This falls under the category "Damn, I wish I'd thought of that!" A chick lit novel that is made of awesome: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith. This is from the press release:Pride and Prejudice and Zombies features the original text of Jane Austen’s beloved novel with all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie action. As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton—and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she’s soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers—and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield as Elizabeth wages war against hordes of flesh-eating undead. Complete with 20 illustrations in the style of C. E. Brock (the original illustrator of Pride and Prejudice)
Hat tip to Andrew Sullivan for finding me my beach book this year.
51 comments:
Er didnt Mary Shelley already do this?
Doug
Not with comedic intent. There are few laughs in FOTMP that I can recall. Mary even forgot to put in this classic line
I saw this and right away I thought shouldn't it be vampires?
I have a theory - a guy wrote it so it's zombies. If a woman had written it, it'd be vampires and sell a ton more.
Oh well.
John, I think you're missing the point. Sure, if a woman wrote it, it would be vampires. But then who would read it? Women. Or teenage girls, really. With zombies, you have something for everyone. It's like the end of the gender wars, and best part of all? It still has war. Zombie war!
This is the book for all those women who have always been wanting that significant guy in their life to join their book club. This is the book to snuggle up and read together. This is the book for people who want to pretend they are on the same page, when actually they are in totally separate chapters.
Have I read the book, you ask? No. Am I planning to? Not bloody likely. But do I think it's a good idea? Hell, yeah.
John
Oh yeah with vampires it would make a mint. In fact there's a gap in the market - quick! We should probably avoid Jane Austen though -too obvious now.
Emma Bovary's nonturnal jaunts? Is she having an affair or is up to something untoward with the undead....
Seana
A brilliant idea for getting blokes into the book club. You can alternate between zombies and JA. Max Brooks next followed by Mansfield Park - quid pro quo.
I probably will read this book in a few months so look for a full report around then.
You know, I'm realizing now that our bookshop community book group may have missed some major marketing opportunities on the last book selection. Forget the fact that there was a special guest appearance by author James Houston. The promo should have something like "Cannibals stalking the High Sierras? You guessed it guys! Read Snow Mountain Passage and then come join us for an evening of wintry mayhem. And gals, you won't be excluded. Treats from original Donner Party recipes will be on hand."
Okay, maybe not. There might be a reason that I'm not actually involved in any of the marketing meetings at the store.
Seana
I always liked that phrase "the Donner party" - it sounds so benign, like a civilized evening with some friends gone slightly wrong.
Those cannibals in The Road were the scariest bunch I've seen for a while. The opposite really of those nice Uruguayan rugby players.
Incidentally did you see Obama's reading The Road? I hope to God he puts the book down at the end and calls someone at NASA and says "uh, guys what are we doing to protect the Earth from a comet strike?"
hell, just give me the zombies. Forget the Austen.
Well, the Donner Party was kind of a dinner party when you come to think of it. Not one that you'd want to be invited back to, but still.
Catherine, I bet Adrian could even come up with a zombie limerick for you if you twisted his arm. I don't think you'd even have to promise to read Jane Austen. Though you might have to read The Road. Are you in Ireland yet?
I did not see the picture of Obama reading The Road. Frankly, that does not inspire confidence. Doesn't he realize that he has enough imminent catastrophes to dwell on without scaring himself with fictional ones? Or maybe he's just reading it to give himself courage. As bad as it's going to get, he thinks, there's no way it's going to get this bad. Or if it does, at least I'll be writing it and it will sound a lot better.
I actually have a friend who works for NASA, and in fact I was at a dinner party with him last night. He's pretty low level, of course, but maybe I can ask him if he'll volunteer for the comet avoidance team. I'd have some confidence in him working out a semi okay solution. As a vegan, I think he would at least work to spare the animals, and we might get saved by acccident.
The Obama picture I noticed yesterday was on the back of one of the many books about him. He was laughing and whispering in Bono's ear. I'm telling you, Adrian, the anti-Bono path is going to take you somewhere you really, really don't want to go.
Christina
Jane Austen and zombies dont mix
Said the girl just arrived from the sticks
...no I'm going to resist Seana's evil suggestion. I could be all day at this and I have things to do. Not particularly important things but things none the less.
Seana
Tell you NASA buddy that they need to stop doing what ever they're doing and get on this right away. That book has been giving me nightmares for a couple of weeks now.
The other lesson of the novel: stockpile canned goods and buy an AK 47.
Sorry, Christina, I remembered your non screen name wrong.
I must say, though, that I don't think that one small limerick for a true gender lines crossing idolator is too much to ask. Certainly not evil. Evil is when I post a link to a blog of one of Peter Rozovsky's pals, like this.
The beauty is, I just know you'll think you're going to be able to do them one better.
There once was a gent name of Darcy
Who walked with a stick up his arse,see?
