Twit Lit Classics

Literary Classics Told in Tweets for a 21st-Century Audience

Read a few tweets at the links above or purchase now: #moby-dick and #frankenstein!

“Bezemek makes Moby-Dick engaging and fun–halfway between the original and Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, with Ishmael LOLing and OMGing all the way… Maybe if I’d been able to experience the classics via hashtags and emoji, I might have read more in high school!” –Ian Doescher, author of the William Shakespeare’s Star War series

“‘Like catching the wind or damming a mountain stream with straw,’ Mike Bezemek’s Twit Lit Classics accomplishes the unaccomplishable–compressing MAJOR works of literature into #tldr volumes. The result is swaggering and serious, with a lyrical ellipticism that calls to mind George Saunders’ Lincoln in the Bardo. #praisedue indeed!!!” –JoAnna Novak, author of I Must Have You

“Exploits one of the best-kept secrets in American literature: the wild, snarky playfulness of Moby-Dick.” –Tim Cassedy, creator of Dick: A Card Game Based on the Novel by Hermann Melville

“An irreverent mashup of classic lit and contemporary media. Lovers of Gothic literature will appreciate the fresh twist on Mary Shelley’s masterpiece, while newcomers will enjoy a rapid-fire, approachable introduction to the work.” –Sara Flannery Murphy, author of The Possessions

“Hilarious! Quirky! Imagine Holden Caulfield writing his own CliffsNotes. Modern versions of the original stories told with #attitude.” –Mark Greenside, author of (Not Quite) Mastering the Art of French Living and I’ll Never Be French (no matter what I do)

“Read these tweets! @mikebezemek will make you laugh so hard you won’t realize how much you’re learning.” –Alison Espach, author of The Adults and Assistant Professor of English at Providence College

“I often think that if Melville had been writing Moby-Dick in the 21st century, he would never have finished it, because he would be forever googling ‘whale’. As sprawling and crazy as his leviathanic creation is, it is remarkably suited to being broken down, each chapter acting as a story in itself. How satisfied Herman would have been to read his labours reduced to 280 characters or less. For all all that it took him 135 chapters to play out his story, he would have loved the brilliant economy of Twitter.” –Philip Hoare, author of Leviathan or, The Whale and co-curator of mobydickbigread.com

“A delightful re-imagining of what the characters from Frankenstein would be like in the 21st century. #awesome” –Emily Robbins, author of A Word for Love