Pride and Prejudice... and Zombies.

Hey guys. An intriguing thing happened to me this weekend, whilst at work I got my hands on a copy of a book I've been interested in for a while named, you guessed it, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. What surprised me was, informing my partner in terror-blogging Mr B about it he wasn't aware of its existence. To that end I realised that a lot of fans of the genre may be unfamiliar with some circles, literary being one of them, so think of me as your own personal Newsnight Review, or perhaps Richard and Judy...
The book is co-written by an author named Seth Grahame-Smith, along with original author Jane Austen , who remains credited. The reason being that what Grahame-Smith has done is simply take the text of the original Pride and Prejudice and, in his own words, added "all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie mayhem", expanding the book and "transforming a masterpiece of world literature into something you'd actually want to read". In other words the novel is, to over-simplify, merely Pride and Prejudice reimagined as a sort of Dawn of the Dead style zombie survival horror,... with romance... and a bizarre clash of subject and era.
The first noticeable thing about the book, having begun to read it, is just how close to the source text Grahame-Smith can be, the author himself has commented that in certain places where metaphors like "unmentionables" were deployed and references to enemies and fighting in wars utilised it was easy to see the story his way. There are added bits though, including bizarre subplots and a lot of familiar imagery and dialogue for zombie fans, and as mentioned some truly bizarre and admittedly hilarious clashes of genre. Initially I feared that some of this might get old, but up to now it has remained both engaging and hilarious, sample dialogue:

" It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains."

" The wedding took place, and no one other than Elizabeth suspected the bride's condition."

""My dear girl," said her ladyship. "I suggest you take this contest seriously. My ninjas will show you no mercy."

As an unusual experiment it seems to really work, one can absorb the original story, and see where it remains, quite easily. This leaves the reader feeling a bit intellectual but not bored and thrilled in fact by the overt horror tropes. It's not surprising that the book is a New York Times Best Seller and, of course, a Hollywood movie is in the works. In the end the title and truly amazing cover say it all, its up to the reader to decide if they will enjoy it, but this reader and horror fan is enjoying the expeience of working through it, and it puts a smile on my face.

MM