Pride & Predjudice & Zombies Graphic Novel Review

I'm not one for Victorian Literature. I've never read the original book, nor have I read any other book from that era. I don't find myself drawn towards the polite society of Imperial England in any way.

And to add the hipster factor of a novel that slips in a pop culture staple like zombies and markets the book to the Urban Outfitter consumer, who no doubt took a Lit class or two, and has seen their share of zombie movies, well I was borderline offended at the whole idea.

Part of me says "Yeah! Take that you snobby intellectuals!", revelling in the slap in the face that is adapting a classic book with a pop culture spin. And part of me thinks, "How dare you defile such a classic by dumbing it down for the 'tweens of today!"

That said, I got a chance to read the graphic novel adaptation by and illsutrated by , published by DelRay. I found, that with no real knowledge of the original story I was a bit confused by who was who. I got the gist of the five daughters who were conflicted by finding husbands and the ins and outs of British Society.

I enjoyed the kung fu backstory and the zombie fight scenes were very well executed in the art and somewhat in the story, but they did seem to have the air of just being tacked on as a gimmick when things got too serious or dry. And man, was there a lot of dry spots in here.

Letters sent back and forth, ladies and lords, estates mentioned and never really explained, I felt like I was missing a fair amount of backstory. But I got the basic idea down, that the most kickass of the Bennet sisters, who's pride and prejudice towards a soldier and lord of a well to do family, made her scorn the man unjustly.

And in the end they get together and live happily ever after. Spoiler! But I found myself barely able to keep myself invested enough to make it through the graphic novel despite the exquisite drawings and fluid action rendered by . It all felt very contrived and forced inbetween fluid moments of storytelling.

I'd be interested to see what was changed from not only the original story but also the prose zombie version. But not that much. There's too many other interesting comics and/or other classic literature that calls me forth.

I am curious about Sense & Sensibilty & SeaMonsters, but that's just cause SeaMonsters are significantly cooler than zombies.

K