King Arthur Movie Tristan

title: Pride & Prejudice & Zombies: Dreadfully Ever After

author: Steve Hockensmith


genre: humor/fiction/Austen Spoof

published: 03.22.2011


source: ARC copy from Quirk Classics

pages: 287

first line: As his beloved Elizabeth shattered the nearest zombie's skull with a perfectly placed axe kick, Fitzwilliam Darcy saw in her eyes something that had been missing for a long, long time: joie de vivre.


rated: 4 out of 5 stars

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and its prequel, Dawn of the Dreadfuls, were both New York Times best sellers, with a combined 1.3 million copies in print. Now the PPZ trilogy comes to a thrilling conclusion with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dreadfully Ever After.

Dreadfully Ever After is the third and final installment in the Pride and Prejudice and Zombies trilogy.
What can I say, other than this trilogy has been a fun and quirky ride?

Dreadfully Ever After starts off with a happily married Elizabeth and Darcy visiting the Bingley's, who I might add have four children. Elizabeth is no longer allowed to slay zombies in public especially, since she is now a married woman and doing so is frowned upon when she has a perfectly capable husband to slay the undead for her.


On the walk home, Darcy is bitten by a zombie child.
Lizzie refuses to do what she is supposed to do to anyone who has been bitten by an unmentionable. She cannot bear to slice her beloveds head off with her katana.
Instead Lizzie contacts Darcy's aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, since there is rumor she has access to a cure for the disease.



Lady Catherine agrees to help Darcy, but she does have a few stipulations, the first being she take him back to her home and away from Lizzie, who she still hates. Elizabeth and her sister Kitty are supposed to be seductresses as well, getting the zombie cure from its creator, Sir Angus MacFarquhar, and his son Bunny.


Lady Catherine sees this as an opportunity to get rid of Lizzie and ruin her reputation once and for all. It's also her chance to get her sickly daughter, Anne, near Darcy.






I thoroughly enjoyed Dreadfully Ever After. Having read the first two books in this trilogy, I was eager to get to this one. I laughed out loud as I read and the book kept me hooked wondering what would happen next. The illustrations within the book add that 'special touch'.
Author Steve Hockensmith combines two of my favorite things: Pride & Prejudice and zombies. What's most impressive is that what started as inserting zombies into Austen's beloved novel Pride & Prejudice, has spurned two other books that have a life of their own.


I think this is a great conclusion to the Pride and Prejudice and Zombies trilogy. It was funny, quirky and Austen's beloved characters stay true to form, though most are highly trained warriors. Lizzie's dainty parasol conceals well hidden razor blades and a small sword in its center. I'm actually sad to see it all end.

Not everyone in Derbyshire had accepted the warrior woman of inferior birth who had married their precious Fitzwilliam Darcy. Even after years at Pemberly House-years in which she'd never once worn her katana in public-she still caught the occasional whiff of disapproval. The resentment seemed to stir up most whenever her mother visited, yet Elizabeth could never be sure when it might arise.

-p.22

Giveaway:

Quirkbooks has commissioned Etsy artist SpecialMeat to create Dreadful Antidote pendants.

If you go to Facebook and 'like' the Dreadfully Ever After page, you will be signed up to win a special Dreadful Antidote pendant. Eight winners will be chosen! Good luck!

Check out the book trailer:

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance - Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem!

authors: Jane Austen
and Seth Grahame-Smith

published: March 2009

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies -- "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains." So begins Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, an expanded edition of the beloved Jane Austen novel featuring all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie mayhem. As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton—and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she's soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers—and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield as Elizabeth wages war against hordes of flesh-eating undead. Can she vanquish the spawn of Satan? And overcome the social prejudices of the class-conscious landed gentry? Complete with romance, heartbreak, swordfights, cannibalism, and thousands of rotting corpses, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies transforms a masterpiece of world literature into something you'd actually want to read.

About the authors:

Jane Austen is the author of Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion, Mansfield Park, and other masterpieces of English literature.


Seth Grahame-Smith once took a class in English literature. He lives in Los Angeles.



I came across this book in my never ending search for books online. Ummmmm.....I don't know what to think! lol. What do you think? Do you think this is good old fashioned fun, or do you think this is taking it too far? There's so many Austen spin-offs right now, this one is totally different. So far it's got some good reviews at Amazon. I'm actually tempted to grab a copy of this.

5 Minutes For Mom Classics Bookclub


This month Pride & Prejudice is being read & reviewed. I think this is a great idea :)

I have read and re-read P & P several times. It's one of my favorite novels.
You can read my review here






Here's the questions this month:

For repeat readers:
Did anything strike you differently this time? Anything you hadn’t noticed in earlier readings? Every time I read P & P, I enjoy it. I just don't tire of it. Even though I know the storyline by heart, and I know how it all ends, I have to read it till the end.



For all readers:


Do you have any favorite lines of the novel? So many. But one of my favorites is when Elizabeth thanks Darcy for saving Lydia's and the family's reputation by paying off Wickham to marry her. And Darcy says:



'If you will thank me,'' he replied, ``let it be for yourself alone. That the wish of giving happiness to you might add force to the other inducements which led me on, I shall not attempt to deny. But your family owe me nothing. Much as I respect them, I believe I thought only of you.'






Why do you think the novel remains so popular 200 years after first publication? What makes it timeless? I think it's timeless because all love stories have a 'Mr. Darcy' and an 'Elizabeth' to them. These are characters we can relate to.






The novel’s original title was First Impressions. Did you have any first impressions of the novel that were refuted? Any that were supported? Are all the first impressions in the novel correct? My first impressions of this novel were all positive. I enjoyed it from the start.
As far as the characters, nearly all of thier first impressions of others were wrong. Elizabeth though Wickham was a great guy at first, and Darcy was the one full of pride. Jane thought Bingley didn't love her and vice-versa.










