5 Epic Stories to Help You Escape the Winter Darkness
By: Sarah Thomas
Tags: Storytelling, Ideas, Books, History, Classics

Photo by Lola Guti on Unsplash

If you’re taking some time out from the real world this Christmas; whether voluntarily or not you may need a little slice of distraction.

And while stories aren’t just for Christmas, these tales may just make your festive period pass more gloriously.

Below are five stories that, between them will be available in hundreds of languages and various formats such as novel, audiobook, television adaptation or movie. They are epic tales that have the power to transport you away from the real world; at least for the duration of the story but ofttimes longer.

Stay safe, be kind and enjoy — if you digest any of the stories or if they are already favourites of yours I’d love to hear from you. The links below are not affiliate links.

Grave injustice, imprisonment, rescue and resurrection, smugglers caves and revenge. This novel is the most fun I’ve had reading as an adult. Dumas published the first part of Le Comte de Monte Cristo in a Parisian newspaper in 1884 during France’s inter revolution years.

The narrative follows Edmond Dantes. A young sea captain whose fortunes are coming together when three jealous associates plot to have him arrested on the count of treason — with Napolean on the loose this is an accusation that makes the government and law enforcers jumpy.

Dantes is locked up in jail; his freedom, wealth, impending captaincy, and great love Mercedes are all seized. Alone for years and bereft of hope that he will ever have liberty again, he unexpectedly meets his key to escape and great wealth and fortune.

Set in the bustling Mediterranean town of Marseille and the Island of Corsica the novel follows the transformation of Dantes from hopeless prisoner to the great Count of Monte Cristo and the revenge he takes on those who took away his life and love.

The sun had nearly reached the meridian, and his scorching rays fell full on the rocks, which seemed themselves sensible of the heat. Thousands of grasshoppers, hidden in the bushes, chirped with a monotonous and dull note; the leaves of the myrtle and olive trees waved and rustled in the wind.

With immense satisfaction we join the Count on his quest for justice and the universal question of the ability to avenge an injustice lingers on both of us.

Genre — Family, Adventure

Published in 1928 under the shadow of Stalin’s brutal economic and cultural reforms, The Twelve Chairs is the hilarious satirical adventure of a useless and entitled former aristocrat and his admirably skilled conman. They go on a quest to locate a set of chairs that hold a collection of diamonds sewn into them during the revolution.

This novel wasn’t subject to the same kind of censorship that plagued the contemporary writer Bulgakov, thankfully.

Despite his uselessness and buffoonery, you initially sympathise with the aristocrat Vorobyaninov, but this becomes tiresome. The star of the novel is the artful accomplice Ostap Bender who is a brilliant conman. Bender is singularly focused, swift-thinking, opportunistic, fast witted and endlessly optimistic. His companion moans, groans and consistently loses hope but Bender always picks them up again and finds another way to move forward. He is a problem solver.

This book is light and adventurous and had me laughing aloud at times and smirking all the way through.

The two men go on a journey through Russia to pursue the chairs; occasionally sabotaged by Vorobyaninov’s lack of focus and imagination.

Like The Count of Monte Cristo, this is a fun and energetic read though there are moments of violence, so perhaps it’s not a family film.

Genre — Satire, Crime, Adventure.

This 2013 retelling of the classic Middle Eastern folk tales, One Thousand and One Nights is a fascinating read and the first book I thought of for my escapism collection. You may be familiar with the frame story of Shahrazad and her quest to survive her impending death sentence through compelling storytelling.

Lebanese author Hanah al-Shakyk brings another level of depth and allure to the stories with her retelling. Nineteen stories are all under the umbrella of Sharahrazad’s storytelling quest, often interconnected with characters from one story turning up in another. The final ending to her collection once more inverts the role of narrative storyteller.

One Thousand and One Nights worlds are rich and vivid; they traverse faraway lands, visit exotic marketplaces, and encounter merchants, Jinni’s, demons, kings, princes, and humble fishermen. Each encounter gives the reader a story; a unique perspective of their world.

My favourite story is currently the first one, The Fisherman and the Jinni; perhaps this was the origins for Aladdin, or maybe that’s another story of forgiveness and redemption. In this story, a poor fisherman hauls another load of rubbish in his last catch of the day. Wondering how he will feed his family, he opens the contents of an old chest and lets out a Jinni who has been imprisoned for centuries.

Using storytelling the two battle out themes of justice, redemption and forgiveness. I wrote another blog specifically about this collection of stories being the ultimate tales for now.

There’s another theme of hospitality that runs through the stories. Doors are always open to strangers and tables laden with food. If you’re craving a Christmas feast this year, the vivid dinner tables of the stories may offer that additional comfort.

Genre — Classic, adventure

Adaptations of The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives have flowed in the ten years since publication; theatre plays, radio plays, and now Netflix has announced a television series based on the novel.

Bolanle, the merchant Baba Segi’s young fourth wife, is an outsider in her husband’s polygamous household. We first meet Baba Segi, anxious and on his way to Ayikara to seek advice on why he has not been able to make his new wife pregnant.

In Ayikara, it is so hot that the “men’s ears are curling” and in the shack of the Teacher, we are introduced to the ever-present orchestra of different voices. Why, Baba Segi mulls, when his household is bursting with the children of his three other wives is he experiencing so much trouble with Bolanle?

In his household, this polyphony continues as the mystery unravels, and each wife has her own secret to convey. We see the events of Bolanle’s arrival through all of the women’s lens and even when we don’t sympathise with the plights to remove the young wife each woman offers us a piece of wisdom about the world and the gender politics that has guided them there.

Each chapter brings a new piece of the puzzle and brings the reader closer to the centre of the mystery.

“I knew it would resonate with just about anybody. Some of the themes that I explore in the novel are universal themes. Everybody feels jealousy and insecurity.”

Genre — contemporary, world fiction, mystery.

This is not an easy read. Like The Secret Lives of Bab Segai’s wives, it has multiple characters and perspectives running through it, but they often appear unannounced in the middle of another section.

Ken Kesey, author of the colossal hit One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest, wrote this in 1964, the same year of the famous bus tour captured energetically in Tom Woolf’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. We can imagine that his flow state wasn’t the one we hear about today; 8 hours of sleep and a high energy diet.

A wood-logging area in Oregon is the story’s setting The novel’s protagonist Hank Stamper battles against the town’s powers, the internal fractures within his family. Finally, he battles with the forces of nature as the river picks up ferocity as he battles to fill the order.

Each chapter commences with an inset story by an unknown narrator who knows the characters; sometimes, they are linked, other times not. The narrator of the inset stories gives a warm, campsite fire to the reading experience.

The direct address in the opening lines is my favourites. When I reread them, I’m in imminent danger of picking up the whole novel again.

Along the western slopes of the Oregon Coastal range…come look: the hysterical crashing of tributaries as they merge into the Wakonda Auga River.

There was an adaptation called Never Give An Inch with Paul Newman in 1971 who played a convincing Hank Stamper, but a ninety-minute film could never do justice to the novel’s epicness.

Genre — adventure