A Rom-Com by Any Other Name: Why Classic Lit Adaptations Just Hit Harder 📜 (+ Giveaway!)

With Anyone But You recently declared the highest grossing live-action Shakespeare adaptation, it got us thinking about the classic-literature-to-romantic-comedy pipeline and the plethora of truly iconic hits that have emerged from it: 10 Things I Hate About You (The Taming of the Shrew), She’s the Man (Twelfth Night), Clueless (Emma), Bridget Jones’ Diary (Pride & Prejudice), to name a few.

This week, we even added our own adaptation to the canon, Influence. It’s Jane Austen’s Persuasion for the modern girlie. The tea is spilled when Sabine Eliot, influencer and aspiring actress, is invited to the celebrity wedding of the decade but instead finds herself riding the coattails of Wyatt Wolfe, total-nobody-come-superstar, and also her long lost ex.

We asked some Meet Cuties why these types of adaptations have such a cultural hold on us.

Influence series writer Kristina Libby explains: “A great story that touches at a core emotional truth is one that resonates for centuries. When we adapt classic literature to a modern age, we’re not changing the feelings that the characters are struggling with… Feelings aren’t confined to moments in history; they are omnipresent and unchanged. They are speaking truth and shining light on our most complicated feelings in a way that endures through time.”

“Modern adaptations offer a beautiful blend of nostalgia, relatability, and creative reinvention,” says TikToker and rom-connoisseur JustMeJas. “The fact that they are so widely appreciated is a testament to why we deem these stories ‘classic’ in the first place.”

Romance author Becky Chalsen describes how regardless of language or time period, we’re all wired to feel the same universal emotions. “When writing my own novels, Kismet and Serendipity, I knew that I wanted to showcase characters reading the classics as a subtle nod to how we use these texts to be in conversation with the past while unpacking our own present. Romance remains timeless, hope and heartbreak are translatable, and there is so much humanity in the homage.”

To continue celebrating the timelessness of romance tropes, we’ve partnered with BookSparks on giveaway of a Meet Cute hat, a stack of BookSparks approved rom-com novels, and a tote bag to hold them all! Enter here for a chance to win.