Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (Philadelphia: Quirk Books, 2009).
This zombified rehash turned out to be exactly what I expected. It was a great read primarily because Austen's original is a great read. The new jokes were amusing, but not particularly funny, and tiresome by the end. Seth Grahame-Smith's best contribution is his stomach-churning descriptions of attacks by the "unmentionables," Charlotte's bodily decay, and Elizabeth's slaughter of her unfortunate enemies: "The ninja dropped to the floor - his innards spilling from the slit faster than he could stuff them back in. Elizabeth sheathed her sword, knelt behind him, and strangled him to death with his own large bowel." At a few points the language was strong enough to make me squeamish about my lunch.
I imagine that Grahame-Smith took on the endeavour of writing this book in the hopes that a large studio would option the film rights. His creative interpretation of a novel that continues to be wildly popular just begs to be put on the silver screen. The zombie slayings, as well as Lizzie's duel with Lady Catherine de Bourgh, deliver all the action of a summer blockbuster. And what hardcore P&P fan would not want to see the Bennet sisters lifting their petticoats in order to violently take out their opponents, undead or alive? While the print adaptation has a mechanical, fill-in-the-blank quality, cinema would bring it to life.
