SENSE AND SENSIBILITY AND SEA MONSTERS / Review
Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters is the latest title from Quirk Books. Just imagine the Dashwood sisters (played in the 1995 film by Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet) and what happens when their suitors, Edward Farrars (Hugh Grant), John Willoughby (Greg Wise) and Captain Brandon (Alan Rickman), have gills/tentacles/a general sliminess. Hilarity and gruesomeness must surely ensue. Not to mention the Dashwood sisters needing to develop some serious lung capacity in order to hold their breath while possibly being courted underwater.
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.
JANE AUSTEN is coauthor of the New York Times best seller Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which has been translated into 17 languages and optioned to become a major motion picture. She died in 1817.
BEN H. WINTERS is a writer based in Brooklyn.