When the zombies would rumble,
His heart took a tumble.
For Liz found him not up to par, he.
I have other things to do too. But I don't do them.
Seana
Thats a site I should avoid, otheriwse I'll get sucked in just the way I got sucked into Strange Maps and from that into the Alternate History Web Map section.
Let me just say up front that your Limerick is the winner, but hopefully this might place:
Jane Austen and zombies dont mix,
Said the girl just arrived from the sticks,
Mr D'Arcy did run,
To Liz Bennett whose gun,
Got them out of a terrible fix.
I know it's a site you should avoid. It's kind of like the site my sister tried to give me the web address to today, where she got hooked for a few weeks. On it, an unassuming English woman shows everyone how to do their makeup ala the stars. Meanwhile, two little pug dogs snort away in their sleep in the background. I wouldn't even let her tell me where to hunt this down, as I would squander irretrievable hours, as she already has.
I mean at some point I'm going to break down, but not today. Not today!
I must say that I may have gotten it wrong about the gender divide over zombies. There's a website I frequent called Chicklit.com (it actually has nothing to do with Chick Lit, the genre) and sure enough someone was slavering away in anticipation of Pride Prejudice and Zombies. And then someone else posted a link to this
I guess I should resign myself to being the last hold out against the zombies now. Such a drag. Why must I always be the strong one?
Well, I suppose that's how Liz Bennett felt too, with or without her AK 47.
Nice limerick.
I always liked that phrase "the Donner party" - it sounds so benign, like a civilized evening with some friends gone slightly wrong.
I could be all day at this and I have things to do. Not particularly important things but things none the less.
YOU.HAVE.TO.SEND.THE.BOOKS.
Kelly Link- who,by the way, is MADE OF AWESOME, has written a short story that plays exactly upon these incongruous associations of the phrase,"Survivor's Ball or, The Donner Party" ,available online.
It is about a couple of teenagers on the run from home who hook up and crash a party.
It is much less predictable than the title and this short description would allow.
Another of my favourite female authors of sci-fi/slipstream, Karen Joy Fowler, has written Jane Austen's Books Club, a chick lit novel that models is chapters on the six Austen novels,kind like what Adrian did with The Bloomsday Dead.
Sorry,I have this compulsion to share my favorites.
Thankfully noone, apart from Seana,ever listened to a recommendation from me.
Marco
Books went out today mate. Monday. You and Liam and Brian and Bernd got one in this round.
I got Clash of Civ didnt I? Eh? Just havent read it yet. I'll tell you what my problem is. I bought about a dozen of those Penguin retro classics as a Christmas present for myself and I'm slowly making my way through that pile.
I got Clash of Civ didnt I? Eh?
But you said you already had it, so it doesn't count.
Still,better than all the people I've tried to make read Sandman, or Ondaatje, or Pynchon, or Carlotto, or Douglas Adams ,or whatever.
With non-fiction is different, but most of my friends don't read much fiction,least of all genre.
Once I lent a book to my best friend and in giving it back to me he said- slightly surprised face and deadpan tone -"I wouldn't have thought you spent money on this kind of bullshit".
(He's a pianist in conservatory with a passion for jazz- I could easily picture him tearing your neighbor to shreds and fitting the pieces into the sax).
Marco
I've read your recommendations except Sandman and Carlotto. What do you recommend of Carlotto?
Also, your best friend needs to learn some manners. I suggest a few broken fingers.
But my comment here was actually meant to be a compliment to Seana on her excellent limerick. And Adrian a close second.
And here's my effort:
An Argentine gaucho named Bruno
Once said there is something I do know
A woman is fine
A sheep is divine
But a llama is numero uno.
Off topic, plagiarised, but a limerick.
John
Seana,
No worries, if i got upset every time someone got my name wrong i'd be a very, very unhappy person (my own grandfather calls me the wrong name and he's not even senile or anything.)
And yes, i've been here a fortnight. Can't say that i've done an awful lot so there's no fantastic stories or anything. Just college.
i fear I've unleashed the nonsensical poetry spouting monsters in all of you...though maybe the world would be a better place if everyone only communicated in Limericks? At the very least it'd get a giggle out of everyone.
John
This is what I wrote elsewhere:
If you only read one,read The Dark Immensity of Death-it is one of my favourite novels,and a real masterpiece-I've read a German review (Die Zeit) calling it a modern day Crime and Punishment.
The style is deceptively simple,but pitch-perfect for the story.
With Carlotto is also important to distinguish between the personal and the political-obviously his experiences shape his novels,but they are generally in service of more general points-in The Dark Immensity of Death,themes like Justice (retributive vs reformative) and Vengeance,Life Imprisonment and the Insitute of Pardon,the way society pits the rights of sentenced offenders against those of the victims,the sensationalization of crimes by the media,and so on...
