ECONOMIST.COM
A new retelling of “The Snow Queen” is aimed squarely at adults
Far from “Frozen”
Mr. Darcy is a haughty neurosurgeon now.
Johnson said of “Paradise Lost” that “none ever wished it longer,” and the same could be said of both biographies. Martin’s diction would have made the lexicographer wince; after engaging in “bull-sessions,” Johnson goes “into hiding in a hideaway.” Meyers has a habit of quoting a source and immediately repeating it in his own words, like a bore who can’t tell a joke without explaining the punch line. But Martin offers a convincing psychological study, and Meyers a lively group portrait of Johnson’s friends. Johnson, who acknowledged that most writers “perceive no particular summons to composition except the sound of the clock,” would have been the first to understand why a tercentenary calls for two more retellings.
At his death Mr. Mitchell had just completed three works to be published next year: “Tell Me Lies: Poems 2005-2008” (Bloodaxe Books), the children’s collection “Umpteen Poems” (Orchard Books) and “Shapeshifters” (Frances Lincoln), a retelling of Ovid’s “Metamorphoses.” 變形記
tercentenary
n., pl. -ries.
A 300th anniversary or its celebration.
adj.
Of or relating to a span of 300 years or to a 300th anniversary.
Johnson, Samuel (1709–1784), English writer, lexicographer, and critic. Known as "Dr. Johnson," Samuel Johnson was one of the most complex and important figures of eighteenth-century culture. Renowned particularly for his personality, his contribution to eighteenth-century writing is important both for his scholarly knowledge and for his insight into humanity in its moral and social complexity.
retelling
n.
A new account or an adaptation of a story: a retelling of a Roman myth.
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