Books I Want to Re-Read

We all have a different relationship to re-reading, whether it's something we love to do and do often or something we never do. I'm a reader who's gone from one extreme to the other as I've grown; when I was younger I read and re-read my favourite books time and time and time again and was never any less delighted by them, and was recently reminded of this when I talked about Jacqueline Wilson last week.

I re-read Wilson's books an extortionate amount as a child, as well as my favourite Roald Dahls, such as The Magic Finger and Fantastic Mr. Fox, and my extensive Horrible Histories collection, but as I got older I began to devour more and more books until I didn't have the time to re-read if I wanted to keep reading new things. I fell in love with discovering new stories and characters and worlds and authors, just as I'd fallen in love with that safety net of familiarity in my childhood, and in doing so my love for re-reading was forgotten.

Then recently, having read Kirsty Logan's A Portable Shelter (reviewed here) and craving more short stories, I re-read Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories (reviewed here) and really enjoyed the experience - especially as I didn't actually like the book the first time I read it about seven years ago. Now I'm keen to make more time for re-reading, and below are four books from my shelves I'd like to re-read, all for various reasons!

I first read Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus when it came out. Everyone was talking about it and I was certainly intrigued, which was unusual for me because I generally tend to be wary of hyped books since the dark reading years of my teens when every YA book was the same. I ended up enjoying the book, but not as much as I'd hoped and definitely not as much as what felt like every other reader. Morgenstern's descriptions and her world-building were stunning, I loved the idea of her circus, but I need characters to grab hold of me and make me care and something about Celia and Marco prevented me from doing that. Individually I quite liked them - Celia, in particular, and her relationship with her father intrigued me - but I didn't understand why the two of them liked each other and when I reached the end I realised I hadn't really cared what happened, I was just ready for it to end. My reading tastes have changed a lot since then, and I'd like to re-read this book at some point to see if I've grown to appreciate it more or if I feel just as 'meh' about the whole thing as I did then.

Sadly, you can only read Rebecca for the first time once, and I loved it when I did. If you haven't read it yet I can't recommend it enough, it's du Maurier's masterpiece and such a brilliantly written and plotted novel - it's all the more enjoyable the less you know going into it. Knowing what happens in the story and how it ends, I'd love to re-read it and see if du Maurier left any little nuggets of premonition for her re-readers.

The Goblin Emperor is one I've already re-read twice (once as an audiobook, so I guess that was more of a re-listen) and was the first book I re-read in a long, long time when I picked it up for a second time last year having loved it in 2015. If someone put a gun to my head and forced me to choose one all-time favourite book, I think I'd have to say this one - Maia is certainly one of my favourite protagonists of all time and I love how, more than anything, this book is hopeful, decent fantasy and such a soothing antidote to Games of Thrones' brutality. I can't get enough of this book, and I think it'll be one I continue to re-read until Katherine Addison gives me another book set in this world.

Persuasion was Jane Austen's final novel, published posthumously, and while Pride and Prejudice is a firm favourite it's actually Persuasion that's considered to be her masterpiece by many Austen fans. Until the past year or so, I definitely wouldn't have described myself as one such fan. Like The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories I was introduced to Austen through education when I was given this book to read during sixth form and it woke a hatred of Austen in me that it's taken me a long time to shake off. My reading tastes hadn't developed enough at the time for me to appreciate that Austen was writing a very tongue-in-cheek form of societal critique, and I was so frustrated that a woman I was constantly being told was an early feminist writer had written novel after novel about love and marriage. Why couldn't any of her heroines just stay single? Then I did that thing that most of us we all do: I grew up. As a twenty-something I understand Austen far more than eighteen year old me ever did, something I'm sure my English teacher would be incredibly proud of, and now I'd like to give Persuasion a second chance. I've actually started my re-read of this one and, while it hasn't completely grabbed me, I'm not hating it...

Do you re-read books? Is it something you'd like to do more of or less? Which books would you like to re-read one day?

Fandon Mashup | Those of Wit and Learning

Fandom Mashup is an original featured created and hosted by the lovely Micheline @ Lunar Rainbows Reviews. Each week she proposes a unique fictional scenario and then invites you to build a dream team of five fictional characters from five different fandoms to help you to complete the task. Make sure you check out Micheline's blog for more info!

