Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

Prejudice and Zombies, “The Classic Regency Romance, now with Ultra violent Mayhem!”..

where to begin.

if i could repeatedly send a text message to Jane Austen, it would read “… i do not like you.. i do not think this will ever change…” to which Jane would reply by letter, “Dear Sir, I know not who you are, but if you keep blowing up my cell with spam, I will likely have to turn you into the authorities.”

When i heard about the edited version of Pride and Prejudice, i jumped to my feet rapidly telling my wife, “Jenn! lets go, lets go! do you think Powells Books is still open? “. to myself, i said, “OMGOMGawesomeness comingmyway” which i then followed up with an immediate and impromptu trip to the book store. I purchased Pride and Prejudice and Zombies the same day i heard about it and was excited for such a ‘novel’ novel.

overall, i felt it was a good read. anyone who has read the original work knows that it is PAINFULLY slow in the first half. until Elizabeth goes on her trip to Pemberly, it is one of the dullest and most drawn out story ramp ups in existence. a couple hundred pages of he said she said angst with no real plot to speak of.

in the end, this is basically two books: the first half is just a Jane Austen story, in all its wordy drawn out-ness. the second half is pretty damn good, and i enjoyed it greatly.

The marketing description on the back of the book reads:

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.” So begins Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, an expanded edition of the beloved Jane Austen novel featuring all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie mayhem. As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton?and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she’s soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers?and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield as Elizabeth wages war against hordes of flesh-eating undead. Can she vanquish the spawn of Satan? And overcome the social prejudices of the class-conscious landed gentry? Complete with romance, heartbreak, sword fights, cannibalism, and thousands of rotting corpses,Pride and Prejudice and Zombies transforms a masterpiece of world literature into something you’d actually want to read.

The last line of this description is the most important for people who want to read this, “transforms a masterpiece of world literature into something you’d actually want to read.” yeah, want is true, but capability will be questionable in some cases, such as mine. to set things in the proper light, for the first half of the book, i couldnt get into it. i would read a chapter and then i would read a different book. once i hit the halfway mark it sped up, just as with the original.? i guess even with zombies in it, you still have to be a 14 year old girl with princess fantasies in order to truly enjoy the entirety of this book. my loins were not burning for mr darcy or mr wickham. as such, i really felt no pull to complete the book till i hit the real story, lizzie attempting to rectify the hell she brought onto herself by being prideful and full of prejudice (thus the title)

i found that the text Grahame-Smith added to the story was solid and often enjoyable. it was written in a manner that was of similar style as the original, it did not feel jumpy or terribly out of place. overall, it was a great addition to the story and caught me by surprise at some points. the illustrations in the book were pleasing and humorous.

the one main disappointment i had: if you are adding the excitement of zombies into a classic, why not make the first half of the book better. boring is still boring, zombies or no zombies. spice it up, add more to the beginning than to the end. random violence is better than hours of reading all about absolutely zilch

on a separate but still associated note, this edited book has been optioned for a movie and apparently has some studios bidding over it as a new “blockbuster”.

pride and Prejudice is also being produced into graphic novel form by Marvel Comics. they are including it in part? of their literature classics collection

i was going to place a review of World War Z here as well, but the post is long enough, so i am going to break it apart for ease of viewing.

one last note before closing.. i still think that Elizabeth and Jane Bennet are incestuous lovers.. this version of the book did not change that point of view at all. were they not sisters, they would have run off together, but as they were afraid of the social stigma consequences, they opted for a bit of man love.. just one opinion..