Pride and Prejudice and Zombies author Ben Winters’ re-imagining of another romantic classic will delight readers.
Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters places the characters from the classic novel on a remote island after falling into financial ruin.
Quirk Classics estimated that this novel has ‘60% Austen and 40% additional monster chaos.’ Winters said in a press release that he drew inspiration from mythology and Jules Verne, as well as contemporary classics such as Pirates of the Caribbean, Lost, Jaws and Spongebob Squarepants.’
‘Sea Monsters is strange and scary and definitely the silliest thing I’ve ever written--which, for those who know my career, is saying something,’ Winters said on his Amazon.com blog. ‘I had a ball writing this thing, as you can well imagine.’
Winters carefully satirizes Austen’s obsession with calling out 19th century British socialites, as well as her tendency to write about painfully boring characters.’
For example, Sense and Sensibility‘s main character, Elinor, is criticized by many of the original novel’s other characters for being too reserved around men.’
Winters runs with this by waxing on her love of whittling driftwood statuettes in his remake.’
Elinor’s sister Marianne is more romantically inclined. She falls in love with Colonel Brandon, a so-called man-monster who has numerous appendages coming out of his face.’
While Winters peppered every single one of Austen’s characters and long dissections of social situations with humorous quirks, the passages describing the rogue-like yet gentlemanly man-monster are the most entertaining.’
‘One sensed that to look him in the eye would be to catch a terrifying glimpse of all the terrors that lie, unknowable and unimaginable, beyond the world that we can see and feel,’ one passage reads. ‘Otherwise, he was very pleasant.’
Another passage details an argument that Marianne’s sister and mother have about the advantages of dating a man who must clothes-pin his face-tentacles to his ears.’
Yet another describes Marianne’s beau as having an ‘octo-face.’
While the endless gags about sex and sea monster tropes will amuse most readers, reviewing the original source material is encouraged.’
Winters’ fascination with vulgarity and eccentricity is best appreciated as an exorcism of memories of Austen’s rambling dissertations on dinner party drama.
Readers who are ready to enjoy a campy take on 19th-century literature can pick up Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters for $12.95 at most bookstores.
