Jane Austen and Zombies

Hello, readers. Recently my world seemed drab and without hope. And by this I mean that Elizabeth Bennett seemed destined to never cleave a zombie's head from its shoulders.

But thankfully that's all been taken care of now, courtesy of Seth Grahame-Smith.


Yes, in the midst of the current crazy for all things zombie (Zombies vs Unicorns, Nazi Snow Zombies, and the growing canon of Zombie Survival Literature ) someone has decided that Pride and Prejudice, for all it's wit and romance, was lacking something, and that something was rampaging hordes of the undead. According to the publishers, they're keeping the original text and adding "all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie action." I'm not sure how this will work, but then again, I'm not completely sure how velcro works either. Maybe this will be as snappy and magical as velcro. Maybe it will be as noisy and annoying. We'll see.

Charles J. Brown suggests titles for other classics to be Zombie-fied, including Portnoy's Complaint about Zombies, which adds evidence to my theory that Philip Roth is, in secret, waging a never-ending struggle against the undead. Some other possible titles:

The Great Gatsby Zombie
Lolita and Other Zombies
A Little Zombie Princess
As I Lay Dying, which doesn't really need a name change and is sort of about a zombie anyway. Addie Bundren lives!

See also: The Times and The Guardian.

Thanks to a shiny girl for the tip.

Happy Thursday, readers.

An Indignant Philip Roth Battles Zombies

Wouldn't it be pretty if it were so, dear readers? But no, as of yet, Philip Roth has not joined in the fight against the undead. He has, however, published a new novel by the name of Indignation, which the Washington Post says "ought to be handed out on college campuses along with condoms and tetanus shots." I hadn't realized Roth had resorted to writing about sex with rusty robots, but considering his growing fascination with zombies, who can keep up these days.


In related news, Kelly Link's short story, "Some Zombie Contingency Plans" is now available for free online as part of John Joseph Adams anthology, The Living Dead, which collects zombie stories from the likes of Neil Gaiman, Ray Bradbury, Stephen King, and others.