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Pride and Prejudice and Zombies #1
Orgueil & Préjugés & Zombies
L'Angleterre subit une terrible épidémie: des morts vivants envahissent villes et campagnes, et contaminent la population.
Dans la famille Bennett, on est bien entraînés. Les arts martiaux n'ont plus de secrets pour les cinq filles et, même à l'heure du thé, elles ne se séparent jamais de leur dague!
Pas facile de trouer un mari à la hauteur. Elizabeth a d'ailleurs bien envie d'égorger cet orgueilleux Darcy qui la snobe, mais l'irruption de "innommables" dans la salle de bal change ses plans...
Dans la famille Bennett, on est bien entraînés. Les arts martiaux n'ont plus de secrets pour les cinq filles et, même à l'heure du thé, elles ne se séparent jamais de leur dague!
Pas facile de trouer un mari à la hauteur. Elizabeth a d'ailleurs bien envie d'égorger cet orgueilleux Darcy qui la snobe, mais l'irruption de "innommables" dans la salle de bal change ses plans...
349 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published April 1, 2009
5023 people are currently reading
117679 people want to read
About the author
Seth Grahame-Smith
22 books2,833 followersSeth grew up in Connecticut reading Stephen King from a way-too-early age and forcing his friends to be in homemade horror movies. He’s written three New York Times Bestselling novels (and another one that kind’ve flopped but got good reviews). He occasionally writes or produces movies. The ones you like the most are probably THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE and IT. Right now he’s working on a GREEN LANTERN series for HBO Max. Please stop asking him when it comes out. He’s a partner in Katzsmith Productions, a film and television company based in Los Angeles. He has a lovely wife, two fine sons, and two comically dumb dogs.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 14,081 reviews
May 8, 2010
I tried to resist. When everyone starting losing their shit over this book and pre-ordering it, I told myself that this was a literary bandwagon I wouldn't jump on. I read the reviews posted here, and saw that for the most part the consensus was that this book was grossly overrated. All the parts that Grahame-Smith wrote (and there aren't many) weren't very well done, the zombie device got old quickly, and the whole thing could have been much better.
It was with all this evidence in mind that I went into a bookstore a week ago and bought a copy.
All of the previously mentioned criticisms are true. But you know what I decided? Criticism be damned, go ahead and revoke my Intelligent Reader membership card, I don't care. Because this book fucking rocked, and was the most fun I've had reading a book in a long time.
It's the exact same plot as the original story, except it takes place in an alternate universe where England has been overrun with zombies for "five and fifty years". Why did this happen? It doesn't matter. All you need to know is that zombies are cool, and the Bennett sisters (thanks to their Shaolin training) are the best zombie slayers in Hertfordshire. Enter Mr. Darcy, who "drew the attention of the room by his fine, tall person, handsome features, noble mien - and the report which was in general circulation withing five minutes after his entrance, of his having slaughtered more than a thousand unmentionables since the fall of Cambridge."
I don't really know what else to say about this that hasn't been said already in the 1,000+ reviews already posted on this site. If you enjoy zombie movies, either genuinely or ironically, you will like this book. If you're a Jane Austen fan, you'll either think this book is brilliant or are already setting fire to Seth Grahame-Smith's lawn.
We now present our closing arguments in support of the awesomeness of this book:
-The story appears exactly as it does in the original, but with infinitely more general badassery. The scene where Darcy first confesses his love for Elizabeth becomes much more interesting when the entire converstation occurs while Elizabeth is beating the shit out of Darcy.
-"'It is your turn to say something now, Mr. Darcy. I talked about the dance, and you ought to make some sort of remark on the size of the room, or the number of couples.'
He smiled, and assured her that whatever she wished him to say would be said.
'Very well. That reply will do for the present. Perhaps by and by I may observe that private balls are much pleasanter than public ones.'
'On the contrary, I find that balls are much more enjoyable when they cease to remain private.'"
-Lady Catherine de Bourgh is a famous zombie killer, and has a personal army of ninjas. NINJAS.
-"The entertainment of dining at Rosings was repeated about twice a week; and, allowing for the loss of Sir William, and there being only one card-table in the evening, every such entertainment was the couterpart of the first. On one such occasion, Elizabeth was solicited to spar with several of her ladyship's ninjas for the amusement of the party.
The demonstration took place in Lady Catherine's grand dojo, which she had paid to have carried from Kyoto, brick by brick, on the backs of peasants. The ninjas wore their traditional black clothing, masks, and Tabbi boots; Elizabeth wore her sparring gown, and her trusted Katana sword. As Lady Catherine rose to signal the beginning of the match, Elizabeth, in a show of defiance, blindfolded herself."
PS: Austen Austen AUSTEN.
It was with all this evidence in mind that I went into a bookstore a week ago and bought a copy.
All of the previously mentioned criticisms are true. But you know what I decided? Criticism be damned, go ahead and revoke my Intelligent Reader membership card, I don't care. Because this book fucking rocked, and was the most fun I've had reading a book in a long time.
It's the exact same plot as the original story, except it takes place in an alternate universe where England has been overrun with zombies for "five and fifty years". Why did this happen? It doesn't matter. All you need to know is that zombies are cool, and the Bennett sisters (thanks to their Shaolin training) are the best zombie slayers in Hertfordshire. Enter Mr. Darcy, who "drew the attention of the room by his fine, tall person, handsome features, noble mien - and the report which was in general circulation withing five minutes after his entrance, of his having slaughtered more than a thousand unmentionables since the fall of Cambridge."
I don't really know what else to say about this that hasn't been said already in the 1,000+ reviews already posted on this site. If you enjoy zombie movies, either genuinely or ironically, you will like this book. If you're a Jane Austen fan, you'll either think this book is brilliant or are already setting fire to Seth Grahame-Smith's lawn.
We now present our closing arguments in support of the awesomeness of this book:
-The story appears exactly as it does in the original, but with infinitely more general badassery. The scene where Darcy first confesses his love for Elizabeth becomes much more interesting when the entire converstation occurs while Elizabeth is beating the shit out of Darcy.
-"'It is your turn to say something now, Mr. Darcy. I talked about the dance, and you ought to make some sort of remark on the size of the room, or the number of couples.'
He smiled, and assured her that whatever she wished him to say would be said.
'Very well. That reply will do for the present. Perhaps by and by I may observe that private balls are much pleasanter than public ones.'
'On the contrary, I find that balls are much more enjoyable when they cease to remain private.'"
-Lady Catherine de Bourgh is a famous zombie killer, and has a personal army of ninjas. NINJAS.
-"The entertainment of dining at Rosings was repeated about twice a week; and, allowing for the loss of Sir William, and there being only one card-table in the evening, every such entertainment was the couterpart of the first. On one such occasion, Elizabeth was solicited to spar with several of her ladyship's ninjas for the amusement of the party.
The demonstration took place in Lady Catherine's grand dojo, which she had paid to have carried from Kyoto, brick by brick, on the backs of peasants. The ninjas wore their traditional black clothing, masks, and Tabbi boots; Elizabeth wore her sparring gown, and her trusted Katana sword. As Lady Catherine rose to signal the beginning of the match, Elizabeth, in a show of defiance, blindfolded herself."
PS: Austen Austen AUSTEN.
March 3, 2017
If you are an Austen purist, you probably will not like this.
If you are a zombie purist, you will probably not like this.
If you can accept two seemingly unrelated worlds colliding in a creative, fun, and gruesome tale that both pokes fun of and pays homage to each genre – step right up and check this out!
This book was a lot of fun! Every page had at least one quote that had me grinning. Seeing every disagreement that would have been handled as a polite argument in the original novel turn into a battle between adversaries trained by Shaolin monks was awesome!
I am impressed with the author, Seth Grahame-Smith. I have read one of his other books, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, and I enjoyed it as well. I think he does a great job of combining genres with the results feeling creative, unique, and often hilarious and not feeling contrived or stupid.
Also, the book had some nice, gruesome illustrations throughout:
I am very much looking forward to checking out the movie!
If you enjoy some fun creativity and do not mind Austin being blasphemed or Zombies being slandered – I behoove you to partake of this novel, posthaste!
If you are a zombie purist, you will probably not like this.
If you can accept two seemingly unrelated worlds colliding in a creative, fun, and gruesome tale that both pokes fun of and pays homage to each genre – step right up and check this out!
This book was a lot of fun! Every page had at least one quote that had me grinning. Seeing every disagreement that would have been handled as a polite argument in the original novel turn into a battle between adversaries trained by Shaolin monks was awesome!
I am impressed with the author, Seth Grahame-Smith. I have read one of his other books, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, and I enjoyed it as well. I think he does a great job of combining genres with the results feeling creative, unique, and often hilarious and not feeling contrived or stupid.
Also, the book had some nice, gruesome illustrations throughout:
I am very much looking forward to checking out the movie!
If you enjoy some fun creativity and do not mind Austin being blasphemed or Zombies being slandered – I behoove you to partake of this novel, posthaste!
February 17, 2009
Since I am known by my friends as a Jane Austen person, SEVENTEEN different people sent me the link to this publishing announcement. Even though the book won't be published for another two months, a friend managed to procure an advanced copy (aka Word doc of the finished product), and so I read it over the weekend.
That being said, it's rather unnecessary for anyone to read this novel in its entirety, even if it does sound amusing. The best plan is to read the first two or three chapters, and then call it a day. You'll get the point and you won't be missing much. (Actually, you'll get everything you need, because Chapter 3 will include a ball and a zombie battle.)
It really is a clever idea -- maintaining the actual text of Pride and Prejudice and simply inserting another storyline... one that just happens to involve zombies overrunning England so that the upper classes (men and often women) are sent to Japan or China to be trained in deadly arts so as to combat the unfortunately afflicted. But it's a funny joke that gets old very very fast. The first few chapters had me giggling as a result of the novelty. The exact P&P text with small insertions or minor dialogue alterations... it is a funny idea, even I must admit. But that's where it ends. Nothing truly unique was done with the story beyond some small revenges on irritating and wicked characters that didn't receive what was coming to them in the real novel. For the sake of maintaining as much of the original text as possible, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies runs exactly the same course as Pride and Prejudice.
SPOILERS after this point, but really, admit to yourself that you're not actually going to read this. You'll chuckle over the cover (which is the best part of the whole thing) when you look at it in the bookstore, and then you'll set it down. We're in a recession. You're not seriously going to purchase this novel when there's so much else out there to be read?
