All Things Pride and Prejudice

What do you associate with Jane Austen? Genteel romance? Wry social comment? Blood-splattered bodices?

If that seems inconsistent, you may need to flick through Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, a new version of Austen’s classic romance into which US writer Seth Grahame-Smith has inserted a series of zombie horror interludes. The text of the new edition is roughly 85% Austen and 15% Grahame-Smith.

Apparently Seth Grahame-Smith is one of those people who thinks that zombies and ninjas automatically add a new level of awesome to... anything.

However, this isn't exactly the Jane Austen story one would expect. England is overrun by a plague that turns people into shambling zombies, with the sort of repercussions you would.... not really expect. The Sisters Bennet are a deadly Shaolin-trained squad of warriors (Lizzle "has something more of the killer instinct than her sisters") trained in countless weapons, Lady Catherine is a feared zombie-slayer with an army of ninjas, balls regularly get crashed by the undead, and Charlotte Lucas accepts Mr. Collins' proposal after she's infected by the zombie plague. I guess marriage to the professional toady isn't quite as bad as becoming a zombie.


Grahame-Smith also change some scenes (the famous proposal scene is pretty much the same in dialogue, but Lizzie spends it trying to kick Darcy to death while he fends her off with a poker), and he adds in some bizarre scenes of his own (Lizzie spars blindfolded with some of Lady Catherine's faithful ninjas).


And he adds some rather... unique spins to Austen's beloved characters, especially since most of them are reinvented as being acquainted with the "deadly arts." Elizabeth Bennett is a psycho and not at all likeable or sympathetic, even in light of this being a satirical work. She is such a nutcase that you wonder why you even care. Mr. Darcy is a haughty, sexy man... who can be somewhat dirty-minded and mutters four-letter words when Caroline Bingley pesters him, and Lady Catherine is reknowned for being a killer of the unmentionables as well as being a foul snobby old bat ("Five daughters brought up at home without any ninjas?").


Seth Grahame-Smith seemed to at least "try" to imitate Jane Austen's style of writing at the beginning of the book, but towards the middle, he seemed to lose steam and he lapsed into a more modern style of writing. It was jarring to see Austen's style next to Grahame-Smith's in many cases.

The writing style  is fairly weak, and  the characters have dialogue and thoughts that are out of character. The best things about this book are the brilliant cover art and the funny illustrations of zombies. So get a good laugh from the title and the cover - it's the only one you'll get from this book.

You can read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies here