TWITTERATURE: The World's Greatest Books Retold Through Twitter

According to the authors, if Hamlet, Prince of Denmark had been a registered user of Twitter, he wouldn’t have minced words and ‘whacked about the shrub’. Fair comment, although perhaps Shakespeare might not have agreed. In fact, according to these two University of Chicago students – who obviously have too much time on their hands – all the great classics are crying out to be condensed down to a few tweets.

I doubt the average student will pass any exams by reading these versions instead of the originals, but it’s a good laugh for those of us who have plodded through Victorian Lit, American Lit, Russian Lit etc. A lot of the tweets are spot on and very funny – some miss the mark completely. The Authors best efforts are with the Greek classics and poor old Shakespeare – they manage to distill MacBeth, Hamlet and The Iliad down to a few pithy sentences which are very funny – eg: MacBeth “Old Hags say MacBeth is killed by no man of woman born. Relieved. The Terminator not invented yet.”.

One for the people who really have read the Classics. Or seen all the TV adaptations.

'Hilarious' -- Sunday Times (Sunday Times )

Wittily irreverent, scandalous, but sure to inspire a cult following -- Daily Mail

'An irreverent, profane and sometimes brilliant collection' -- Reuters

'The trouble with Twitter is, I think, that too many twits might make a tw*t' -- David Cameron

'This is exactly the kind of thing you'd expect University of Chicago students to come up with' -- Professor W J T Mitchell

'A tool to aid the digestion of great literature' -- Guardian

From Oedipus: PARTY IN THEBES!!! Nobody cares I killed that old dude, plus this woman is all over me. Total MILF.

From Paradise Lost: OH MY GOD I'M IN HELL.

Perhaps you once asked yourself, 'What exactly is Hamlet trying to tell me? Why must he mince his words, muse in lyricism and, in short, whack about the shrub?' No doubt such questions would have been swiftly resolved were the Prince of Denmark a registered user on Twitter.com. This, in essence, is Twitterature.

From Hamlet: WTF IS POLONIUS DOING BEHIND THE CURTAIN???

Here are over 60 of the greatest works of literature - from Beowulf to Bronte, Kafka to Kerouac, Dostoevsky to Dickens - distilled in the voice of Twitter to their pithiest essence, providing everything you need to master the literature of the civilised world, while relieving you of the task of reading it.

From Dante's Inferno: I'm havin a midlife crisis. Lost in the woods. Shoulda brought my iPhone.