I suppose that is my biggest qualm with the novel. If it was going to do something truly interesting, the plot would have needed to change a bit. I suppose it was unrealistic for Darcy or Elizabeth to die, but there are so few casualties that it's really quite disappointing. I was expecting to at least lose one Bennet sister (Kitty could have been eaten or Mary could die in a blaze of glory). Even Grahame-Smith alludes to this desire at one point, where Elizabeth fantasizes decapitating Lydia in a carriage. But there's no follow-through! The only losses we experience are of Charlotte (who is afflicted with the zombie plague) and Mr. Collins (who hangs himself in unexpected and rather uncharacteristic grief). Wickham is crippled (by Darcy, which is nice) and he's sent off to a seminary for the lame in Ireland with Lydia. I had actually been hoping that Wickham would be a slowly changing zombie and that he'd make an attempt to eat Elizabeth's brains, or that his taking Lydia away was a ruse to feast on her brains, too -- or better yet, that the terrible thing he had done to Georgiana Darcy was to try and elope with her and end up being a coward in battle to the point where she was bitten by a zombie and lost a limb to it or something. Nope. Sorry. Not nearly so interesting. I would never expect me to say this, but there was just too much Pride and Prejudice in here -- the author was unwilling to deviate from the novel enough to create something interesting that could stand on its own as a ridiculously funny Austenuation. Ah well.
In the end, it's a clever idea, but that is all. I'm pleased that someone brought the idea into being, but I'm not sure it merited a full novel. A short excerpt in a magazine would have been sufficient rather than the entire creation -- such as a fake book review and excerpt in something like Believer where you could have read a few chapters and then seen a summary.
I leave you, then, with the first chapter:
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES
By Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
Chapter 1
IT IS A TRUTH universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains. Never was this truth more plain than during the recent attacks at Netherfield Park, in which a household of eighteen was slaughtered and consumed by a horde of the living dead.
"My dear Mr. Bennet," said his lady to him one day, "have you heard that Netherfield Park is occupied again?"
Mr. Bennet replied that he had not, and went about his morning business of dagger sharpening and musket polishing -- for attacks by the unmentionables had grown alarmingly frequent in recent weeks.
"But it is," returned she.
Mr. Bennet made no answer.
"Do you not want to know who has taken it?" cried his wife impatiently.
"Woman, I am attending to my musket. Prattle on if you must, but leave me to the defense of my estate!”
This was invitation enough.
"Why, my dear, Mrs. Long says that Netherfield is taken by a young man of large fortune; that he escaped London in a chaise and four just as the strange plague broke through the Manchester line.”
"What is his name?"
"Bingley. A single man of four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!"
"How so? Can he train them in the ways of swordsmanship and musketry?”
"How can you be so tiresome! You must know that I am thinking of his marrying one of them."
"Marriage? In times such as these? Surely this Bingley has no such designs.”
"Designs! Nonsense, how can you talk so! It is very likely that he may fall in love with one of them, and therefore you must visit him as soon as he comes."
"I see no occasion for that. And besides, we mustn’t busy the roads more than is absolutely necessary, lest we lose more horses and carriages to the unfortunate scourge that has so troubled our beloved Hertfordshire of late.”
"But consider your daughters!”
“I am considering them, silly woman! I would much prefer their minds be engaged in the deadly arts than clouded with dreams of marriage and fortune as your own so clearly is! Go and see this Bingley if you must, though I warn you that none of our girls has much to recommend them; they are all silly and ignorant like their mother, the exception being Lizzy, who has something more of the killer instinct than her sisters.”
"Mr. Bennet, how can you abuse your own children in such a way? You take delight in vexing me. You have no compassion for my poor nerves."
"You mistake me, my dear. I have a high respect for your nerves. They are my old friends. I have heard of little else these last twenty years at least."
Mr. Bennet was so odd a mixture of quick parts, sarcastic humour, reserve, and self-discipline, that the experience of three-and-twenty years had been insufficient to make his wife understand his character. Her mind was less difficult to develop. She was a woman of mean understanding, little information, and uncertain temper. When she was discontented, she fancied herself nervous. And when she was nervous -- as she was nearly all the time since the first outbreak of the strange plague in her youth -- she sought solace in the comfort of the traditions which now seemed mere trifles to others.
The business of Mr. Bennett’s life was to keep his daughters alive. The business of Mrs. Bennett’s was to get them married.
That being said, it's rather unnecessary for anyone to read this novel in its entirety, even if it does sound amusing. The best plan is to read the first two or three chapters, and then call it a day. You'll get the point and you won't be missing much. (Actually, you'll get everything you need, because Chapter 3 will include a ball and a zombie battle.)
It really is a clever idea -- maintaining the actual text of Pride and Prejudice and simply inserting another storyline... one that just happens to involve zombies overrunning England so that the upper classes (men and often women) are sent to Japan or China to be trained in deadly arts so as to combat the unfortunately afflicted. But it's a funny joke that gets old very very fast. The first few chapters had me giggling as a result of the novelty. The exact P&P text with small insertions or minor dialogue alterations... it is a funny idea, even I must admit. But that's where it ends. Nothing truly unique was done with the story beyond some small revenges on irritating and wicked characters that didn't receive what was coming to them in the real novel. For the sake of maintaining as much of the original text as possible, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies runs exactly the same course as Pride and Prejudice.
SPOILERS after this point, but really, admit to yourself that you're not actually going to read this. You'll chuckle over the cover (which is the best part of the whole thing) when you look at it in the bookstore, and then you'll set it down. We're in a recession. You're not seriously going to purchase this novel when there's so much else out there to be read?
I suppose that is my biggest qualm with the novel. If it was going to do something truly interesting, the plot would have needed to change a bit. I suppose it was unrealistic for Darcy or Elizabeth to die, but there are so few casualties that it's really quite disappointing. I was expecting to at least lose one Bennet sister (Kitty could have been eaten or Mary could die in a blaze of glory). Even Grahame-Smith alludes to this desire at one point, where Elizabeth fantasizes decapitating Lydia in a carriage. But there's no follow-through! The only losses we experience are of Charlotte (who is afflicted with the zombie plague) and Mr. Collins (who hangs himself in unexpected and rather uncharacteristic grief). Wickham is crippled (by Darcy, which is nice) and he's sent off to a seminary for the lame in Ireland with Lydia. I had actually been hoping that Wickham would be a slowly changing zombie and that he'd make an attempt to eat Elizabeth's brains, or that his taking Lydia away was a ruse to feast on her brains, too -- or better yet, that the terrible thing he had done to Georgiana Darcy was to try and elope with her and end up being a coward in battle to the point where she was bitten by a zombie and lost a limb to it or something. Nope. Sorry. Not nearly so interesting. I would never expect me to say this, but there was just too much Pride and Prejudice in here -- the author was unwilling to deviate from the novel enough to create something interesting that could stand on its own as a ridiculously funny Austenuation. Ah well.
In the end, it's a clever idea, but that is all. I'm pleased that someone brought the idea into being, but I'm not sure it merited a full novel. A short excerpt in a magazine would have been sufficient rather than the entire creation -- such as a fake book review and excerpt in something like Believer where you could have read a few chapters and then seen a summary.
I leave you, then, with the first chapter:
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES
By Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
Chapter 1
IT IS A TRUTH universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains. Never was this truth more plain than during the recent attacks at Netherfield Park, in which a household of eighteen was slaughtered and consumed by a horde of the living dead.
"My dear Mr. Bennet," said his lady to him one day, "have you heard that Netherfield Park is occupied again?"
Mr. Bennet replied that he had not, and went about his morning business of dagger sharpening and musket polishing -- for attacks by the unmentionables had grown alarmingly frequent in recent weeks.
"But it is," returned she.
Mr. Bennet made no answer.
"Do you not want to know who has taken it?" cried his wife impatiently.
"Woman, I am attending to my musket. Prattle on if you must, but leave me to the defense of my estate!”
This was invitation enough.
"Why, my dear, Mrs. Long says that Netherfield is taken by a young man of large fortune; that he escaped London in a chaise and four just as the strange plague broke through the Manchester line.”
"What is his name?"
"Bingley. A single man of four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!"
"How so? Can he train them in the ways of swordsmanship and musketry?”
"How can you be so tiresome! You must know that I am thinking of his marrying one of them."
"Marriage? In times such as these? Surely this Bingley has no such designs.”
"Designs! Nonsense, how can you talk so! It is very likely that he may fall in love with one of them, and therefore you must visit him as soon as he comes."
"I see no occasion for that. And besides, we mustn’t busy the roads more than is absolutely necessary, lest we lose more horses and carriages to the unfortunate scourge that has so troubled our beloved Hertfordshire of late.”
"But consider your daughters!”
“I am considering them, silly woman! I would much prefer their minds be engaged in the deadly arts than clouded with dreams of marriage and fortune as your own so clearly is! Go and see this Bingley if you must, though I warn you that none of our girls has much to recommend them; they are all silly and ignorant like their mother, the exception being Lizzy, who has something more of the killer instinct than her sisters.”
"Mr. Bennet, how can you abuse your own children in such a way? You take delight in vexing me. You have no compassion for my poor nerves."
"You mistake me, my dear. I have a high respect for your nerves. They are my old friends. I have heard of little else these last twenty years at least."
Mr. Bennet was so odd a mixture of quick parts, sarcastic humour, reserve, and self-discipline, that the experience of three-and-twenty years had been insufficient to make his wife understand his character. Her mind was less difficult to develop. She was a woman of mean understanding, little information, and uncertain temper. When she was discontented, she fancied herself nervous. And when she was nervous -- as she was nearly all the time since the first outbreak of the strange plague in her youth -- she sought solace in the comfort of the traditions which now seemed mere trifles to others.
The business of Mr. Bennett’s life was to keep his daughters alive. The business of Mrs. Bennett’s was to get them married.
July 4, 2020
The movie was a billion times better than the book...
How often do you get to say that?
What a great idea! Take a universally loved classic and spice it up with some zombies! Honestly, I couldn't wait to get my hands on this thing. I just knew that it was going to be so much fun to read! I was wrong. Really wrong.