Also, your best friend needs to learn some manners. I suggest a few broken fingers.
Nah,I'm used to it. He's like this with everyone ,but he's a good sort.
The only time I would gladly have caused him some grievous bodily harm was after a meeting we had, as part of a citizen's initiative ,with members of a local political party.
It was like hitting a rubber wall, repeatedly, and while he he continued to go on uncharacteristically calm, mellow ,angelic, at a certain point I completely lost my temper.
I felt like he forced me to act as the hotheaded one, and hated him for the unexpected good cop/bad cop role reversal.
Adrian -
Carl Sagan was right. We need to find other worlds to call home too. To think that just one comet could decimate all that is humanity is frightening.
John
Re the Sandman.
Neil Gaiman just won a children's lit prize for his new novel. He's a multi talented SOB is Mr G.
I hadnt heard that gaucho one before!
Marco
I'm slightly strapped for cash at the moment but if I can get the Dark Immensity from the library I will.
Incidentally someone told me that Jimmy Stewart rose from Private to Brigadier General which is quite impressive.
Christina
I hope you're enjoying the snow. You must have brought it with you. It normally doesnt snow that much at all in that part of the world.
Brian
Yeah if you believe Kim Stanley Robinson Mars is definitely terraformable, but we gotta protect the Earth first.
Thanks Marco. I'll see if I can get hold of a copy of The Dark Immensity of Death. Do you know if Death's Dark Abyss is the same book? (L'oscura immensità della morte). That's one I can get. Also The Colombian Mule and The Master of Knots. I read a brief bio of Carlotto. very interesting.
Also interesting was your story of the experience with your friend.
Adrian
Neil Gaiman is too talented, too prolific, too successful, and he has more hair than me. Bastard. I think he needs the CJ/Bono treatment. Does he deserve that? As Will Munny said to Little Bill just before he killed him, "Deserves got nothing to do with it".
John G, thanks for the limerick compliment. I can see how it could still be tweaked a little, but there's a limit to even the amount of time I'm willing to spend on limericks.
I'm not actually that ribald in real life--it must be the form. And I really hope that Christina, who is clearly a muse of some kind, finds some real Galway troubadours to inspire during her stay there.
Marco, I am quite familiar with Karen Joy Fowler--she now lives in Santa Cruz and comes by the store fairly often. I really liked The Jane Austen Book Club. The movie, though superficially faithful, did not somehow capture the sweet spirit of it.
Her most recent novel, Wit's End, is actually set in Santa Cruz. I didn't like it as much as some of her other work, but it is jam packed with Santa Cruz lore. In fact, the house she uses in it is actually based on James Houston's house, which in reality was Patty Reed's house of, yes, the Donner Party.
Marco, you are a great recommender, should anyone be in any doubt about that, which I don't think they are. Just struggling to keep up a little, is all.
John
G spoke at our little science fiction society back in the UK and he was a very nice chap. A friend of a friend leant him a frog and he carried it round for 10 years and when she asked for it back he sent it to her.
And I like the fact that he lives in Minneapolis not Hollywood. If you're English you've more of a chance of capturing an American idiom in Minneapolis than in Hollywood.
Seana
I think what John's saying is that your limerick won hands down. I can admit defeat. I'm gracious like that.
You've got the little happening bookstore there. Didnt you say the Franzen comes in too? Speaking of William Munny ever seen Eastwood?
John
Oops! You're right, I inadvertently gave you the literal translation of the Italian title rather than the real English one.
The Colombian Mule and The Master of Knots- copypasting from that other post:
are number 4 and 5 in a series.
There are spoilers,and the novels should probably be read after the original trilogy (untranslated), which is superior,imho.
We have also discovered that apparently the translation, especially in the case of the Master of Knots,is not very good.
This is how I rank his translated works:
-Death's dark abyss
-The Fugitive
-The Goodbye Kiss
-The Colombian Mule
-The Master of Knots
Neil Gaiman is too talented, too prolific, too successful, and he has more hair than me.
But he has not Alan Moore's gorgeous beard.
Marco
I'm slightly strapped for cash at the moment but if I can get the Dark Immensity from the library I will.
It's Death's Dark Abyss, as John pointed out.
It would be interesting to know your opinion, because his style is very,very different from yours.
But really,you don't have to feel obliged.
If some of my recommendations strike your fancy,just make a note.
I do respect your opinions, but while Peace and Mitchell are firmly in the shortlist for future acquisition, I don't think I'll run out of my way to look out for The Old Devils yet.
Marco
Thanks again. My local library has 6 copies of The Master of Knots and nothing else. Damn. Death's Dark Abyss is at The Complete Review. Often a good sign. But I didn't read anything there for fear of spoilers.
As for Alan Moore's gorgeous beard, man, whole civilisations have grown and prospered in that thing.
