Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters is the latest installment in a series of parodies published by Quirk Classics – if you haven’t managed to catch the books very successful predecessor, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, you should grab and copy and settle down for a good laugh.
Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters is coauthored by Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters (I use the term “coauthored” loosely, considering how Austen’s been six feet under for quite some time), based on the Victorian classic Sense and Sensibility. The book follows sisters Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, who find themselves on a swashbuckling journey as they travel from familiar Norway to live with their uncle on his island. The sisters find themselves confronted with a slew of deadly sea monsters, which they battle and defeat with trained expedience (even Madame Dashwood has quite the spear arm).
The real kicker of this book, though, wasn’t the radical blend of Austen’s prim characters with the otherwise unlikely human/sea creature wars, but rather Colonel Brandon’s rather unfortunate appearance – Davy Jones would be envious of Alan Rickman’s Mr. Brandon’s magnificently tentacled visage. I’ll admit to being partial to the Colonel in the original S&S, and I was exceedingly curious as to how the romance of the stoic Colonel and fiery Marianne would pan out when cartilage rot was a factor.
Needless to say, the book itself is packed with laughs and it certainly has its moments – the plot deviates a fair bit from the original S&S storyline and launches into a spirited tale of pirates and fearsome sea serpents, weaving in various amusing interactions between Elinor, Edward, Marianne, the Colonel, as well as Willoughby and his pet monkey (and I mean a real monkey, you pervs). Fans of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies will likely enjoy this book, though reading the original S&S prior will certainly make it a better reading experience.
And to finish off, a number of memorable snippets that might persuade you to give Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters a try:
“Fifteen years! My dear Fanny! Her life cannot be worth half that purchase! Even strong swimmers rarely make it that long, and she’s weak at the hips and knees! I’ve seen her in the bath!”
“Think, John: people always live forever when there is any annuity to be paid them; and old ladies can be surprisingly quick in the water when chased; there is something porpoiselike, I think, in the leathery wrinkliness of their skin.”
~
It was Mrs. Dashwood who acted first, even as the sailors were loading their blunderbusses and the coxwain was pulling the tarpulin of the Ship’s cannon. She grasped a spare oar from its rigging, snapped it twain upon her knee with a swift motion, and plunged the sharp, broken point into the churning sea – piercing the gleaming, deep-set eye of the beast. “Up, mother! Drive it up!” shouted Elinor, and leant hard upon the flattened oar end to push the sharp point into the brain of the sea serpent. The beast relaxed its grip upon the shattered corpse of the bosun’s mate; it pitched; it rolled; and then it was still, floating belly up on the surface of the water, its scales glittering blue and green in the sunlight, blood streaming from the punctured eye.
~
She found, in the event, that [Colonel Brandon's] face was not the only region of his physiognomy that was multi-appendaged, and she found that fact to carry with it certain marital satisfactions.
Overall, an entertaining read. Recommended to anyone interested in a lighthearted spin on Austen’s famous classics.
See also: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Plot/originality: 3/5
Characters: 3.5/5
Writing style: 4/5
Total score: 10.5/15
malicecat
silentfairies