This week we're choosing five characters whom we think belong in Ravenclaw! Ravenclaw's my Hogwarts House, so this was a lot of fun...

Evelyn 'Evie' Carnahan from The Mummy (1999)

I will never, ever be bored of The Mummy; it's one of my favourite films and a lot of that is down to this lady. She's bookish and scholarly and learned, but also adventurous and brave, and she isn't mocked for her enthusiasm by the people who matter. Evie wants to be an academic, so she'd definitely be in Ravenclaw.

Belle from Beauty and the Beast (1991)

Any woman who can get as excited about a library as this woman does belongs in Ravenclaw. The 2017 Belle also belongs in Ravenclaw, especially being an inventor, but I prefer the original and the 2017 Belle looks an awful lot like another Hogwarts student...

Cosima Niehaus from Orphan Black

Cosima is a proud nerd and super smart, and while I'm sure Ravenclaw is full of bookish people I think the kooky, more Luna-esque people are sometimes forgotten about. Ravenclaw will have as many scientists as more artsy lovers and I think Cosima would find a lot of like minds there willing to help her with her experiments.

Samwell Tarly from Game of Thrones

He and Belle can nerd out over the Hogwarts Library together, and if Samwell could go to boarding school it'd mean having time away from his horrible father.

Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

We know Elizabeth loves books, but that's not the reason I'd put her in Ravenclaw. For me Elizabeth is a character who encapsulates 'Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure'. She loves to play around with speech, is constantly verbally sparring with other people even when, like Mr. Collins, they don't realise it. She'd definitely be at home in Ravenclaw.

Who would you put in Ravenclaw?

Top Ten Tuesday | Daddy, Daddy Cool

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

This week's theme is a Father's Day freebie, so I figured I'd talk about some of my favourite father/father figure-daughter relationships in fiction!

Hans Hubermann and Liesel Meminger from The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

‘I'm not such a good reader myself, you know. We'll have to help each other out.’

Will I ever be over The Book Thief? Probably not, no. It's not everyone's cup of tea but the book made me bawl like a baby and the relationship between Hans and Liesel has to be one of the purest, most loving relationships in fiction. I love Rosa, too - as a mother figure she has a brash charm all her own - but Hans is too sweet a man to leave off this list.

Atticus and Jean Louise Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

‘If you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view … until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.’

Atticus Finch is the original DILF and I love his relationship with Scout. He has to be one of the most soothing, comforting fathers in fiction and I adore him. I've chosen to ignore the existence of Go Set a Watchman because I'm still not certain Harper Lee really wanted that book to be published.

Theoden and Eowyn from The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

‘Duty? No... I would have you smile again, not grieve for those whose time has come. You shall live to see these days renewed.’

I haven't read the books - sorry! - but I adore the films and I love the relationship between Eowyn and her uncle. He could have been a better guardian but he could have been a hell of a lot worse - looking at you, Denethor - and there's no denying there's a genuine love and affection between them. Eowyn loves him enough to stay by him and protect him even when Rohan was a dangerous place for her and her brother, so there's clearly a strong bond there.

Mo and Meggie Folchart from the Inkworld trilogy by Cornelia Funke

‘I don't know any father who's more besotted with his daughter than yours.’

I loved the Inkworld books when I was younger and it's such a shame the 2008 adaptation of Inkheart was pretty poor because Brendan Fraser was a great choice for Mo. To be completely honest with you Meggie started to irritate me as the books went along, I do think it's a shame her story became more along the lines of choosing which boy she loved more while Mo got all of the action, but their relationship is a lovely one and they're clearly very close.

Mr. and Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

‘Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr. Collins, and I will never see you again if you do.’

It's so hard to find gifs of these two! Also yes, I prefer the 2005 version to the 1995 version. Come at me, bro. Mr. Bennet is probably my least favourite on this list, on account of him not being a very good father. His relationship with Elizabeth is lovely, but he doesn't hide it from his four other daughters that she's his favourite and therefore the one most worthy of his time. Mrs. Bennet is often seen as a silly woman there for comedic effect and while the woman is pretty insufferable, she's actually the better parent when we consider the Bennets' situation; should Mr. Bennet die their house will no longer be theirs, and Mrs. Bennet wants her daughters to be provided for and safe in a society that won't let them inherit their father's house because they don't have a penis. That they might marry someone wealthy is a bonus and isn't unusual for the time - a big part of marriage was the chance to climb up the social ladder. So Mr. Bennet's relationship with Elizabeth is a lovely one, but he's not the best parent and I think Elizabeth knows that, too.

