# Pride and Prejudice and Zombies - anyone read it?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pride-and-prejudice-and-zombies-anyone-read-it/514027
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [October 16, 2009, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pride-and-prejudice-and-zombies-anyone-read-it/514027 "2009-10-16T14:32:14Z")
**Posts on this page:** 18
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crowbar_of_Irony_3)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2009, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pride-and-prejudice-and-zombies-anyone-read-it/514027/1 "2009-10-16T14:32:14Z")
So I was at my local bookshop today and a title caught my eyes - ‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’. I did a double-take. I read through the first couple of pages, looks rather good, but I am not sure if I should sink money into it (it’s an, eh, re-imagining of ‘Pride and Prejudice’. With a zombie invasion).
Right next to that book is “Sense and Sensibilities and Sea Monsters”.
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### Author:  [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2009, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pride-and-prejudice-and-zombies-anyone-read-it/514027/2 "2009-10-16T14:43:55Z")
Just finished it last week. Sadly, it was pretty bad. It would have been a short story, but as a novel, it drags tremendously. The zombie portion of the story doesn’t advance at all. It’s just isolated zombie attacks for no reason. And then several pages of Jane Austen. And then some random ninjas for no apparent reason.
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### Author:  [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2009, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pride-and-prejudice-and-zombies-anyone-read-it/514027/3 "2009-10-16T16:26:09Z")
I listened to the audio book. The reader did a good job, especially with Emily’s friend Charlotte as she slowly succumbed to the plague. 🙂 Having zombies did explain why there is a militia stationed nearby town, which doesn’t make sense in the original.
Anyway, I liked it for the first half or so, but then I agree that it dragged.
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### Author:  [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2009, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pride-and-prejudice-and-zombies-anyone-read-it/514027/4 "2009-10-16T17:01:02Z")
> [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](#):
>
> Just finished it last week. Sadly, it was pretty bad. It would have been a short story, but as a novel, it drags tremendously.
This was pretty much my thought. It was a funny joke for about 30 pages. Then it was old.
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### Author:  [@Arkcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arkcon)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2009, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pride-and-prejudice-and-zombies-anyone-read-it/514027/5 "2009-10-16T17:12:21Z")
I have it. Haven’t finished it. Didn’t know why, but dangermom: summed it up nicely for me. Maybe I’ll read the original first, then this book will be full of ‘A-ha’ moments. 'Tho I do hope someone makes it into a movie – some Hollywood starlet, in period dress, delivering kung-fu kicks to zombies that dissolve into green dust would be an awesome film. Christina Ricci is a little old to be a character in the novel, but somehow, the look in the eyes of the girls in the drawing of the book made me think of her in her other films.
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### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2009, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pride-and-prejudice-and-zombies-anyone-read-it/514027/6 "2009-10-16T17:20:41Z")
Yeah, they pretty much summed it up. It was funny for awhile, and then… not so much. The one thing that got better as the book went on was the Charlotte subplot.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Bird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Bird)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2009, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pride-and-prejudice-and-zombies-anyone-read-it/514027/7 "2009-10-16T17:25:37Z")
I did not particularly enjoy the P&P&Z and quit about a quarter the way through. I agree that the zombies seemed rather wedged in and the character’s motivations didn’t always work.
However, I LOVED Sense and Sensibility and Seamonsters. Far better integration of the weirdness into the original story and a better sense of humor about it all. Plus it should have been called Sense and Sensibility and Seamonsters and Steampunk which was definitely a bonus.
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### Author:  [@Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crowbar_of_Irony_3)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2009, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pride-and-prejudice-and-zombies-anyone-read-it/514027/8 "2009-10-16T17:53:26Z")
Do you need to read the original novels to appreciate the humor (As your standard typical video game, computer engineering nerd, I never touched any book by Ms. Jane. Yah, it was the ‘AND ZOMBIES’ that grabbed my attention).
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### Author:  [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2009, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pride-and-prejudice-and-zombies-anyone-read-it/514027/9 "2009-10-16T18:06:08Z")
> [@CrazyChop](#):
>
> Do you need to read the original novels to appreciate the humor
Sort of - the juxtaposition of the mannered world of Jane Austen vs. kung-fu zombie fighters is supposed to be the humor.
But, as **dangermom** and **Tapioca Dextrin** point out, the humor wears pretty thin pretty quick.
