Marvel Illustrated Classics Jane Austen Adaptations

Dearest hearts,

What better way to spend the day, than having a book by your side and a cup of tea. This reminds me of the lovely quote by C.S. Lewis: "You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me." Back home, in Iasi, we have books in every room and I have always been fond of books, ever since I was a wee lass. I would go every month and borrow from the National Library items in Romanian & English. When I went to the USA, in 2007, half of the luggage was filled with gifts & clothes and half was filled with books. In my bag, at any given time, I need to have a book - I read while I commute: on the bus, on the train... you name it! Here, home, in Krakow our library keeps growing so I thought it through recently and I realised my hunger for books and for a book long enough to suit me, will never stop. Somehow I had to work around this!

I have always loved period/classical books. I feel I have always been attracted to the drama, the old way of thinking and behaving. If I would have to attach myself to a Downton Abbey type of environment and time, for sure I would be like Sybil - I would always speak up my mind and get into trouble. But that would totally be worth it, as she gets True Love in the end :) I grew up reading and re-reading Jane Austen books and bit by bit my collection of books and movies grew more and more. Now I am a huge fan of BBC adaptations and I can firmly say to everyone that they represent the fairest view over any book they put into play! They have attention to details and nothing falls short! 

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But what do you do if you love books, you love movies, you love to collect yet you do not want to have to rent another house, just to live in, so you could have space for all the things you wish? Does that not also contradict with the wish I have to travel more and be able to live from just one suicase?! Well... I must admit, there is a long way to go! But I am redirecting my thoughts / attention / money more and more from books and into comic books... or maybe I am experiencing a second childhood? :) Who can tell?! I always wanted to have the Marvel Illustrated Classics Jane Austen Adaptations ever since I heard they were on the shelve... Come on! Let us face it: even if Jane Austen's stories have more than 200 years, they are as lovely and as funny and charming as ever! And imagine the novels in a comic book form! I was intrigued when I saw this at first, and then I knew that one day... I would have them all :) 

Northanger Abbey - Marvel Illustrated Classics

Nancy Butler is the genius behind these lovely adaptations. In the intro of each comic book you can see clearly the work and the deep thought she put into it. Reading what she has to say about the novel and the way she brought them to life, makes you think she must really love the novels as you do! Marvel has reimagined (so far) Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma, and Northanger Abbey. Each is abridged by writer Nancy Butler but there are different teams of artists working on the panels. Of course, creating a comic book out of a novel is a hard work - what to cut, what to condense, what to leave as it is... what makes the novel be the hit that it is, even hundreds of years. What is that something that appeals to the audience - both now and then?

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I almost have them all - only Pride and Prejudice is missing... - and I must admit that my favourite is the Sense and Sensibility Classic Adaptation. The coloring is soft and delicate (pink and pastels, very girly!) and the cover is perfect match. Quite text heavy, it still has a couple of panels that work marvelously without any wording. Of course, in the case of all the comic books listed above, it is better to read the novel so you would understand more - else the comics might make you feel you need a bit more... Either way, I really consider the Marvel Illustrated Classics Jane Austen Adaptations as a must for every Janeite (aka Jane Austen fan). 

Emma - Marvel Illustrated Classics

Northanger Abbey - Marvel Illustrated Classics

If you love comic books, if you love period drama, if you love Jane Austen, you will love these Marvel adaptations and you will be twice as happy to have them as they are easy to read - easy to store. Paperback bound, with the dimensions of 144.78 x 223.52 x 15.24mm | 226.8g - they are easy to carry around. The 128 pages can be read at one go, but if you are like me you will fight with yourself to put the book down so you could enjoy it a bit the next day ;) Or, again as in my case, you will find yourself reading and re-reading it, while admiring the panels. You will find something new each time you will have a look in them and you would wish Jane Austen could have wrote more novels... God bless her soul! :) Her main characters indeed had everything she lacked of - true love fulfilled. 

Have you read any of the Jane Austen novels? Have you tried the Marvel comic books? Or maybe you had no clue that they existed until now, and this comes as a shock?! :o Now you can run to the closest bookstore and see if they have it. If not, for sure Book Depository has them - that is where I bought them from, and they came in great condition ;) Good luck and happy reading, dearests! :)

** This post was made out of love for period books/comics and great stories told by Jane Austen. I was not repayed in any way and all the opinions are my very own, straight from the heart! **

Yours truly,

The Twisted Red LadyBug In Love With Jane Austen's World