I am not Diogenes I just got his barrel when he died

This, in turn, got me thinking about What Moves The Dead by T. Kingfisher, which was perfectly adequate as a retelling of The Fall of The House of Usher, but didn't necessarily reinvent the story in any interesting way (or maybe I'm just biased, because I love mycological horror–but this book had such a boring take on it).

And I have to ask, which one do you guys think is worse: a retelling that totally distorts the point of the original text (for example, the recent surge of P&P retellings which reduce Elizabeth and Darcy to grumpy asshole billionaire x sunshine feminist girl next door), or a retelling which understands and appreciates the spirit of its parent text but really does nothing special with its own narrative as a reinterpretation?

Note: this pertains to book retellings only, and not to TV and cinema. Also note, adaptation from one format to another =/ retelling.

Last updated 12/23/24

It would be quite selfish of me to keep these to myself, wouldn't it? This list will be updated frequently, in accordance to what I have found. These were found while doing my own research for various topics, and taken from the bibliographies of many books. Some of these I will have cited in posts of mine, many others will not appear anywhere in my work. Mostly primary sources, but quite a few books make their appearance.

Sorted alphabetically by surname of author

I miss Dracula so heres a silly drawing of it as a muppet movie XD

First poll.

holy shit.

the last few lines when they both say “look ‘im in the eye, aim no higher / summon on the courage you require!” 

Edward Gorey - Dracula "Grand Curtain"