The contemporary critic Hans-Georg Gadamer believed that meaning is never exhausted by the intentions of the author-even if the author was Tolstoy. Winters would probably horrify him.īut even though Tolstoy would not see the blending of his classic as preserving in some way the meaning of his novel, others might. One can safely assume that deleting large sections of the novel and replacing them with text from contemporary writer Ben H. Leo Tolstoy believed that one could not add or delete sentences from his novels without a resultant change in meaning. According to the promotional materials for the book, 'As in the original novel, our story follows two relationships: the tragic adulterous romance of Anna Karenina and Count Alexei Vronsky, and the much more hopeful marriage of Nikolai Levin and Kitty Shcherbatskaya.' However, as with the other novels in the series, the book then takes a decidedly postmodern turn by having the four 'live in a steampunk-inspired 19th century of mechanical butlers, extraterrestrial-worshiping cults, and airborne debutante balls.'

In addition, a film version starring and produced by Natalie Portman is already in the works.Ī few weeks ago, the latest installment in the series, Android Karenina, was released. According to the Guardian, in a little over a year, over 50,000 copies have been sold in the UK-and 600,000 copies in the US. The first volume in the series, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, released in April of 2009, has become wildly popular. Consequently, Quirk is free to publish them in whatever form they see fit-or perhaps more accurately, whatever form they see sales. In 2009, Quirk Books launched Quirk Classics, a series of books which aims-in the words of their mission statement-'To enhance classic novels with pop culture phenomena.' The books in this series intermingle 'the work of classic literary masters with new scenes of horrific creatures and grue-some action.'įortunately for the publishers, all of the works they blend are already in the public domain. Note: these classics are not your great-grandfather's classics, but no one seems to be complaining.

In an age where the classic literary masterpieces have lost their cache, who would have thought that a book series based in the classics of Western literature would be a publishing mega-success?

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