PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES (PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES #1) BY JANE AUSTIN & SETH GRAHAME-SMITH: BOOK REVIEW

Jane Austin
Seth Grahame-Smith
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Book #1

 

Review brought to you by OBS staff member Angie

 

When I first saw this book it was difficult to not take notice. There is a lovely young lady on the cover and only after the double take did I notice that half her face was gone. And I thumbed through the first few pages, reading random passages and it was there in the aisle of Target that I became hooked on Classic Mash-ups. I immediately texted a picture to my dear friend and zombologist, who replied via text “I have it, you can borrow it.”

For one reason after another I wound up not borrowing the book from her but then found out that there was a “prequel” and I knew I had to read it first: Dawn of the Dreadfuls by Steven Hockensmith. (REVIEWED HERE)

So finally after nearly a year I have read PP&Z. Here is the summary from the back of the book:
“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.”

So begins Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, an expanded edition of the beloved Jane Austin novel featuring all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie mayhem. As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Merton – and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she’s soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers – and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield.  Can Elizabeth vanquish the spawn of Satan and overcome the social prejudices of the class-conscious landed gentry? Complete with romance heartbreak, swordfights, cannibalism and thousands of rotting corpses, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies transforms a masterpiece of world literature into something you’d actually want to read.

I’ll admit that it took me about three times longer to read this than it’s ever taken me to read a book. Generally I love the cadence and language of the eighteenth century writers. But I found this difficult to read. I know that Mr. Grahame-Smith used the original text of Jane Austin and added scenes of his own in her style, so the fault can not lie with his writing.  It was nearly half way through the book before I was able to read more than a chapter at a time, but then the pace picked up considerably.

If you’ve read Pride and Prejudice then you know the basic premise of the story. Mrs. Bennet, the mother, is trying desperately to find husbands for her daughters so that they aren’t left in poverty when their father dies.  She is willing to go to any lengths to find rich men to care for her girls.
In this version of the story Mr. Bennet has seen to it that his daughters are well trained in the martial arts and they have gained a self confidence that is unbecoming of the time, thereby making it quite difficult for Mrs Bennet to find men willing to accept such ladies.

Add to this their remarkable talent for finding and slaying zombies, and you have an interesting story.
If you’re willing to stick it out and get through the tediousness of the language, you’ll find a fun twist to an old classic.

Read more about author Seth Grahame-Smith HERE