Classic novels re-vamped and re-zombified.

If you have been given a classic novel to read for an English class, here is a fun spin on the tales that could possibly make purist literature peeps shake their fists in outrage!! It may also introduce you to the classics!

Average rating: 4/5

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance - Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem!

By Jane Austen

Quirk Books | March 1, 2009 | Trade Paperback

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies features the original text of Jane Austen''s beloved novel with all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie action. As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace but she''s soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield as Elizabeth wages war against hordes of flesh-eating undead. Complete with 20 illustrations in the style of C. E. Brock (the original illustrator of Pride and Prejudice) this insanely funny expanded edition will introduce Jane Austen''s classic novel to new legions of fans.

Mr. Darcy, Vampyre

by GRANGE AMANDA

Sourcebooks | January 5, 2011 | Hardcover

Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet.

Mr. Darcy, Vampyre starts where Pride and Prejudice ends and introduces a dark family curse so perfectly that the result is a delightfully thrilling, spine-chilling, breathtaking read. A dark, poignant and visionary continuation of Austen''s beloved story, this tale is full of danger, darkness and immortal love.

Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter

by A.e. Moorat

Hodder | October 15, 2009 | Trade Paperback

‘There were many staff at Kensington Palace , fulfilling many roles; a man who was employed to catch rats, another whose job it was to sweep the chimneys. That there was someone expected to hunt Demons did not shock the new Queen;... See more » ‘There were many staff at Kensington Palace , fulfilling many roles; a man who was employed to catch rats, another whose job it was to sweep the chimneys. That there was someone expected to hunt Demons did not shock the new Queen; that it was to be her was something of a surprise.’

London, 1838. Queen Victoria is crowned; she receives the orb, the sceptre, and an arsenal of blood-stained weaponry. Because if Britain is about to become the greatest power of the age, there’s the small matter of the demons to take care of first... But rather than dreaming of demon hunting, it is Prince Albert who occupies her thoughts. Can she dedicate her life to saving her country when her heart belongs elsewhere?

With lashings of glistening entrails, decapitations, and foul demons, this masterly new portrait will give a fresh understanding of a remarkable woman, a legendary monarch, and quite possibly the best Demon Hunter the world has ever seen . . .

A E Moorat weaves a seamlessly lurid tapestry of royal biography, Gothic horror and fist-gnawing comedy as he lifts the veil on what really took place on the dark and cobbled streets of 19th-century England

What if the enigmatic hero of one of our most timeless love stories was part vampire? The answer lies in this haunting retelling of the classic tale of Catherine and Heathcliff, kindred spirits bound by a turbulent - and now forbidden - passion ...
When a young orphan named Heathcliff is brought to Wuthering Heights by the manor¿s owner, Mr. Earnshaw, rumors abound. Yet the truth is more complicated than anyone could guess. Heathcliff¿s mother was a member of a gypsy band that roamed the English countryside, slaying vampires to keep citizens safe. But his father was a vampire. Now, even as Heathcliff gallantly fights the monsters who roam the moors in order to protect beautiful, spirited Catherine Earnshaw, he is torn by compassion for his victims - and by his own dark thirst.
Though Catherine loves Heathcliff, she fears the vampire in him, and is tempted by the privileged lifestyle their neighbors, the Lintons, enjoy. Forced to choose between wealthy, refined Edgar Linton and the brooding, increasingly dangerous Heathcliff, she makes a fateful decision. And soon Heathcliff, too, must choose - between his hunger, and the woman he will love for all eternity ...

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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!