Regards,
Shodan
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### Author:  [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2009, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pride-and-prejudice-and-zombies-anyone-read-it/514027/10 "2009-10-16T19:19:40Z")
If the OP is interested in wacky 19th century undead alternative history, a much better choice is [Anno Dracula](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anno_Dracula_%28novel%29).
Plot: Count Dracula marries Queen Victoria.
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### Author:  [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2009, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pride-and-prejudice-and-zombies-anyone-read-it/514027/11 "2009-10-16T19:47:17Z")
I read it through and enjoyed it enough. But I’m a P&P compulsive re-reader, so it wasn’t like it took a lot of effort to get to the jokes. Sometimes they fell flat, but sometimes they didn’t.
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### Author:  [@Sonnenstrahl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sonnenstrahl)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2009, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pride-and-prejudice-and-zombies-anyone-read-it/514027/12 "2009-10-16T19:55:53Z")
I also got bored. I don’t think I even finished it. The entire Jane Austen industry bugs me, too - I have no interest in continuations of her stories, books and movies about people reading her books, and now I can say I don’t want to read any more encounters between her characters and monsters.
I think you do need to know the original - a lot of the humour was knowing what parts were changed. At least, you have to be familiar with the world of the books.
The Dracula/Queen Victoria book is a fun concept, though! Reminds me of the Doctor Who episode where it was revealed that Queen Victoria was bitten by a werewolf and that was the source of the hemophilia in the royal family.
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### Author:  [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2009, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pride-and-prejudice-and-zombies-anyone-read-it/514027/13 "2009-10-16T20:09:19Z")
I read about 50 pages, chuckled a few times and then lost interest. A friend made me go back and read the big Lizzie /Lady Catherine De Burgh scene. Now _that_ was funny.
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### Author:  [@The\_Why\_Bird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Why_Bird)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2009, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pride-and-prejudice-and-zombies-anyone-read-it/514027/14 "2009-10-16T20:11:54Z")
I got the jokes because I know the novel pretty well, but as everyone else has said, there didn’t seem to be enough substance to carry it through. It was funny for a couple of chapters, and then just… more of the same.
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### Author:  [@as\_u\_wish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/as_u_wish)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2009, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pride-and-prejudice-and-zombies-anyone-read-it/514027/15 "2009-10-16T20:13:50Z")
I read and enjoyed it, but it did drag in places. I can quote much of the original–I suppose I’ve read it 20 or 30 times. Most of the fun for me was seeing how much of the original dialog and descriptions were retained. I was going to skip Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, but based on Little Bird’s comments, I put myself on the waiting list at the library.
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### Author:  [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2009, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pride-and-prejudice-and-zombies-anyone-read-it/514027/16 "2009-10-16T22:28:55Z")
> [@CrazyChop](#):
>
> Do you need to read the original novels to appreciate the humor (As your standard typical video game, computer engineering nerd, I never touched any book by Ms. Jane. Yah, it was the ‘AND ZOMBIES’ that grabbed my attention).
If you’ve seen a decent movie version of P&P, I think that would be enough. I’ve seen the A&E miniseries & the Kiera Knightley version, so I have a decent understanding of the story.
I’d like them to get Joss Whedon’s permission to do EMMA: The Vampire Slayer.
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### Author:  [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2009, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pride-and-prejudice-and-zombies-anyone-read-it/514027/17 "2009-10-17T02:38:35Z")
> [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](#):
>
> Just finished it last week. Sadly, it was pretty bad. It would have been a short story, but as a novel, it drags tremendously. The zombie portion of the story doesn’t advance at all. It’s just isolated zombie attacks for no reason. And then several pages of Jane Austen. And then some random ninjas for no apparent reason.
It’s like reading Jane Austin all over again. I didn’t like Pride and Prejudice when I read it in school and got to page 20. It’s a shame, because I wanted to like it.
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### Author:  [@Arkcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arkcon)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2009, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pride-and-prejudice-and-zombies-anyone-read-it/514027/18 "2009-12-11T15:09:32Z")
> [@Arkcon](#):
>
> 'Tho I do hope someone makes it into a movie – some Hollywood starlet, in period dress, delivering kung-fu kicks to zombies that dissolve into green dust would be an awesome film. Christina Ricci is a little old to be a character in the novel, but somehow, the look in the eyes of the girls in the drawing of the book made me think of her in her other films.
Who-hoo. Natalie Portman FTW
[http://gawker.com/5423956/natalie-portman-and-pride-and-prejudice-and-zombies](http://gawker.com/5423956/natalie-portman-and-pride-and-prejudice-and-zombies)