Reviewed by Ambrea
A
unique twist on Jane Austen’s classic, Pride
and Prejudice and Zombies offers a book filled with zombies, romance,
gun-toting and sabre-swinging Bennet sisters, and ninjas—yes, zombies and ninjas. Once a story about surviving the convoluted
social strata of polite, English society, Seth Grahame-Smith’s new novel offers
a different kind of survival story that’s set in a post-apocalyptic world
littered with the walking dead.
Some
aspects of Grahame-Smith’s novel are uproariously funny, not least of all for
combining the demure English society of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice with horrible, flesh-eating zombies. (Because, let’s be honest here, it’s quite a
great combination.) From the first,
iconic line which is twisted to suit the author’s needs—“It’s is a truth
universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want
of more brains”—to the rather dirty humor he inserts into the tale, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is in a
class all of its own.
Pride and Prejudice and
Zombies forges its own genre, so to speak. It combines classic, Regency literature and
zombies, horror and romance, and throws in a dash of overly dramatic kung
fu. So, while this novel isn’t entirely
typical, it manages to remain interest, absurd, and highly hysterical,
especially when Elizabeth refers to Mr. Darcy as being “English in all the
right places.” I must admit that I
cackled over that line more than I probably should have, but I found I couldn’t
help myself. The Elizabeth of
Grahame-Smith’s novel makes such a huge break from the mild-mannered miss
created by Austen, and I found it delightfully surprising.
While
I enjoyed Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
the first time, I found that I appreciated its appeal less and less. It does have several merits for its absurdity
and its originality—which spawned countless reimagined classics, like Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, Android Karenina, and The Meowmorphosis—but, truthfully, it’s
a bit of a knock off. I mean,
Grahame-Smith essentially transplants Pride
and Prejudice and liberally sprinkles in the words “ninja” and “zombie” and
“flesh-eating,” upgrading the Bennet sisters from prim, proper country girls
into tough, efficient zombie hunters.
I
won’t say that it’s plagiarism, since Austen is credited for her work, but it’s
a thinly veiled reimagining.
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