Sense and Sensiblity and Sea Monsters by Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters 2009

Sense and Sensibility and Seamonsters puts a new spin on Jane Austen's classic. The Dashwood sisters grow up in the time of the Alteration, where all of the creatures of the sea have turned against humans and mutations have caused mermaids, seawitches and sea monsters to form. It is my opinion that the monsters make the satire much funnier and ridiculous. Upon the insult to her eldest daughter Elinor, Mrs. Dashwood decides to move their family out of the house belonging to their relations, to a seaside shack on the island chain of the Devonshire coast, the most feared in all of Britain. Later the extremity is shown again when the Dashwoods are visited by their landlord and cousin, Sir John, his wife (a captured island princesses), and their son. A quote given states that, "On every formal visit a child ought to be of party, by way of discourse, or in extreme cases, if someone needs be thrown overboard to satisfy the piranhas trailing the boat." Later, when Edward, the flame of Elinor, does not visit her sister, Marianne, confides to her mother that she believes he must have met a horrible fate with a sea monster, and can fathom no other reason why he has not visited already.
The absurdity of the book and it's situations do wonderfully to complement Jane Austen's satire, exspecially for someone such as myself who takes everything I read far too literally. I can't wait to keep reading.