When I first heard of Quirk Classics’ initial release, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES, I thought it sounded like a fun gimmick but couldn’t imagine it as anything more than that. After reading a few pages, though, I couldn’t resist the idea of this famous Victorian romance run through with a plague of undead flesh eaters. I clicked “Buy this book now!” on my Kindle and dove right in.
I was impressed. Seth Grahame-Smith had skillfully and simply moved Austen’s characters into a world which had for some time been under the sway of a horrifying condition which caused the dead to rise desperate to feast on the living. While keeping intact much of Austen’s prose, Smith wholly adapted the characters into persons whose entire lives now revolved around a fight for survival against impossible odds. He completely reimagined their world as a place transformed by many years of “Troubles” with the undead. PPZ succeeded in not only raising the emotional stakes in a hilarious way but also in making better sense, in my opinion, of some of the more flimsy plot elements and character resolutions in the original work.
I can’t really speak highly enough of PPZ. With that book and its follow-up SENSE AND SENSIBILITY AND SEA MONSTERS (by Ben Winters and Ms. Austen) , Quirk Classics took what could’ve been a silly gimmick and succeeded in producing well-written, completely realized alternate universe versions of these Austen classics. While highly amusing to people who were already fans of the original books (even more so if they are also sci-fi/monster movie fans), Quirk also brought a whole new audience to Austen that probably never otherwise would’ve been able to tell a Mr. Darcy from a Colonel Brandon.
While I thoroughly enjoyed these books and have been eagerly anticipating Seth Grahame-Smith’s upcoming ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER, I wasn’t sure how what to think when Quirk announced a “prequel” to PPZ titled PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES: DAWN OF THE DREADFULS. I had my doubts that the Quirk formula could be remotely as successful without the existing framework of a novel to follow. Also, I hate the word “prequel.”
However, now that I’ve read the advance copy Quirk Classics sent me, I realize that I missed the point. While their books do have a formula – a mashup of a popular genre with a piece of “classic” literature – the thing that makes them successful is that theirs works are very well-written and completely realized. After a few pages of DAWN OF THE DREADFULS, I was completely amused and of course I wanted to know more about the earlier days of the Bennet family and the beginnings of their tribulations.
While Steve Hockensmith didn’t have Jane Austen as a framework, he evokes the romantic style while giving a bit more of a tongue-in check wink to the audience than is present in the Smith’s original PPZ. Hockensmith takes a few more amusing liberties and makes a few more veiled pop-culture references than I remember being present in the earlier book. With that in mind, I think it’s safe to say that he knows his audience and rarely if ever strays too far from the tone that, in my mind, makes Quirk Classics work so well. Hockensmith also knows these characters well. While he draws them with significantly broader strokes than were allowed in PPZ, they aren’t so far removed from the original Austen as you might think. In fact, the Bennet family at the start of DAWN OF THE DREADFULS is much closer to the Austen’s Bennets than the family you meet in PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES. Hockensmith is tasked with taking the Bennet girls from their ladylike Austenhood into the beginning of their studies in the deadly arts. After completing the book, I now wonder if there will be a pre-prequel, because it seems to me the REALLY interesting stuff happened to Oscar Bennet during The Troubles. So, Quirk, my request for your next offering in the PPZ series (if there is to be one) is a history of The Troubles.
If you’ve been wondering or doubting whether DAWN OF THE DREADFULS would be as good as PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES, well, it isn’t quite. That doesn’t mean that it isn’t a really fun read. It’s hilarious at times, and maybe even a great standalone piece of zombieana. It isn’t done with quite the same grace as PPZ, but it has a lot more latitude to be both very funny and horrifying – sometimes at once. Still, I recommend it as a companion to the first volume. Based on PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES and SENSE AND SENSIBILITY AND SEA MONSTERS, which you should read if you haven’t, I’m really looking forward to Quirk’s next release ANDROID KARENINA as well as Seth Grahame-Smith’s Abraham Lincoln fauxbiography. I’ll have reviews of both of these near their release dates.
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES: DAWN OF THE DREADFULS will be available for purchase March 23, 2010 wherever books are sold for $12.95.
Quirk Classics gave me this link to pass along to my readers, and if you go here and mention you read this on my blog you could win some nifty swag.
http://quirkclassics.com/index.php?q=QuirkClassicsContest_DOD_Reviews
Click on through! Win some stuff and mention my blog!
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