Revisiting the Classics

How Rereading Can Refresh Your Mindset

I first read Pride and Prejudice sometime around the beginning of high school. For a romantic at heart — who also happens to like Brit lit — it was love at first read. Since then, I’ve reread and listened to Austen’s most-famous novel countless times. 

Sometimes, I’ll even admit that I just go to my favorite parts and reread my favorite scenes: Lizzie’s encounter with Mr. Darcy at Pemberley, the cringe-inducing interview with Lady Catherine (“Are the shades of Pemberley to be thus polluted?”), and that happy moment when Mr. Darcy realizes everything has changed. 

There are many reasons to reread old favorites in addition to comfort and nostalgia. Rereading helps strengthen your memory, deepen your critical thinking and more. Plus, most of us read classics as an assignment in high school and college — and rereading as an adult allows you to see the plot and its characters from a different place. Things that didn’t resonate deeply in your youth may hit a little differently when you’re older, a parent or navigating circumstances you never expected to come your way. 

All that said, here are a few classics we think are worth rereading this winter to refresh your mindset.

To Kill a Mockingbird 

Harper Lee’s masterpiece is a common requirement in high school English classics. Published in 1960, it’s a coming-of-age story set in the racially divided South. As a high school student, your focus was probably on Scout, Jem, and Dill, but as an adult, you may find yourself connecting more deeply with Atticus and Calpurnia. The racial injustice and division is stark and hard to stomach in this novel — and the message about racism is just as important now as it was then. 

Great Expectations

I vividly remember being assigned Great Expectations to read in high school — but I reread Charles Dickens’ classic novel a few years ago and realized that I had read most of it but not all. (I can only guess that in an era before the Internet held all of our collective thoughts, I realized I wasn’t going to finish by the time we had the test, so I turned to CliffsNotes.) This is also a coming-of-age title, explaining why it’s so often assigned in high school, and follows an orphan named Pip as he navigates Victorian England. It’s about love and ambition, social classes and growth, helping readers recognize that true worth isn’t found in social standing. In today’s world of influencers and our society’s addiction to likes, it’s a powerful thought to consider. 

The Secret Garden

I loved the Secret Garden as a kid. I read the book and watched various movie versions of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s classic. But sometimes, books that captured your heart as a child and live on in your memory — what you actually remember about them is how they made you feel, not the actual book. It’s interesting to reread childhood favorites as an adult to see if the novel recaptures the magic or if any characters or plotlines affect you differently. 

Things Fall Apart

I never would have read this Chinua Achebe novel if it hadn’t been listed on the syllabus in one of my freshmen or sophomore English classes in college. We read books from different regions and areas of the world as a way to open our eyes to different perspectives and ways of thinking. The book follows Okonkwo, a respected leader of the Igbo tribe in pre-colonial Nigeria, and delves into themes of tradition, colonialism, identity and change. I haven’t reread it as a book, but I remember it challenging me as a young woman — and a couple of years ago, I came across a copy at a book sale and bought it. So, there’s no reason not to pick it up!  

Rebecca

Daphne Du Maurier’s classic suspense novel, Rebecca, is a primer in atmospheric storytelling. The novel follows a nameless narrator (the young, newly minted second wife of Maxim De Winter) as she marries Maxim after a whirlwind romance in Monaco and returns to Manderley, his renowned English estate. Mrs. Danvers, who was deeply devoted to Rebecca, Maxim’s first wife who mysteriously drowned, keeps the house running — and seems equally devoted to ensuring the new Mrs. De Winter knows she’ll never live up to Rebecca’s memory. Rebecca simply seems like a gothic mystery, and then comes the moment when you realize the truth and understand what is really going on! It’s definitely worth a reread for psychological thriller fans — but also for Du Maurier’s lush descriptions and word pictures. The first line, “Last night, I dreamt of Manderley again,” is among the most famous in literature and adequately sets a dreamlike, haunting tone you won’t wake up from until you’ve finished the book. 

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