Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Did you know that there’s a book called ‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’? Yeah, trust me, there is. The book has the same story as Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen but it is set in the Victorian era plagued by zombies. Most famous monsters have their origin in books considered classics like Dracula by Bram Stoker or Frankenstein by Mary Shelly and it appears like zombies has gotten themselves into a classic novel too, I’d say they have invaded the novel, but that wouldn’t make any difference.

The book tells us the story of Bennet sisters who live in the English countryside. Mrs. Bennet wants her daughters to get married at the earliest. Mr. Bennet wants them to stay alive and so he has trained them as Ninjas. And if you’ve reached this line, it should mean you don’t have any issues with a version of Pride and Prejudice having zombies in it. And personally, I don’t see any reason to fuss about if the Bennet sisters are warriors and skilled in the deadly arts.

At a local ball, Elizabeth who is the most cunning warrior of all sisters overhears a handsome and an arrogant person named Mr. Darcy saying that she is really plain looking, so she felt the urge to avenge her honor and thought to slit his throat, she reaches for her dagger since carrying a gun was not considered okay for lady, it used to seem pretty unladylike. But she had to assist her sisters in using their martial arts skills in disposing off the zombies who had invaded the ball, but in the book, they were mentioned as unmentionable or the Satan’s hordes.

The story continues and it kind of follows the original story then, so it happens that Jane, the eldest of Bennet sisters grows fond of Mr. Bringley, a good friend of Mr. Darcy. Mr. Collins, who would inherit the Bennit estate in the circumstances that Mr. Bennet died, leaving his daughters unmarried, proposes to Elizabeth. But Elizabeth refuses on the ground that he doesn’t have a clue about the deadly arts of zombie slaying.

So the story moves pretty much like the original novel except that every trip of Bennet sisters from the Bennet state to any other English locality offered the favorite pastime of all the sister which was to kill the zombies. As the story progresses, Elizabeth is forced to not to loathe Mr. Darcy, who is of course, the most deadly trained in martial arts in  Japan and is an active member of ‘The League of Gentlemen fir the Encouragement of Hostilities towards our most Unwelcome Enemy’ which were of course the zombies.

The book has been so well received that there are rumors of movie deal based on this version of the classic novel, which tells us of Elizabeth’s early days of zombie slaying. Yes, this is a rather sly way for Seth Grahame Smith to make a lot of money, but it is still a must read whether you have read Austen’s original or not.