To start with, it wasn't funny. It tried to be funny, but it wasn't. It was completely stupid. I don't even think I can describe how...how not funny it was! There were ninjas. Yes...ninjas. In Pride and Prejudice. Ninjas. Maybe that sounds kind of cool, but somehow it wasn't. Hey, look! There's a ninja! Was that funny? No. And that's how awesome it was in the book, too.
I will say, Charlotte Lucas becoming infected with the zombie disease was sort of funny at times. If she hadn't been killed off it might have helped the story. However, Mr. Collins beheaded her and then killed himself. ???? There were several things like that, where the characters in the story acted totally unlike themselves. Again, I wouldn't have cared IF IT HAD BEEN FUNNY. Remember Elizabeth's favorite aunt, Mrs. Gardiner? The one who had good sense and didn't embarrass Elizabeth? Well, she (for no apparent reason) had an affair with an old flame while they were out seeing Pemberly. Huh? Why? It didn't make any sense, and it was just weird. Not funny. Wierd.
Lady Catherine was still a bitch, but she was a bitch with ninjas. Yes...ninjas. In Pride and Prejudice. Ninjas.
How often do you get to say that?
What a great idea! Take a universally loved classic and spice it up with some zombies! Honestly, I couldn't wait to get my hands on this thing. I just knew that it was going to be so much fun to read! I was wrong. Really wrong.
To start with, it wasn't funny. It tried to be funny, but it wasn't. It was completely stupid. I don't even think I can describe how...how not funny it was! There were ninjas. Yes...ninjas. In Pride and Prejudice. Ninjas. Maybe that sounds kind of cool, but somehow it wasn't. Hey, look! There's a ninja! Was that funny? No. And that's how awesome it was in the book, too.
I will say, Charlotte Lucas becoming infected with the zombie disease was sort of funny at times. If she hadn't been killed off it might have helped the story. However, Mr. Collins beheaded her and then killed himself. ???? There were several things like that, where the characters in the story acted totally unlike themselves. Again, I wouldn't have cared IF IT HAD BEEN FUNNY. Remember Elizabeth's favorite aunt, Mrs. Gardiner? The one who had good sense and didn't embarrass Elizabeth? Well, she (for no apparent reason) had an affair with an old flame while they were out seeing Pemberly. Huh? Why? It didn't make any sense, and it was just weird. Not funny. Wierd.
Lady Catherine was still a bitch, but she was a bitch with ninjas. Yes...ninjas. In Pride and Prejudice. Ninjas.
October 30, 2009
Taking my cue from the emotional ratings of the goodreads star system (and I can only muster two stars for this book), I offer you a fully gut reaction to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
didn’t like it
1. The ninjafication of Lizzy and the Bennet sisters. It was completely idiotic. The book really should have been called Pride and Prejudice and Ninjas with Zombies to allow dumb ass Ultraviolence. Had Grahame-Smith simply employed the available military training of the Regency period and allowed the Bennet girls to be warriors of that sort, I could have suspended my frustration at his failure to see the difference such a shift would have made on the period itself, and his failure to engage with these changes. But by adding his bizarre, counter-factual, Asian cultural influence without any explanation, without any sense, Grahame-Smith made ignoring the illogic of his changes impossible. Plus, I fucking hate Ninja stories. They were embarrassingly bad when Chuck Norris was turning them into movies, and they are even worse when tossed inexplicably into a Regency Romance.
2. The Destruction of Lizzy. This is partially a result of Grahame-Smith’s Ninjification of P&P, but mostly it is his stupidity. P&P&Z’s Elizabeth could be the lead smarmy girl in any of a thousand teenage high school flicks. In fact, there is nothing of the Regency girl left in Grahame-Smith’s version. She’s a Millennial Girl with a Katana, and that strips Lizzy of all that makes her attractive.
3. Then there’s the vomit. It doesn’t matter that Grahame-Smith offers a tongue-in-cheek defense of the constant stream of vomit in his book. It is disruptive, silly and annoying. And damn near everyone does it. Oh sure, Mrs. Bennet is the biggest puker, but at some point almost every character pukes discretely into their handkerchief. Yeah, yeah, Zombies eating brains is gross, but when one has been surrounded by the Unmentionables for fifty years, it is unlikely that one will share our sense of decorum and our weak stomachs.
it was ok
4. The Zombie scenes were nowhere near as exciting and interesting as I expected. In fact, the Zombies seemed incidental. They were their so Elizabeth could whip out her Katana and kill things indiscriminately. One of the elements of good Zombie tales is that there is always a sense of danger. Sure there are a plenty of cheesy Zombie movies, but there is always a feeling that the characters are going to have their brains eaten and turn into Zombies themselves, but when Mr. Darcy or Elizabeth or any of the Bennet sisters whip out their swords there is no threat to anyone but the Zombies. Still, baiting Zombies with heads of cauliflower is kind of fun.
5. The one character who turned into a Zombie. Charlotte Lucas’s joining of Satan’s legions starts out strong even if it ends poorly. It went on much too long, but Charlotte lusting after the brains of animals at the dinner table did make me smile.
6. Seth Grahame-Smith’s attempts to capture the style of Austen. They were acceptable, though uninspired.
liked it
7. The quarantine of London It made me smile.
really liked it
8. The initial idea Zombies in Pride and Prejudice?! It's a brilliant idea. Too bad Grahame-Smith’s execution didn’t match.
it was amazing
9. The cover. With its Zombified Regency woman, the touch of blood, the freaky red eyes, the exposed jawbone all while mugging the cover conventions of the classic novel, it was a kick ass marketing ploy that would have sucked me in had the idea not sucked me in first (not that being sucked in can be called a good thing).
10. Grahame-Smith’s book club bit. “A Reader’s Discussion Guide” was smart, funny, and did repair my opinion of the stupidity of the book -- just a little.
11. The pencil sketch illustrations. Filled with Zombies and swordplay, the sketches were big hits with my kids. If I left the book lying around they were checking out the Zombie madness. For me, every sketch represented one step closer to being finished. So I loved them too.
12. Jane Austen’s writing. It was still the best part of the book, and there was plenty of it there to make reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies tolerable. I’ll be grabbing some real Austen soon, however, so I can cleanse my literary palette.
didn’t like it
1. The ninjafication of Lizzy and the Bennet sisters. It was completely idiotic. The book really should have been called Pride and Prejudice and Ninjas with Zombies to allow dumb ass Ultraviolence. Had Grahame-Smith simply employed the available military training of the Regency period and allowed the Bennet girls to be warriors of that sort, I could have suspended my frustration at his failure to see the difference such a shift would have made on the period itself, and his failure to engage with these changes. But by adding his bizarre, counter-factual, Asian cultural influence without any explanation, without any sense, Grahame-Smith made ignoring the illogic of his changes impossible. Plus, I fucking hate Ninja stories. They were embarrassingly bad when Chuck Norris was turning them into movies, and they are even worse when tossed inexplicably into a Regency Romance.
2. The Destruction of Lizzy. This is partially a result of Grahame-Smith’s Ninjification of P&P, but mostly it is his stupidity. P&P&Z’s Elizabeth could be the lead smarmy girl in any of a thousand teenage high school flicks. In fact, there is nothing of the Regency girl left in Grahame-Smith’s version. She’s a Millennial Girl with a Katana, and that strips Lizzy of all that makes her attractive.
3. Then there’s the vomit. It doesn’t matter that Grahame-Smith offers a tongue-in-cheek defense of the constant stream of vomit in his book. It is disruptive, silly and annoying. And damn near everyone does it. Oh sure, Mrs. Bennet is the biggest puker, but at some point almost every character pukes discretely into their handkerchief. Yeah, yeah, Zombies eating brains is gross, but when one has been surrounded by the Unmentionables for fifty years, it is unlikely that one will share our sense of decorum and our weak stomachs.
it was ok
4. The Zombie scenes were nowhere near as exciting and interesting as I expected. In fact, the Zombies seemed incidental. They were their so Elizabeth could whip out her Katana and kill things indiscriminately. One of the elements of good Zombie tales is that there is always a sense of danger. Sure there are a plenty of cheesy Zombie movies, but there is always a feeling that the characters are going to have their brains eaten and turn into Zombies themselves, but when Mr. Darcy or Elizabeth or any of the Bennet sisters whip out their swords there is no threat to anyone but the Zombies. Still, baiting Zombies with heads of cauliflower is kind of fun.
5. The one character who turned into a Zombie. Charlotte Lucas’s joining of Satan’s legions starts out strong even if it ends poorly. It went on much too long, but Charlotte lusting after the brains of animals at the dinner table did make me smile.
6. Seth Grahame-Smith’s attempts to capture the style of Austen. They were acceptable, though uninspired.
liked it
7. The quarantine of London It made me smile.
really liked it
8. The initial idea Zombies in Pride and Prejudice?! It's a brilliant idea. Too bad Grahame-Smith’s execution didn’t match.
it was amazing
9. The cover. With its Zombified Regency woman, the touch of blood, the freaky red eyes, the exposed jawbone all while mugging the cover conventions of the classic novel, it was a kick ass marketing ploy that would have sucked me in had the idea not sucked me in first (not that being sucked in can be called a good thing).
10. Grahame-Smith’s book club bit. “A Reader’s Discussion Guide” was smart, funny, and did repair my opinion of the stupidity of the book -- just a little.
11. The pencil sketch illustrations. Filled with Zombies and swordplay, the sketches were big hits with my kids. If I left the book lying around they were checking out the Zombie madness. For me, every sketch represented one step closer to being finished. So I loved them too.
12. Jane Austen’s writing. It was still the best part of the book, and there was plenty of it there to make reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies tolerable. I’ll be grabbing some real Austen soon, however, so I can cleanse my literary palette.
December 29, 2018
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is brilliant and hilarious.
This is a mash-up, meaning that Graham-Smith used the actual text of Jane Austin’s novel (she is listed as a co-author) and inserted his zombie story along the original storyline.
The trouble with most horror stories, whether print or film, is poor writing. Someone may have a great concept, but setting that down on paper is too difficult, or that someone can create some good scenes or segments, but stringing them together results in a too thin or too silly creation.
Graham-Smith has deftly solved this problem by using as his foundation one of English languages greatest novels. Fans of Austin will be pleased to find the Bennets and Mr. Darcy in all their early nineteenth century propriety, only now the girls have been trained Kill Bill fashion and hunt the undead.
