Recently, there has been a literary trend that, quite honestly, I don't know how to feel about.
That trend is the mixture of Jane Austen novels with . . .well . . . monsters. Monsters. Eliza Bennet and monsters. Wrap your head around it.
The first book I knew of from this trend was "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies."
I haven't read the book, but my understanding is that some of the text is from the original book, only there are zombies. So, maybe Lizzy is telling Jane about how she has fallen in love with Mr. Darcy, and a zombie bursts through the room and they have to decapitate him before they can get on with their worries of becoming spinsters?
Here is an illustration from "the Heirloom edition" of the book:
I first heard of this novel about six months ago, and was intrigued by the concept. It combines two of my favorite things: Jane Austen and Scary Stuff. So, I should be the target audience for this type of literature. On the other hand, it's just . . . really weird. I was definitely looking forward to reading the book, until I saw this at Costco over the weekend:
Mr. Darcy, Vampyre? How big can the audience for these books possibly be? Is there enough room in the market for TWO Austen-thrillers?
But, then I saw this:
Ok. I feel like that's too much. What the H is going on?
But, I haven't read them yet. I am getting Mr. Darcy, Vampyre and Pride and Prejudice and Zombiesfor Christmas (thanks Troubletron). So, I can report back in the new year. But, I'd like input from readers. How do you feel about these?
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2 years ago
9 Robot Reactions:
I just want to add that, though I haven't read the books yet, I really hope Mr. Collins is a zombie. It would explain a lot of things.
That's RIGHT you haven't read it yet!! If you recall PP&Z is your Winter Solstice gift!!!!
I LOVED PP&Z. LOVED IT! It was really really funny. But I've never heard of the other two. I really did think the Zombie one was fun to read, but I'm not sure how much of it I'd like to read, and it isn't like I'll read it over and over again. You'll have to tell me if you like the vampire one. The Sea Monster one seems weird.
My favorite plot in PP& Zombies is Mr. Collins. Oh, I love that part of the book.
I'm mixed. I read the book above, don't plan to read the others. PP&Zombies was fun, but not quite cool enough to be awesome. It was missing something.
It's a little ick to me, but I guess you never know until you try. Let us know what you think!
The sea monster one kind of reminds me of Captain Barbossa from Pirates. Tentacles creep me out
Apparently the Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters book was written purposefully as a follow up to PP&Z - there was an article from the author in Slate or NYT recently, oh, here it is: http://www.slate.com/id/2228262/ He basically said that the biggest complaint with PP&Z is that there was too MUCH of Jane Austen's words, and so he wrote S&S&SM with a bit more freedom.
I generally HATE the recent Austen knockoff phenomenon, but I this idea is pretty funny.
Um, this is awesome. I love people who make things like this. They are my idols.
I just finished P&P&Z...it was ok. I'm a big lover of the original P&P so I thought this may be funny. I didn't love it but it was clever.
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