Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Jane Austen, Ben H. Winters

Product Details

Synopsis

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 our 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? It's survival of the fittest and only the swiftest swimmers will find true love!

Library Journal

You may already know the Dashwood sisters: Marianne, who is ruled by her emotions, is a strong swimmer with excellent lung capacity. Elinor, the older, more controlled sister, is a fine carver of driftwood and an expert on the dangers of marine animals large and small. The two sisters, both of marriageable age, encounter various suitors, including the dashing Willoughby, the honorable Edward Ferrars, and the monstrously tentacled Colonel Brandon. Whether in their cottage on Pestilent Isle or in the social whirl of Sub-Marine Station Beta, they never lack for excitement and danger, and despite the depredations of the hideous Devonshire Fang-Beast, nearly everyone lives happily ever after. The effect is strangely entertaining, like a Weird Al version of an opera aria, and Eugene Smith's amusing illustrations add an extra touch of bizarre hilarity. VERDICT Austen fans will be either delighted or horrified, and those who haven't read Sense and Sensibility will be confused. But readers of Jasper Fforde and other literary in-joke writers will enjoy this follow-up to the best-selling Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.—Jenne Bergstrom, San Diego Cty. Lib.

Biography

Jane Austen's delightful, carefully wrought novels of manners remain surprisingly relevant, nearly 200 years after they were first published. Her novels -- Pride and Prejudice and Emma among them -- are those rare books that offer us a glimpse at the mores of a specific period while addressing the complexities of love, honor, and responsibility that still intrigue us today.