Classic Works get ‘Twitterized’ – twitterature
by Muhammad on October 8, 2009
in Uncategorized

Now this is a nice modernisation… 60 classic works of literature got re-imagined through Twitter. Everyon’es favourite publishing house, Penguin, just bought the rights to Twitterature and it includes some brilliant re-imaginings of literature. The book won’t be published in the UK till 5 November but the book has been seen by the guys at the Guardian… check these out…
Romeo tweets his dying lament: O, I am fortune’s fool! Maybe just a tool. And so I die. BTW that other woman I was into before Juliet? Would’ve been a safer bet.
Sherlock Holmes says: Continuing investigation. Made brilliant deductions on many snorts and very little evidence. Notice salt deposits on factory owner’s shoes?
Goethe’s Young Werther emotes: Have I noted how upset I am? I am very upset. #pain #angst #suffering #sexdep.
Elizabeth Bennet muses: It’s as if the less he seems to care about me, the more drawn to him I am. This seems the opposite of how it should be? Oh well.
And then there’s Ishmael from Moby-Dick: We set out. Follow @starbuck, @queequeg for long introspective soliloquies on the human soul. Or @tashtego if you like adorable kittens.
Pretty damn cool, right? Especially if you ever got down to reading any of the books above or at least know the work in some way. Hence the note from the author…
"There has been some misunderstanding about the book in that it’s been said it’s going to educate people, but you couldn’t do an English class with this book. The humour is heightened by having knowledge of the works."
Anyway… All of the Classic works were distilled into 20 tweets or fewer.
Love it.


That’s pretty awesome. Having read the books definitely makes them tweets better, but the book tweets of books I have read are great! Thanks for this, I wonder how many of my English major friends will be upset with this?
I agree. I love the idea. Simplification is one of my pet penchants… making the complicated more accessible and understandable. Seeing the classics in this way really does put fresh eyes on the stories themselves and makes them very accessible.