Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter to be Made into a Movie

Will it ever end? Author Seth Graham-Smith seems to have the King Midas Movie Golden Touch. His new book, Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter will be made into a movie.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies the movie - undead in a theater near you!

It’s official. Variety reports that Natalie Portman will be the next Lizzie Bennet in the movie of adaptation of the best selling literary mash-up Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Portman will co-produce with Annette Savitch.

Natalie and I are longtime passionate fans of Jane Austen’s books and this a fresh, fun and thought-provoking way to approach her work,” Savitch said. “The idea of zombies running rampant in 19th Century England may sound odd, but it lends a modern sense of urgency to a well known love story."

Only this week co-author Seth Grahame-Smith had denied rumors of the movie deal on his Twitter account. Guess he changed his mind.

Jane Austen was vacationing in Tahiti and unavailable for comment.

Cheers, Laurel Ann, Austenprose

Just in Time for Christmas: Pride and Prejudice and 30% More Zombies

Have you wondered what Sir William Beechey's portrait of Maria B. Fox looked like before she was zombified by Quirk Books? Check out her image on the left and on the deluxe edition of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies on the right. This new leatherette edition boasts 30% more zombies in its expanded version, a new preface by coauthor Seth Grahame-Smith, and thirteen oil painting illustrations by Roberto Parada.

Why does the publisher desire you to spend more money on this new edition? Because they've offered more carnage, more corpse slaying, and more gruesome cannibalism inside its 360 pristine white acid-free pages. With a satin ribbon marker and leatherette cover, you can confidently place it alongside the first-edition heirlooms on your book shelf.

Click on the image above for the enlarged version. Click on the links below to learn more about this runaway New York Times bestseller.

• Click here for our original announcement of this deluxe edition
• Read Vic's review of the novel at this link
• Read Laurel Ann's review at this link
• Will Zombies Eat Elizabeth Bennet?
• The book club questions as listed on Oprah.com:

Seth Grahame-Smith (Image From The Weekly Rot)

Questions:

1. Many critics have addressed the dual nature of Elizabeth's personality. On one hand, she can be a savage, remorseless killer, as we see in her vanquishing of Lady Catherine's ninjas. On the other hand, she can be tender and merciful, as in her relationships with Jane, Charlotte, and the young bucks that roam her family's estate. In your opinion, which of these "halves" best represents the real Elizabeth at the beginning—and end of the novel?

2. Is Mr. Collins merely too fat and stupid to notice his wife's gradual transformation into a zombie, or could there be another explanation for his failure to acknowledge the problem? If so, what might that explanation be? How might his occupation (as a pastor) relate to his denial of the obvious, or his decision to hang himself?

3. The strange plague has been the scourge of England for "five-and-fifty years." Why do the English stay and fight, rather than retreat to the safety of eastern Europe or Africa?

4. Who receives the sorrier fate: Wickham, left paralyzed in a seminary for the lame, forever soiling himself and studying ankle-high books of scripture? Or Lydia, removed from her family, married to an invalid, and childless, yet forever changing filthy diapers?

5. Due to her fierce independence, devotion to exercise, and penchant for boots, some critics have called Elizabeth Bennet "the first literary lesbian." Do you think the authors intended her to be gay? And if so, how would this Sapphic twist serve to explain her relationships with Darcy, Jane, Charlotte, Lady Catherine, and Wickham?

6. Some critics have suggested that the zombies represent the authors' views toward marriage—an endless curse that sucks the life out you and just won't die. Do you agree, or do you have another opinion about the symbolism of the unmentionables?

7. Does Mrs. Bennet have a single redeeming quality?

If you relish reading passages like the following, then this book is right up your alley:

"Elizabeth passed the chief of the night in her sister's room, alternately tending to Jane's needs and amusing herself by keeping a dagger balanced on the tip of her finger for hours on end..."

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies – The Deluxe Heirloom Edition?

Gentle Readers:

More zombies you ask? Yup!

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into a bookstore, Quirk Books officially announced today a Deluxe Heirloom Edition of its New York Times bestselling Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, now with 30% more zombie action – yes – that’s 30% more bone crunching and brain eating zombies populating Jane Austen’s gently refined prose.

From our perspective, it appears that zombie fans felt slighted after the text of the first edition only included 15% gore and goo in comparison to 85% classic literature and demanded more gruesome zombie action. To compensate, co-author Seth Grahame-Smith has taken a second crack at it by expanding the story. Let’s hope that none of Austen’s text was whittled out to make room!

