Ophelia Joined the Group Maidens Who Don't Float: Classic Lit Signs on to Facebook [Kindle Edition]

Sarah Schmelling (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Brilliant/Highbrow" --New York Magazine's Approval Matrix

Bench Pick --The New Yorker, The Book Bench blog

"[O]ne of the funniest and wittiest books I've read in years, and I highly recommend it to anyone who loves literature" --Curled Up With a Good Book

"Ophelia Joined the Group Maidens Who Don't Float: Classic Lit Signs on to Facebook is the most ingenious and entertaining book about classic literature that I have ever read" --BookLoons.com

Product Description

In the bestselling tradition of Stuff White People Like and I Can Has Cheezburger?, the next online humor sensation makes the leap to book form

When humorist Sarah Schmelling transformed Hamlet into a Facebook news feed, it launched the next big humor trend-Facebook lit. This hilarious book is the first to bring more than fifty authors and stories from classic literature back to life and online. Schmelling uses the conventions of social networking- profile pages, status updates, news feeds, and applications-to retell everything from The Odyssey to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to Lolita.

At last, your favorite characters and authors from classic literature have caved to the pressure and joined a social network. William Shakespeare, with a little help from author Sarah Schmelling, recruits everyone from Jane Austen to Oedipus Rex to James Joyce to his online booke club group. Of course, mayhem soon ensues:

-Mark Twain infiltrates Oscar Wilde's profile page and challenges him to a "quip off."

-Jane Eyre listens to "Hard Knock Life" on repeat.

-Hamlet becomes a fan of Daggers.

-Dracula wonders why this "Edward" and "Bella" are people he may know.

A loving spoof of the most-trafficked social networking website in the world and a playful game of literary who's who, Ophelia Joined the Group Maidens Who Don't Float will have book lovers and Facebook addicts alike twittering with joy.

SARAH SCHMELLING is a journalist and humor writer. She is author of McSweeney Internet Tendency's popular "Hamlet Facebook News Feed Edition." She has written for the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, Newsweek, Spin, and Variety.

http://maidenswhodontfloat.com/

Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 3707 KB
• Publisher: Plume (August 25, 2009)
• Sold by: Penguin Publishing
• Language: English
• ASIN: B002IPZG2M
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #88,238 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

More About the Author

Sarah Schmelling is a humor writer and journalist, and author of Hamlet (Facebook News Feed Edition) on McSweeney's Internet Tendency. She has written about entertainment, travel and pop culture for The Washington Post, Spin, Paste, Salon, Newsweek, Real Simple, the Los Angeles Times, World Hum and other publications. She lives outside of Washington, DC.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars S. McGee Joined the Group Fans of Classics-Gone-Facebook, August 26, 2009

By 

S. McGee (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ophelia Joined the Group Maidens Who Don't Float: Classic Lit Signs on to Facebook (Paperback)

Jane Austen says it is a truth universally acknowledged that in the depths of a recession, people need something to laugh about.

Elizbeth Bennet posted a comment: OK, Jane, but did you HAVE to tell the world about all those ridiculous

gifts Mr. Collins sent me, especially that Chai Cream Frappucino? (And what is that, anyway?)

William Shakespeare (through the best efforts of author Sarah Schmelling) has founded the Classics-Gone-Facebook Network.

Miss Havisham, Humbert Humbert, Dr. Jekyll and Beowulf joined the network.

Scrooge joined the network, but is rejecting friend requests.

Huck Finn, Oscar Wilde and Ernest (call me "Papa") Hemingway have joined the network.

Sarah Schmelling reports that Jane Austen is now friends with Helen Fielding, Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant, and 4,534 others, and is still wondering who all these people are and why they are all forming clubs to discuss her books.