Belle and Maurice from Beauty and the Beast (1991)

‘My daughter? Odd? Where did you get an idea like that?’

Maurice is a bit of a ditz, clearly intelligent but not so people smart, but it's clear he thinks Belle is the best thing since sliced bread (and so he should). Their relationship is clearly a close one considering Belle literally gives up her freedom to set her father free, something I'm sure she would have done whether he was sick or not. The Broadway production of Beauty and the Beast added an extra song for Belle and her father, 'No Matter What', and it's one of my favourites.

Sara and Captain Crewe from A Little Princess (1995)

‘I believe that you are, and always will be, my little princess.’

This is one of those occasions where I prefer an adaptation to the original book; Frances Hodgson Burnett's book is lovely, and I recommend reading it, but I grew up with the 1995 adaptation and I'm so fond of it. It still makes me cry. Captain Crewe (played by Liam Cunningham, aka Davos Seaworth in Game of Thrones if, like me, you've been trying to figure out where you've seen him before) is a doting father and and all-round very nice chap and his relationship with Sara makes me feel feelings.

Annie and Mr. Warbucks from Annie (1982)

‘Absolutely not! I'm a businessman. I love money, I love power, I love capitalism. I do not now and never will love children.’

Unfortunately the gif is from the 1999 adaptation, which isn't a bad adaptation but isn't the one I grew up with, as yet again the gifs are scarce. Yes it's corny, but I love Annie and I love the way that it encourages the idea that children are allowed to love their birth parents and their adopted parents.

King Mongkut and Princess Fa-Ying from Anna and the King (1999)

‘I will be there in your dreams, as you will be in mine.’

Really, internet? Not a single gif?! Oh well. Anna and the King is essentially a more serious version of The King and I without any of the sing-a-longs, and it's probably one of my favourite movies. It's not perfect, but I get swept away by it every time I watch it. The relationship between King Mongkut and his monkey-obsessed daughter, Princess Fa-Ying, is so sweet and if you watch the film you'll probably cry.

Fa Zhou and Fa Mulan from Mulan (1998)

‘The greatest gift and honour is having you for a daughter.’

Fa Zhou says some things at the beginning of this movie that certainly hurt his daughter's feelings, but it's clear the two of them are close: Mulan literally risks death, by execution or warfare, by posing as a man and taking his place in the army so he doesn't have to go to what's likely to be his certain death now that he is old and fairly frail.

What did you talk about this week?

Top Ten Tuesday | All the Single Ladies

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

Happy Valentine's Day! This week's theme is all about romance, and as I talked about my favourite OTPs last year, I figured this year would be a good opportunity to talk about the characters I think should have remained single.

Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games trilogy: Sorry Peeta fans (specifically Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight), but I hate the ending of Mockingjay. My ideal happy ending for Katniss was for her to live somewhere peaceful with Prim and if that couldn't happen then I wanted her to either live alone or die. I know that sounds grim, and I understand the comfort she probably finds in Peeta because he's gone through so much of what she's gone through, but I hate the way people use Peeta against her. I wrote a whole post about it here if you're interested.

Rachel Green from Friends: The more I re-watch Friends, the more I realise Rachel should have stayed on the plane. Ross is a pretty awful person and he consistently makes her choose between him and her career and it pisses me off. When they're first dating he's constantly looking down on her interest in the fashion industry, but if someone says they're not interested in science it's like they just told him Santa isn't real. He's a hypocrite and I don't like him, and to be honest by the tenth season I think Rachel and Joey have way more chemistry.

Juliet Capulet from Romeo and Juliet: SIX PEOPLE DIED. This applies to Romeo too, I guess, but to be honest Romeo's always seemed pretty flaky to me while Juliet has all these amazingly violent monologues throughout the play and has always felt like the more fleshed-out character to me. I understand that she doesn't just want to marry some stranger her father picks out for her, but was there really no other option for her than a whirlwind romance that KILLED SIX PEOPLE? Come on, Juliet, you're better than that.

