I Rate Books: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Rated in this Edition

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

By: Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

Pages:317

Copyright:2009

It has been quite a longtime since I have written an installment of I Rate Books, a few years in fact. I suppose that I am writing this edition for lack of anything better to do. Actually, to my chagrin, I haven't been doing much reading this summer. I blame laziness and a social life. I took Pride and Prejudice and Zombies all the way back to Ohio with every intent of reading it. It ended up sitting in the living room for the duration of my stay only to be shoved back into my suitcase usurped by Augusten Burroughs' latest work A Wolf at the Table. I picked the novel back up upon returning to North Carolina as it seemed like a good pool side read. But that's enough back story. On with the review.

I have a theory that author Grahame-Smith wrote Pride and Prejudice and Zombies with the plan of tricking countless, unsuspecting readers into reading a Jane Austen novel. I, like so many other readers, stumbled onto this book in love with the idea of zombies terrorizing Austen's characters, but I got stuck in the trap... the trap of Jane Austen. I took a quarter long course on Austen in college, and vowed upon leaving the class that I would NEVER in my life pick up one of that women's books again. I have always been a "The book is always better," person, that is unless it comes to a Jane Austen novel. When it comes to her, I say watch the movie and save yourself the time, effort, and frustration of wandering through the social laws of the time. I just can't stand the prattle. Readers, I was tricked, and found myself reading Pride and Prejudice again. Oh, that Grahame-Smith is a clever one, pushing culture and classics on all of sorts of people who would never had picked up an Austen novel otherwise. I offer up as proof of this my friend Kathy who on finishing Grahame-Smith's book said to me, "I think that I might read the actual Pride and Prejudice now. Of course I couldn't let that bitch Austen win, and I told her to just watch the Colin Fith mini-series. (-and you thought that I could make it through a post without mentioning a Colin.) On finishing the zombie edition, I can honestly say that she got everything she needed from the zombies.

Pictured above: Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy

Sure it is Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy fighting Zombies, but if you read this novel, I am certain that you could get a passing grade on a multiple choice test over Austen's novel. Grahame-Smith does change a few aspects of the novel to fit the zombie element in, but much of the original text and plot remain the same. I do have to admit that all of the blood, guts, and gore are amusing when put along side English society. I can say that he did make some improvements on the original text regarding misters Collins and Wickham. I wish I could tell you what misfortunes they befall, but that would be cheating. What made reading the novel all worthwhile, are the bookclub discussion questions at the end. They are, of course, written tounge in cheek to the same tune as what you would typically find in lame ass bookclub discussion questions.

The plot of the novel is not exactly what I thought it would be. I had imagined that it would take the well known characters on a new adventure, and not a retelling of the story with zombies, vomiting, and martial arts. Perhaps there is room somewhere for a sequel. SPOILER***I did find it a bit disappointing that the reader never finds out why or when all of England was attacked by zombies. I was also nonplussed by the fact that the zombie are never defeated. They are just there to carry on with the rest of Austen's characters.*** I was also a bit irratated by the the fact that some of Grahame-Smith's changes eliminated conflicts in the plot, and the fact that said conflicts were resovled is never mentioned in the text. I put this down to lazy writing and editing, or perhaps the publishers do not expect their readers to put too much thought into the plot. An example of one such instance is (SPOILER***)after the misfortune that befalls Mr. Collins the Bennets are willed the house at Longbourne. This eliminates the nessecity for the Bennet girls to all find "good husbands", thus it renders Jane's relation with Mr. Bingly a mute point other than the fact that she might acutally love him. To anyone who who knows the novel's story line, she/he knows that this is all that Mrs. Bennet thinks and cares about, and yet she never mentions the fact that she nolonger has to worry about being put out of her home upon her husband's ultimate demise.***

Above: Illustration from Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

In the end, should you read this book? Why not? It's fun, and if your an Austen fan you will just get caught up in the story you already know by heart but with a twist. If your looking for a good zombie read, you'll walk away having read a classic novel... more or less. It makes me wonder if there will ever be a Bridget Jones's Diary and Zombies. One can only hope that some zombies might come along and kill that bastardized franchise.

Postscript

In the spirit of full disclosure, Seth Grahame-Smith's Wikipedia page says that he got the idea for P.P.&Z. from his editor, and is not, as I suspected, an English professor tricking the world into unwittingly reading Jane Austen. But what does Wikipedia know?

Not to be out done... here's a little meat candy for the ladies.

Photographed Above: Colin Meloy lead singer of the Decemberist and "meatiest" of all the Colins

FYI RE: More Blogging
Kathy and I will be reunited with Mr. Meloy and The Decemberists this month. I assure that there will be blogging abound on Miss Kathy-Wathy's and my parts. Until then, happy reading.