Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Reviews

The Author's Blurb reads: Jane Austen is the author of Sense and Sensibility,
Persuasion, Mansfield Park, and other masterpieces of English literature.
Seth Grahame-Smith once took a class in English literature. He lives in Los Angeles.

You may have seen this book available -- it made quite a splash this spring. It was to have been released about now, but the advance publicity about it was so lively and excited that they rushed to print in early April.

It's the kind of book I wish I'd thought of, a witty left turn from a known classic. Take the basic world of Pride and Prejudice, and add in a mere "mysterious plague" that gradually turns its victims into flesh-eating zombies, and then some rather silly but obvious ramifications. The Bennet sisters have each spent their two years in China being trained in the ninja arts, and now they are held to be finest and prettiest fighters in Hertfordshire. Lady Catherine de Burgh is renowned as the finest zombie-killer in the land. Sir William Lucas got his money (and knightship) through a business of making fine burial gowns. Etc.

The story is still mostly Austen's -- except for tweaks in details, and a few martial arts scenes thrown into the mix, every page is different from the original only by a sentence or two, at most. For instance, It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.

A few things I would have done differently -- there's a coarse level of humor throughout that doesn't fit the parody nor the original (e.g., Darcy makes frequent double entendres about balls, and there's an almost cruel level of physical violence inflicted on some of the characters). It flattens the story and leaves one feeling Grahame-Smith doesn't truly understand the charm of the original. He tweaks the story line in some odd ways that don't add anything, nor are particularly funny in and of themselves (e.g., Charlotte Lucas becomes an unmentionable (a zombie) which might have been made funny, but not much comes of the change). But it does pose some wonderful juxtapositions, such as when Lady Catherine is quizzing Eliza about the lack of a proper upbringing. In the original, of course, she asks about a governess.

"Have your ninjas left you?"
"We never had any ninjas."
"No ninjas! How was that possible! Five daughters brought up at home without any ninjas! I never heard of such a thing. Your mother must have been quite a slave to your safety....Had my own daughter been blessed with a more suitable constitution, I should have sent her away to the best dojos in Japan at the age of four. Are any of your younger sisters out, Miss Bennet?"

Despite my complaints, I do think the book is worth picking up and chuckling over. Best of all, there is a "Readers Discussion Guide" at the back, that is worth the cost of the book alone. Introduced with, We hope these questions will deepen your appreciation and enjoyment of this towering work of classical zombie literature, it features questions that you can tell have been festering in the back of Grahame-Smith's head since he failed an English Lit. exam back in college. Such as:

1. Many critics have addressed the dual nature of Elizabeth's personality. On the one hand, she can be a savage, remorseless killer, as we see in her vanquishing of Lady Catherine's ninjas. On the other hand, she can be tender and merciful, as in her relationships with Jane, Charlotte, and [others]. In your opinion, which of these "halves" best represents the real Elizabeth at the beginning - and the end of the novel?

6.Some critics have suggested that the zombies represent the authors'views toward marriage -- an endless curse that sucks the life out of you and just won't die. Do you agree, or do you have another opinion about the symbolism of the unmentionables?

10. Some scholars believe that the zombies were a last-minute addition to the novel, requested by the publisher in a shameless attempt to boost sales. Others argue that the hordes of living dead are integral to Jane Austen's plot and social commentary.What do you think? Can you imagine what this novel might be like without the violent zombie mayhem?

Grahame-Smith has signed on a two-book deal to follow up this one, already. The next is to be called Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

Boy-child, who has discovered the joy of reading this past year, is intrigued by the cover and the title. I might, as a giggle, introduce him to Jane Austen this way. Unless will he thenceforth find her other, zombie-less, books to be quite boring?