Classics

[EDWARD C MORGAN]

Last week, a conversation that started with Twilight and ended with Dracula (the novel) with my best friend's 14-year-old daughter has created a little "journey" for the two of us to embark upon. Her father is in full support and grateful - she is a brilliant student who has not made less than a perfect score in about 4 years, so he is always looking to supplement her education and find ways to make her think and challenge her. (He and his wife are both teachers.)

We have determined that once a month or every six weeks (hopefully not too ambitious for her given her school and extracurricular schedule), we will read a "classic" novel and then explore how the original story has been distorted over time through various media (movies, television, comics, radio, etc), and how today's "popular thought" about the book varies from the actual book.

I have been asked by her father to take charge of this and keep her on it.

We're starting with the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, mainly because she has started reading it for a class. However, it might be a good one - everyone knows the legend of the headless horseman, so we'll see how much we "know" lines up with what Washington Irving actually wrote.

However, beyond that, I am looking for suggestions of classics that might surprise our "current, popular view" of the original story. I have a few in mind, but welcome suggestions.

[Campbell R. Glass]

War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells is another one.