Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Words / 6/3/2009 10:03:11 PM
Welcome our newest guest writer, M. Rosario Fernandez, hailing from Toronto, Canada. Ms. Fernandez is a writer/director extraordinaire who works as a radio and web content producer with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Literary Unit. She has had plays produced, poetry published. edits a magazine, and has even inspired a bottle of wine (yum). Now she gives us her take on the latest rendition of literary zombies!
Some
twenty yards below, eight or nine blood-soaked zombies crawled over
a shattered wagon and its leaking barrels. Most of them were busy
picking at the innards of the carriage horse; but one happy dreadful
was scooping the last morsels from the broken skull of the driver -
a girl the sisters recognized at once.
"Good heavens!" whispered Jane. "Penny McGregor!" p. 57
When I first heard of
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,
I knew I had to read it, despite the fact that my interest in
zombies is generally limited. But the zombies were undoubtedly the
best part of this book!
The novel is credited to Jane Austen and
Seth Grahame-Smith. While Austen's books have stood the
test of time, it is the zombies wandering around 18th century
England that make this version a wonderful Monty-Python-esque romp.
I couldn't get enough of the zombies and found myself eager to see
how they were next going to ingeniously appear in the story.
The premise is faithful to its original. Elizabeth Bennett is one of
five sisters ranging in ages from 15 to 23 all of whom are
unmarried, much to the consternation of their mother. But there is a
zombie plague affecting England, and their practical father sends
the girls to China to study under Master Liu of the Shaolin monks.
Elizabeth becomes one of the best warriors in the country and
dedicates herself to destroying "Satan's legion". But this is not
enough to impress the handsome Mr. Darcy, who was trained by the
supposedly superior ninjas in Japan, and therein lies part of the
great divide between them.
The romance between Elizabeth and Darcy goes through the same ups
and downs it always has, but this time with the added danger of
their deadly martial arts skills. For example, the first time they
see each other, Darcy's initial dismissal now takes on a much more
sinister importance:
"She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me"...
As Mr. Darcy walked off, Elizabeth felt her blood turn cold. She had
never in her life been so insulted. The warrior code demanded she
avenge her honour. Elizabeth reached down to her ankle, taking care
not to draw attention. There, her hand met the dagger concealed
beneath her dress. She meant to follow this proud Mr. Darcy outside
and open his throat.
p. 13 -14
While some of the writing is lifted directly from the original
novel, Grahame-Seth takes some substantial liberties in his
re-telling, one of which is every character, save for Elizabeth, is
reduced to a caricature of themselves. Nearly every character has a
vomiting scene, (or in the case of Mrs. Bennett, several) which are
vividly described. And Grahame-Seth goes for more cheap laughs by
playing not too subtly on the word "balls", which are routinely
disrupted by zombies.
Mr. Bingley observed the desserts his poor servants had been
attending to at the time of their demise - a delightful array of
tarts, exotic fruits, and pies, sadly soiled by blood and brains,
and thus unusable.
"I don't suppose", said Darcy, "that you would give me the
honour of dispensing of this unhappy business alone. I should never
forgive myself if your gown were soiled."
p. 80
Given that Grahame-Smith is a screenwriter by trade, it should be no
surprise that there is a movie version coming, and I dare say that
even with all the Austen-inspired films it has to compete with, this
one should not disappoint!
M. Rosario Fernandez
p.s. You can get your own fresh copy of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies in our handy online Killer-store!
