Fun with Zombies

MPR often starts segments with bits of music to start and finish as story. Tag music, I think they call it. Today, I would play the Cranberries song, "Zombie." Imagine screeching/singing/yelling of "Zombie, zombie, zombie, b, b, b..." running through my head. I hope it's now in your head. Heh heh heh....

On our recent vacation I finished Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith.

I took this book slow and savored it like a nice, smooth cup of coffee or tea or a rich dessert. I enjoyed the book; it was just plan old fun, albeit a bit out there. Some might call it sacrilege to defile a JA work, but I think those folks are too prim & proper. They need to let go and have fun.

Let me set up the story. First, it is pretty much P&P as we know it. Mr. Grahame-Smith changes some wording and some of the story here and there, but much of it remains intact. Lizzy & the sisters Bennet are warriors that fight for the crown to defend Hertfordshire against the terrible plague of unmentionables (zombies) that swarms the land.

Cue the regular plot events in P&P (Netherfield Park is let at last, Bingley and Jane fall for one another, Darcy is a proud as ever etc.) However, slight differences occur in this version--the Netherfield kitchen staff are eaten by zombies during the Netherfield ball & Charlotte is bitten by a zombie and dies a slow death/change into one of the unmentionables that only Lizzy seems to notice.

As dinner continued in this manner, Elizabeth's eye was confinually drawn to Charlotte, who hovered over her plate, using a spoon to shovel goose meat and gravcy in the general direction of her mouth with limited success. As she did, one of the sores beneath her eye burst, sending a trickle of bloody pus dow nher cheek and into her mouth. Apparantly, seh found the added falvor aggreable, for it only increased the frequency of her spoonfuls. Elizabeth, however, could not help but vomit ever so slightly into her hankerchief (121).

Lizzy is a bit blood thirsty, showing little or no patience for her sisters and other silliness surrounding her. (She imagines beheading Lydia at one point while she prattles on about bonnets and officers.) This line from Lizzy made me laugh:

There are few people whom I really love, and still fewer of whom I think well. The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it; and every zombie comfirms my belief that God has abandoned us as punishment for the evils of people such as Miss Bingley (103).

One of the best bits, though, is Lady Catherine as a warrior with a line of ninjas. Grahame-Smith treats us to the Lady Catherine confrontation scene in the Bennett dojo as Lady Catherine & Lizzy spar all the while delivering the "shades of Pemberley" lines. It's priceless!

I'm giving this one 4 bonnets for a fun summer read. Also, I leave you with this image. I just happened to leave the book on the floor and someone found it. I think I have a Jane Austen Addict in the making.
Oh, and kid you not, said child got into the DVD's for the first time the other day. Guess what the first DVD she pulled out was? That's right! P&P '95 with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. Again, not staged at all. :)

"Zombie, zombie, zombie, b, b, b...."