The Californian
‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,’ oh myTuesday, June 02, 2009 By Priscilla Lee
From the start of “Goosebumps” through the creation of “Twilight” and now to “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,” fictitious characters such as vampires, ninjas and zombies are making a comeback in today’s books.The classic 1813 regency novel, “Pride and Prejudice,” by Jane Austen, has been recently rewritten as a parody, with the main characters as zombies.Austen’s original writings are celebrated social commentaries with romantic undertones. Her work has been perverted by Seth Grahame-Smith, who released “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” last month.Austen would have never imagined that her timeless literary classic would have been mocked with a distasteful addition of zombies.Imagine Elizabeth Bennet, the witty female protagonist of “Pride and Prejudice,” turning into a fierce zombie slayer.Then there’s Fitzwilliam Darcy, the prideful love interest of Elizabeth, who becomes a zombie slayer as well.“Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” shares the same setting as the original book in 19th century England, but it is not the beautiful country Austen depicted throughout her novel. Rather, it is infested with zombies.Elizabeth Bennet and her four sisters learn how to use muskets and martial arts, which was considered unladylike in the 19th century.The novel’s plot is like “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” meets “Twilight,” in which the protagonist slays the living dead to protect her family, while she falls n love with the enemy.Grahame-Smith could have easily written a one-of-a-kind sci-fi novel but instead, he chose to completely change a literary classic, merely with the addition of zombies.The transformation of “Pride and Prejudice” could be the start of a new genre of literature.Maybe in the future, teenagers will be required to read “To Kill a Mocking Ninja,” “All Quiet on the Vampire Front” and maybe even “The Call of the Supernaturals” in class as a high school requirement. |