Marcel Proust's masterpiece, Remembrance of Things Past, got the cartoon treatment. William Shakespeare's Henry V can be read in an hour in comic-strip format.
And now, to the further consternation of traditionalists, a succession of classics, including Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Charles Dickens' Great
Expectations are to follow suit.
Classic Comics, the publishers behind the launch of the comic-strip Henry V this month, hope to expand their repertoire to encompass every Shakespeare play - as well as a host of other literary classics.
Clive Bryant, publishers' chairman, said the point was to make classics more available to a wider audience and augment understanding when pupils turned to reading the original texts. But some criticise the venture for appealing to time-challenged students who may not bother reading the real thing.
The Shakespeare comics come in three versions - the "unabridged", with illustrations, "plain modern English" and "quick text", which reveals the story in shortened form with simplified dialogue. The other classics come in original versions bearing authentic texts and "quick text" adaptations.
In Henry V, the king's rallying call to his troops - "once more unto the breach, dear friends" - is one of Shakespeare's most quoted lines.
The phrase survives in the "quick text", but is followed by "take a deep breath and fight". In Macbeth, to be launched next year, Lady Macbeth's call to her husband: "But screw your courage to the sticking place and we'll not fail" is changed to "we won't fail".
Mr Bryant's critics include the Queen's English Society, which warned that these are "dumbed-down" versions which could backfire by allowing pupils to avoid tackling the language and themes of the originals.
But he insisted it was not a case of dumbing down but "clueing up" younger readers.
"When I read Great Expectations, I struggled to visualise Miss Havisham. So to have her in graphic format, it makes younger readers enjoy the story because they have the imagery in front of them. The graphics can also help some pupils to remember text, by providing visual prompts."
- Independent
