From Android Karenina to Huckleberry Fang
Posted by: Keir Graff
And to think it all started with a plucky little mash-up called Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. In her review, Mary Ellen Quinn asked, with tongue firmly in cheek, “What’s next? Wuthering Heights and Werewolves?” Not a bad guess, but the next offering was actually Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. Since the public’s appetite for good manners and bad horror seems limitless — or, at least, the folks at Quirk Classics are hoping that it is – this week Quirk announced the third title: Android Karenina (“Tolstoy Will Do the Robot in the Next Quirk Classic,” Shelf Life).
Let’s assume this trend has legs — legs as long as King Kong’s. If so, Quirk is going to need titles, and lots of them. And titles are the tough part — authors are a dime a dozen. So, as a helpful service, Booklist would like to offer the following contenders. This list includes suggestions from myself, Gillian Engberg, Ilene Cooper, Brad Hooper, Ray Olson, Mary Frances Wilkens, and Donna Seaman.
The Adventures of Tom Slayer
Are You There God? It’s Me, Man-Eating Martian (“this one speaks for itself”)
The Bled Pony
The Brothers Kalashnikov
A Connecticut Yankee in the Lair of the Abominable Snowman
Dandelion Slime
Dr. Jekyll and Hannibal Lecter
Finnigan’s Werewolves
The Fire-Breathing Lizard of Oz
The Fountain Bled
The Ghouls of Wrath
The Goblin Notebook
Grave Expectations (“a Victorian coming-of-age story set among the undead”)
The Heart Is a Lonely Vampire Hunter
The House of Seven Giants
Huckleberry Fang (“an abolitionist vampire joins Huck and Jim on their journey”)
Little Werewolves
Lonesome Werewolf
Long Day’s Journey into Fright
The Man Who Would Be King Kong
The Merchant of Menace
Our Eyes Were Watching Godzilla
Our Mutual Fiend
Portrait of a Lady Undertaker
Prawns and Prejudice (“a romantic comedy of errors set in a colony of giant mutant shrimp”)
Pride and Predator
They Stake Vampires, Don’t They?
To Kill a Monster Bird
Ulysses and U-Boats
Vampire Fair
Vampires Come for the Archbishop
War and Pieces of Gore
Zombies’ Things Fall Apart
Have a funny one? Share it with us!
January 18th, 2010 at 4:01 pm
One that occurred to me is King Kong Lear. I really hope this publishing trend dies soon or, failing that, that people simply stop talking about it.
January 18th, 2010 at 4:08 pm
I guess we’re not doing much to help, are we? But sometimes you have to laugh so you don’t cry….
January 20th, 2010 at 2:46 pm
Wait a minute – you mean there aren’t any werewolves in “Wuthering Heights?”
January 20th, 2010 at 2:59 pm
Another take on the Twain classic: A Connecticut Yankee and King Arthur’s Corpse, in which a sturdy New Englander takes on a horde of Medieval zombies.
January 20th, 2010 at 3:14 pm
Not yet, there aren’t. But there’s still time, apparently!
January 20th, 2010 at 4:16 pm
Ghoul with a pearl earring.
January 20th, 2010 at 4:21 pm
“Farewell to Arms and Legs” Zombies in times of love and war.
“Romeo and Julie et Falstaff” A story of cannibalistic gluttony.
January 23rd, 2010 at 10:03 am
Authors are a dime a dozen? Not if you do the book justice. My book, LITTLE WOMEN AND WEREWOLVES is being published by Del Rey and will be out May 4th. This was the toughest novel I have ever worked on, because I wanted to be true to Alcott’s plot, characterization, and themes. I took on the project after discovering she actually wanted to write lurid tales, so thought she would approve of this mash-up. I wanted to write it the way she would have if her Victorian editors would have allowed her to add werewolves to her novels. This book is a true work of literature, completed after much study, thought and sweat.
January 23rd, 2010 at 10:04 am
Authors are a dime a dozen? Not if you do the book justice. My book, LITTLE WOMEN AND WEREWOLVES is being published by Del Rey and will be out May 4th. This was the toughest novel I have ever worked on, because I wanted to be true to Alcott’s plot, characterization, and themes. I took on the project after discovering she actually wanted to write lurid tales, so thought she would approve of this mash-up. I wanted to write it the way she would have if her Victorian editors would have allowed her to add werewolves to her novels. This book is a true work of literature, completed after much study, thought and sweat.
You guys came up with some terrific titles, but, believe me, that’s the easy part.
January 26th, 2010 at 10:45 am
Congratulations on your upcoming publication, Porter. I hope your reading of Alcott is as keen and nuanced as your reading of this blog post.
January 27th, 2010 at 2:35 pm
Tess of the Dhampirs, anyone? These are hilarious, but I can see this quickly venturing into overkill territory, so to speak.
January 29th, 2010 at 1:06 pm
Little Vampire Women is also being published (May, Random House) as is Queen Victoria, Demon Hunter (Eos) and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (Hachette) and Pinocchio: Vampire Slayer (Slave labor Graphics).
February 10th, 2010 at 5:12 pm
[...] around the new Dante’s Inferno video game — maybe I’m worn out from thinking of new titles for Quirk Classics, or maybe it just seems like the classic lit/video game jokes write themselves. (I love [...]
February 11th, 2010 at 4:45 pm
Pride and Predator is in the works.