Adrian,
can't say we've had much here but yes. I have to remind myself often that it doesn't snow much to keep from giggling too hard at the "driving on snow" lessons given on TV. My housemates didn't believe me when i told them about the weather back home. I'll have to get the pictures i took at home developed soon to prove my claims.
Seana,
I'm not this inspiring in person, at least not when it comes to poetry. More or less all I inspire is fear.
Ah, Mr. Gaiman. We are glad to have him. He played a big role in my development as a reader, without him i might've not been here insisting upon zombies and inspiring poetry. I think we can all thank Mr. Gaiman for his contribution to the greater good.
Sure, if a woman wrote it, it would be vampires. But then who would read it? Women. Or teenage girls, really.
Oh right, so it would only appeal to 80% of the book buyers... ;)
I do like Emma Bovary and vampires.
Although there was talk last week about a high school teacher who wanted to teach something other than Huck Finn. Now I realize all he needed to do was add zombies.
Oh right, so it would only appeal to 80% of the book buyers... ;)
No, but I thought we were talking about expanding markets not just capitalizing on existing ones. Admittedly, the gains would be small...
Christina,
Don't knock inspiring fear. It has worked very well for me.
Adrian,
Well, you've worked in a bookstore--authors do tend to show up. Actually, rumor has it that your beloved Tom Cruise showed up one day. I say rumor has it, because he was reportedly asking a question of the staff member standing right next to me, and I didn't actually notice. It was only the people sidling up to me afterwards and whispering, wasn't that Tom Cruise? that makes me feel pretty certain that I missed yet another opportunity to become a scientologist.
I know I am going to lose points for this, but I don't get the William Munny reference. However, Clint Eastwood does live in Carmel, just south of us, and was mayor at about the time my Mom moved down there. She was on a neighborhood committee, so actually had more than a few dealings with him, and found him both humorous and gracious.
John
Perhaps I should have mentioned that it was some kind of plastic frog.
McFetridge
Huck Finn with zombies is kind of Romeroesque. Wasnt NOFTLD a racial allegory to begin with?
Seana
Bill Munny was the character Eastwood plays in Unforgiven.
I'm surprised you havent seen him. Nice trip to SC would be perfect for the weekend. Maybe he's playing golf or something instead. If I lived that close to Pebble Beach, I'd be tempted to take up the game again.
Marco
I think Cloud Atlas might be my favourite novel of the last three or four years. Hard pressed to think of one better.
Well, you might be tempted to take up the game if you could afford it. I hear Pebble Beach is pretty pricey.
I have seen Mr. Eastwood, as a matter of fact, though not at the bookstore. As I think the Tom Cruise 'sighting' illustrates, I am not the most adept celebrity spotter in the world. Anyway, Clint was at a restaurant he at that time owned called Mission Ranch when my family and friends were there for some sort of brunch. Our more brazen family friend ran up to him with whatever scrap of paper she had to hand and insisted on his autograph. My mother was just horrified that she would bother him in that way. Personally, I think if you want to be a star, you have to be willing to pay the price.
There used to be a pretty good bookstore down that way called The Thunderbird, so I expect he shopped there. With it's demise, I expect that like everyone else, he just shops on Amazon.
Adrian -
I read up on terraforming Mars a couple of years ago, one of my unhealthy obsessions. I can't remember why, but a lot of scientists were saying it'd be impossible...something about Mars not having the same gravity as Earth, so it wouldn't be able to keep an atmosphere the way Earth does.
You're right about protecting the earth first, though.
Brian
In the Mars trilogy they drag a comet into the upper atmosphere to give it more density. I suppose you could periodically do that indefinitely if the mass wasn't enough to keep an atmosphere by itself. But Titan for example is smaller than Mars and it has an atmosphere so it might just work by itself. Alas neither you nor I will be around to see any of this.
John
The Master of Knots is my least favorite , badly translated according to two reviewers and very spoilerish in case you want to have a look at the other novels in the Alligator series.
You could buy his novels in Italian when you come for your holiday.
Zombies,Vampires...
I think that A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man would really profit from the presence of gay werevolves.
I think Cloud Atlas might be my favourite novel of the last three or four years.
Wikipedia says the book structure was inspired by Italo Calvino's If On A Winter's Night A Traveller
Adrian -
You're right. Unless they figure out a way to extend human life indefinitely, you and I won't be around to see another planet/moon terraformed. Pity, because that would be pretty cool.
I'm just hoping I see somebody set foot on Mars in my lifetime. We could have been there by now.
Marco
As you can imagine I'm a big Calvino fan. The structure of Cloud Atlas isnt quite the same as Winter's Night actually, but both are beautifully done.
Mitchell, incidentally, knows his science fiction.
Brian
This long article I don't plan to read may interest you.
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