Jane Eyre from Jane Eyre: I think Jane and Mr. Rochester have amazing chemistry but let's be honest: Rochester is a problematic fave. Let's not forget that he literally locked his wife in the attic and then lied to his second wife about it. What exactly in that scenario suggests great husband material?

Sansa Stark from Game of Thrones: In no way can Sansa's marriage to Ramsay Bolton be described as a relationship because he was abusive and she was in no way able to give any form of consent. Really I'm just angry the writers gave her that storyline at all; she deserved better than to be abused in that way, especially after already spending so long at Joffrey's mercy.

Tauriel from The Hobbit movies: I love the fact that someone thought 'we can't ask little girls to sit through 9 hours of film without a single main female character', but they butchered any progress when they created Tauriel just to act as eye candy. There didn't seem to be any depth to her character, instead she was a watered-down mix of Eowyn and Arwen.

Marianne Dashwood from Sense and Sensibility and Lydia Bennet from Pride and Prejudice: I'm putting these two together because I think they'd be good friends if they met, and I'd love to see the two of them travelling around Europe together, Marianne could play her music and Lydia could act on the stage, because frankly they both deserved better marriages than the ones they end up in. Especially Marianne, because at Lydia can hold her own and still have a bit of fun with Wickham, whereas Marianne gets a General who, while he may be lovely, is far too boring for her.

Desdemona from Othello: Othello's a prick. That is all.

Anna from Frozen: Elsa won't let her marry a guy she's known for a day, but apparently a guy she's known for two days is fine. I don't really like Frozen anyway, I think it's full of plotholes and one day I may write a post about it, and this is one of the reasons why. It tried to be witty with its 'oh isn't it funny how Disney princesses marry men they barely know?' only to repeat the same mistake.

Snow White from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: The Disney one's fine, albeit old-fashioned, but in the original tale the Prince carries Snow White away while he thinks she's dead, only for the apple to dislodge from her throat and wake her up. In other words, the original Snow White marries a necrophile. Poor girl.

What did you talk about this week?

Top Ten Tuesday | Stories & Songs

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

This week's theme is all about music and books, and I just happen to have a feature on my blog called Stories & Songs where I pair a book with a song. Today I've made a new list; there are a couple of books I've done before that I think fit particularly well, but most of them are brand new. I'm quite pleased with this list! As always book titles will take you to Goodreads, and song titles will take you to the song on YouTube.

Frenchman's Creek by Daphne du Maurier + Wildest Dreams by Taylor Swift: Say you'll remember me, standing in a nice dress, staring at the sunset, babe. Red lips and rosy cheeks, say you'll see me again even if it's just in your wildest dreams.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen + Girls & Boys by Good Charlotte: Educated, with money. He's well-dressed, not funny. And not much to say in most conversations, but he'll foot the bill in all situations, 'cause he pays for everything.

Signal to Noise by Silvia Moreno-Garcia + A Whiter Shade of Pale by Procol Harum: And so it was that later, as the miller told his tale, that her face, at first just ghostly, turned a whiter shade of pale.

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins + Glory and Gore by Lorde: You could try and take us, but we're the gladiators. Everyone a rager, but secretly they're saviours. Glory and gore go hand in hand, that's why we're making headlines. You could try and take us, but victory's contagious.

Lolita by Vladimir Nobokov + Missed Me by The Dresden Dolls: Missed me, missed me, now you've gone and done it; hope you're happy in the county penitentiary. It serves you right for kissing little girls, but I will visit. If you miss me.

If I Stay by Gayle Forman + Halo by Ane Brun feat. Linnea Olsson: Remember those walls I built? Well baby they're tumbling down; they didn't even put up a fight, they didn't even make a sound.

Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman + Black Magic by Little Mix: Take a sip of my secret potion, I'll make you fall in love. For a spell that can't be broken, one drop should be enough. Boy you belong to me, I got the recipe, and it's called black magic.

Feed by Mira Grant + O Children by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds: Pass me that lovely little gun, my dear, my darling one. The cleaners are coming, one by one, you don't even wanna let them start. They are knocking now upon your door, they measure the room, they know the score. They're mopping up the butcher's floor of your broken little hearts.

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng + I'm Still Here by Goo Goo Dolls: I am a question to the world, not an answer to be heard or a moment that's held in your arms. And what do you think you'd ever say? I won't listen anyway. You don't know me, and I'll never be who you want me to be.

