Laura Pietrobon

Twitterature is a great idea, and I am jealous I didn’t come up with it first.

Two lovely American college students (Alexander Aciman and Emmett Rensin) have taken a list of some of the “Greatest Novels of Our Time” and condensed them into a page or two of Twitter posts. Thereby giving us the essence of the story without all that flowery language. Can you hear the English teachers of the world cry out in pain?

Twitterature includes Twitterised versions of Pride and Prejudice, Anna Karenina, Wuthering Heights, Dante’s Inferno and my personal favourites, Hamlet and Macbeth. Aciman and Rensin do a fantastic job of updating these classics, with such hilarious lines as:

Hamlet:

@OedipusGothplex: WTF IS POLONIOUS DOING BEHIND THE CURTAIN?

Macbeth:

@BigMac: Battle went well! Cut mothafuckas from the nave to the chops! Neither bade farewell nor shook up! WORD UP! REPRESENT!

It is that unique mix of original and updated language that allows the authors to poke fun at the classics, the same way I did (and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one) back when I was forced to read them in English class. The portrayal of Hamlet as some sort of Shakespearian goth? Hilarious and in my opinion, spot on.

For me, it was the novels that I had read, seen the movie, or generally knew the plot line that were the funniest. So be warned, you may find yourself experiencing the same thing. Even so, Twitterature is a great buy just for the glossary at the back which is quite funny and essential for those (like me) who are not Twitter-literate. If you can’t summon up the enthusiasm to read the classics, or just like to make fun of them, then this is the book for you.