English teachers should embrace the book, because young readers are unwittingly reading Austin, about 70% of the text is unadulterated classic prose. Of course the other 30% is fantastically adulterated with roving herds of freshly unearthed zombies and bloody mayhem.
Fans of this mash-up sub genre can also check out Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.
** 2018 - Ideas for other mash-ups:
A Nightmare in Calaveras County
Little Women Slayers
Ethan Fromm the Terminator
Jay Gatsby: SwampThing
The Mockingbird Assassin
The Color Purple People Eaters
As I Lay Dying - Again
A Farewell to Arms - and Legs
The Jungle Sausage
This is a mash-up, meaning that Graham-Smith used the actual text of Jane Austin’s novel (she is listed as a co-author) and inserted his zombie story along the original storyline.
The trouble with most horror stories, whether print or film, is poor writing. Someone may have a great concept, but setting that down on paper is too difficult, or that someone can create some good scenes or segments, but stringing them together results in a too thin or too silly creation.
Graham-Smith has deftly solved this problem by using as his foundation one of English languages greatest novels. Fans of Austin will be pleased to find the Bennets and Mr. Darcy in all their early nineteenth century propriety, only now the girls have been trained Kill Bill fashion and hunt the undead.
English teachers should embrace the book, because young readers are unwittingly reading Austin, about 70% of the text is unadulterated classic prose. Of course the other 30% is fantastically adulterated with roving herds of freshly unearthed zombies and bloody mayhem.
Fans of this mash-up sub genre can also check out Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.
** 2018 - Ideas for other mash-ups:
A Nightmare in Calaveras County
Little Women Slayers
Ethan Fromm the Terminator
Jay Gatsby: SwampThing
The Mockingbird Assassin
The Color Purple People Eaters
As I Lay Dying - Again
A Farewell to Arms - and Legs
The Jungle Sausage
January 27, 2016
Find all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/
When I saw the theme of the winter library challenge was “Classics Re-Mixed” I knew Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was going to be one of the five books I would read – or in this case re-read. I’m not a “re-reader” by nature, but P&P is one of my all-time faves that I own as a leather bound collection, a $7.00 B&N cheapy collection, a hardback and one I actually allow myself to read. Adding in the Zs to this timeless classic just made everything old brand new again for me.
The original was written over two hundred years ago and there are one and three-quarter MILLION ratings on Goodreads for it, so obviously I probably don’t need to go into detail when it comes to the synopsis. To briefly sum it up here's a snippet from the publisher’s blurb: P&P is about the “splendidly civilized sparring between the proud Mr. Darcy and the prejudiced Elizabeth Bennet as they play out their spirited courtship in a series of eighteenth-century drawing-room intrigues.” Seth Grahame-Smith’s version pays homage to the original – maintaining the cast of characters, storyline, the style of writing, etc. He simply adds a little something extra to the re-mix . . .
KATANAS!!!!!!
Everything else remains true. Elizabeth is still a feisty female voice that women can applaud, Mr. Darcy remains a proud and arrogant male counterpart, who still somehow maintains dreamboat status . . .
#swoon And I’m choosing THIS gif because Mr. Firth is the only Darcy for me thankyouverylittle. But look who has a part in the movie . . .
The Doctor! Totes adorbs.
If you don’t like the original, you most likely will not like the modernization either. But if you do? I highly recommend checking out Grahame-Smith’s version. He’s pretty much a genius when it comes to re-writing history.
Oh, and in case you’ve been following this was my FINAL book for the Winter Reading Challenge. THE LIMITED EDITION COFFEE MUG IS NOW MIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINE!
Many thanks to the library in the ‘burbs for putting on such a fun challenge. Let the countdown to next year begin!
ORIGINAL "REVIEW":
I don't always re-read books (well actually I hardly ever do), but when I do I make sure to kick it old school, first generation Nook style because I'm too cheap to buy another copy and my library waiting list is too long . . .
When I saw the theme of the winter library challenge was “Classics Re-Mixed” I knew Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was going to be one of the five books I would read – or in this case re-read. I’m not a “re-reader” by nature, but P&P is one of my all-time faves that I own as a leather bound collection, a $7.00 B&N cheapy collection, a hardback and one I actually allow myself to read. Adding in the Zs to this timeless classic just made everything old brand new again for me.
The original was written over two hundred years ago and there are one and three-quarter MILLION ratings on Goodreads for it, so obviously I probably don’t need to go into detail when it comes to the synopsis. To briefly sum it up here's a snippet from the publisher’s blurb: P&P is about the “splendidly civilized sparring between the proud Mr. Darcy and the prejudiced Elizabeth Bennet as they play out their spirited courtship in a series of eighteenth-century drawing-room intrigues.” Seth Grahame-Smith’s version pays homage to the original – maintaining the cast of characters, storyline, the style of writing, etc. He simply adds a little something extra to the re-mix . . .
KATANAS!!!!!!
Everything else remains true. Elizabeth is still a feisty female voice that women can applaud, Mr. Darcy remains a proud and arrogant male counterpart, who still somehow maintains dreamboat status . . .
#swoon And I’m choosing THIS gif because Mr. Firth is the only Darcy for me thankyouverylittle. But look who has a part in the movie . . .
The Doctor! Totes adorbs.
If you don’t like the original, you most likely will not like the modernization either. But if you do? I highly recommend checking out Grahame-Smith’s version. He’s pretty much a genius when it comes to re-writing history.
Oh, and in case you’ve been following this was my FINAL book for the Winter Reading Challenge. THE LIMITED EDITION COFFEE MUG IS NOW MIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINE!
Many thanks to the library in the ‘burbs for putting on such a fun challenge. Let the countdown to next year begin!
ORIGINAL "REVIEW":
I don't always re-read books (well actually I hardly ever do), but when I do I make sure to kick it old school, first generation Nook style because I'm too cheap to buy another copy and my library waiting list is too long . . .
May 15, 2009
Um...oh my gosh...what to say? A quarter of me thinks I should be outraged, the other three-quarters is insanely giggling at the very idea, and then there's the very small uncounted minority of me that is throwing her fist in the air and screaming "Finally! This is the best idea ever!"
And now that I've read it?
Well, actually, I still think it's pretty darn good idea. It was weird reading it though, because the "zombie mayhem" fit so well into the story that I kept catching myself stopping after every line trying to remember how the original version went. The zombies fit in *so* well (as a matter of fact) that I think it's perhaps just possible that the zombies were always intended to be in it; Austen just chickened out and let her editors take them out! ;)
And as a not-Darcy fan, I found him much improved by possessing a sword and musket...I actually sorta kinda maybe found myself liking the gloomy moody uptight no-sense-of-humor not-fun guy. Men with swords have that effect on me.
And now that I've read it?
Well, actually, I still think it's pretty darn good idea. It was weird reading it though, because the "zombie mayhem" fit so well into the story that I kept catching myself stopping after every line trying to remember how the original version went. The zombies fit in *so* well (as a matter of fact) that I think it's perhaps just possible that the zombies were always intended to be in it; Austen just chickened out and let her editors take them out! ;)
And as a not-Darcy fan, I found him much improved by possessing a sword and musket...I actually sorta kinda maybe found myself liking the gloomy moody uptight no-sense-of-humor not-fun guy. Men with swords have that effect on me.
January 25, 2016
I'm sorry to say but this one didn't work for me, at all.
To begin with, this is almost a word for word copy of Pride and Prejudice, the zombies are mentioned but not really used. They are just a setting, there's no plot involving them, no battle, nothing! Believe me, I read on and on waiting for something to happen but nothing did.
Sadly, one of the little few changes that the zombies brought with them was not a good one. In the original Lizzy is not really special, she doesn’t sing, play, draw or anything very well. We ALL LOVE her, she's witty and smart, but not amazing.
In this book, she's a super duper special snowflake.
She’s the best martial artist, best with a sword, she kills tons of zombies and beats all the ninjas. Oh yeah, did I forget to tell you there are ninjas in this too? It should have been AWESOME.
It wasn't.
Also, the book very specifically points out that she trained with the super duper awesome monks of shaolin, because her father didn't trust Japanese martial arts or artists or something.
But, she carries a katana.
Seriously.... I know this is all for fun but, a katana? Come on! Show a tiny little bit of respect and actually do a google search about the difference between Japanese and Chinese weapons. I think this was the moment when I decided this was definitely going to be a one-star book, because there's no recovering from this kind of crap.
Also the book tried to amp up the gross factor with constant allusions to puking, gore, more puking, decomposing zombies, soiled linens and feces in general, and even more puking. I think it was done for comedic effect, but I'm dead inside so I never laugh at scatological jokes.
To begin with, this is almost a word for word copy of Pride and Prejudice, the zombies are mentioned but not really used. They are just a setting, there's no plot involving them, no battle, nothing! Believe me, I read on and on waiting for something to happen but nothing did.
Sadly, one of the little few changes that the zombies brought with them was not a good one. In the original Lizzy is not really special, she doesn’t sing, play, draw or anything very well. We ALL LOVE her, she's witty and smart, but not amazing.
In this book, she's a super duper special snowflake.
She’s the best martial artist, best with a sword, she kills tons of zombies and beats all the ninjas. Oh yeah, did I forget to tell you there are ninjas in this too? It should have been AWESOME.
It wasn't.
Also, the book very specifically points out that she trained with the super duper awesome monks of shaolin, because her father didn't trust Japanese martial arts or artists or something.
But, she carries a katana.
Seriously.... I know this is all for fun but, a katana? Come on! Show a tiny little bit of respect and actually do a google search about the difference between Japanese and Chinese weapons. I think this was the moment when I decided this was definitely going to be a one-star book, because there's no recovering from this kind of crap.
Also the book tried to amp up the gross factor with constant allusions to puking, gore, more puking, decomposing zombies, soiled linens and feces in general, and even more puking. I think it was done for comedic effect, but I'm dead inside so I never laugh at scatological jokes.
February 7, 2017
Pride and Prejudice has always been my favorite novel, beginning with the amazing period Jane Austin describes and ending with the wonderful characters we all love and come to consider icons. Mr.Darcy will always be an example of book boyfriend, even if he is stubborn, proud and judgmental. But, you know, being in a love hate relationship with a guy only add spices to the boiling feeling and you tend to come up with excuses all the time. And adding that he is hot, kind of puts all of the above into the shadows.