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli + It's Time by Imagine Dragons: It's time to begin, isn't it? I get a little bit bigger but then, I'll admit, I'm just the same as I was. Now don't you understand that I'm never changing who I am.

What did you talk about this week?

Top Ten Tuesday | My Bookish Resolutions

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

Happy New Year! This week's theme is 'Top Ten Resolutions We Have For 2016 (can be bookish, personal resolutions, "I resolve to finally read these 10 books, series I resolve to finish in 2016, etc.)', so today I thought I'd talk about some of my bookish resolutions for 2016.

I would like... To read more books than I buy: It's inevitable when you're a book lover, and particularly when you're a book blogger/vlogger, that you're going to buy a lot of books. If you see everyone talking about a book then you want it, and even if you don't... well, I don't need much persuading to buy a book! In 2015, though, I literally ran out of room, and though I read a lot of books (and in reality I'm pretty sure I did read more books than I bought) I'd like to try and work my way through more of the books on my TBR. Even though I'll still be getting my hands on shiny new releases...

I would like... To read more non-fiction: This won't be hard as I really fell in love with non-fiction in 2015, and discovered I love it! As such I've bought quite a few non-fiction books, and I'd like to get to them in 2016. In particular, I'd like to read Jen Campbell's The Bookshop Book, Alison Weir's Mary Boleyn and Kate Bernheimer's Mirror, Mirror On the Wall: Women Writers Explore Their Favorite Fairy Tales.

I would like... To finish more series: This is something I completely failed at in 2015 (though I did finish The Lunar Chronicles!), so whether I've already started them or I started them in 2016, I'd like to finish more series than I finished in 2015.

I would like... To read more classics: This was something I managed in 2015, but there are still lots of classics I have yet to read. Luckily for me I'm taking part in The Classics Club's Women's Classic Literature Event, so I'm hoping to read plenty! I'd particularly like to read Anne Brontë's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar and Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South.

I would like... To write a book!: I'm a bad writer I let insecurity and downright laziness get in the way of my creativity, and though I say it every year I want 2016 to be the year I break through that wall and write a damn book. I also just want to generally write more, because though 2015 was a fantastic reading year it wasn't a great writing year.

I would like... To join or start a book club: There are plenty of online book clubs, and I'm sure a lot of them are brilliant, but I love 'real life' book clubs. I'm hoping a friend of mine in Swansea will restart the book club she started last year because I really enjoyed it - if not, I may try starting my own!

I would like... To have a bookish clearout: I have a lot of books. Some of them I've read and didn't like, some of them I've read and enjoyed but probably wouldn't ever read again, and some of them I haven't read and probably never will. I want to be brutally honest and send those books off to better homes, leaving myself with the books I really want to own - and a little more space!

I would like... To buy from more independent bookshops: Speaking of buying books, I know for a fact that I own so many because online shopping is my downfall. In 2016 I'd like to support more independent bookshops, especially as I bought a stunning book from Rossiter Books, one of my favourite independent bookshops, in Monmouth, which is a beautiful little shop.

Anna Maxwell Martin as Elizabeth Darcy (née Bennet) and Matthew Rhys as Fitzwilliam Darcy in Death Comes to Pemberley

I would like... To visit more literary places: I'm pretty lucky in that so many famous authors are British, and as I'm also British I have quite easy access to a lot of literary places. Despite that, though, I haven't been to as many as I'd like. I've been to Stratford and I've been to Bath - I've been to Haworth, home of the Brontës, a couple of times, too - but in 2016 I'd like to visit more literary places, whether they're places where authors lived or places where adaptations have been filmed. One of my friends is a butler at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, which has been used as Pemberley twice; one in the 2005 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, and again in the 2013 adaptation of Death Comes to Pemberley. I'll definitely be going there this year!

I would like... To find a new bookish job: If you've been following my blog for a little while, you'll know that last year I worked at the independent publishing house, Seren Books. Sadly my position was a temporary position for a year, so I need a new job! I actually started a new temporary position yesterday at the University of Wales Press, an academic publishing house, but I'd like to find a position that doesn't have an end date to give myself a little more stability. I'm hoping to secure a job as an Editorial Assistant somewhere!

