Jetzt schlägt's 13! Die Engländer vergreifen sich an Kapitän Nemo. Und das ist, so fürchte ich, wörtlich zu verstehen.
Reader, I ravished him:
Classics given a steamy Fifty Shades of Grey makeover that would make Jane
Austen and the Brontes blush
By EMILY ANDREWS
The existing texts have been
interspersed with more racy scenes – some in toe-curling language that would
surely have made the original authors blush.
Other titles to be published
in the Clandestine Classics collection include Austen’s Northanger Abbey,
Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories featuring Sherlock Holmes and Jules Verne’s 20,000
Leagues Under the Sea.
The announcement comes after
‘mummy porn’ novel Fifty Shades of Grey became the fastest-selling book of the
year, making author EL James an estimated £6.5million in book sales and film
rights.
However, Jane Eyre fans who
are content with the protagonist revealing little more than ‘Reader, I married
him’ in the final chapter of the original might be less than impressed to
discover that she has ‘explosive sex with Mr Rochester’ in the publisher’s
erotic version.
In Wuthering Heights,
meanwhile, heroine Catherine Earnshaw ‘enjoys bondage sessions’ with
Heathcliff, while sleuth Sherlock Holmes has a sexual relationship with his
sidekick Dr Watson in the updated edition.
Because the copyright on
the original titles has lapsed, the publisher is free to adapt them.
Ann Channon, from Jane
Austen’s House Museum, said: ‘I feel it’s almost desperate. A lot of people
seem to be looking for a quick fix because they’re bored. They don’t want to
use their imaginations.
‘In Pride and Prejudice
everything is already there but people are too lazy to bother to understand. There
will be a lot of Jane Austen fans banging drums about this and kicking up a
fuss.
‘And I don’t think if Jane
Austen was alive today she would approve. She was writing with passion, she had
heart and feelings but these were restrained by the morals of her time.
‘She held the moral line but
she certainly understood passion, she alluded to it in her work
‘Some things are better left
to the imagination and Jane Austen encouraged people to use their imaginations.
These new “erotic” versions are gratuitous.’ The raunchy versions will be
available as e-books priced from £2.49 to £3.49, but may be made into printed
copies later if they are a success.
The publisher behind them,
Total-E-Bound, has drafted in some of its most popular writers to update the
texts. British-born author Sierra Cartwright, who is penning the new version of
Jane Eyre, said: ‘Jane Eyre is a breathtakingly beautiful story which has
withstood the test of time.
‘The biggest challenge is
to be sure it’s fitting with Jane’s character and that the
additions don’t change the beautiful flow of the story.’
The first five Clandestine
Classics will be released at the end of this month. Claire Siemaszkiewicz,
founder of Total-E-Bound, said: ‘Readers will finally be able to read what the
books could have been like if erotic romance had been acceptable in that day
and age.
‘We recognise it’s a bold
move that may have a polarising effect on readers but we’re keeping the works
as close to the original classics as possible.
‘It’s not our intention to
rewrite or distort them but to create a whole new experience, enhancing the
novels by adding deeper relationships, character development, and the “missing”
scenes for readers to enjoy.’
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…-blush.html#ixzz22PBj0HXb
