By Rob Bricken in
Miscellaneous
Friday, Oct. 2 2009 @ 11:36AM
I loved Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I haven't read Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters yet, but I've heard it's also very good in a unique way from P&P&Z. Both of those books were released by Quirk Classics, who seem to know how to do the conceit right -- but now Del Rey has thrown their desire-to-make-money-off-a-hot-literary-trend hat into the ring (so to speak) and announced Little Women and Werewolves, and I'm starting to get a bad feeling about this.
Look, maybe it'll be fine. But I don't know that Del Rey knows how to do these mash-ups right. They're clearly just trying to cash in on the trend, and that doesn't make me hopeful for the book's quality. Admittedly, certainly S&S&SM was a cash-grab as well, but again, it was done in its own unique way to stand apart from P&P&Z, and thus I'll continue to give Quirk the benefit of the doubt on these things
Admittedly, I think Little Women is a perfect candidate for a monster mash, but frankly, it would have been much more awesome had the girls been the werewolves themselves. Right? Who wouldn't prefer to read about Jo tearing apart the Hummel family like fresh bread?
24 comments
Comments
Church said:
Ugh. If P&P&Z was the high point of this genre, I'm already done with it.
Anonymous said:
Id be more interested if these came out in a graphic novel format.
Barbecue17 said:
This is definitely becoming a popular trend (who knows for how long) and a few other smaller publishers have already joined in on the madness. Coscom Entertainment has released Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Zombie Jim by Mark Twain and W. Bill Czolgosz and The War of the Worlds plus Blood, Guts, and Zombies by H.G. Wells and Eric S. Brown.
While I assume this is only a bit of a fad, so far I have really enjoyed all of the zombified classics I have read. I'm sure this is partly based upon the strength of the original books, but also because it makes rereading a classic piece of literature exciting. The best one I have read so far has been Huck Finn and Zombie Jim. Having read the original a few times in the past, I really enjoyed some of the new themes and drama that is added to the book. Rather than just add in new zombie side plots, the author really does a nice job of bringing some new ideas to the table. I'm definitely up for a few more of these before I get tired of the trend.
THE PR0F3550R said:
Dumb. Maybe they should do The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in Hell. From Dusk till Dawn: The Don Quixote Edition. Maybe Uncle Remus versus Godzilla.
greywulf said:
What no love for Frankenstein's Monster Meets the Swiss Family Robinson?
Shame on you!
MattK said:
Maybe this mean there will be a "Twilight & Vampires".
Oh wait, you said "literature", not shitty masturbatory tripe. Sorry.
Bill said:
If we were in Japan, the new one would be "Little Women and the Rape Tentacles". LOL!
BLCrawshaw said:
Hey, I used P&P&Z for my British Lit class, and I even wrote a paper on it.
Matt Moylan said:
ALL great story ideas start with an alliterative title. There's simply no other way to do it.
phoenxiphire24 said:
I enjoy the Quirk Classic books a lot, but I'm not sure how I feel about another publisher just trying to cash in. Maybe it will be great, who knows? It would be hilarious if
SPOILERS!
Beth didn't die, but instead turned into a werewolf.
Katie said:
I DON'T CARE!
I WILL READ THIS BOOK A BILLION TIMES BECAUSE LITTLE WOMEN IS MY FAVORITE BOOK EVER IN THE ENTIRE WORLD!
=)
dacalicious said:
I said it last time: Once was clever & funny, modestly entertaining. To call it a genre & beat it into the ground? It is a reality show/remake world, it seems. Too many "content platforms," not enough ideas.
Guardian said:
I'm on S&S&SM right now.
I always hated it when they ruined classics in movies by writing different scripts or not killing the correct person or messing with the family dynamics by supplying an extra aunt or uncle (for just the fun of it).
But. These books by Quirk seem to be holding together the story by Jane Austen and just... dramatizing it a bit more, making it more interesting to read.
I hope these other books/publishers won't mess up the classical storylines just to add more 'spice' to the reading.
Bill Binder said:
What I love about Quirk is that they don't even bother to proofread their own books. The spelling and grammar come out of a second grade paper, which makes them all the more delightful.
Lt. said:
I can't wait for "The COunt of Monte Cristo and Also There's Some Ninjas," myself.
THE PR0F3550R said:
Good lord...the jokes on this nonsense can go on forever. How about "The Three Musketeers in Return of the Swashbuckling Jedi"?
KS said:
GODDAMMIT. Several months ago I tweeted "Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters? What's next? Little Women and Werewolves?" PLAGIARISM
lmno said:
what about the bible with zombies?
oh wait...
Your abbreviation for Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters had me thinking of Sense and Sensibility and S&M. I bet that's a real porn parody.
@lmno: If you're talking about when Ezekiel made the dry bones rise up(like in the song), while it was a ressurection of the dead to a more undead status, those were more skeleton warriors than zombies. Also, although Revelations has a bunch of oddness, I don't remember any zombies. It did have a freakish honed beast, though.
resurrection, my bad. Also, horned, not honed.
Bunnytime said:
@KS
Big ego there in thinking everyone and their grandma reads your twitter.
Asat said:
Now, now, let's not be hasty. This is a tough economy and I'm sure there are roomfuls of chimps at typewriters just aching for a chance to crap out some mass-market paperbacks. Can your conscience sleep soundly knowing that you sent those rooms full of chimps home with no bananas?
"Daddy, why are we so poor?" "Because the literary police finally said no to raping our artistic heritage, sweetie. Now climb in the oven and put this apple in your mouth."
jeff said:
My friend read P&P&Z and said it was interestin at first but theres no real reason for there to suddenly be zombies or ninjas in the story. And when the zombies are gone the characters go back to the main story like nothing ever happened
