Fangs and Fornication: Those Jane Austen Spinoffs Just Won't Quit

Jane Austen's depictions of romance and heartbreak have made her stories timeless. But now more than ever, her 19th century literature has inspired rather strange spinoffs, which have her beloved characters salivating for brains if not, well, a certain "lower orifice."

Take Jane Austen's Guide to Pornography. A Julie & Julia tale of sorts, only with an all-male cast, the play follows two writers of two different eras fighting opposite struggles with innuendo. Written by Australian playwright Steven Dawson in 2007, Jane Austen's Guide is still being reenacted to this day and in fact, a Guardian review had taken kindly to a recent production.

Excerpt from Jane's Guide to Pornography (2009): 

Of course, not all Austen-inspired works are created equal. Pride and Promiscuity: The Lost Sex Scenes of Jane Austen immediately received mixed reviews following its 2001 release, rendering what authors Arielle Eckstut and Dennis Ashton found "lost" all over again. Then, four years later, Gurinder Chadha had drowned any iota of Austen reference in Bride and Prejudice into a swimming pool of Bollywood. But both critics and Austen fans have a bit more hope, if not curiosity, for the spinoffs to come:

Pride and Predator

A movie adaptation led by Elton John's production company, Rocket Films, and, with aliens invading a pre-Victorian era, perhaps the only way to make Austen accessible to a younger male audience. Though the film had long been slated for a release sometime next year, no other word of progress has been made since.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

In this rewritten tale, a truth universally acknowledged is revised to, "a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains," lending to 21 weeks spent so far in the New York Times bestseller lists. Such success also catapulted co-author Seth Grahamme-Smith into a new project: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters

Publisher Quark decided to release this follow-up to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies recently, to directly face off Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol. Co-author Ben Winters made sure to fill his adaptation with octopi, sea serpents and pirates, though New York Magazine critic Sam Anderson says he was left craving less writhing tentacles and more of Austen's wit.