Monday, February 09, 2009

More braaaaaiiiiiins, Mr. Darcy?


If you're like me, you often finish a novel and think to yourself, "Well, that was good. But it would have been so much better with zombies."

Fortunately, Seth Grahame-Smith has teamed up with Jane Austen on a rewrite of her disappointingly zombie-free novel Pride and Prejudice, now retitled Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

The book description, per Amazon: ""Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" features the original text of Jane Austen's beloved novel with all-new scenes of bone crunching zombie action."

Words cannot express how much I am looking forward to this.

This whole concept opens whole new vistas. I eagerly await a zombified version of Gone With the Wind in which Scarlett O'Hara eats Rhett Butler's brain. Or a version of Great Expectations in which Miss Havisham gets her revenge in ways more physical than in Dickens' overly genteel version.

In comments, please let me know what novel you'd improve with zombies, and, if you'd like to, why.

(Hat tip: P&P&Z was mentioned in last weekend's episode of NPR's Wait, Wait ... Don't Tell Me.)

UPDATE: A word from the publisher:



Video via Areas of My Expertise.

And a programming note: Posting will be light for the foreseeable future.

10 comments:

punkinsmom said...

Watership Down
Anne of Green Gables

Oh, definitely The Secret Garden. Why else would the garden be secret other than to hide the zombies?

Posol'stvo the Medved said...

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Zombies: Suddenly there is a lot more urgency to their quest to reach Bozeman Montana, before the zombies do.

Moby Dick and the Whale Zombies: Whaling is a lot more challenging when some of the whales want to eat your brains.

The Sound and the Fury ... and Zombies: In which we are given a glimpse into what exactly may have injured Benjy's brain so severely.

Grammarian@mindspring.com said...

A Zombie in the Rye
Brainshead Revisited
The Naked and the Undead

Anonymous said...

I'm gonna go with A Zombie Christmas Carol, in which Tiny Tim and that whole damned Cratchit family are torn apart and eaten by the spirits of Christmas past, present and future.

(And yes, I'd LOVE to see a Mr. Magoo version of that...)

ChefNick said...

Christ, Jimmy, Jimmy JIMMEH. I just went to the kitchen supply place just two weeks ago and bought, count 'em, SIX Zombie glasses. Frosted!

I didn't even know what a Zombie glass was until I googled "Y'know, kinda highball except really skinny glasses, and while you're at it, frosted, too" and then that's what happened. Now I drink everything out of my Zombie glasses.

But what could that be doing to my brain? YOU'RE doing it to my brain. The other day I read how someone somewhere hacked into traffic road bulletin signs and made them say "Zombies on the loose! Flee!" or something like that. Now you and your post and me and my glasses and it's all too coincidental. And now you say your posts are going to be"light."

Just admit it. You're becoming a THEM. You just want to know about movie zombies because you WANT TO BE ONE OF THEM.

Uhh . . . Darrin in Bewitched?

lee said...

I think The Red Badge of Courage could use some zombies. Frankly, I couldn't wait for the battle scene to end so maybe a zombie incursion would spice things up.

Anonymous said...

Reading for high school would have been much more interesting.

Ethan Frome and Zombies. (Who needs the tree?)

Romeo and Juliet and Zombies (who needs the poison?)

Little Women and Zombies (Meg died but now she's eating her sisters)

Jim Donahue said...

Excellent ideas, everyone!

If I could move into the realm of television, may I suggest a version of The O'Reilly Factor in which Bill O'Reilly eats the brains of his viewers.

Oh, wait. That's the way it is already.

(Note to Nick: Don't tell me you never noticed there were two Darrens!?!)

ChefNick said...

Jim,

For SURE I knew there were two Darrens! The second one, though I forget his name, was VERY zombie-like. Especially the way they insinuated him in there . . . Umm, Samantha, your husband is no longer Dick York/Darren. But you'll deal with that nicely, won't you?

Hey, we'd all deal with that nicely if one fine day our Significant Other was slyly replaced with a close copy . . .

Wouldn't we?

A toast to Zombies in my Zombie glass.

Doug said...

The Picture of Dorian Zombie.

The portrait requires... human flesh!