This was a fun read. This is apparently a prequel to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame Smith (which I have yet to read, although it was published first). It is set a few years prior to Pride and Prejudice, in the year when Elizabeth was set to come out into society. In this telling, about twenty years prior to the events, the living English were at battle with zombies (dreadfuls) and defeated them. After a time, zombie prevention methods (ie. decapitating the dead prior to burial) lapsed and enter the current events when the zombies begin arriving in Meryton again. In the previous war, Mr. Bennett had been a warrior, and begins training his daughters in the deadly arts. After all, Lady Catherine de Burgh was a noted leader in suppressing the previous war's zombies. This is smartly done. Its funny and has literary illusions that readers of the classics will get. A favorite is: "Lieutenant Tindall told me I'd find you up here tilting at putrid windmills. Now I know what he meant." Its not some hokey reworking of Pride and Prejudice. You get to see several of the Meryton townfolk and locations you're familiar with. But the familiar characters and places are put into more of a Shawn of the Dead situation, rather than a bad parody. I plan on picking up the other two in this series.
I checked this out from the local library.
2 comments:
Yours is the first review of one of these Classic/zombie/vampire/sea monster mash ups that makes me actually want to read the book.
Thanks for the review. I might just give this one a try one day.
I'm not sure I could take the others, but some reason I've developed a liking for zombies, so this worked for me. Nice thing about the readers, being able to read a sample of the books before committing to them, either via library or purchasing. And it does have me curious as to what roles were given to Darcy and Bingley. Thinking about this one more, it is a rather feminist stand
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