There's a poll on the Los Angeles Times site that sent us into a fit of giggles to rival all fits of giggles. Yes, there's a new evil in town, in the City of Angels, the likes of which you've never seen.

It's a book called Pride and Prejudice: Hidden Lusts by an erotica author and editor named Mitzi Szereto, and—horror of horrors!—it's an erotic version of Jane Austen's old classic most of us were forced to read in high school.

The book follows the plot of the age-old tale rather closely. The main difference, and the thing that has Carolyn Kellogg (a blogger picked up by the Times to give us the skinny on up-and-coming literature) up in arms, is the addition of rather raunchy sex scenes. Homosexuality and BDSM seem right at home in Szereto's version.

Kellogg asks, “Was it not enough that Austen has already endured the onslaught of zombie hordes? Now, poor Pride and Prejudice stands to face something possibly more destructive to the author's Austen-ness: plain old consummation.”

Rubbish, we say. If the original had scenes like these, we might have been more interested in the book in high school! Unfortunately, it looks like LA residents agree with Ms. Kellogg. Sixty-three percent (so far) have selected the “Goodness, no! Keep those breeches on” option. ’Cause, you know, no one in Los Angeles has sex. Ever.

To help you make up your own mind, here’s the video preview of the book, though it’s not not exactly raunchy or even lusty since that’s not allowed on YouTube: