I've been collecting Seven Sea's "Illustrated Classics Series" which currently includes Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, Peter Pan, Pride and Prejudice, The Secret Garden, 'Fairy Tale Princess Collection' and Anne of Green Gables, with A Little Princess, Pollyanna and the Princess and the Goblin coming out later this year (in the USA. Some of these editions were already released in Japan.) These volumes are not manga adaptations (they have a separate line for that called 'Manga Classics') but are the original novels with manga style covers and illustrations. I was dubious at first, but then I picked up The Secret Garden and now I'm hooked - there's just something about manga illustrations that makes these classic stories so much more interesting and relevant than editions with no illustrations or those old timey wood-cut looking pictures. 6t4v6s

I've noticed these volumes are not listed as entries on this site.... I'm wondering if it would be appropriate to add them? If not, because they are not technically manga (though the art for each was drawn by different established manga artists) then I'm wondering if anyone else is collecting them and if they might like to discuss the topic here 🙂 ?

Personally I’d love to see Little Women and Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein available in this format. I know the former has a reasonable following in Japan, while the later I’ve always thought would lend itself perfectly to manga style illustrations.

I looooove these, too!! Oh my goodness, classic books and manga ... who would have thought that my two favourite things could go so well together!! I think a lot of people I know think I'm crazy for having a BA in English Literature and also being an avid shoujo manga reader. So I'm happy I'm not the only one who likes both of these things 🤣

The first one I bought was Pride & Prejudice, one of my favourite books of all time, and I just loved the manga illustrations so much! I've also just pre-ordered Anne of Green Gables. I was surprised to see that Anne of Green Gables is actually illustrated by Minami Maki, who is a popular mangaka ... I've read pretty much all of her stuff!

I would love to see Little Women as well! I'll have to check out the other ones.

If I'm understanding this correctly, these are novels with illustrations? Then they cannot be added to MangaUpdates. On MU, we only allow novels that fulfill 2 criteria

1. Originally in Japanese, Chinese, or Korean (or other Eastern language)
2. Is either licensed by a reputable publisher or has releases by a group listed on MU

In the case of these, they're technically not originally in an Eastern language, so they'd fail the 1st criteria

A just ruler amongst tyrants

Also, have you read the actual manga classics? (I'm guessing those wouldn't be added to MU either, since they're originally in English.)

I have Pride and Prejudice, Sense & Sensibility, Emma, and Jane Eyre. The manga style is a bit different, I find, but overall, I really like them as well!

Adding the manga to MangaUpdates is fine. For example, Pride and Prejudice

A just ruler amongst tyrants

Turns out the "Manga Classics" line is published by Udon.... (I had assumed they were both Seven Seas). Anyway, I tried reading the manga classics version of Les Mis a few years ago but I was so disturbed by the portrayal of toothless-hairless-prostitute Fantine that I had to put the book down and then never really gave the others a chance 😔 But that was just one (depressing) story - so perhaps I'll give the others a try? I'd be most interested in Great Expectations or Huck Finn, but for the curious they also have the Scarlet Letter, The Count of Monte Cristo, the Jungle Book, and Edgar Allen Poe collection and a few more.