Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen’s classic romance novel, is generally considered to be a masterpiece of English literature, and is one of the world’s most beloved books. But apparently, it could use something extra.
Seth Grahame-Smith’s mash-up of monsters and manners in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies promises to transform Pride and Prejudice into something you’d actually want to read by planting zombies into the original 19th century setting. Unfortunately, due to the disappointing delivery, this joke wears out its welcome well before its pages are up.
The novel still starts off in the sleepy little English village of Meryton, where the Bennet sisters train themselves in combat against zombies while waiting for good men to come along. Soon enough, the arrival of two such gentlemen sets up the rest of the book, as Mr. Bingley courts Jane while the haughty Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth eventually strike up a romance, despite their less than favorable first impressions of each other.
Much of Austen’s original plot and text remains untouched. Though Grahame-Smith inserts the occasional new line or scene in the florid tone of the original, these parts seem amateurish. For example, while Elizabeth walks between villages to visit her sick elder sister, she encounters a small group of zombies–a scene that just comes off as a tacked-on filler serving no real point, aside from adding zombies.
Dojos, katanas, martial arts, and other Oriental stereotypes also make cameos later on. A notable scene is when Elizabeth battles a group of ninjas sent by Lady Catherine de Bourgh to test her skills.
Awesome as the scene sounds, this is actually indicative of the author’s confusion. Is he going for straight-faced irony, or all-out, over-the-top campiness? He doesn’t commit enough to either, and as a result, the novel’s stuck somewhere in between.
While zombie tropes and clichés, such as the hunger for brains, and the tendency to call them “zeds”, “unmentionables”, “infected”, or basically anything but “zombies,” are present, there are logical oversights that show sloppiness on the author’s part.
Logic dictates that, once you find out zombies come from graves, you should stop burying people and decapitate and burn them instead. Unfortunately, no one in England has thought of this–they were too busy blowing up zombies’ heads with ninja kicks, while wearing frilly dresses.
This may seem like nitpicking, but together with the various errors, like a “coy” pond and “bails” of hay, the book gives the impression that Grahame-Smith could’ve gotten a better editor.
Not all of it falls flat though. There are still a number of funny bits throughout the book, such as the some wonderfully gruesome woodcut-style illustrations and a reader’s guide at the back. It’s a deadpan satire of what you’d see in a copy of Cliff’s Notes. For example, the 8th discussion question goes, “Vomit plays an important role in PPZ. Do the authors mean for this regurgitation to symbolize something, or is it a cheap device to get laughs?”
But in the end, no matter how witty, tongue-in-cheek, or ironic he tries to be, Seth Grahame-Smith fails to develop his twist on a classic into anything more than a gimmick. It doesn’t have enough humor or new scenes to satisfy the casual reader, and the additional material that is included doesn’t live up to expectations, which makes it difficult for this mash-up to stand on its own merits.
In true zombie fashion, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies shambles along–and, while it may occasionally grip you, it’s still searching for a brain of its own.
