It’s in vogue now for werewolves, vampires and witches to occupy the seat of protagonist in a lot of modern fiction. A recent movie, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is the screen adaptation of the novel by Seth Grahame-Smith, and even the classics are not immune. Have you heard of the books Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, also by Grahame-Smith, or Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, a joint effort by Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters? How about Henry VIII: Wolfman by A.E. Moorat? For a twisted view of history, look no further. 
In Grahame-Smith’s Abraham Lincoln book, the action takes place before he is president. As a young man he learns of vampires and is avowed to kill as many as he can. He learns, too, about slavery and pledges himself to abolitionism, not to end slave labour, per se, but to end the easily accessible food source for slave-owning vampires. As far as classics go, I’ve never read Pride and Prejudice, but I’m certain that zombies are a modern adaptation. Grahame-Smith added the zombie elements at the behest of his publisher. The result was a best-seller now translated into over 20 languages.
At first, I thought Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters was by the same writer as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, but it turned out that another author, Ben H. Winters, was urged by the same publisher to attempt a similar mash up. If you like classics, and man-eating jellyfish, then this is a good choice.
It’s well-known that Henry VIII was a beast of a man, but just how beastly? A.E. Moorat shows that King Henry was truly a wolf in human’s clothing.
These books have their critics, especially over historical details or whether or not the authors are merely hacking their way through classics and inserting ridiculous elements can be considered artistic writing or (dare I say it?) fun stories meant to entertain. You’ll have to read to decide!
Chris Waite
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