Omg … @MrDarcy follows me on Twitter!
Classic novels get updated for the digital age
IT’S a twist in the tale that will leave many readers horrified – Britain’s best-loved novels have been given a digital-age makeover with the help of Tinder, WhatsApp and Twitter.
A new version of Pride and Prejudice sees Mr Darcy distracted by beauties on the dating app Tinder, while his courtship with Elizabeth suffers the perils of the messaging service WhatsApp.
Meanwhile in Wuthering Heights, a doubting Catherine is put off by Heathcliff’s ringtone – before downloading a fitness app in a bid to pull her out of lovelorn depression. The reworkings, by Professor John Sutherland of University College London in partnership with TV channel Drama, are designed to show the negative impact of the internet on romance.
A survey by Drama found a third of us believe distraction from digital devices is one of the biggest romance killers.
For young Tess in Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles, a chain of unhappy events could have been averted if Angel’s phone battery hadn’t died at the May Dance. In the update, Tess is also left questioning the depth of Angel’s love after noticing his obsession with social media sites Instagram and Pinterest – a reference to her lover’s interest in status.
For Jane Austin’s Elizabeth Bennet, social media also proves perilous when she accidentally posts a picture on Twitter of Darcy emerging from a lake with his white shirt clinging to his chest, causing a ‘Twitter storm of epic proportions’.
Wuthering Heights is reimagined as a series of blog posts by narrator Mr Lockwood, who amasses a host of unwelcome entries in the ‘comments’ section. Cathy’s love life is only further complicated by her soon-to-be husband Edgar Linton’s social media habits – a reference to his spoiled and arrogant ways in the classic novel.
Confidante Nelly questions their love, asking Cathy: ‘You can’t have happened to miss the fact that he never comments on any of your Facebook photos, doesn’t watch your Instagram stories and scarcely replied to your WhatsApps even though he knows you can see the blue ticks?’
Professor Sutherland said: ‘Even though we’re certainly a nation that uses modern technology to communicate, by inserting these devices and methods of communication into a series of classic romances – themselves believed to be some of the most romantic novels according to the nation, –highlights just how much they can interrupt a romantic mood.’