March 2, 2011 by Francis Andrew Siskel
pride and prejudice and zombies, mashup, mash-up, abraham lincoln: vampire hunter, seth grahame-smith, wuthering bites, emily bronte, queen victoria: demon hunter, steven hockensmith, literature, dissertation writing
Seth Grahame-Smith started it all.
"Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" ushered the so-called mash-up novels. It combines a classical work of fiction with a popular genre. In the case of Grahame-Smith's first novel, it's the brain-eating creatures terrorizing the English countryside. The success led him to make Abraham Lincoln a cult hero in another world, namely "Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter". Both are bestsellers. Both will be adapted to the big screen. This led to other writers joining the mash-up bandwagon.
There's "Wuthering Bites", which is Emily Bronte's classic meets the blood-sucking creatures. Then there's "Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter". The imagination and possibilities are both endless if you think about this new trend in literature, but my friend, who teaches dissertation writing, isn't amused. He admits that the mash-up novels will give young readers a renewed interest in the classics, but there's no guarantee that they'll read them. He added that Grahame-Smith won the lottery, but that can't be said of the other writers.
Don't know about that, as Steven Hockensmith wrote a sequel to "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies".