from Hacker News

Show HN: Personalize Romeo and Juliet or Pride and Prejudice

by rhythmvs on 2/15/17, 2:28 AM with 36 comments

  • by phaemon on 2/15/17, 11:46 AM

    I think I've spotted a flaw in this cunning plan:

    "For never was a story of more woe

    Than this of Juliet and her Sam."

    Doesn't really work.

    Wait, clearly I've chosen the wrong name. I can fix this!

    "For never was a story of more woe

    Than this of Juliet and her Frododo."

    Perfect!

  • by nitemice on 2/15/17, 3:58 AM

    So basically is an adult, public-domain version of those books you can get for children, where they insert their name in the story. e.g. http://www.simplypersonalized.com/product/personalized-spide...
  • by pavel_lishin on 2/15/17, 3:51 PM

    > Imagine you and your sweetheart starring in the greatest love stories of all time: personalize Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet

    It's not a great love story, it's a cautionary tale of how reckless teenagers who are too quick to jump to conclusions.

  • by ChicagoBoy11 on 2/15/17, 1:02 PM

    This looks stunning.

    Not that it really matters, but without sanitation of the name input fields I was able to put in some html to really make the rendered text quite wonky.

    Stunning project!

  • by Insanity on 2/15/17, 3:39 PM

    This is a great idea, absolutely love it! It's a great gift for couples who like to read thought I would not just personalize any classic and read it that way. As an avid reader, this is something that I really want in my collection of books.

    I'm sure I'll make my wife happy with this personalized Romeo and Julliet as well. Though I think I might be more excited for it than her :D

  • by pbhjpbhj on 2/15/17, 1:42 PM

    I take it the spiel on that page wasn't written by a native speaker? The flow seems very strange. Don't get me wrong, it's excellent English on the whole, just a bit weird.

    In part it reads like the page was written to sell a publishing platform and then modified to sell search-and-replaced names in books.

    Personally I can't see a market for it at all; yet there seems to be several gushing positive comments here (maybe a bit too positive, it looks suspicious, but perhaps I'm just not the target).

    Has anyone really ever thought "oh I wish my name was in P&P instead of Mr Darcy"?

    Mind you I find the children's version of this saccharin too; bowdlerising a classic just seems to make it even worse.

  • by brohee on 2/15/17, 12:43 PM

    The typography of the web page looks all wonky on FF/Windows, with the text being blurry and wavy...

    Puts me off going further.

  • by Katrijnvb on 2/15/17, 11:57 AM

    Wow, I would love to read a classic with a twist. Whimsical, and most of all, it looks gorgeous. Great gift!
  • by edent on 2/15/17, 9:02 AM

    That's absolutely lovely! And the site works really well on mobile. Kudos!
  • by magic_beans on 2/15/17, 2:21 PM

    Am I the only one here who finds this to be a ridiculous idea? The joy of reading doesn't exactly come from seeing your own name replacing Jane Eyre's.