photo: Simon & Schuster

As far as cult movies go, The Big Lebowski is up there with Dazed & Confused and Clerks, is easily as quotable as Swingers, and can even boast its own festival, Lebowski-Fest, a version of which takes place in cities all across the country from Boston to San Diego. It barely needs mentioning that the plays of William Shakespeare still today influence popular culture: The mark of the great man’s work is in our language, our music and our films.

Adam Bertocci, a lover of both The Dude and The Bard, has combined the two luminaries in the wonderful Two Gentlemen of Lebowski (Simon & Schuster, $12.99), which tells the story of the film in the style of a Shakespeare play.

Bertocci’s vision first garnered public attention as part of a blog, and quickly became a viral sensation. After much hype and press attention, a full play was developed and performed off-off-Broadway to sell-out crowds. Even though the Two Gentlemen can no longer be found online, its popularity persists and fans are excitedly awaiting its official release as a book.

Even for someone who was not a huge admirer of the movie, the book’s appeal is undeniable. Every reshaping of the film’s myriad classic lines into Shakespearean prose raises a smile; the very thought of Jeff Bridges delivering a line like “By my life, I see not why thou hast thy soiled vestments” in response to Walter’s planned double-cross is one of the most appealing mental images one can conjure.

For those who think that a melding of Lebowski and Shakespeare is tantamount to sacrilege (and, please note, opinion will be divided on who is indeed offending whom), it is worth remembering that, at the time, Shakespeare’s plays were not treated with the reverence they are today. In fact, the plays could be considered the very beginning of what we now know as pop culture, and the theaters in which they were staged were rowdy, noisy places where the on-stage action was almost an afterthought.

One doesn’t like to use the word ‘genius’ casually, lest it lose a measure of its shine, but what Bertocci has achieved here is in the same ballpark (or should that be ‘playhouse’?). It is a delightful read and, if I may try my hand at Bardesque, seldom have a handful of hours ere been so entertainingly pass’d.

Two Gentlemen of Lebowski will be on bookshelves on October 26, 2010. Pre-order now at SimonandSchuster.com.