Zombies Work in Latest Jane Austen Spinoff

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies has been so well received that one must question “why these silly, campy things work so well,” Monica Hesse writes in the Washington Post. She suggests that it’s not simply because Jane Austen and vampires sell—as the author of the forthcoming Jane Bites Back, a literal title, contends—but that Austen’s style lends itself well to creative interpretation.

“There are so many things suited to make Pride and Prejudice into a horror,” says Seth Grahame-Smith, who writes Mr. Darcy as a Martian and Charlotte Lucas a zombie. It could be any genre, Hesse proposes: “The completeness of Austen’s characters is what allows them to be transported successfully.” Victorian subtlety also leaves gaps in language—to be filled with zombies or just about anything else. (More book reviews stories.)