Coming back to reality, after reading Pride and Prejudice, I’ve seen so many movies and mini series adaptations, so many re-interpretations that just show you the same thing, same action, same characters and same conclusion. Nothing ever changed. But one day, I came upon this book and firstly I thought it was a joke.Really? From all the things on Heaven, Earth, Purgatory and Hell, they associate this love story with zombies? Now that was something to read about and see if this mix was a success.
And you know what?? It was very nice:D I was surprised by this conclusion, but I truly liked it. It was basically the same connection between the characters, Elizabeth Bennett with Darcy and Jane with Mr. Bingley, but it had this strange twist, they all fight zombies and protect others from their mortal bite. The visual of seeing Mr. Darcy fighting zombies is quite delicious if you ask me, and after all the details provided in the book, he was very good at it.
I liked that in spite this mission of saving the world from brain eating zombies, the characters remained the same as I’ve read about them in the first adaptation. Elizabeth was proud, Darcy mysterious, Jane very guarded and not speaking about her true feelings and Mr. Bingley of course ignorant of everything about it. We will definitely have Mr. Wickman in the scene, version 2.0, meaner and with a more complex role this time. You will see that he will get very well acquainted with the zombies and it’s up to our beloved characters to save the day.
In conclusion, I had a very good good time reading this book, because I could see my favorite characters in a very different background and read about their thrilling adventures. I could imagine them role playing and it was nice and strange in the same time. But because you have Jane Austen involved, it’s impossible not to like it and not put aside this horror element. In a way, it was quite original, attracting Romance readers and Horror as well. And besides this, I loved the illustrations in the book. Very well designed and it kind of introduced you more to the story in terms of visual and reality.
4 Stars
For more reviews please check https://readwithloveblog.wordpress.com
Coming back to reality, after reading Pride and Prejudice, I’ve seen so many movies and mini series adaptations, so many re-interpretations that just show you the same thing, same action, same characters and same conclusion. Nothing ever changed. But one day, I came upon this book and firstly I thought it was a joke.Really? From all the things on Heaven, Earth, Purgatory and Hell, they associate this love story with zombies? Now that was something to read about and see if this mix was a success.
And you know what?? It was very nice:D I was surprised by this conclusion, but I truly liked it. It was basically the same connection between the characters, Elizabeth Bennett with Darcy and Jane with Mr. Bingley, but it had this strange twist, they all fight zombies and protect others from their mortal bite. The visual of seeing Mr. Darcy fighting zombies is quite delicious if you ask me, and after all the details provided in the book, he was very good at it.
I liked that in spite this mission of saving the world from brain eating zombies, the characters remained the same as I’ve read about them in the first adaptation. Elizabeth was proud, Darcy mysterious, Jane very guarded and not speaking about her true feelings and Mr. Bingley of course ignorant of everything about it. We will definitely have Mr. Wickman in the scene, version 2.0, meaner and with a more complex role this time. You will see that he will get very well acquainted with the zombies and it’s up to our beloved characters to save the day.
In conclusion, I had a very good good time reading this book, because I could see my favorite characters in a very different background and read about their thrilling adventures. I could imagine them role playing and it was nice and strange in the same time. But because you have Jane Austen involved, it’s impossible not to like it and not put aside this horror element. In a way, it was quite original, attracting Romance readers and Horror as well. And besides this, I loved the illustrations in the book. Very well designed and it kind of introduced you more to the story in terms of visual and reality.
4 Stars
For more reviews please check https://readwithloveblog.wordpress.com
January 31, 2016
OMG!! I Can't Wait to see the Movie!!!
Time for a quick re-read!!!
Oh what a humorous re-telling of one of my most favorite love stories. Neatherfield is overrun with zombies, which are referred to as unmentionables, and Mr Darcy is a well respected zombie killer.
Elizabeth Bennet and her sisters are well known for their training in the fine art of zombie killing. Lady Catherine shows no respect to Elizabeth because she was never tutored by a Japanese samurai, but received her training from a Chinese Master.
The Zombies during this time love brains. The Bennet sisters are constantly having to defend themselves from the unmentionables. This book is a perfect retelling of Pride and Prejudice with the addition of zombies, samurai swords, beheadings, and Braaaaains!!!!
This book is loaded with humor and there are even pictures. My favorite is when Elizabeth gets pissed with Mr. Darcy after his proposal and roundhouse kicks him into the fireplace mantle!! Hahahahahahahahahaha!!! Priceless!!!
If you love Pride and Prejudice, have a great since of humor, and LOVE zombies, This is a Must Read!!!
This was my second time reading this book and I totally enjoyed it the second time around
Time for a quick re-read!!!
Oh what a humorous re-telling of one of my most favorite love stories. Neatherfield is overrun with zombies, which are referred to as unmentionables, and Mr Darcy is a well respected zombie killer.
Elizabeth Bennet and her sisters are well known for their training in the fine art of zombie killing. Lady Catherine shows no respect to Elizabeth because she was never tutored by a Japanese samurai, but received her training from a Chinese Master.
The Zombies during this time love brains. The Bennet sisters are constantly having to defend themselves from the unmentionables. This book is a perfect retelling of Pride and Prejudice with the addition of zombies, samurai swords, beheadings, and Braaaaains!!!!
This book is loaded with humor and there are even pictures. My favorite is when Elizabeth gets pissed with Mr. Darcy after his proposal and roundhouse kicks him into the fireplace mantle!! Hahahahahahahahahaha!!! Priceless!!!
If you love Pride and Prejudice, have a great since of humor, and LOVE zombies, This is a Must Read!!!
This was my second time reading this book and I totally enjoyed it the second time around
Follow my reviews at www.readinghaven.me
December 28, 2018
A true dismemberment of the grand classic; a dissection that adds in extra flavor where absolutely none was needed. Like salt to a wound... but somewhat, somehow... enjoyable?
The story is EXACTLY the same, the prose, too. No wonder Jane Austen gets credit for it. Grahame-Smith adds on zombie mayhem in parts that, well, really only need decor. I give this a three star rating because the showdown between Lady Catherine and Lizzy is something that an outrageous, if not stoned, mind can very well concoct, & the fact that Collins and wife are literally left for dead is fantastic (just like in the novel---there's no use for them in the third act so you can predict what happens). I also found it hilarious what happens to the wicked Wickham upon taking Lydia. This is all fantasy fulfillment, emphasis on "fantasy.'
There is no connection between the love story, the ups and downs of the Bennett sisters, and the living dead. Those objects of my affection are placed there to make the reading a more enjoyable one, although reading the original is enjoyable enough. This is all a marketing ploy!
There are a few benefits however. Reading a semi-abridged version of the novel makes the reader feel as though he has read the novel itself. Its cheating, but at least you read something with "Pride and Prejudice" on the cover.
The story is EXACTLY the same, the prose, too. No wonder Jane Austen gets credit for it. Grahame-Smith adds on zombie mayhem in parts that, well, really only need decor. I give this a three star rating because the showdown between Lady Catherine and Lizzy is something that an outrageous, if not stoned, mind can very well concoct, & the fact that Collins and wife are literally left for dead is fantastic (just like in the novel---there's no use for them in the third act so you can predict what happens). I also found it hilarious what happens to the wicked Wickham upon taking Lydia. This is all fantasy fulfillment, emphasis on "fantasy.'
There is no connection between the love story, the ups and downs of the Bennett sisters, and the living dead. Those objects of my affection are placed there to make the reading a more enjoyable one, although reading the original is enjoyable enough. This is all a marketing ploy!
There are a few benefits however. Reading a semi-abridged version of the novel makes the reader feel as though he has read the novel itself. Its cheating, but at least you read something with "Pride and Prejudice" on the cover.
March 6, 2016
Simply atrocious.
June 7, 2009
this book is a beautiful fantasy, as if someone reached into my head, pulled out two of my dearest loves, and put them together in such a brilliantly captivating fashion as to make me giggle aloud quite inappropriately in public places where i happen to find myself reading.
any lover of jane austen or of zombies needs to get their hands on a copy of this.
and the illustrations? priceless.
any lover of jane austen or of zombies needs to get their hands on a copy of this.
and the illustrations? priceless.
January 5, 2015
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES: WHAT WENT WRONG?
Don't buy this book. I did, and I'm regretting my AU$24.95.
It's good as a gimmick, but, as cocky as I'm coming across here, I know I could have written one far better. The problem with P&P as it is originally is that it is a complete story in itself, and therefore to do anything truly interesting with it, you need to change a lot, not a little. Grahame-Smith had this mentality where he didn't actually change the storyline; he just inserted zombies here and there in the hopes of making it different. Needless to say, it didn't work.
The whole time I was reading it, I felt like Seth was saying, "Hmm. Haven't mentioned zombies for about half a page... time to throw in a reference to katanas or something." It didn't add to the story, and if this had been an original manuscript, it would have been stuck in the reject pile, I'm sure.
I don't know Pride and Prejudice off by heart, but I found it pretty easy to tell the difference between the added bits and the original bits. Grahame-Smith just can't imitate Austen. No shame in that, but then you have to wonder why he's writing it instead of just having the ideas and getting somebody else to phrase it.
The characters were changed a little to fit in with their circumstances, but not everything added up, and that made it difficult to see what interactions they would have, what they would consist of, and whether they would happen at all. If the narrative had been changed more, they would have been a lot freer.
All in all, I'm still reading on, hoping that the reason Elizabeth goes to Pemberley is to find and kill the source of the zombies (a worthy goal), rather than just going on tour with Aunt and Uncle Gardiner (nice, but, of course, predictable). Once I get back my motivation, I'm going to be very prepared to be disappointed.
UPDATE: Got my motivation back. Was disappointed. Am now going to write my own version in which Lizzy attempts to rid the world of zombies. I shall post it once I've written it.
Don't buy this book. I did, and I'm regretting my AU$24.95.
It's good as a gimmick, but, as cocky as I'm coming across here, I know I could have written one far better. The problem with P&P as it is originally is that it is a complete story in itself, and therefore to do anything truly interesting with it, you need to change a lot, not a little. Grahame-Smith had this mentality where he didn't actually change the storyline; he just inserted zombies here and there in the hopes of making it different. Needless to say, it didn't work.
The whole time I was reading it, I felt like Seth was saying, "Hmm. Haven't mentioned zombies for about half a page... time to throw in a reference to katanas or something." It didn't add to the story, and if this had been an original manuscript, it would have been stuck in the reject pile, I'm sure.
