8 Best Shakespeare Retellings You Must Read

Can you imagine what William Shakespeare would write if he was a modern playwright? Well, you cannot but don’t worry. In this article we are going to read about the 8 best Shakespeare retellings you must read. These books blend science-fiction and modern theatre with Shakespearean classics. You need to grab a book to be the judge and I assure you, you would not put it back on the shelf with regrets.

If We Were Villains – M. L. Rio

Oliver Marks was behind bars and served ten years for a crime that he may have committed. Or, he may have not. In his days of release, he was greeted by detective Colborne, the man who put him in jail. He is retiring and before that detective wants to know the authentic story that happened decades ago. The story is about to get interesting as the Shakespearean play is not just about onstage, seven young actors managed to play it off stage as well. And, as we all know Shakespearean play has it all – drama, pain, hero, villain, and DEATH.

Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead – Tom Stoppard

What else do you need if you have popular Elizabethan writer William Shakespeare’s Hamlet where fate leads heroes towards a tragic end and the popular modern writer Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot where there is a fine blend of reality and illusion? This is a classic existential work published in 1994 but with Hamlet for the classic lovers.

Wyrd Sisters – Terry Pratchett

The Wyrd Sisters are fighting with the horrifying odds to place the rightful king on the throne or is it something that they just think? What brings the hype for me is the innuendo of Shakespeare’s work. Instead of the three bizarre-looking witches of Macbeth who brought nothing but a bad fate for Macbeth, the wyrd sisters are bringing fun and inside jokes for the readers.

Dream Country – Neil Gaiman

Dream Country is the third volume of Gaiman’s Sandman comic book series collection. This is a retelling of William Shakespeare’s one of the most popular books A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The art is illustrated by Kelley Jones, Colleen Doran, Malcolm Jones III, Charles Vess, and coloured by Steve Oliff and Robbie Busch and lettered by Todd Klein. It is preceded by The Doll’s House, the second collection of the series and followed by Season of Mists, which is the fourth collection.

These Violent Delights – Chloe Gong

1926 – Shanghai hums the tune of debauchery. The streets are red due to a cold-blooded war between two gangs and there is nothing but chaos in the city. The 18-year-old Juliette Cai is a former flapper and she has returned to assume her role as the heir of the Scarlet Gang. The opponents are the White Flowers who have been their enemy for generations. And, behind every move of the White Flowers is their heir Roma Montagov, Juliette’s first love. Come on, you know which classic it is but, what if these two gangs start working together?

William Shakespeare’s Star Wars – Ian Doescher

This book has all that is expected from a Star Wars book and also Shakespearean speech and I have to mention how hilarious some sections sound because of the use of Shakespearean language. You might hesitate to buy this book at first, but trust this is what you need. It is an extraordinary mixture of Shakespearean formal speech and the surreal imagery of Star Wars. Not to mention, you can understand the hard work of Ian Doescher after reading the series.

William Shakespeare’s The Empire Striketh Back – Ian Doescher

It is a very cunning idea to merge William Shakespeare with science fiction. You have everything that you expect from a Macbeth or Hamlet – fate, supernatural, catharsis, and contrast. And to escalate your hope from this book, Doescher offers soliloquies. Since, it is a blend of modern science fiction with several elements of classic literature, listening to audiobooks would make your experience more fruitful.

We Were Liars – E. Lockhart

This story follows an eminent family – a private island, a passionate and political boy and an amazing but damaged girl. It embroils four friends who justify the ‘Liars’ of the title and their friendship turns vicious. It has true love, secrets, revolution, an accident and some more lies. Either you will find this book extremely boring or you will bawl your eyes out even though you do not cry easily.

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