In addition to the expanded zombie mayhem, the Deluxe Heirloom edition includes:

• A rich faux leather hardcover with gold foil stamping and a ribbon marker

• All new stunning full-color illustrations—depicting 13 of the most memorable moments in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

• A special preface from living author Seth Grahame-Smith about his experience writing Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

• And an essay afterword by Dr. Allen Grove, Professor of English Literature at Alfred University

Oh my! Just what you need to round out your classics section in your library, right?

The new edition is due out November 1st (just in time for Holiday shopping) and you can pre-order you copy today. Quirk has also invited readers to join its recently launched Quirk Classics Facebook page where on July 15, 2009 at midnight, it will be announcing the next monster lit mash-up in the Quirk Classics series. Oh dear! Who’s next? Charlotte Bronte? Shakespeare? Charles Dickens? We are all anticipation!


One of 13 illustrations in the new Deluxe Heirloom edition of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Charlotte Lucas marries Mr. Collins. She would have to be a zombie to agree to that!

You can catch up on all the zombie bedlam by reading our reviews of P&P&Z. Vic & I thought it a great high concept parody, but purist Austen fans are forewarned!

Vic's review of P&P&Z at Jane Austen's World

Laurel Ann's review of P&P&Z at Austenprose

Cheers, Laurel Ann, Austenprose

Zombies mixed in with Jane Austen's prose equal a thriller bestseller

Zombie infestations have reached our friends down under. The NZ Herald interviewed Seth Graham-Smith (at left), Jane's co-author of the recent bestseller, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Here are a few quotes from the newspaper's interview with the author. (Drat, we wish he'd answered our questions when we sent them in several months ago. He actually gives good interviews.)

"Zombies are a sign of the apocalypse. So says writer Seth Grahame-Smith. Well, more or less. More precisely, he says zombies tend to start appearing in popular culture when times get tough. "They are a walking metaphor for the ills we find ourselves up against. They've been used to represent everything from the threat of communism to the Aids epidemic and crass commercialism."

Why did he write the darned novel? "Grahame-Smith was so excited at the idea of writing "gratuitous, violent, gory sequences in the imitated style of Jane Austen" that he rushed right out and bought the original to reread. He'd read the book just once before, at high school as a 14-year-old, and was not a fan. When he reread it though, things changed. "I suddenly got it."

How does he feel about writing a best seller? "Grahame-Smith is unrepentant. "I do feel like I did her a favour because becoming a zombie was probably not as poor a fate as being married to Mr Collins."

What's next for Mr. Grahame-Smith? - Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter. Hah! "It will have that same comic spin and it's a very different thing to write a biography and have it read funny - that's my goal, to have it a mix of fiction, humour and factual accuracy."

Read our reviews of the novel in the links below:

• Vic on Jane Austen's World wonders how Jane's other novels can be converted into cold hard cash. Willoughby's Tell-Tale Heart, anyone?

• Laurel Ann wonders which audience the book is actually targeting.
  

The Immortal Jane Austen, or Beam Me Up, Scottie, Our Popular Culture Has Gone Haywire

In 2010, The Immortal Jane Austen, the first installment of a series of books, will be published. Written by author Janet Mullany, this humorous book is "about Jane Austen in Regency England who joins the vampire resistance in Bath when England is invaded by French forces." The new immortal Jane is not to be confused with The Immortal Jane Austen by esteemed Jane Austen scholar, Maggie Lane, which is already in print and available in stores. In her serious endeavor, Maggie Lane discusses Jane's six immortal novels in terms of her life and imagination.

Our popular culture just can't get enough of Jane. We must sequel her books, satirize her stories and life, and twist her plots in shocking ways, as in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, the recent best-seller by Seth Grahame-Smith. He is currently researching Abraham Lincoln, who he intends to turn into a zombie slayer. When reading about these new developments, it's all I can do to control my gag reflex. A colleague of mine spotted Pride and Prejudice and Zombies in The World of Mirth, a toy store in Carytown in Richmond, Virginia. Other items spotted in this establishment (which is truly worth a visit) are rubber chickens and Mr. T bobble head dolls. 'Nuff said. As long as these trendy endeavors make a boat load of money for the writer and publisher they will continue to be published.

Which brings me to this point: An agent, whose blog I ran across, thinks that this cliched opening statement of The Rules of Gentility by Janet Mullany, author of the forthcoming Immortal Jane, is brilliant, despite the fact that a variation of this sentence has been written a gazillion times before:

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single woman of fortune and passable good looks amuses herself in London with fashion, philanthropic works, and flirtation until a suitable gentleman makes an offer. I consider the pursuit of the bonnets and a husband fairly alike - I do not want to acquire an item that will wear out, or bore me after a brief acquaintance, and we must suit each other very well."

