Pride and Prejudice and Zombies/ Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith. Romance, adventure, zombies, satire, humor 320 pages.

Where do I even begin on this one? I stayed away from this series for a long time, because even though I thoroughly enjoy zombies (as one can see by my oh-so-meticulous analysis of Robert Kirkman's "The Walking Dead" graphic novel series) I have believed, like every other dude with a desire to keep his machismo intact, that I had to steer clear of Jane Austen books as if they were the carrier of the very zombie plague discussed in this creative re imagining of the classic Austen novel. However, I was in a hurry before work to load something onto my mp3 player and it was the first thing I saw that remotely struck my interest. I expected that within an hour, I would've gotten sick of all the British aristocracy and lame aspects of polite society and abandoned the book entirely. Fortunately for me, this was not the case.

I'm not going to spend the time retelling what most people already know about Pride and Prejudice. That would be a colossal waste of time for all of us. What I will waste your time with is an explanation of how artfully Seth Grahame-Smith intermingles this classic tale with brain-devouring zombies. The amount of humor that one already finds in the Austen novel (humor that I must admit appeals even to a modern reader) is increased exponentially as you watch the bumbling Mr. Collins marry Charlotte Lucas, a close friend of the story's protagonist, being aware the fact that Charlotte has been bitten by a zombie and is slowly degenerating into a member of the brain-craving, slow-moaning, class of people regardless of her advantageous marriage. The fact that these English fancies spend their time playing cards and discussing the marriageable qualities of the many female characters of the story would seem out of place under constant threat of a zombie assault, but it just seems funny that after slaughtering the collective zombie-plagued work staff of a country manner, the characters would sigh about the fact that there is nobody left to make them tea.

One other thing that I must note is that even if you're not the biggest zombie fan, Smith does not make his additions merely of the undead sort. The story includes a huge influx of ninja/samurai fighting that adds a unique flair to the story. All of the Bennett sisters, who would seem physically helpless from the purely Austen version of the novel, have been remade as masters of the deadly arts-- including karate, sword fighting, knife-throwing, and marksmanship. These combat additions make up some of the most interesting portions of the story because it's fun to imagine the already mentally-tough Elizabeth Bennett laying a phatty katana smackdown on one of the most easily loatheable characters I've read in recent fiction, Lady Catherine DuBourghe.

I can't speak as an Austen fan, but as a zombie fan, I found that the Austen parts were not entirely unenjoyable ( I utilize the double-negative in the hope that someone with my excellent grammar would never have done so and therefore can always claim that someone else wrote this entry if anyone ever asks me how I could ever like something remotely concerning Jane Austen). I actually found myself wanting to know how that whole debacle between Elizabeth's youngest sister Lydia and the sly soldier, Wickham, turned out. I think that Grahame-Smith does an excellent job of making the zombie parts interesting for Austen fans while making the Austen parts interesting for zombie fans. If you're remotely interested by either, this one is a must-read.