Most of my friends know that I have been hopelessly obsessed with Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice since the age of 16, to the point where I used to carry around a dog-eared copy of the novel with me and consult it at random. (That copy is currently sitting on my nightstand in my dorm room.) I can pretty much quote most of the book from memory, and if I ever have the good fortune to meet someone named Fitzwilliam Darcy, that man is MINE. No questions asked.
Unfortunately, there remain some philistines who insist that Austen's unparalleled masterpiece is dry, outdated and stifling. But now, it appears that author Seth Grahame-Smith has arrived at a way to appease readers looking for a bit more action in Austen: add zombies.
The cleverly-titled Pride and Prejudice and Zombies will reprint the text of Austen's novel with exciting zombie-fighting action sequences interspersed between balls and upper-crust banter. Classy.
When I first heard about the reprinting, I was ready to picket the publishing company. But after learning that the new novel's first line is "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains," I was hooked.
Perhaps fighting off the undead together is exactly what Darcy and Elizabeth need. Instead of lounging in drawing rooms and passive-aggressively flirting at each other, they can let off steam by splitting open zombie heads. At the very least, it'll give everyone in the novel something to do besides attend formal gatherings like it's their job.
Though I may have just lost my place in the ranks of Austen purists, I'm kind of excited about Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. After all, it might introduce my favorite author to readers who wouldn't normally pick up the original novel, which is always a good thing.
And it remains a truth universally acknowledged that zombies generally make everything better.
-- Aubrey
