Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters

by Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters

(Philadelphia: Quick Books, 2009)

Trade Paperback, 344 Pages, Fiction

ISBN: 9781594744426, US$12.95

ABCD Rating: ACQUIRE

“‘Simply because a man is mauled by a hammerhead does not mean you must do everything he tells you to before he dies!’” (14)

From the Cover: From the publisher of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies comes a new tale of romance, heartbreak, and tentacled mayhem. Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters expands the original text of the beloved Jane Austen novel with all-new scenes of giant lobsters, rampaging octopi, two-headed sea serpents, and other biological monstrosities. As out story opens, the Dashwood sisters are evicted from their childhood home and sent to live on a mysterious island full of savage creatures and dark secrets. While sensible Elinor falls in love with Edward Ferrars, her romantic sister Marianne is courted by both the handsome Willoughby and the hideous man-monster Colonel Brandon. Can the Dashwood sisters triumph over meddlesome matriarchs and unscrupulous rogues to find true love? Or will they fall prey to the tentacles that are forever snapping at their heels? This masterful portrait of Regency England blends Jane Austen’s biting social commentary with ultraviolent depictions of sea monsters biting. It’s survival of the fittest and only the swiftest swimmers will find true love!

My Review: What can I honestly and truly say about this book? I mean, really? How does one even begin to describe, let alone write a review of a book like Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters? After reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies this past April, I was excited for Quirk Classics’ next release. Upon finding out that it would be this … I didn’t know what to think. I have never read Sense and Sensibility (though that will probably change now), but I was excited by the fact of Regency England being turned into a bad B-Movie from the 50s, which is what I expected to get; a kind of Sense and Sensibility meets 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea meets It Came from Beneath the Sea. Little did I know.

That was exactly what I got and a whole lot more. This is, easily, one of the best and most fun books that I have read this year. This book is a lot of fun. Say what you will about “defiling a classic piece of literature” or “cheapening a Jane Austen’s contribution to letters,” honestly … who cares? I am, personally, of a mind to say if it is a good idea … it is completely worth it. There are some “mash-ups” out there since Pride and Prejudice and Zombies that seem to be written only to cash in on the phenomenon and are not very well written or considered. What I like about Sea Monsters is that this is not necessarily a gratuitous addition of giant lobsters and flesh-dissolving jellyfish. There is something very calculated and deliberate about what Winters and Quirk have done here. I know that that might sound ridiculous to some of you out there, especially any Janeites in the audience, but it really is true. Quirk is on to something with these novels.

In Sea Monsters what Winters has done is nothing short of brilliant. It really is. I don’t mean to keep harping on that, but it really is something truly fun. And that is what is more important than anything else going in to this book, is that it is fun, pure and simple … nothing really more, nothing less, just fun. Sea Monsters is—pardon the phrase—the perfect beach book. It is mindless brainless fun, though that is not to say that there is nothing more here than just killer sea serpents, Jane Austen’s social commentary is still there, and in fact, I’d might even say that it is “enhanced” a little by the fact that Colonel Brandon (for example) is not just older, but part fish. It certainly can’t hurt, right? No. Not at all.

If you loved Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, or even just are a Jane Austen fan … or even if you aren’t … then Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters is the book for you.

Ben H. Winters talks about the process of writing S&S&SM HERE on Slate.com.