If an agent, on whom publishers depend to separate the wheat from the chaff, thinks that this opening statement is noteworthy (while not mentioning that Pride and Prejudice is its inspiration), what does this say about the state of the publishing business? As for how the Mullany version of The Immortal Jane Austen will be critically received - stay tuned and see.

• National Dumbing Down Continues Apace, Second Pass

• Austen, we have a problem: Reinvent the classics or leave them be?

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Sequels

Inquiring readers,

Jane Austen's World's review of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is up. Please click here to read Vic's review and here for Laurel Ann's take of the novel. For those who do not have the patience to read a long review, I have placed a turbo review below. Also included in this post are my high concept horror plots for the rest of Jane Austen's novels. If Seth Grahame-Smith can make a monetary killing off one of Jane's most beloved novels, why can't lil' ol' me?

Turbo Review of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

If you have a sense of humor and love parodies and horror movies and think that slow moving zombies can actually kill people by sheer force of numbers, then by all means purchase Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith. The book is a hoot and follows P&P's plot closely. If you are a serious Janeite, you will have issues with this concept and vomit, which is a subtext of the book. My rating system goes as follows:

I award the book no (0) regency fans for serious Janeites;
Two regency fans for people who are addicted to Twilight and Anne Rice novels; and
Four regency fans for people who like horror movies but who have never read Jane Austen.

Vic's Ploy to Earn Serious Money in These Hard Economic Times

Having reviewed my investments with my accountant, I can confess that I am willing to sell my soul to the highest bidders of my high concept novels while allowing Jane Austen and any other dead novelist in my vicinity do 50% of my writing. Please read my five plots below. All bids above a mil will be accepted. No questions asked.

Rosemary’s and Henry Tilney’s Baby – Inspiration: Northanger Abbey and Rosemary’s Baby

The book opens with Catherine Morland feeling she is the luckiest woman alive in England. She has married her Mr. Tilney, who turns out to be as witty in bed as out of it. Better yet, General Tilney died of apoplexy upon hearing that his son was to wed her, and Captain Tilney died in a duel over cheating at cards, making Catherine the mistress of Northanger Abbey. She has spent her days and nights dismantling General Tilney’s improvements, including the Rumford fireplace, and returning Northanger Abey to its Gothic, spider-webbed origins. One day Catherine follows the sound of mewling down a long, dark, and dank corridor. Opening a creaking door, she enters a redecorated space that is light and airy and (quelle horreur) modern. Catherine approaches a cradle and peeks inside. She gasps when she sees the baby – a miniature Henry, only with yellow slanted eyes, two horn buds sprouting from its forehead, and cloven feet. Catherine doesn’t know which emotion affects her more: the one of betrayal or disappointment that the nursery has been remodeled in the modern neoclassical style.

Willoughby’s Tell-Tale Heart – Inspiration: Sense and Sensibility and The Tell-Tale Heart

After Willoughby’s rejection, Marianne Dashwood falls ill. When she awakens from her fever, she overhears Willoughby reveal to Elinor that he loves Marianne but that he has no choice but to marry for money. The knowledge takes the poor girl over the edge. While everyone is asleep, a still weakened Marianne sneaks out of the house, rides to Comb Magnum, creeps into Willoughby’s bedroom and stabs him in the heart as he lies snoring. She cuts out his still beating heart, wanting something of Willoughby to remember him by. Marianne tries to live a normal life and agrees to marry Colonel Brandon. But not once can she take her mind off Willoughby (whose murder goes unsolved), or his heart, which has now shriveled and dessicated to 1/10th its size. Regardless, she can hear it beating 24/7. Desperate to get away from the sound, Marianne encases the organ in a cement box and buries it under the floorboards in a hole in the basement, but the constant thump thump thump of Willoughby’s heart drives her wild. Colonel Brandon, not knowing what is wrong with his crazed bride, tries to tempt her with sweetmeats and poetry and lovemaking. One day, a wild-eyed Marianne hands the colonel a small cement box.”There”, she cries out. “There is Willoughby’s beating heart!” Upon opening the box, the colonel sees only a shriveled up prune and has his wife committed.

