Zombies invade classic fiction

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It’s got the best book cover of the year, so far: ‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.’ When I first saw it -- a few weeks ago, on a friend’s Facebook page -- I thought it was a cleverly done illustration, like one of those parody motivational posters.

But is actually a complete novel from from Quirk Books, and it’ll sound familiar. This is how it opens: ‘It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.’

At this point I’m thinking two things:

1. <snort> hilarious!

2. Wait, is that enough to carry a whole book?

‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,’ apparently, maintains the zombies-n-Jane-Austen mix all the way through. I haven’t seen a copy, but neither have the readers of science fiction site io9, who weighed in on the idea.

Some say they’re sick of zombies -- see, zombies are kind of 2008 (2009 was supposed to be the year of the werewolf). Others feel equally strongly about Jane Austen -- some don’t want her, um, defaced by zombies.

Then there’s the contingent that likes the zombies, but isn’t so hot on Austen. There’s a selection of other classic works they’ve suggested for the zombie treatment: ‘Madame Bovary,’ ‘The Great Gatsby’ and the oh-so-obvious ‘Walden.’

-- Carolyn Kellogg