What are your resolutions?

Film Recommendations for Austen Fans

Considering I'm not a huge lover of Austen, though I will begrudgingly admit that she's starting to grow on me, it might surprise people how often she gets mentioned on my blog; when you do a degree in English Literature she's literally impossible to pass by!

Though I'm not the biggest fan of the way Austen's books are written I do enjoy watching adaptations of her stories - they are good stories, they wouldn't still be everywhere if they weren't - and today I'd thought I'd recommend a few films that aren't adaptations of the original texts, but are still films I think any Austen fan would enjoy. I have three modern films, set in the '90s and onwards, and three period films to share with you.

I guess this is a pretty obvious one, but I love Bridget Jones's Diary so I couldn't not mention it. I still haven't read the book but I always enjoy the film, and particularly love watching it around New Year. If we're going to be technical we could argue that this is an adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, in the sense that it's a modern day adaptation, but I'm still going to count it anyway. If you're after a fun film with a bad first impression and a happy ending, much like Pride and Prejudice, then you'll love this!

This is another modern day adaptation, so I'll get this one out the way with before we get onto the more obscure choices. If you're a fan of stories with semi-unlikeable protagonists who are ultimately good at heart, like Emma, you'll like this film - it's also a great film if you happen to be a lover of films like Mean Girls and 10 Things I Hate About You. If you're a huge Austen fan, however, I imagine you've already watched Clueless and Bridget Jones's Diary!

This is probably the most obscure recommendation on my list, but I think it works! Of the Austens I've read so far (I say 'read', but I've only really read two of them all the way through and others I read bits of for university) Sense and Sensibility is definitely my least favourite. I just don't find the story all that interesting, and I really hate the ending; in my opinion Elinor and Marianne both deserved better, particularly Marianne. A Royal Affair is based on a true story, of the affair between Caroline Matilda of Great Britain (sister of George III) and her husband's personal physician Johann Friedrich Struensee. Caroline was married off to Christian VII of Denmark who struggled with mental illness throughout his life, back in a time when mental illness was understood even less than it is now. Caroline and Johann's story is heartbreaking and this film is so beautiful. To me A Royal Affair has that same gloomy quality that Sense and Sensibility does; they're both fitting stories if you've just been through a break-up and you need a good cry.

Fun fact: Mansfield Park is the only one of Austen's novels in which slavery is mentioned. I guess that's not exactly a fun fact, but it's interesting, right? Mansfield Park is also one of the two Austen novels, alongside Emma, that I haven't read at all, though I admit it's also one of the ones I'm most curious about because I hear it talked about so little. Belle is another period drama based on a true story, on the life of Dido Elizabeth Belle. Dido was the mixed race daughter of Maria Belle, an enslaved African woman in the West Indies, and Sir John Lindsay, a British naval officer. When Lindsay returned to Britain he took Dido with him and entrusted her to the care of his childless uncle, Lord Mansfield, and his wife. The two of them raised Dido as a lady, alongside their orphaned niece Lady Elizabeth Murray. Mansfield was Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, and during his time in this role he brought about the formal end of slavery in Britain. In his will Mansfield confirmed Dido's freedom (as she had been born into slavery) and made her an heiress. Pretty impressive. This is a brilliant film, and both Dido and Fanny Price have quite a bit in common as they are both sent to live with wealthier relatives and both struggle to find their place in the world.

Letters to Juliet is cheesy and predictable and, at times, pretty naff, but like Bridget Jones's Diary and Clueless, it's fun. If you're in the mood to watch something you don't really have to think about, something you want to sit back and enjoy with a glass of wine and a bar of chocolate, then this is the film for you. If you're a fan of stories about second chances, about lovers who didn't get it right the first time and want to try again, like Persuasion, then I recommend watching this film. Plus it's set in Italy, and Italy's beautiful!

Finally, we have my favourite Austen: Northanger Abbey. I love Guillermo del Toro's work - I think Pan's Labyrinth is fantastic, and I love others films he's been involved in such as the Hellboy films and Mama - and Crimson Peak is right up my alley. I love Gothic stories, love love love them, and stories about women who move to creepy new houses are right up my alley; the synopsis of this film reminds me of The Miniaturist, actually! I think the story of a young girl who moves to a spooky house inhabited by a mysterious family seems like the perfect film for any Northanger Abbey fan!

