I was having a conversation this past weekend with a few friends, and the topic of re-reading books that we loved when we were younger came up.  One of my friends made the statement that, as she is now older, the books she loved seemed goofy, or poorly written, or downright unreadable…”like Jane Eyre and Gone with the Wind.” 
What??  I couldn’t believe my ears.  How could Jane Eyre be goofy, or GWTW be unreadable?  Impossible.  I’m going to have to re-read these classics, and get back to you on those two particular titles.  But, I have to say that being snowed in did allow me to re-read a few other books that I had read years ago, and loved.
First, I read Bram Stoker’s Dracula again.  There is a vampire craze going on right now (you may have noticed this too) and I felt a need to go back to the source, as it were.  I can remember reading Dracula as a teenager, and feeling unsettled by the story.  Happily, it’s still a spooky, unsettling story.  What I didn’t recall was that it’s written in the form of journal entries, letters and telegrams between the major characters.  Jonathan Harker travels to meet with his client, Count Dracula.  During his stay, he records his experiences in his journal; he notices that Dracula never sits down to dinner with him, and that he never sees his host in the daytime.  Little things like that.  He finally realizes he is a prisoner in Dracula’s castle, and barely escapes with his life, and his neck.  The story continues in England, from the viewpoint of his wife, her best friend, and other companions who are determined to hunt down the vampire and kill him.  I loved re-reading this so much that I talked my daughter into reading it as well.  She was amazed at how “modern” the book seemed.  She expects all classics to be dull and difficult to read, but she was pleasantly surprised with Dracula.
My next re-read was the novel “The King Must Die” by Mary Renault.  This was written in the late 50’s, and tells the story of the Greek hero Theseus.  Renault begins with the premise that Theseus was once a real man, and then tells his story, explaining how all the legends and myths of his deeds may have actually occurred. She bases her novel on archaeological information about Crete and the Minoans, and does a wonderful job of bringing both the time period, and Theseus, to life.  If your Greek mythology is a little rusty, Theseus is the son of the King of Athens, Aigeus.  Each year, Athens must send 14 young people to Crete, to be given in sacrifice to the Minotaur.  Theseus goes into the Labyrinth with a ball of string so he may kill the Minotaur and find his way back out.  It’s a wonderful story, and I enjoyed this one just as much as I did when I first read it many years ago.  In fact, I’m hoping for another snow storm, for Renault wrote a sequel, “The Bull from the Sea.”
So far, my experience in re-reading old, well-loved novels has been a pleasant one.  I think I might have to try Jane Eyre soon, just to see if I still get pulled into Jane’s story.  I’ll keep you posted.