I don't know Pride and Prejudice off by heart, but I found it pretty easy to tell the difference between the added bits and the original bits. Grahame-Smith just can't imitate Austen. No shame in that, but then you have to wonder why he's writing it instead of just having the ideas and getting somebody else to phrase it.
The characters were changed a little to fit in with their circumstances, but not everything added up, and that made it difficult to see what interactions they would have, what they would consist of, and whether they would happen at all. If the narrative had been changed more, they would have been a lot freer.
All in all, I'm still reading on, hoping that the reason Elizabeth goes to Pemberley is to find and kill the source of the zombies (a worthy goal), rather than just going on tour with Aunt and Uncle Gardiner (nice, but, of course, predictable). Once I get back my motivation, I'm going to be very prepared to be disappointed.
UPDATE: Got my motivation back. Was disappointed. Am now going to write my own version in which Lizzy attempts to rid the world of zombies. I shall post it once I've written it.
December 26, 2015
It's not the zombies. It's the writing.
February 8, 2016
It should be universally acknowledged that this book is quite simply... an embarrassing piss-poor piece of attempt that tries too hard to be clever.
There is one reason why I agreed to pick up Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
To escape.
From reality? Definitely. But in the case here, what I really wanted to escape from was the endless conversations about balls and marriages and all things that I found uninteresting in Austen's version. The classics, as universally loved as it is, bored me out of my brain that I nearly slipped into a comatose. I needed to get my kicks of spleens and intestines after all those delicate tea talks, and a zombie-invested retelling of Pride & Prejudice sounded like a great idea back then. But I was wrong and worse, I was cheated.
What I thought would be an action-packed, 'original' retelling turned out to be an exact replica to the classics itself.... with zombies. Here's the thing, I hoped to escape Austen's long winded writing by reading this, I definitely do not need to reread it again and get another dose of boredom, thank you very much, sir!
Despite some brain-eating going on here, it did so very little to entertain me. I wanted the zombies to have the spotlight here, I wanted the characters to run them down, find a cure and thus save the next centuries of human kind from a zombie plague.
None of that happened here.
The zombies are nothing more but 'props' meant to spice up the whole ordeal that is Pride & Prejudice. The same storyline, bleak romances and meaningless conversations still happened here, and so instead of kickstarting my adrenaline rush it took me less than fifty pages to fall into a sleepy, lazy stupor.
And where is the burst of creativity here anyway?
It's just copy pasting the entire Pride & Prejudice word-by-word, and cram in zombies and ninjas randomly in between. Huzzah! Another masterpiece that might or might not be just as universally loved!
Yeaaaaaaah. No.
Worse, there is no consistency to the timeline and setting. All of a sudden, there are ninjas clustering around Lady Catherine acting as her bodyguards. Ninjas wielding katanas in the early 19th century England, I ask you. Am I the only one here who finds this completely stupid? Is this meant to look funny or clever, for that matter? Because I don't see the haha-funny in it, I see a glaring RIDICULOUS. The kind of ridiculous that got me eye rolling to infinity and beyond.
So, no, I did not enjoy myself reading this. Not one bit. But I'm going to give one tip off of a hat for Seth-Grahame, zombies in a classics literature was a pretty clever idea. It just failed to execute itself here.
1.5 stars
There is one reason why I agreed to pick up Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
To escape.
From reality? Definitely. But in the case here, what I really wanted to escape from was the endless conversations about balls and marriages and all things that I found uninteresting in Austen's version. The classics, as universally loved as it is, bored me out of my brain that I nearly slipped into a comatose. I needed to get my kicks of spleens and intestines after all those delicate tea talks, and a zombie-invested retelling of Pride & Prejudice sounded like a great idea back then. But I was wrong and worse, I was cheated.
What I thought would be an action-packed, 'original' retelling turned out to be an exact replica to the classics itself.... with zombies. Here's the thing, I hoped to escape Austen's long winded writing by reading this, I definitely do not need to reread it again and get another dose of boredom, thank you very much, sir!
Despite some brain-eating going on here, it did so very little to entertain me. I wanted the zombies to have the spotlight here, I wanted the characters to run them down, find a cure and thus save the next centuries of human kind from a zombie plague.
None of that happened here.
The zombies are nothing more but 'props' meant to spice up the whole ordeal that is Pride & Prejudice. The same storyline, bleak romances and meaningless conversations still happened here, and so instead of kickstarting my adrenaline rush it took me less than fifty pages to fall into a sleepy, lazy stupor.
And where is the burst of creativity here anyway?
It's just copy pasting the entire Pride & Prejudice word-by-word, and cram in zombies and ninjas randomly in between. Huzzah! Another masterpiece that might or might not be just as universally loved!
Yeaaaaaaah. No.
Worse, there is no consistency to the timeline and setting. All of a sudden, there are ninjas clustering around Lady Catherine acting as her bodyguards. Ninjas wielding katanas in the early 19th century England, I ask you. Am I the only one here who finds this completely stupid? Is this meant to look funny or clever, for that matter? Because I don't see the haha-funny in it, I see a glaring RIDICULOUS. The kind of ridiculous that got me eye rolling to infinity and beyond.
So, no, I did not enjoy myself reading this. Not one bit. But I'm going to give one tip off of a hat for Seth-Grahame, zombies in a classics literature was a pretty clever idea. It just failed to execute itself here.
1.5 stars
August 14, 2009
"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of some sweet weaponry to defeat the hoards of zombie flesh eating natives"
BRRRAAAAIIIINNNS!
BRRRAAAAIIIINNNS!
March 4, 2016
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in posession of brains must be in want of more brains.
I did not like Pride and Prejudice. In fact, I read it only for reading this book after. I thought this was gonna be a good laugh, that it would be satirical and that it would relieve me of tye boredom I felt with P&P, but either I have no sense of humour or this book was a fail.
So... zombies. They should have made P&P more entertaining because they're, well, zombies, but they only made this incredibly ridiculous and tedious.
Not to say they were just... there, which is to say, this book is exactly like P&P, complete with all the romance drama, the balls and the tea drinking, except there were zombies as a loose plot hole.
Plot hole, I say? Even when this should be mainly about them since the title specifically says so? Yes. Because the zombies were never the central point. As I said, this was exactly like the original P&P, but every now and then, some scene would be interrupted because zombies appeared out of thin air followed by poorly written action scenes.
Zombies are like the brain-candy for the fans of gore and violence (that is to say, people who like the dark, or people like me), so it is expected that they are accompanied by, duh, lots of gore and violence, but here the moments that could have been intense were dull, especially since those ludicrous action sequences were telling-not-showing and lasted like one paragraph.
I expected badassery, I admit it. I expected the prospect of a fatal zombie attack in the Victorian Era (which, truth be told, made that attack even better because of the darkness that already comes with that period of time), but instead I got a loose copy of P&P with underdeveloped zombie attacks, lots of plot holes and incredibly annoying romance drama (even worse than the one in the original book).
Suffice to say, I hated it. Probably the movie will give me the badassery I wanted, but honestly, I don't think it can be that much better than the book. Now I know better than to try ridiculously titled retellings of famous books.
December 25, 2015
IT IS A TRUTH universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains. Never was this truth more plain than during the recent attacks at Netherfield Park, in which a household of eighteen was slaughtered and consumed by a horde of the living dead.
This book, very simply put, is Pride and Prejudice meets Dawn of the Dead. It’s the classic story, rewritten to include zombies, also known as “unmentionables” and “the sadly stricken.” I felt that the author, Seth Grahame-Smith, did a wonderful job of integrating zombies into such a beloved classic, and I found those to be my favorite parts of the book. This story had me smiling and even laughing out loud because I loved the dry, tongue in cheek humor found throughout this book.
In some ways, this is a tough review to write because I enjoyed the idea of the story more than I enjoyed the story itself, and that was no fault of the author. In fact, the entire problem was with me. For the first 1/3 of the book, I had such a hard time reading and understanding the Austen era writing – the day to day language – and often found my mind wandering because I just couldn’t seem to follow along with the story. I’ve only read small parts of the classic itself and from what I could tell, Mr. Grahame-Smith stayed true to the original story, and that made the incorporation of those poor “dreadfuls” all the more fun, and kept me reading even though I was, as I said, having a hard time following the dialogs.
I think the best way I can give you a true idea of what I’m trying to convey is to share with you some of the more memorable moments:
1. This scene takes place while Elizabeth is staying at Netherfield during Jane’s convalescence:
The day passed much as the day before had done. Mrs. Hurst and Miss Bingley had spent some hours of the morning with the invalid, who continued, though slowly, to mend; and in the evening Elizabeth joined their party in the drawing room. The card table, however, did not appear. Mr. Darcy was writing, and Miss Bingley seated near him, was watching the progress of his letter and repeatedly calling off his attention by messages to his sister. Mr. Hurst and Mr. Bingley were at piquet, and Mrs. Hurst was observing their game.
Elizabeth took up the oiling of her musket stock, and was sufficiently amused in attending to what passed between Darcy and his companion.
2. This takes place during a dinner with Elizabeth and 2 other main characters, one of whom is turning into a "dreadful," but for some odd reason, only Elizabeth notices it.
As dinner continued in this manner, Elizabeth's eye was continually drawn to (deleted to avoid spoilers), who hovered over her plate, using a spoon to shovel goose meat and gravy in the general direction of her mouth, with limited success. As she did, one of the sores beneath her eye burst, sending a trickle of bloody pus down her cheek and into her mouth. Apparently, she found the added flavor agreeable, for it only increased the frequency of her spoonfuls. Elizabeth, however, could not help but vomit ever so slightly into her handkerchief.
3. During a dinner being held at Netherfield, Bingley is annoyed because his kitchen staff hasn’t come to clear away the dishes. He went down to the kitchen to find out what was keeping them and discovered that his staff had become dinner for the “unmentionables.” He goes back upstairs to get Mr. Darcy’s help cleaning up the mess, and Elizabeth Bennet, a highly skilled slayer, insists on coming along to help:
Mr. Bingley led the two of them down a hidden staircase and into the cellar, which was divided into two halves by a long corridor, one side belonging to the servants' quarters and armory, the other to the exercise parlor and kitchen. It was in the latter that a most unfortunate sight awaited them.
