Pride and Prejudice and Zombies to be on New York Times Bestseller List
Congratulations to Seth Grahame-Smith! Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is No. 3 on the New York Times Paperback Trade Fiction Bestseller List this week! Apparently it’s doing well in the UK, too. The BBC has an interview with Seth:
What’s been the reaction from the literary establishment?
I was expecting to be burned in effigy to be honest. So far the reaction has been mostly positive.
Most people have a great sense of humour about it, particularly the ‘Jane-ites’, who must prefer this to the 60th or 70th Mr Darcy’s private thoughts collection that seems to come out every year.
Oh, bless his heart. Some constituencies can never get enough of Mr. Darcy’s private thoughts, but in other cases he’s not far off. And this is a quotation for the ages:
I like my zombies slow and I like my zombies stupid.
Hear, hear! Publisher’s Weekly has news on Seth’s next book, Abraham Lincoln the Vampire Slayer. Gee, who was his Watcher? And do you think the media hipsters will complain about the Uptight Purist Lincolnites? The New Yorker has an article as well.
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I think I have come to appreciate Mr. Grahame-Smith a tad more. The parts about expecting to be burned in effigy and the Mr. Darcy’s-private-thoughts collections made me giggle.
“Uptight Purist Lincolnites”
LOL. Do they wear stovepipe hats?
Yes. Frilly ones.
Well, he has a six-figure book deal and a movie in the works, all because of P&P&Z… can we Janeites say we knew him when?
Abe could not have been a vampire slayer. The great Illinois/Kentucky Vampire wars were over before he was even born. Honestly, you’d think people would do basic historical research, wouldn’t you.
Stop the madness…:-)
Is there are point to this? I think the book, reportedly containing 85% or so of the original text, is rather lazy. Give me an actual rewrite, not just inserts. And why the publicity? Because it’s dumb, and therefore “accessible to the everyday newspaper reader”?
@ibmiller
My understanding of the book was similar, that he only inserted zombies. Having now read it, I can say that he actually did a pretty good job of rewriting the novel, even with such a substantial amount of original text. If it were simply paragraphs or sentences inserted here and there, it wouldn’t have worked. However, motivations and actions of the characters were changed in response to the zombie menace overtaking England.