The Guardian reports that Quirk Books, the marketing gurus behind Pride and Prejudice and Zombies are set to release Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, which will be “60% Austen and 40% tentacled chaos.”

Quirk is so sure of the book’s appeal that it is going head-to-head with Dan Brown’s much-anticipated new novel The Lost Symbol, publishing Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters in the UK and the US on the same day: 15 September.

So will September 15th finally be the day that the literary gods strike everyone simultaneously blind for their sins? Stay tuned.

There are things that are dumb but understandable (like Dan Brown’s career, for instance), but I don’t understand this trend. Here’s the editorial director of Quirk on his process:

“I made a list of classic novels and a second list of elements that could enhance these novels—pirates, robots, ninjas, monkeys and so forth. When I drew a line between Pride and Prejudice and zombies, I knew I had my title and it was easy to envision how the book would work.”

Yes, the books really write themselves. I’ll allow them to read themselves, too.