Two adult unmentionables, both of them male, busied themselves feasting upon the flesh of the household staff. How two zombies could have killed a dozen servants, four maids, two cooks, and a steward was beyond Elizabeth's comprehension, but she knew precisely how they had gotten in: The cellar door had been opened to let in the cool night air and relieve the oppression of the woodstoves.
"Well, I suppose we ought to take all of their heads, lest they be born to darkness," she said. Mr. Bingley observed the desserts his poor servants had been attending to at the time of their demise-a delightful array of tarts, exotic fruits, and pies, sadly soiled by blood and brains, and thus unusable.
"I don't suppose," said Darcy, "that you would give me the honour of dispensing of this unhappy business alone. I should never forgive myself if your gown were soiled."
"The honour is all yours, Mr. Darcy."
Elizabeth thought she detected the slightest smile on his face. She watched as Darcy drew his blade and cut down the two zombies with savage yet dignified movements. He then made quick work of beheading the slaughtered staff, upon which Mr. Bingley politely vomited into his hands. There was no denying Darcy's talents as a warrior.
"If only," she thought, “his talents as a gentleman were their equal."
4. I wish I could post more and more scenes, but I’ll stop with this final, sweet, heartwarming snippet which takes place after Elizabeth and Darcy have finally declared their affections for one another:
As they made for the house, Elizabeth and Darcy happened upon a herd of unmentionables, no more than a dozen in number, which had quartered itself in a garden not ten yards from the road. The creatures were crawling on their hands and knees, biting into ripe heads of cauliflower, which they had mistaken for stray brains. Elizabeth and Darcy laughed at the sight, and for a moment, resolved to keep walking-as the zombies had failed to take notice of them. But, sharing a glance and a smile, the pair realised they had stumbled onto their first opportunity to fight side by side.
And so they did.
The bottom line – if you found Pride and Prejudice an agreeable read, and your senses wouldn’t be overly offended by the liberties taken by Mr. Seth Grahame-Smith’s inclusion of “dreadfuls” throughout the story, I’d encourage you to give this a try. You might just like it as much as I did.
December 14, 2025
People who dismiss Jane Austen as a writer of nothing more than silly romances and fluff have clearly never actually read anything by Ms. Austen. There is, certainly, fluff within her novels, but it more often than not conceals the barbed wire beneath.
I have loved Ms. Austen’s work ever since I read “Sense and Sensibility” in college, a novel that I don’t even consider one of her better ones. That novel led me to “Emma”, which inevitably led me to “Pride and Prejudice”, the novel that I consider her best work, although with the caveat that I still have yet to read “Mansfield Park”, “Persuasion”, and “Northanger Abbey”.
I admit to, at first, thinking that her novels were silly love stories. As someone who dislikes, with few exceptions, love stories and the entire romance genre in general* , I am exceptionally critical and unbelievably disinterested when it comes to books whose sole ostensible purpose is the narrative arc of a couple meeting, falling in love, dealing with one or more conflicts that threaten to keep them separated, reuniting and ultimately marrying. This is why I hate romantic comedies. This is also why I, at one point, nearly dismissed Ms. Austen as worthless tripe.
It wasn’t until about half-way through “Sense and Sensibility” that I began to realize that I was laughing consistently at the humorous barbs and subtle dirty jokes that I was reading quite frequently and unexpectedly in Ms. Austen’s writing. Was I reading it right? Wasn’t this supposed to be a classic work about a Victorian love story? Because here’s a little secret I didn’t realize until reading Jane Austen: she’s fucking hilarious. And naughty. And cheeky.
Seth Grahame-Smith apparently saw the same thing I did in Ms. Austen, which perhaps explains his cheekiness in re-writing “Pride and Prejudice” with the addition of zombies, ninjas, martial arts sequences, and lots and lots of gruesome beheadings in “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies”.
It is, in fact, the exact same story that Ms. Austen wrote over 200 years ago. The characters are the same. The setting is the same. The time period is the same. The only thing different is the strange and wonderful “what-if?” scenario that, fifty years prior to the events of the novel, England suffered a strange “plague” of the recently dead coming back to life with an ungodly hunger for human brains, which has resulted in a strong militarization of the entire British Isles to ward off hordes of these “unmentionables”.
The Bennet sisters have never known a time when zombies weren’t lurking about, so it’s simply a fact of life for them. Owing to their father’s wisdom, the five Bennet girls were all trained in the deadly arts by their late Shaolin master during their childhood living in China. The two oldest, Elizabeth and Jane, are the deadliest practitioners of their brand of kung fu.
While Elizabeth is exceptional with a katana sword, she is probably less successful when it comes to meeting suitors. Her first introduction to an eligible bachelor, Mr. Darcy, is a complete failure. And, as if the Fates are laughing at her, she continues to encounter Darcy throughout the subsequent months. He is, not to put too fine a point on it, a man lacking in rudimentary social skills and compassion. Her first impressions are only confirmed later when she finds out about his awful and sordid past. It is, unfortunately, her own prejudices getting in the way of seeing Mr. Darcy for who he truly is.
[image error]
Not that Darcy is completely blameless in his horrible impression upon Ms. Lizzy Bennet. It is his unforgivable pride and own prejudices that initially prevents him from seeing how wonderful she is.
Then, of course, there are the legions of zombies that inevitably get in the way of their relationship. Not to mention Darcy’s wealthy and cruel-hearted aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, whose reputation as a first-rate zombie-slayer is rivaled only by her hatred of “provincial” land-owners like the Bennets.
Grahame-Smith clearly latches on to the scathing social commentary to be found in Ms. Austen’s writing. She enjoyed poking fun at the hypocrisy and ridiculousness of the British upper class while simultaneously telling stories that she knew would appeal to the lowest common denominator. If Ms. Austen were around to read “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies”, I think she’d understand and appreciate what Grahame-Smith was trying to do in his cheeky little novel.
Then, I think, she’d probably eat his brains, because she’d be a zombie, of course...
*This statement was written before I actually started reading romance novels and discovered, to my surprise, that I actually enjoy some of them.
I have loved Ms. Austen’s work ever since I read “Sense and Sensibility” in college, a novel that I don’t even consider one of her better ones. That novel led me to “Emma”, which inevitably led me to “Pride and Prejudice”, the novel that I consider her best work, although with the caveat that I still have yet to read “Mansfield Park”, “Persuasion”, and “Northanger Abbey”.
I admit to, at first, thinking that her novels were silly love stories. As someone who dislikes, with few exceptions, love stories and the entire romance genre in general* , I am exceptionally critical and unbelievably disinterested when it comes to books whose sole ostensible purpose is the narrative arc of a couple meeting, falling in love, dealing with one or more conflicts that threaten to keep them separated, reuniting and ultimately marrying. This is why I hate romantic comedies. This is also why I, at one point, nearly dismissed Ms. Austen as worthless tripe.
It wasn’t until about half-way through “Sense and Sensibility” that I began to realize that I was laughing consistently at the humorous barbs and subtle dirty jokes that I was reading quite frequently and unexpectedly in Ms. Austen’s writing. Was I reading it right? Wasn’t this supposed to be a classic work about a Victorian love story? Because here’s a little secret I didn’t realize until reading Jane Austen: she’s fucking hilarious. And naughty. And cheeky.
Seth Grahame-Smith apparently saw the same thing I did in Ms. Austen, which perhaps explains his cheekiness in re-writing “Pride and Prejudice” with the addition of zombies, ninjas, martial arts sequences, and lots and lots of gruesome beheadings in “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies”.
It is, in fact, the exact same story that Ms. Austen wrote over 200 years ago. The characters are the same. The setting is the same. The time period is the same. The only thing different is the strange and wonderful “what-if?” scenario that, fifty years prior to the events of the novel, England suffered a strange “plague” of the recently dead coming back to life with an ungodly hunger for human brains, which has resulted in a strong militarization of the entire British Isles to ward off hordes of these “unmentionables”.
The Bennet sisters have never known a time when zombies weren’t lurking about, so it’s simply a fact of life for them. Owing to their father’s wisdom, the five Bennet girls were all trained in the deadly arts by their late Shaolin master during their childhood living in China. The two oldest, Elizabeth and Jane, are the deadliest practitioners of their brand of kung fu.
While Elizabeth is exceptional with a katana sword, she is probably less successful when it comes to meeting suitors. Her first introduction to an eligible bachelor, Mr. Darcy, is a complete failure. And, as if the Fates are laughing at her, she continues to encounter Darcy throughout the subsequent months. He is, not to put too fine a point on it, a man lacking in rudimentary social skills and compassion. Her first impressions are only confirmed later when she finds out about his awful and sordid past. It is, unfortunately, her own prejudices getting in the way of seeing Mr. Darcy for who he truly is.
[image error]
Not that Darcy is completely blameless in his horrible impression upon Ms. Lizzy Bennet. It is his unforgivable pride and own prejudices that initially prevents him from seeing how wonderful she is.
Then, of course, there are the legions of zombies that inevitably get in the way of their relationship. Not to mention Darcy’s wealthy and cruel-hearted aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, whose reputation as a first-rate zombie-slayer is rivaled only by her hatred of “provincial” land-owners like the Bennets.
Grahame-Smith clearly latches on to the scathing social commentary to be found in Ms. Austen’s writing. She enjoyed poking fun at the hypocrisy and ridiculousness of the British upper class while simultaneously telling stories that she knew would appeal to the lowest common denominator. If Ms. Austen were around to read “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies”, I think she’d understand and appreciate what Grahame-Smith was trying to do in his cheeky little novel.
Then, I think, she’d probably eat his brains, because she’d be a zombie, of course...
*This statement was written before I actually started reading romance novels and discovered, to my surprise, that I actually enjoy some of them.
July 7, 2009
I was under the impression that this would by and large be Pride and Prejudice intact with the simple insertion of zombies in some places. Rather, it is very nearly an entire rewrite of the original, and not an improvement upon it. Grahame-Smith takes it upon himself to explain and over explain the characters and their emotions and actions, rather than letting Austen's original writing stand for itself, as it has done quite successfully previously. The idea is clever, the execution mediocre at best. Occasionally offensive not because I am an Austen purist, but because I'm not an idiot, the book barely escapes being so awful as to not receive even one star.
February 21, 2016
OMG OMG OMG. This book was amazzzing!! I was really prejudiced (pun intended) and refused to read it for years. But i saw the promo pictures of the film and i love the actors and the production seemed great, so i said 'why not?', and i did read it and i will forever LOVE it.
