Surely the most unexpected success in the literary world this year has been Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith, a campy mashup pitting Jane Austen's Bennet sisters against legions of the undead. Since its publication in April, P&P&Z has sold more than 600,000 copies, inspiring a number of other zombified takes on classic literature. Now comes word that the publisher of P&P&Z, Quirk Books, is cashing in on the trend with a new title, Sense and Sensibility and (wait for it) Sea Monsters.
Publishers Weekly reports:
The idea to blend aquatic baddies with Austen's romance seemed, according to editor Jason Rekulak, an ideal way to refresh the mashup craze Quirk started. (In the Quirk update, the Dashwood sisters, evicted from their childhood home by their conniving stepmother, land on a mysterious island full of man-eating sea creatures, instead of a nearby, downgraded, English cottage.)
With other publishers crashing Jane Austen vampire novels, Rekulak explained that he didn't want Quirk to publish "the one-millionth" entry in that trend. Using sea monsters allowed him and author Ben H. Winters, to "draw inspiration" from a wide range of cultural sources, both high and low. To that end, Rekulak said they looked to everything from Jules Verne novels to Lost to Jaws to Spongebob Squarepants.
Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters will be published on September 15. To whet your appetite, here is a movie-style trailer (who knew books had trailers these days?):
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