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Jane Austen, sea monsters, and Twilight comix: Enough already!!!

This Quillblogger will confess to finding the premise behind Pride and Prejudice and Zombies irresistible: take Jane Austen’s most famous novel (and one of the least likely books ever to be associated with zombies), and drop in scenes of the undead feasting on human flesh. Sadly, the final product, “co-written” by Austen and American humourist Seth Grahame-Smith, failed to live up to the promise of its high concept.

But, 600,000+ consumers can’t be wrong, and the small Philadelphia-based publisher Quirk Books is planning to follow the success of its first mash-up with two (alright, one-and-a-half) new titles in a similar vein. October will see the release of a “Deluxe Heirloom” hardback of P&P&Z, but before that, the company plans to bastardize rework another Austen classic. According to a press release from the publisher, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, which is to be released on Sept. 15 (the same day as the scheduled release of another piddling little title that’s sure to create little buzz) “expands the original text of Jane Austen’s beloved novel with all-new scenes of giant lobsters, rampaging octopi, two-headed sea serpents, swashbuckling pirates, and other seaworthy creatures.” The new volume, “co-written” with Ben H. Winters, will feature more new material than its predecessor: instead of a ratio of 85:15 Austen-to-new content, the new book’s ratio will be 60:40.

Quirk Books editor Jason Rekulak explains why the publisher decided to go with sea monsters over vampires in the new book:

A couple of publishers are crashing Jane Austen vampire novels that will no doubt capitalize on the success of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and there were certainly plenty of people who urged me to do the same. But I didn’t want to go out with the one-millionth vampire novel that’s going to be published this year. I know there are a lot of vampire fans, but the genre feels exhausted to me. Whereas Sea Monsters allowed us to draw inspiration from so many rich and diverse sources – most obviously Jules Verne novels and Celtic mythology, but also Jaws, Lost, Pirates of the Caribbean, even SpongeBob Squarepants! I think Pride and Prejudice and Zombies fans are counting on us to deliver something original, and I don’t think they will be disappointed.

One group that definitely doesn’t feel that the vampire genre is exhausted is Stephenie Meyer fans. And they have reason to get excited: Entertainment Weekly reports that there is a Twilight graphic novel on the way. This is no doubt going to sew controversy, since the characters’ appearances in the graphic novel are apparently not identical to either the descriptions in Meyer’s novels or the actors who portray them onscreen. Tina Jordan of EW writes:

What’s interesting to me is that it doesn’t look simply like an artist’s rendering of Kristen Stewart and Rob Pattinson. In fact, the characters seem to be an amalgam of Meyer’s literary imagination and the actors’ actual looks. The description of Edward from biology class: “His dazzling face was friendly; open, a slight smile on his flawless lips. But his eyes were cautious.” And Bella: “I was ivory-skinned … I had always been slender, but soft somehow, obviously not an athlete…”

The publication date is still undetermined, so in the meantime, fans can ponder this: Who would win in a fight, Harry Potter, Edward Cullen, or Jane Austen? The comments are open: have at it.

THIS POST CONTAINS MATERIAL THAT HAS BEEN CORRECTED: Quillblog underestimated the popularity of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which has over 600,000 copies in print, not the 60,000 that was originally stated.