Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Jason Rekulak

“Because there are only six of them, (readers) want more and they will riff on the scenes she provided,” Harman said. Harman, who studied Austen’s resurrection by a band of late 19th-century admirers, said her global fame rests partly on the appeal of her elegant, witty books, with their blend of social commentary, feisty heroines and romantic happy endings.

It’s a remarkable turnaround for a writer who achieved limited success in her lifetime and was largely forgotten after she died. The author wrote just six novels before she died at age 41 in 1817, but they have inspired endless spinoffs, from “chick-lit” novels like “The Jane Austen Book Club” to time-travelling TV series “Lost in Austen” and Bollywood-tinged movie “Bride and Prejudice.” There are books on everything from etiquette (“Jane Austen’s Guide to Good Manners”) to gardening (“In the Garden with Jane Austen”), and a huge Internet-based community of passionate Jane-philes. “Zombies” and its successors are the latest mutant offshoots of the unstoppable Austen industry. The irresistible title is key to the success of “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.” The book itself keeps most of Austen’s story – girl meets boy, girl hates boy, girl is won over by boy’s good looks and large fortune – with added chunks of zombie violence by U.S.

“As soon as I drew a line between ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and zombies, I knew I had a great title.” “Then I made a list of things that might enhance these novels – robots, ninjas, zombies,” Rekulak said. He made a list of classic books whose copyrights have lapsed and were ripe for pillage, from “Moby Dick” to “Great Expectations.”

Quirk Books editorial director Jason Rekulak said he was inspired by the Internet-unleashed wave of “creative copyright infringement” – musical and video mash-ups that mangle styles and genres for comic or dramatic effect. “Why did I spend three years writing a critical book on Austen? Why didn’t I just think of that?” “In publishing terms, it’s brilliant,” said Claire Harman, a Columbia University professor and author of “Jane’s Fame: How Jane Austen Conquered the World.” Even Austen purists admit a grudging admiration for the “Zombies” concept.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Jason Rekulak