Have you seen any of these films? Are there any others you'd recommend?

Sci-Fi Month | Do the Undead Breathe New Life into our Classics?

Sci-Fi Month is hosted by Rinn @ Rinn Reads, and this year I'm participating!

Retellings aren't new. We've been retelling stories for centuries - every country seems to have a different ending to some of the world's most famous fairy tales, like Little Red Cap - and it's only in recent years that retellings have taken the publishing world by storm, from Fables to The Lunar Chronicles.

Of course, fairy tales aren't the only stories to find themselves being given a fresh lick of paint; our classics keep getting retold, too, and Jane Austen's work is no stranger to these reworkings. Persuasion has been reimagined in outer space in Diana Peterfreund's For Darkness Shows the Stars, and Jo Baker has told Pride and Prejudice from the point of view of the servants in her most recent novel, Longbourn.

In 2009, Seth Grahame-Smith released his own reworking of the story in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and next year it will be hitting the big screen with Lily James of Downton Abbey and Cinderella fame in the starring role.

Grahame-Smith isn't the only author to have added one of our most gory supernatural creatures to a classic. Only a year later, in 2010, Isaac Marion's Warm Bodies was published; a zombie story heavily influenced by William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. This, too, was adapted, in 2013.

Here we have two of the most famous love stories in the history of literature, both with added zombies. But why?

I suppose the first thing we should consider is this: Are these stories actually retellings or not?

Not only does Pride and Prejudice and Zombies still have the original title in the title, but it's even credited as being written by Seth Grahame-Smith and Jane Austen. It's almost as though Grahame-Smith is using Austen's name to imply that she'd totally approve of what he's done with her characters (and hey, she might!), and perhaps that's what's most important here - has Grahame-Smith written a retelling, or has he simply borrowed Austen's characters to write a bizarre piece of fanfiction? Jane Austen Zombie AU.

Usually, retellings add a little something to the original tale. For example, at first glance Marissa Meyer's Cinder might not have anything to do with the original fairy tale, but she's managed to do a lot with her series; she's included so much diversity, from people of colour to amputees, and she's managed to give her Cinderella a little more agency than the original. People are reading fairy tales differently all the time, and I quite like the argument that Cinderella isn't as weak as we might first think because, by going to the ball, she does go after the Prince for herself, but Cinder is so much easier for us to relate to. We can accept how Cinderella might have ended up her stepmother's servant in the original tale, but in a retelling we need a little more proof that a person could ever be treated in such a way, and by making Cinder a cyborg, and therefore a second-class citizen, Meyer does just that.

But what do zombies add to the original Pride and Prejudice tale?

In Longbourn, Jo Baker reminds us that the Bennet family had servants, and those servants had dreams and fears of their own. It's easy to forget that servants are present throughout all six of Austen's novels - Darcy's horse won't saddle itself, and we can be certain Emma never has to worry about her laundry - and by giving them a story Baker reminds us of the historical context of Austen's stories.

Director Gurinder Chadha, most famous for Bend It Like Beckham (starring a young Keira Knightley who, funnily enough, played Elizabeth Bennet in 2005), gave Pride and Prejudice a Bollywood-style makeover in her 2004 film, Bride and Prejudice. Showing the similarities between British high society in Austen's day and Indian culture helps us to fully understand and appreciate just how vital a good marriage is to the Bennet sisters, and also adds some racial diversity to Austen's white, upper class tale.

And zombies... eh?

Similarly, is Warm Bodies really a retelling? At least Pride and Prejudice and Zombies keeps the original characters (to an extent), but the characters in Warm Bodies aren't even called Romeo and Juliet - not that R and Julie are all that far away.

To me, though, Warm Bodies gives a little more life to Romeo by making him a member of the undead. Juliet is a fascinating character. In the original play she has some amazing, violent monologues - in fact Romeo's more of a romantic than she is. Even when she's thinking fondly of Romeo, Juliet thinks of cutting 'him out into little stars and he shall make the face of heaven so fine that all the world will be in love with night and pay no worship to the garish sun.' She's definitely much more interesting than Romeo is.

