Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Ich bin beim Original nie über die ersten Seiten hinausgekommen. Falls es so ist wie dieses Buch abzüglich der Kampfszenen, muss es noch uninteressanter sein, als ich dachte. Es geht ausschließlich darum, wer wen warum heiratet oder gerade doch nicht, dann aber doch. Aber in Kombination mit den Schwertkämpfen, den Zwischenbemerkungen über die Shaolin-Ausbildung der Töchter, und dem Krieg gegen die Zombies war es unterhaltsam genug.

Update: Auf keinen Fall den Film gucken! Der Film ist grauenvoller Mist und hat nichts mit dem Buch zu tun. Im Buch gibt es kompetente Frauen, im Film ist alles wie immer, die Frauen zappeln hilflos herum, müssen gerettet werden und die Kamera versucht bei jeder Gelegenheit, ihnen in den Ausschnitt zu schlüpfen.

I put off reading this for a long time as I was pretty convinced it would be terrible, but you know what? It wasn't actually as terrible as I was expecting, though admittedly that's a low bar. Grahame-Smith's writing is certainly nothing to compare to Austen's, but enough of the original story remains that it's amusing just seeing how he decided to change it. Darcy's declaration of love leading to Lizzy ninja-kicking him into the mantle piece, and Lady Catherine DeBourgh's final meeting with Lizzy turning into a sparring match, katanas and all, were surprising but not entirely disappointing examples. On the other hand there were some very odd choices - why have the Bennett sisters all train in China (and the Darcys in Japan), rather than just train in home grown English killing techniques? Why does everybody seem prone to vomiting at the drop of a hat? Why get rid of the Collinses so apparently pointlessly? And why throw in random irrelevant comments about sex that are neither funny nor relevant - like having Mrs Gardner randomly go sleep with some Russian ex boyfriend that we never hear about again and which affects nothing? So many odd disjointed choices that didn't make any sense and didn't contribute anything to the story.

As another reader commented, it might have been better titled Pride and Prejudice and Ninjas, because the zombies really didn't have much to do with the plot other than being there and occasionally getting in the way. They never present any threat, never have any significant effect on the plot, and simply show up and get mown down at fairly random intervals. Call me picky, but I think that if you're going to rewrite an entire book to bring in zombies, you should actually make them relevant in some way.

Still, it was entertaining mindless entertainment for a few hours and an easy read. And now I'm actually tempted to see the movie, not least because Matt Smith is in it. Don't go in with high expectations and you may find the book entertaining. But definitely don't look too deeply into it.

As the novel that started the "mash-up" trend, it is plenty fun to read, even if it doesn't take its clever premise quite as far as it should.

I don't quite get the audience for this. You have fairly mediocre Austin-rewriting with zombies inserted into it. Then you have zombie/ninja battles, which buried under all the Austin stuff, barely makes an impression. It is like the worst of both worlds.

I liked Abe Lincoln Vampire Hunter, but this book was a real drag.

''It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.''

The first chapter had me laughing every other page with the ridiculousness of inserting the zombie story line into Pride & Prejudice. After that, the absurdity of it all began to annoy me, though it was nice seeing some of the "villians" of the original works get their comeuppances.

It's nonsense, of course, but I enjoyed it immensely. Started it on Saturday, and finished it Monday. The martial arts and zombie slaying are stitched in beautifully. The regiment is still stationed in Meryton, but they are there to battle the undead. Remember the confrontation between Elizabeth Bennett and Lady Catherine de Bourgh near the end of the novel, when Lady Catherine is demanding that Elizabeth promise not to marry Darcy? Well, in this book it takes place in the Bennett family dojo. Be sure to read the 'A Reader's Discussion Guide' at the back of the book.

There's an old Calvin and Hobbes comic strip in which Calvin, like he is wont to do, goes off on a particularly wild flight of fancy about T-rexes flying F-14s and bombing his school. The joke of the strip is Calvin shrieking happily "THIS IS SO AWESOME!" while Hobbes sighs "THIS IS SO STUPID".

That is pretty much the exact right description for this book. It is sublimely silly, capable of being so over the top that you cannot help but laughingly go along with it, even while you're muttering "oh for--" at other parts of it. The concept is, of course, a reworking of the original Pride and Prejudice storyline and adding in a whole extra angle of the English countryside being infested with a plague of zombies.

This necessitates a whole host of changes to various details of the cast and setting: Elizabeth and her sisters in this version are for example trained students of Shaolin martial arts and are among the deadliest fighters in the countryside when it comes to taking down the undead. In fact, this is an England where it is quite commonplace for young women and men of breeding to receive extensive training in the "deadly arts" for the express purpose of dealing with the "unmentionables" who are swarming the countryside. As a result, Oriental influences have become highly fashionable in English society; Darcy's Pemberly shows much Japanese design, and the redoubtable Lady Catherine keeps an entire household of attendant ninjas.

And as you might guess, this leads to some of my favorite scenes in the original story being made infinitely more entertaining by the addition of martial arts. Just imagine the original scene where Darcy proposes to Elizabeth; now imagine it with Elizabeth and Darcy both being deadly, trained warriors. Muaha.

It doesn't always work, mind you; Grahame-Smith is not on Austen's level as a writer, and the seams between the original prose and his additions are not as hidden as they should be. He adds in some unnecessary scatological humor and sexual innuendo that, for me at least, were far more jarring to wedge into a Jane Austen story than the hordes of zombies. Some readers may also find the extent to which Elizabeth has been transformed into a bloodthirsty warrior too jarring against the original state of her character.

Overall, though, even as I acknowledge these flaws, I don't worry too much about them. Because this book is sublimely silly, and is definitely not to be taken seriously. If you are an Austen fan, a fan of zombies, or a fan of kung fu movies--or better yet, a fan of all three--you'll want to check it out. Four stars.