Review: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

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

Published: 2009

Genre: Classic regency romance/zombie mayhem

Pages: 320

"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 Austen 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 Meryton - 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 as Elizabeth wages war against hordes of flesh-eating undead. Can she 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.

(fantastic fiction)

Oh, how can I even describe this book. It was madness, and I loved it! It followed Austen's story, everything happened and most of the time with her exact words. But then there were the differences, like Lizzy polishing her katana, and killing zombies on her way to Meryton. It was completely different and at the same time just the same.

Some might see it as blasphemy but I am sure Austen could have seen the fun in this. All those zombies, and I liked the Bennet girls more than ever. Now they all very warriors, sure silly still but they had something. Even if I have started to get annoyed by Lizzy lately, she is very prejudiced. But everyone was cool, and her mother was still crazy about wanting them all to get married, Mr Collins was still an ass, Darcy was still Darcy, and Lady de Bourgh, well she was a great fighter with an army of ninjas. Bit of a difference there, and I did enjoy her a lot.

The author was not afraid to make changes, some differences in how they act, things that happen and so forth. There are plenty of zombies out there, while some things stay the same, some things will change. And it is still the same story about Mrs Bennet wanting them to get married, Jane falling for Bingley, Lizzy thinking Darcy is proud and Lydia running away with Wickham.

This book also had the greatest line that had me giggling.

"Your balls, Mr Darcy?"

He reached out and closed her hand around them, and offered: "My balls belong to you Miss Bennet."

Now that is just great, and I love that he made that innuendo. Of course I cut out the first part about her holding ammunition because this way it's so much better. So no sex or anything like that, this is a Pride and Prejudice book after all, the closest they get is that wet shirt scene which sadly was not here ( yes I know, I have watched that BBC series too much). Though there was talk about some wet pants.

And of course there is a lot of zombie killing, and guts and more. The zombies have plagued the country for 50 years but the British stand tall and stay and fight. While continuing on like before.

Do read this one, if only for the fun of it. It's a funny twist to a great novel, and I sat there smiling as I read it. I liked this novel. Because how would the classic regency novel look if it was filled with brain loving zombies who wanted flesh. All while life goes on with balls, tea, and modesty.