Literary Mash-ups All Mixed Up

To help convey the potential of a good literary mash-up, let me set the scene: In Jane Austen’s Regency Era, a girl rigged out with white empire-waste dress, carefully coifed hair, and impeccable manners traipses through an open field when BAM, a zombie pops out and proceeds to chase said damsel down; the zombie is, of course, hungry for human flesh.  Rabid zombie-man catches up with the delicate slip of a girl only to be quickly dispatched by the maiden, who turns out to be a hardened warrior, trained in the arts of brutal survival and self-defense.

Well, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies pretty much delivers just this, but for me, it still ended up falling flat.  Seth Grahame-Smith’s 2009 work was advertised on the back cover as a re-imagining of the classic and beloved English masterpiece, transformed “into something you’d actually want to read.”  I should have suspected then that my high hopes for a serious contemplation of Jane Austen’s world steeped in blood and gore were about to be disappointed.

If Jane Austen’s works had already been written off as literature people don’t actually want to read before the first page was even turned, I don’t know what I was thinking to expect that the Austen half of the Zombie/Austen equation would have been seen as a rich and interesting foundation on which to legitimately build a story.

I was hoping that the blend of two popular genres would be done with serious consideration.  I have always loved Jane Austen’s light-hearted take of a society bound and directed by a strict code of manners and behavior.  Likewise, I savor a good tale of intrigue, suspense, and action.  I thought the combination of the two would result in a harder, grittier image of Regency England that gave the people of that landscape more depth and dimension.

Instead, I found myself reading a parody of both genres.  I think that both classic literature and the action adventure genre both have their merits and I believe that they both should have been given a fair chance to put something on the table that called back to their roots.  Redelivered in a satirical light,  some of the most adored characters of all literature became shallow, sorry husks of their former selves.

And you thought Elizabeth Bennet's rejection of Mr. Darcy's Proposal was harsh the first time around.

It’s true that the action demanded of a zombie novel was thoroughly executed, not pulling punches with the gore and violence that a zombie telling demands.  Likewise, the novel’s conversation was still delivered with Regency Era propriety and prose.  But to be honest, the moments of parody ruined the whole shebang for me.  I mean for goodness sakes, our beloved heroine Elizabeth Bennet rejected Mr. Darcy’s proposal by kicking him into the mantel before chasing him around the room with a fire poker.

All in all, the book was amusing, but I just couldn’t forgive it for not being everything I had hoped it to be.  If you are curious about the novel though, go into it with a droll frame of mind and expect a lampoon.  If it turns out that you did enjoy Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, or are interested in checking it out for yourself, titles like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter promise to deliver a similar blend to feed your mash-up appetite.  For me though, the mash-ups were an unfortunate case of mix-ups.  I’m still keeping an eye out for a more serious take on works of blended genre though.

What do you think?  Are such mash-ups a terrible idea in the first place?  Do you want to see more of them?  Have a go and let me know!