If I were one iota as clever and witty as Sarah Schmelling, I would try to write this review in the same Facebook style that Schmelling has used to celebrate and poke fun at her favorite literary figures (both authors and characters) as well as to settle scores with those she could live without. (To his disgust, Humbert's admin blocks his account for his yearnings over Lolita, while still allowing Lady Chatterley and the gamekeeper to continue with their antics.) I know my limitations, and will have to stick to the traditional format, however...

Schmelling's first stab at turning literature into Facebook feeds was a hilarious reinterpretation of Hamlet that 'went viral' on the Internet a year or more ago. (The book's title comes from that.) From the moment when "Ophelia removed "moody princes" from her interests", I was hooked, and laughed so loud that I ended up with a severe case of hiccups that took at least an hour to cure. So I was delighted to learn that she was taking her talents to a wider stage and tackling a larger array of literary targets, and snapped up the book at the first possible opportunity.

The result is clever in a smart way -- the kind of humor that feels more and more hard to find these days. It's likely to appeal to everyone from die-hard Shakespeare fans (Imogen wonders if she's trapped in a 'problem play') to those who all-too-vividly recall their losing battles with great works of literature in high school. (Odysseus adds 'Homeward Bound' his playlist, while Romeo misses out on a crucial personal message from Friar Lawrence, with unfortunate consequences.) Facebook itself doesn't escape a deft skewering at Schmelling's hands, as she creates an ersatz FB-style quiz, "Which Dystopia Are You In: 1984, Brave New World, or Social Media?"

This is a great book to dip into when you need a laugh, and it's the first to really spoof the whole social networking phenomenon, with the proliferation of not-always-friendly 'friends', offbeat lists of "25 things about me" (Darcy, we learn, is fed up with being an archetype), and pokes (Gulliver gets lots of tiny ones from the Lilliputians.) It's simply one of the funniest books I've picked up in a long time, I'm glad that since it exists on my Kindle, I'll have it with me while I travel, ready to add a sense of perspective to life's idiocies. (It's also going to make a GREAT holiday and birthday gift for about half of my friends...)

I've rated this 4.5 stars because not all the segments are of the same high caliber as the Hamlet news feed; nor do some of Schmelling's efforts at replicating the Facebook formula work as well as others -- the news feeds and status updates are great, the applications more uneven (why does Elizabeth Bennet throw a sheep at Mr Darcy??). Nor is this a book that you can sit and read from cover to cover without finding it a bit repetitive. Just pick it up, choose a chapter and jump into this bibliomaniac's delight -- discover what circle of hell you happen to be in, and take a look at the snaps Odysseus took on his way home. I've rounded this up to five stars because of the originality, wit and flair.

Highly recommended to anyone who relishes intelligent and literate wit -- or anyone who just never understood all the fuss about Dickens and would really enjoy poking fun at Oscar Wilde.

For Kindle owners: this is a surprisingly excellent book for Facebook. All the illustrations are very clear (a pleasant change from the usual experience) and the book format reproduces clearly. I wouldn't have any hesitation recommending the Kindle version just because the book isn't a traditional format.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hilarous and even a little educational, August 25, 2009

By 

A. McGlynn (Chicagoland, IL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ophelia Joined the Group Maidens Who Don't Float: Classic Lit Signs on to Facebook (Paperback)

If you are a part of the Facebook generation (and even my grandmother is!), you will laugh at the hilarity contained within this book!

There's a bit of educational value to it, too; it's like super-cliffnotes for the Facebook generation.

If you haven't read the books that are covered (and there are many, from Hawthorne to Shakespeare to Austen and more!), this book will make you want to, if for no other reason than to be in on the jokes.

Pick this one up at your local bookstore and flip through it, but beware, you may get dirty looks for your raucous laughter!

I suspect this would translate very well for the Kindle, for those of you who are so inclined.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a fun read., September 27, 2009

By 

A. Hawkins - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ophelia Joined the Group Maidens Who Don't Float: Classic Lit Signs on to Facebook (Paperback)

The perfect type of book for lit nerds, English majors, or people who were forced to read all of these classics in school. I absolutely recommend it.