The next installment in Quirk's much-heralded sci-fi/classics mashup series, this steampunk take on Anna Karenina discards tsarist Russia for an alternate reality where a miracle metal, gronzium, has fueled the development of a thriving robot culture. Carriages and candlesticks persist, but everything is mechanized, including the servants: at the peak of the robot hierarchy are the near-sentient "Class IIIs," humanoid robots who aid and comfort their upper-class owners. These futuristic additions are more than background filler, though; Winters incorporates an entire action-packed sci-fi sub-plot, with terrorist attacks from a group of renegade scientists, an alien invasion, and the growing menace of a certain scorned cyborg husband. The sci-fi elements are carefully accomplished, sometimes brilliantly extrapolated from the original. The Class IIIs, for example, also act as telling externalizations of their masters: cold, duty-bound Karenin becomes half-robot and childish Kitty gets a pink, mechanized ballerina companion. Tolstoy's text is more than strong enough to stand up to this sort of treatment, its force attenuated just enough to allow Winters (Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters) to integrate his additions-a feat he manages with aplomb.

Another entry in the growing genre of horror mashups (ranging from Pride and Prejudice and Zombies to Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter), this volume takes Brontë's classic and turns the Reed family into vampires, Jane Eyre's classmates at Lowood into zombies, and Bertha Rochester into something far more dangerous than a madwoman. While Jane herself remains much the same, the supernatural additions prove highly amusing, turning the gothic elements of the original up to eleven while preserving the story's post-Victorian coming-of-age conventions. Despite her whimsical and irreverent modifications, Erwin displays great affection for Brontë and her characters; the undeniable spark between Erwin's Jane and Rochester is made all the more delightful by Jane's plucky fearlessness in the face of evil. With the possible exception of purists, fans of Jane Eyre will find much to love, with moments of laugh-out-loud hilarity; horror fans unfamiliar with the original will also be pleased, though they'll miss out on some of the comic nuance.

Grade 6 Up For fans of vampire literature, this book can be fun. It is a retelling of the Alcott classic with the March family as humanitarian vampires they will not ingest the blood of humans. Set as the original is during the Civil War, the story follows the traditional plot. The family must survive without Mr. March, who is off at war, bolstered by his abolitionist views. Marmee is home with her four lovely daughters. They are not interested in furthering their numbers. Jo refuses to mate with Laurie, even though he desperately wants to be a vampire, too. The Marches are not shunned from society and intermingle with some ordinary humans, though there are those who would do them harm. Although vampires are supposed to live forever, a strange illness has threatened Mr. March, and Beth does eventually succumb. Thus the role of the vampire defenders becomes important, and Jo is passionate about joining their ranks. Messina has cleverly interspersed footnotes in the text to explain some past vampire accomplishment or event. The serious, scholarly tone with which they are written makes them quite humorous. The author's prose style is sharp, and her imprint on these characters is distinct. There is certainly an audience for this selection, and it may introduce readers to a classic.

Indiana, 1818. Moonlight falls through the dense woods that surround a one-room cabin, where a nine-year-old Abraham Lincoln kneels at his suffering mother's bedside. She's been stricken with something the old-timers call "Milk Sickness."

"My baby boy..." she whispers before dying.

Only later will the grieving Abe learn that his mother's fatal affliction was actually the work of a vampire.

When the truth becomes known to young Lincoln, he writes in his journal, "henceforth my life shall be one of rigorous study and devotion. I shall become a master of mind and body. And this mastery shall have but one purpose..." Gifted with his legendary height, strength, and skill with an ax, Abe sets out on a path of vengeance that will lead him all the way to the White House.

While Abraham Lincoln is widely lauded for saving a Union and freeing millions of slaves, his valiant fight against the forces of the undead has remained in the shadows for hundreds of years. That is, until Seth Grahame-Smith stumbled upon The Secret Journal of Abraham Lincoln, and became the first living person to lay eyes on it in more than 140 years.

Using the journal as his guide and writing in the grand biographical style of Doris Kearns Goodwin and David McCullough, Seth has reconstructed the true life story of our greatest president for the first time-all while revealing the hidden history behind the Civil War and uncovering the role vampires played in the birth, growth, and near-death of our nation.
*This novel is being turned into a movie starring Eric Bana. Should be in theaters in 2012.

What do you think? Will you read one??