Julie in Warm Bodies is just as interesting, but R is an equally intriguing character. How often do we get zombie stories from the point of view of the zombies? Throughout the story there are little tributes to the play; there's the famous balcony scene, and Julie's best friend, Nora, wants to be a nurse. Plus the whole idea of Julie literally bringing R back to life is a clever little tip of the hat to Romeo, who is certain he's never going to get over Rosaline until he sets his eyes on Juliet.

With all that in mind, perhaps Warm Bodies is more of a homage to Romeo and Juliet than a retelling of it.

Most importantly of all, does any of this matter? Does it really matter whether or not I think these stories are retellings or not? After all, perhaps by introducing the undead to these narratives they've, ironically, been brought to life for people who might never have gone anywhere near the original stories. Of course, that still doesn't mean they are going to go anywhere near the originals - how many people, upon finishing Warm Bodies, decided to go and read Romeo and Juliet? Probably not that many. How many Austen fans enjoyed Pride and Prejudice and Zombies? Again, I don't think that many Austen lovers did, whereas people who weren't already lovers of Austen's work thought it was clever.

So whose opinion is more valid? Do we rely on the feedback of the book purists, or do we ignore them in favour of this new audience because, let's face it, the new audience is one of the big reasons for retelling such a famous story in the first place?

Personally, I think Warm Bodies is quite a clever reworking of probably the most famous love story of all time. Even people who've never gone anywhere near Shakespeare can quote from Romeo and Juliet, which just goes to show how influential the text is. I've always read Romeo and Juliet as a story about what hate can do rather than a love story; this family's feud, so old they can't even remember how it started, brings about the death of several young people, including their own children.

Adding zombies to such an iconic story might sound ridiculous at first - though I'm sure plenty of people told Baz Luhrmann that setting the story in '90s America would be a mistake at first - but stories continually change depending on their context. At the start of Sci-Fi Month I mentioned how one of the things I love about sci-fi is how we can see how a society's feeling depending on the way it writes its sci-fi; over the past thirty years we've gone from writing about hoverboards to post-apocalyptic wastelands. We currently live in a time where young people are looking at the future and finding it to be bleaker than they'd like, and our sci-fi reflects that. Warm Bodies is Romeo and Juliet for today's audience. It's bleak, and yet it's also so incredibly hopeful. In some ways it does the complete opposite of the original text by starting out hopeless and working its way towards a brighter future.

Pride and Prejudice, on the other hand, doesn't need that reworking. At least not in my opinion. What bothers me about Pride and Prejudice and Zombies - as much as I think it's a fun idea, and, ultimately, I do think it's only meant to be a bit of fun - is that it's trying to give us a 'kick-ass' Elizabeth Bennet. The only problem? Elizabeth Bennet's already kick-ass. I fear that Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is going to fall into the trap of suggesting women can only be brilliant heroines when they're also capable of punching your lights out.

Now for all I know this isn't the case at all. I haven't read the book and the film isn't out yet - and I must admit, I do love that brief scene in the trailer of the Bennet sisters hiding daggers beneath their skirts - but it does feel as though Grahame-Smith has tried to update Pride and Prejudice when it doesn't really need updating. Elizabeth and her sisters - and Charlotte Lucas, too - are still perfectly relatable characters. Do we wish Elizabeth would give George Wickham a huge wedgie? Yes, of course, but just because she doesn't do that doesn't make her a character in need of updating.

Warm Bodies works because Romeo's a bit of a sap, he seems to exist just so Juliet can fall in love with him; Juliet's journey is less about true love and more about escaping from a home she hates, with a mother she's not particularly close to and a father who's willing to marry her off to a man she hasn't chosen herself. Romeo could have been anyone, but if you're going to run away from home and elope so that no man of your father's choosing will ever want you, you might as well make it to a man who thinks the sun shines out of your backside. But we don't need to add zombies to Austen to make her sexual and marital politics interesting, because they already are; by the end of the novel (I'm not going to class this as a spoiler because, well, Pride and Prejudice has been around for, like, 200 years) Elizabeth, Jane, Charlotte and Lydia are all married, and all under completely different circumstances. With each marriage Austen tells us something different, and I'm really struggling to see what zombies can do for it.

I do think Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is fun and I'm looking forward to seeing it - I know I probably come across as such a grumpy old lady in this post - but as an English graduate I just can't help thinking critically about reworkings like these.

What do you think?