pride and prejudice and zombies by seth grahame smith

Whatever language has been added is perfectly in keeping. The Bennett sisters, after years of hard-wrought physical training somewhere in the Chinese mountains, class as some of the best killers in the country, and woe betide any of the undead that get in the way of their balls, their flirtations, and their working out whether Darcy is an annoying man or a handsome bit of rough. In this Hertfordshire, and elsewhere, a horrid plague is bringing the dead back to stalk the earth. Our more contemporary author has seen fit to take the classic text of P&P, and change a word here, alter a death here, and include countless zombies everywhere. The delight of this mash-up, this literary remix, is that you never feel compelled to do so.

If truth be told I have no interest in the original Austen, and I refuse to compare and contrast the two texts to see what has been changed. Well, alright, those might have been authored by Seth Grahame-Smith, but does that matter? I am reviewing one book, here, and that is Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. 'Call me Ishmael.' 'It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.' Who can forget Iain Banks' 'It was the day my grandmother exploded'? Or those timeless words by Jane Austen, 'It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.' I can hear the purists howling from here (quite like the undead they sound, too) but this remains a joyous rewrite, if not indeed an improvement.Īh, the benefits to a good book of a classic first line. Summary: A great mix of zombie killing and ballroom dancing.

Pride and prejudice and zombies by seth grahame smith