Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre has been given an adult makeover as part of a new book series to capitalise on the boom in so-called “mummy porn”.
A string of classic books, which also includes Pride and Prejudice, have been adapted by publishing house Total E-Bound’s – as a series called Clandestine Classics – which will now include raunchy sex scenes.
The move follows the huge popularity of the latest erotic novels, the Fifty Shades of Gray trilogy by E L James, which have sold more than ten million copies around the world.
Ann Dinsdale, collections manager at the Bronte Parsonage Museum in Haworth , welcomed the Jane Eyre adaptation.
She said: “I am quite OK about it. Anything that brings the Bronte sisters into the limelight has to be a good thing. It is quite a passionate book anyway.”
She said that the romance in the book is quite subtle by modern literary standards.
It is not the first time the classic novel has been given a makeover.
In 2010 it appeared as Jane Slayre, by American writer Sherri Browning Erwin, in which Jane is raised by vampires, her school is run by a voodoo headmaster who turns pupils into zombies, and Mr Rochester’s first wife is a werewolf.
Meanwhile, the Brontes’ works will go head to head with writing by Jane Austen in a battle between the great women writers as part of the third Bronte Festival of Women’s Writing.
The weekend will feature writers Helen Simpson, Tiffany Murray and Claire Harman discussing whether Jane Austen or the Bronte sisters have had the greatest influence on contemporary fiction.
The festival will take place in Haworth from Friday, August 31, to Sunday, September 2.
Bronte Parsonage arts officer Jenna Holmes said: “The Brontes were pioneering women writers and continue to inspire contemporary literature in limitless ways, so it’s fitting that the museum should explore their legacy and showcase the work of both high profile and emerging women writers working today”.
For further information, e-mail jenna.holmes@bronte. org.uk.
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