Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
by
Jane Austen & Seth Graham Smith
read by
Katherine Keldren

It's been over 20 years since I first read Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I went on to read most of her books. They are a bit formulaic, but are good reads. I had to read Pride and Prejudice as a freshman at Willamette. I think I might have been the only one who read the whole book. I know I was the only to have read all the books, though I didn't finish the final one until several weeks after the semester ended. We certainly didn't spend as much time discussing this book as we did Hard Times, Frankenstein, On the Origin of Species or The Communist Manifesto. Too bad really, as this was probably the best read, of course I realize we were really after big ideas and not pleasing literary styles.
I've been a fan of zombie movies for longer than I have been a fan of Ms. Austen. But, in all of those years, I had never read a zombie book, only watched zombie movies. Well, I did try reading World War Z before this, but could not get into it at all.
I do have to confess that I never would have gotten into this at all if I hadn't been able to download the audio version. Sure, the concept intrigued me - take a classic and introduce an undead or other supernatural element into it while maintaining as much of the original book as possible. If I am not mistaken, Smith didn't cut any of Austen's words, only added his own. That in and of itself would have been reason to listen to this, but friends of mine were really split on this - either they loved it or hated it. I came down on the latter side, but not as nearly enthusiastic. I am glad I listened to this and I was thoroughly entertained, but I won't listen to the sequel. Nor will I listen to the other mash-up books. It was a bit of a novelty, and the shine is all gone now. And there are lots of others, such as, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, Android Karenina and Little Women and Werewolves, just to name the first three that came to mind.
There's not really very much to share about the plot of this story - it is Pride and Prejudice with a whole bunch of zombies thrown in. And some expository passages explaining how the main characters came to be such fine zombie slayers. Though, unfortunately Smith never explains why the sister travel to China to train, yet prefer to use Japanese swords. That bit really bothered me. It's kind of funny sometimes the selective way I can suspend my disbelief, "Ya, alright, I'll buy zombies attacking Victorian England, but I don't believe for a second that anyone studying martial arts in China would use a Japanese sword!" Even I can see how stupid this statement looks. Such is the nature of geekdom and dorkiness, though, so what are you going to do?

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies at Amazon