Told New Ways

In this issue, we celebrate all the wonderful retellings across literary history. Some of them are Shakespeare, others come from Jane Austen, and some are, well, a “tale as old as time.” Settle in and enjoy each article as it goes live. Who knows, you may discover a new favorite! IN THIS ISSUE: Sept 4:...

True Hero: Quest for Camelot

King Arthur, Knights of the Round Table, Camelot, Excalibur… These episodes from English history are steeped in legends. But what do we really know about them? Camelot is a castle and court associated with the legendary King Arthur. The Round Table is King Arthur’s famed board, around which he and his knights congregated. As its...