Review Of 'Unforgettable Classic Stories' by Deepti Menon

This collection of short stories by Deepti Menon will take you back to your childhood days.

Classic stories are a timeless world of literature where you get to meet myriad famous authors and their unforgettable characters. But mostly, you will have to get each book separately by those authors to read through their effortless weaving of words. But Deepti Menon’s book ‘Unforgettable Classic Stories’, where she has brought out the classic tales in a more fluid language, easy for everyone to read and enjoy, without destroying the true essence of them.

The ambience, the diction, the dialogues, the appearance of the characters, storytelling and creating a way of bringing some of the renowned authors and their timeless classics under one roof is a great endeavour. I am sure, however, it might have taken a lot of time to discover how to make the text simpler and reader-friendly, keeping the souls of the original stories alive at the same time. I highly appreciate the author for her efforts, given that she is a writing prodigy and I have read a lot of her works; she is a master story weaver.

Talking about the stories, I loved the elements of suspense, mystery in them, the air of bourgeois society and their lifestyle; every detail has been taken great care of. You get to meet authors like O’Henry, Charles Dickens, and Washington Irving, to name a few, in this retelling. Some of the stories that have stayed with me even after having finished the book are- The Monkey’s Paw by W W Jacobs, this story has suspense, mystery and horror all in one place, and you wouldn’t guess the ending until you read the full story. The next one is ‘Rosemary for Remembrance’ by Henry Harland, a beautiful story of love, loss and its aftermath. Some more stories kept me glued to this book till the very end, and being a slow reader, I used to bask in the winter sun during the noontime and read this book almost every day, sometimes back.

I wish to thank the author for making my winter read so much fun and also introducing me to the timeless classic tales once again, after such a long time. I would recommend this book to everyone, it's an all-age appropriate and a must-read book.

Author & Editor: Deepti Menon

Deepti Menon has always loved the written word. She began to write at the age of 10 and was lucky enough to have travelled around the country, being an Army kid, and later an Army wife. Her experiences during those years helped hone her interest and her flair for writing. Meeting new people helped her to notice details and put them into her interesting characters. (In fact, her friends and family shy away from saying anything to her, for fear of seeing it in print the next time they open a magazine.

Her first book, 'Arms and the Woman', published by Rupa Publishers in 2002, took a light-hearted look at the life of an Army wife. This book was written mainly to reveal the warmth and camaraderie within the great institution.

A book of her poems, dealing with life, love and loss, titled 'Deeparadhana of Poems', was lovingly compiled by her mother, herself a talented writer. ‘Shadow in the Mirror’, a psychological thriller published by Readomania in 2016, was well received by her readers. After that, she brought out two more anthologies of thriller short stories titled ‘Where Shadows Follow’ (2020) and ‘Shadows Never Lie’ (2021). Together the three books are now known as the Shadow Trilogy.

Deepti’s latest book titled ‘Defying Destiny’ is exceptionally close to her heart. It is a labour of love as she tells her mother’s tale, in her own words and in her mother’s. It has been highly satisfying to unveil the mystique of the ‘Sthri’ behind Hari Sri, the school this intrepid 85-year-old lady founded in 1978.

2023 was a year when two of her books were published – ‘Classic Tales from Shakespeare’ (Readomania) and ‘The Dance and the Trance’ (H&C Publishing). January 1^st, 2024, started the new year off with a bang as Deepti’s fourth book in the #shadowseries titled ‘The Web of Shadows’ was published, again by Readomania.

‘Unforgettable Classic Stories – A Timeless Anthology’, published in September 2025 by Readomania is Deepti’s eleventh solo book.

 Review by Chief Editor & Director Monalisa Joshi ( Chrysanthemum Chronicles)