Best Literary Mashups

Mashups have become best-sellers in the literary world as of late. For those of you not familiar with the term, a literary mashup is when a writer takes a well-known story or pre-existing concept and entwines into a new fresh concept. The book Ahab’s Wife is somewhat of an example, where the author wrote a whole novel from the perspective of Captain Ahab’s (of Moby Dick fame) wife.

Best Literary Mashups

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

This parody novel was written by Seth Grahame-Smith and uses pieces of Jane Austen’s original 1813 novel along with some modern day zombie literature and culture.

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter

The premise of this novel is that Abraham Lincoln’s mother was killed by vampires and he’s eager for revenge. Also written by Seth Grahame-Smith.

Mansfield Park and Mummies

Taking this classic novel and adding some spooky mummies into the mix.
Queen Victoria Demon Hunter

The queen isn’t as ladylike as people think, in fact she’s busy hunting down evil demons.

Android Karenina

Co-written by Leo Tolstoy and Ben H. Winters, based on the story Anna Karenina, except there are robots.

The mashup genre of books is a pretty cool phenomenon. I like the concept of taking classic stories and giving them a new twist. I haven’t read any yet, but if I could I would probably check out the Android Karenina. I want to see how on earth they were able to put robots into 1800s Russia.

I think these all would make great summer reads. The difference between the mashup novel and the film adaptation is that mashup novels are supposed to be fun — they’re not supposed to be a new “classic” book. Film adaptations are meant to capture the essence of the popular book and more often than not they fail. Of course there are some movie adaptations that do alright for themselves, but they are few and far between.

What do you think the best literary mashups are?