A few days ago, I toyed with buying Compact Editions' The Mill on the Floss: Books in Half the Time solely to annoy those of my colleagues charged with 'encouraging' our students to read weighty Victorian novels - it's an edition so abridged that it's half the length. Essentially, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, the publisher behind the imprint, have become literary rapists. 

I resisted temptation, though I'd love to know what was cut out. More fun, however, is this new genre: classic novels crossed with themes from other genres. I came across this announcement on the Librarything blog - order your copy now!

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies from Chronicle Books, due out in April. According to the description:

"Pride and Prejudice and Zombies -- Pride and Prejudice 

and Zombies features the original text of Jane Austen's beloved novel with all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie action. 

As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the 

quiet English village of Meryton — and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she's soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy. 

What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers—and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield 

as Elizabeth wages war against hordes of flesh-eating undead. Complete with 20 illustrations in the style of C. E. Brock (the original illustrator of Pride and Prejudice), this insanely funny expanded edition will introduce Jane Austen's classic novel to new legions of fans."