Dr. Jekyll and Fanny Price – Inspiration: Mansfield Park and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Angered that Fanny has attracted the attentions of rich Henry Crawford, Mrs. Norris arranges for Dr. Jekyll to create a potion that will turn the sweet girl into a vicious and nasty harridan. Unbeknownst to Dr. Jekyll as he was making the potion, drops of Mrs. Norris’s sweat plopped into the boiling cauldron as she watched him stir it, infusing her evil personality into the liquid. After Fanny drinks some tea (which to her mind was foul and bitter, but which she politely sipped anyway), she feels Mrs. Norris's anger and spite invade her bloodstream. While she remains sweet and tractable during the day, she turns loathsome at night, waking the servants at all hours to do her bidding, clean every nook and cranny in the house, and muck out the stalls. One by one the staff drop dead from exhaustion or quit, unable to perform double duty without a moment’s rest. While Edmund is turned off by the new Fanny, Henry is enthralled with her transformation, for he had harbored some doubts that she’d be capable of overseeing the staff of his houses. Servants come a dime a dozen, but a capable wife comes only once in a lifetime.

Persuading Moby – Inspiration: Persuasion and Moby Dick

Captain Wentworth and his new bride Anne are sailing the high seas on his fine boat as they ply the waters defending England’s shores from pirates, boot-leggers, and invasions. Anne revels in her life on board ship, loving the rocking motion of both the boat and marital bed. Then one day Captain Wentworth spies a white whale and Anne’s life changes. Her husband becomes obsessed, wanting to hunt the whale down and kill it, for, as he tells his bride, albinos lead a tough life out in the wild. They can’t camouflage their color and hide from danger. “We might as well put the poor creature out of its misery,” he gallantly says. But the whale, whom Anne had secretly named Moby, was not easily persuaded to swim within catching distance. The captain, consumed by his obsession, begins to neglect Anne. After a few weeks of putting up with the Captain’s distraction and lack of amorous advances, Anne decides to take matters into her own hands. She commandeers a rowboat and heads towards the whale, who, not scared of a puny boat with a mere woman in it, stays around long enough to listen. This provides Anne with ample time to persuade Moby to leave under cover of night and go blow his blowhole elsewhere.


Bride of FrankChurchillStein – Inspiration: Emma and Bride of Frankenstein

Jane Fairfax is no longer beautiful, having fallen asleep in her tester bed waiting for Frank to return from a night of gambling, carousing, and drinking. The spark from a sputtering candle ignited the bedsheets, burning the house down and rendering poor Jane lifeless and burnt crisp to the bone. Frank, distraught and feeling guilty for neglecting his long-suffering bride, directs a dissipated priest to unearth Jane from her grave and return her to him by enacting an undead ritual he found in an ancient Egyptian manuscript. Jane does indeed come back to life, but she is not quite herself, looking more like a roasted quail than a human. Angry that Frank yanked her out of Heaven to resume her life of living hell with him, she extracts her revenge with cool and deliberate calculation, murdering all of Frank’s cronies and mistresses. Frank, desperate to undo the spell, discovers to his horror that Jane has killed the priest. Frank sinks into despair knowing his cushy days of debauchery are over for as long as his reconstituted Jane roams the earth.

Posted by Vic, Jane Austen's World. Read all our Pride and Prejudice and Zombies posts at this link.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies News & Gossip

For all our loyal readers out there in Austenland, here is an update on P&P&Z.

The official release date for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is April 1st (even though Amazon and Barnes & Noble had listed as May). Its publisher Quirkbooks has posted an illustration on its website which I have included on the left. Hmmm? It does not look much like the C. E. Brock illustrations that they mentioned they would be in the style of, does it?

Anyway, the good folks at Quirkbooks sent me an advance copy, which finally arrived a few days ago. There is an embargo on my talking about it until April 1st, but today on its Facebook page, readers are commenting that they have purchased their copies today at Borders Books! It appears that crazed Zombies have invaded the printers warehouses and stolen copies and delivered them only to Borders. Well, that is special, and really throws a wrench in the publicity works. I hope it is just a rumor, because this busy blogger has not finished reading it, yet alone ready to review it properly. As a bookseller, I know that publishers can place a strict on sale date to a new title, and if book sellers break that sales date, there is hell to pay. If this is true, then naughty, naughty Borders. If it is just evil rumors generated by over zealous Austen & Zombie addicts, then I just throw my hands up in exasperation. It's still 20 days until its official release already! We shall see what rises or falls to he bottom of the grave.

• Read the review at Jane Austen's World

• Read all our Pride and Prejudice and Zombies posts at this link.

Cheers, Laurel Ann, Austenprose