Pride and Prejudice and Zombies vs. Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters

Q: On what factors do we judge this year’s new adaptations of classic Jane Austen? Could it be as simple as personal preference for zombies versus sea monsters? Or perhaps personal preference of Pride and Prejudice versus Sense and Sensibility? Think on that a spell while I tell you two reasons why I loved them both:

Reason #1 for embracing Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (additions by Seth Grahame-Smith) and Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters (additions by Ben H. Winters): Using the awesome drawing power of zombies and sea monsters (who can possibly resist the exuberant charm of Frankenstein’s or Loch Ness’s monsters? Not me!) brings a whole new audience for these classics. People are reading Austen for the first time; people, like me, who may never have read these Victorian fiction gems without the lure of aforementioned ghouls and sea slimeys. New Austen converts? Can I get a “Heck yes!”?

Reason #2 for devouring these books anew like you’ve never read them before: Um, they now have zombies and sea monsters: hello! Sure, you’ve seen all the movie versions and read your grandmother’s battered old copies dozens of times, but you’ve never seen Elizabeth sword-fight the undead while worrying about whether or not she secretly loves Darcy. The protagonist and supporting female cast are respected warriors in this new version of Pride and Prejudice. I can’t imagine Ms. Jane Austen herself being anything but pleased to see our 21^st century reimagining turn her main characters into feminist icons.

A: If you have to choose just one of these new classics to read, choose not based on your love of reanimated flesh versus murderous cephalopods, as both are sensationally represented. Choose not even based on the characters or storylines of your favorite Jane Austen, as, let’s face it, both novels are reminiscent of the other. Choose Pride and Prejudice and Zombies because of the aforementioned feminist manifesta excitement, the promise of unique transformation-into-zombie folklore (in this mythology, it takes months to turn once you’re bitten), and the superior marriage of authors the writing displays.

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters boasts a vast array of surly sea-beasts, to be sure, but the writing isn’t as seamless in this one. The sea-beast plotline can easily be told from the original storyline (and as I said above, I’ve never read the originals of either novel, so I shouldn’t be able to tell…) and the sea monsters seem like an almost trivial afterthought to both the modern writer and the characters in the story. Perhaps Mr. Winters wasn’t confident enough to really dig into the story and find its new purpose with the addition of the Loch Ness monster family, or maybe Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was just too good by comparison. In either case, read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies first to whet your appetite for what might be an exciting new trend in reimagining classic novels.