It was in the book club section (anyone who read my first blog shouldn't be surprised that I gravitated toward this section:-)) that I stumbled across it. It seemed innocent enough: a review of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. 'So? Wasn't that book written like 200 hundered years ago?' you may ask. But this edition was somewhat different. The full title read, 'Pride and Prejudice: The WILD AND WANTON Edition'.
Currently there is a fad for playing with the classics. Out of this fad came such titles as Pride and Prejudice and Zoombies, Sense and Sensibility and Seamonsters as well as Wuthuring Bites. Personally these novels make me feel sick. To me they seem like a last ditch attempt to get teenagers to read the classics by using the vampire/zoombie/whatever fad. I think that they are in extremly poor taste. As for the other books that use historical figures in the same way, such as Abraham Lincon: Vampire Hunter, Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter and Henry VIII: Wolfman don't even get me started....
But to this wild and wanton thing is a whole other level. Adding vampires and seamonsters to the classics seemly...well, silly. But adding sex just seems wrong. It really says something about socieity when you need to add sex to make people read a book. I guess the adage that sex sells is true. It's really sad, If you ask me.
The point could be made that this wild and wanton series (there is also a wild and wanton wuthuring heights) is written for modern audiences, it's giving these books a wider readership, times have changed. Well all I really have to say to that is that they are classics for a reason. People have loved them before they included vampires, zoombies or even sex. And I think people will contine to love then in the future, sans vampires.
I think we should be teaching future generations to appreciate the classics the way they are and leave the classics alone. They're already great!
What do you think?
VS 
VS 
6 comments:
i agree with you, why change something that isnt even broken?
theyre called classics for a reason.
they were perfection the way they were, dont change them!.
p.s i would like to know your thoughts on huckleberry finn? theyre changing it and censoring it. its sad really. to add salt to a wound, they are replacing the n word with SLAVE! like whaaaaaaatttt?
I agree. If I was the author of a classic novel, I would NEVER want someone to change the novel in some way 200 years from now. I think that it's disrespectful to the author and even to the story itself. Why can't people enjoy the stories the way that they were supposed to be enjoyed?
Sorry Heather, I havn't read Huckelberry Finn but I definitly think that censoring it is wrong! Yes certain words might have been used that offensive today, but we have to remember Huck Finn wasn't written today! They come from a different time with a different set of rules.How is slave better?!
Plus books are art and shouldn't be censored!
I am angered beyond belief! who does this woman think she is messing with my two favorite novels. She obviously cannnot write an original novel herself and has thus decided that something that belongs in a lit firplace should be published. Shame on the publishers of such sortid pieces of fiction!
Oh I HATE when people do that. Some may not understand how changing books is a big deal, so putting it in other terms would be song remakes, or changing older shows into movies, etc. It never turns out well.
I think when people change classics it should be left to fan fictions to change them. As awesome as zombies are they have no place in these settings
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