Its the classic book you love with a twist. And since ,fantasy, darkness and zombies are also my thing i was okay with them and also they mixed well with Jane Austen. Lizzy was a badass fighter and i loved her even more in this one, IF THAT'S EVEN POSSIBLE!!! And Darcyyyy being the best zombie killer there is, just WOW. Sexier stronger Darcy.
BUTTT if you're not into zombies, but too curious to read it, then you can just read it and ignore the zombie parts, because other than that, its EXACTLY like the original, that's why in the authors of the book is our dearest Jane's name included. Because some parts are copy paste.
This one was like a re-re(re..re..re.....infinite) read, for me, with a twist. It was going back home, only its been re-decorated. But its still home, only edgier and spicier ♥
Cant wait to see the movie ♥
Its the classic book you love with a twist. And since ,fantasy, darkness and zombies are also my thing i was okay with them and also they mixed well with Jane Austen. Lizzy was a badass fighter and i loved her even more in this one, IF THAT'S EVEN POSSIBLE!!! And Darcyyyy being the best zombie killer there is, just WOW. Sexier stronger Darcy.
BUTTT if you're not into zombies, but too curious to read it, then you can just read it and ignore the zombie parts, because other than that, its EXACTLY like the original, that's why in the authors of the book is our dearest Jane's name included. Because some parts are copy paste.
This one was like a re-re(re..re..re.....infinite) read, for me, with a twist. It was going back home, only its been re-decorated. But its still home, only edgier and spicier ♥
Cant wait to see the movie ♥
June 5, 2016
This book is sheer ridiculousness. If you are a die hard true loyal Jane Austen fan, you will not like this book. If you are peeps like me on the other hand, who don't really relate that much to Pride and Prejudice, you should pick it up. No, it is not a great work of fiction but it's super fun.
I did notice that everyone in this book is described as handsome, especially the ladies. They are not pretty but they are handsome. That was something that annoyed me in the real Pride and Prejudice but I found it quite comically here. I still hated all the characters except Mr. Darcy. In fact, I think I hated most of the characters even more in this retelling.
The Bennet's were supposed to have been trained by Shaolin Monks but there is nothing Buddhist in the way that Elizabeth Bennet is portrayed. She has very violent thoughts. The book as a whole is very violent in nature. I guess if they are fighting Zombies then you might have to be but they don't really fight Zombies very often.
It's a 3.5 Star book. It's a nice fun read. Now I need to see the movie.
I did notice that everyone in this book is described as handsome, especially the ladies. They are not pretty but they are handsome. That was something that annoyed me in the real Pride and Prejudice but I found it quite comically here. I still hated all the characters except Mr. Darcy. In fact, I think I hated most of the characters even more in this retelling.
The Bennet's were supposed to have been trained by Shaolin Monks but there is nothing Buddhist in the way that Elizabeth Bennet is portrayed. She has very violent thoughts. The book as a whole is very violent in nature. I guess if they are fighting Zombies then you might have to be but they don't really fight Zombies very often.
It's a 3.5 Star book. It's a nice fun read. Now I need to see the movie.
February 10, 2017
I was excited to read this one. Unfortunately the whole gimmick with the zombies wore thin pretty quickly, especially because they rarely made an appearance and when they did never served any purpose. I'm not quite sure who this book is made for. Zombie/horror fans will grow bored waiting for something to happen and Austen fans may not enjoy the idea of someone reworking the book. I'm somewhere in the middle, not an avid Austen or zombie fan but enjoy both. But it doesn't work for me either. Still a little confused. I'd much rather have read the original and would recommend everyone else to do the same.
February 5, 2019
Με τίποτα!
April 17, 2016
There's an old Calvin and Hobbes comic strip in which Calvin, like he is wont to do, goes off on a particularly wild flight of fancy about T-rexes flying F-14s and bombing his school. The joke of the strip is Calvin shrieking happily "THIS IS SO AWESOME!" while Hobbes sighs "THIS IS SO STUPID".
That is pretty much the exact right description for this book. It is sublimely silly, capable of being so over the top that you cannot help but laughingly go along with it, even while you're muttering "oh for--" at other parts of it. The concept is, of course, a reworking of the original Pride and Prejudice storyline and adding in a whole extra angle of the English countryside being infested with a plague of zombies.
This necessitates a whole host of changes to various details of the cast and setting: Elizabeth and her sisters in this version are for example trained students of Shaolin martial arts and are among the deadliest fighters in the countryside when it comes to taking down the undead. In fact, this is an England where it is quite commonplace for young women and men of breeding to receive extensive training in the "deadly arts" for the express purpose of dealing with the "unmentionables" who are swarming the countryside. As a result, Oriental influences have become highly fashionable in English society; Darcy's Pemberly shows much Japanese design, and the redoubtable Lady Catherine keeps an entire household of attendant ninjas.
And as you might guess, this leads to some of my favorite scenes in the original story being made infinitely more entertaining by the addition of martial arts. Just imagine the original scene where Darcy proposes to Elizabeth; now imagine it with Elizabeth and Darcy both being deadly, trained warriors. Muaha.
It doesn't always work, mind you; Grahame-Smith is not on Austen's level as a writer, and the seams between the original prose and his additions are not as hidden as they should be. He adds in some unnecessary scatological humor and sexual innuendo that, for me at least, were far more jarring to wedge into a Jane Austen story than the hordes of zombies. Some readers may also find the extent to which Elizabeth has been transformed into a bloodthirsty warrior too jarring against the original state of her character.
Overall, though, even as I acknowledge these flaws, I don't worry too much about them. Because this book is sublimely silly, and is definitely not to be taken seriously. If you are an Austen fan, a fan of zombies, or a fan of kung fu movies--or better yet, a fan of all three--you'll want to check it out. Four stars.
That is pretty much the exact right description for this book. It is sublimely silly, capable of being so over the top that you cannot help but laughingly go along with it, even while you're muttering "oh for--" at other parts of it. The concept is, of course, a reworking of the original Pride and Prejudice storyline and adding in a whole extra angle of the English countryside being infested with a plague of zombies.
This necessitates a whole host of changes to various details of the cast and setting: Elizabeth and her sisters in this version are for example trained students of Shaolin martial arts and are among the deadliest fighters in the countryside when it comes to taking down the undead. In fact, this is an England where it is quite commonplace for young women and men of breeding to receive extensive training in the "deadly arts" for the express purpose of dealing with the "unmentionables" who are swarming the countryside. As a result, Oriental influences have become highly fashionable in English society; Darcy's Pemberly shows much Japanese design, and the redoubtable Lady Catherine keeps an entire household of attendant ninjas.
And as you might guess, this leads to some of my favorite scenes in the original story being made infinitely more entertaining by the addition of martial arts. Just imagine the original scene where Darcy proposes to Elizabeth; now imagine it with Elizabeth and Darcy both being deadly, trained warriors. Muaha.
It doesn't always work, mind you; Grahame-Smith is not on Austen's level as a writer, and the seams between the original prose and his additions are not as hidden as they should be. He adds in some unnecessary scatological humor and sexual innuendo that, for me at least, were far more jarring to wedge into a Jane Austen story than the hordes of zombies. Some readers may also find the extent to which Elizabeth has been transformed into a bloodthirsty warrior too jarring against the original state of her character.
Overall, though, even as I acknowledge these flaws, I don't worry too much about them. Because this book is sublimely silly, and is definitely not to be taken seriously. If you are an Austen fan, a fan of zombies, or a fan of kung fu movies--or better yet, a fan of all three--you'll want to check it out. Four stars.
April 9, 2009
I had high hopes for this book, being both a Pride and Prejudice fan, as well as a horror junkie.
I honestly wouldn't have gotten through it if it weren't for the fact that I love the original Pride and Prejudice. Reading P&P&Zombies is like reading the original, just with a few mentions of zombies and the occasional fight scene. Which is fine, but honestly, this book could have been so much better.
For one thing, I don't really see much of a point in writing a book that deviates so little from the original. It'd have been more entertaining if it was an entirely new take on the story, but it really just felt like the author simply switched a few bits out here and there and slapped a new cover on.
Also, the humor in the book is juvenile at best. There weren't a lot of times that I was actually amused by any of it, they were the kind of jokes that would amuse a 13 year old boy. But even a 13 year old boy wouldn't want to read this, since it's so much like the original.
I really wanted this book to be better, but it was a disappointment. I can't think of anyone that I would recommend it to. I only gave it two stars because of the original P&P storyline. The new material was pretty worthless.
The best part of the book: The title and the cover.
I honestly wouldn't have gotten through it if it weren't for the fact that I love the original Pride and Prejudice. Reading P&P&Zombies is like reading the original, just with a few mentions of zombies and the occasional fight scene. Which is fine, but honestly, this book could have been so much better.
For one thing, I don't really see much of a point in writing a book that deviates so little from the original. It'd have been more entertaining if it was an entirely new take on the story, but it really just felt like the author simply switched a few bits out here and there and slapped a new cover on.
Also, the humor in the book is juvenile at best. There weren't a lot of times that I was actually amused by any of it, they were the kind of jokes that would amuse a 13 year old boy. But even a 13 year old boy wouldn't want to read this, since it's so much like the original.
I really wanted this book to be better, but it was a disappointment. I can't think of anyone that I would recommend it to. I only gave it two stars because of the original P&P storyline. The new material was pretty worthless.
The best part of the book: The title and the cover.
September 8, 2010
This is the biggest case of false advertisement that I’ve seen since The Never Ending Story!!! They claim that in this book you’ll find some Ultra-Violent Zombie Mayhem… but they lie!!! They lie I say!!!! They only have a couple of scenes with some mild zombie violence and that’s it! the rest is a bunch of letters where some reference to some zombie violence happened somwhere is made… and that’s it! then there is a lot of talk about learning kung fu and shit! this book suck! And the worse of it is that Mr. Greg told me that the dude who wrote has been commissioned to write Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Slayer (or something like that) and I’ll be damn if I wont buy that shit as soon as it comes out!!! arg!!!!!
July 31, 2020
I just can't. I have to read this books for class but I been trying for over a month to finish this book but I just can't. I guess I have to fake it until I make it on my paper because there is no way this book will be ever finished.
Läst till Konsten att skrämmas –skräcken i kulturen 7,5 hp
Läst till Konsten att skrämmas –skräcken i kulturen 7,5 hp
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