Why do you think the novel is named Pride and Prejudice? How are each manifested in the story? I think it's named that because Elizabeth represents Prejudice and Darcy, Pride. You see how Elizabeth is prejudiced against Darcy from the start. She has false information against him and refuses to see beyond that to his true self. Darcy is prideful in the beginning. Even his first proposal to Elizabeth he says is 'against his better judgement'.

As part of Becky's Mini Austen Challenge, I've been watching
PBS Masterpiece Theatere Complete Jane Austen.
The past few weeks they've been playing Pride & Prejudice. I've never seen this version before, and it is wonderful.

Colin Firth plays an excellent Mr. Darcy.





Which Mr. Darcy do you prefer? Matthew McFadyen or Colin Firth?



"She is tolerable, I suppose, but not handsome enough to tempt me."




-----------------------







I've also watched 'Miss Austen Regrets'. It is based on the life and letters of Jane Austen. It was interesting to see a bit about Miss Austens life. She had a marriage proposal from a wealthy man she declined. She also met a handsome young doctor who she was interested in. You see how her mother blames her for never marrying. And how her family almost makes fun of her for her writing instead of marrying and raising a family. She died at age 41 with never having married.

"My darling girl...this is the real world -- the only way to get a man like Mr. Darcy is to make him up." -Jane Austen in 'Miss Austen Regrets'





I've found a good Jane Austen site:
http://www.austen-beginners.com/index.htm

Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen



rated 5 out of 5 :








I've re-read Pride & Prejudice as part of Becky's Mini Austen Challenge

This is my all time favorite Jane Austen novel.



I love the story line, I love the characters. The love story between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet is timeless. Darcy is very rich, educated and handsome. He is the quiet reserved type. And of course he is very proud.

Elizabeth is intelligent, independent and very much prejudiced against Darcy. She thinks he is stuck up but she also has some other misjudgements about him.
Elizabeth gets a proposal from her fathers cousin Mr. Collins, who will inherit the Bennets home after Mr. Bennet dies, but Elizabeth refuses to marry him. Her mother, whose one purpose in life is to get her daughters married off to wealthy men is furious at this. Elizabeth wants to marry for love, not for money which was rare in those times.




Elizabeth and her sister Jane are close, and she knows Jane loves Charles Bingley, who is also wealthy. There are a few other 'well to do' ladies who are against the Bennet sisters getting close to these men.





I enjoy the tension between Darcy and Elizabeth:

"Mrs. Hurst sang with her sister, and while they were thus employed, Elizabeth could not help observing, as she turned over some music books that lay on the instrument, how frequently Mr. Darcy's eyes were fixed on her. She hardly knew how to suppose that she could be an object of admiration to so great man; and yet that he should look at her because he disliked her was still more strange. She could only imagine however, at last, that she drew his notice because there was a something about her more wrong and reprehensible, according to his ideas of right, than in any other person present. The supposition did not pain her. She liked him too little to care for his approbation."






Elizabeths older sister Jane is in love with Charles Bingley, but a misunderstanding occurs and Bingley is forced to believe shy Jane does not really love him.




"``It may perhaps be pleasant,'' replied Charlotte, ``to be able to impose on the public in such a case; but it is sometimes a disadvantage to be so very guarded. If a woman conceals her affection with the same skill from the object of it, she may lose the opportunity of fixing him; and it will then be but poor consolation to believe the world equally in the dark. There is so much of gratitude or vanity in almost every attachment, that it is not safe to leave any to itself. We can all begin freely -- a slight preference is natural enough; but there are very few of us who have heart enough to be really in love without encouragement. In nine cases out of ten, a woman had better shew more affection than she feels. Bingley likes your sister undoubtedly; but he may never do more than like her, if she does not help him on."





Darcy is attracted to Elizabeth early on, even though she does not return his feelings at first.

He ends up proposing to Elizabeth, and letting her know that he loves her in spite of his 'better judgement':

".....her spirits were very differently affected, when, to her utter amazement, she saw Mr. Darcy walk into the room. In an hurried manner he immediately began an enquiry after her health, imputing his visit to a wish of hearing that she were better. She answered him with cold civility. He sat down for a few moments, and then getting up, walked about the room. Elizabeth was surprised, but said not a word. After a silence of several minutes, he came towards her in an agitated manner, and thus began,

``In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.''


Elizabeth's astonishment was beyond expression. She stared, coloured, doubted, and was silent. This he considered sufficient encouragement, and the avowal of all that he felt and had long felt for her immediately followed. He spoke well, but there were feelings besides those of the heart to be detailed, and he was not more eloquent on the subject of tenderness than of pride. His sense of her inferiority -- of its being a degradation -- of the family obstacles which judgment had always opposed to inclination, were dwelt on with a warmth which seemed due to the consequence he was wounding, but was very unlikely to recommend his suit."



She refuses his proposal and tells him why she does not like him.


'And this is all the reply which I am to have the honour of expecting! I might, perhaps, wish to be informed why, with so little endeavour at civility, I am thus rejected. But it is of small importance.'


``I might as well enquire,'' replied she, ``why, with so evident a design of offending and insulting me, you chose to tell me that you liked me against your will, against your reason, and even against your character? Was not this some excuse for incivility, if I was uncivil? But I have other provocations. You know I have. Had not my own feelings decided against you, had they been indifferent, or had they even been favourable, do you think that any consideration would tempt me to accept the man, who has been the means of ruining, perhaps for ever, the happiness of a most beloved sister?'




As the story goes on, Elizabeths younger sister Lydia runs off with Mr. Wickham who is Darcy's enemy. Wickham is a liar, and has several gambling debts. When
Darcy sees how upset Elizabeth is and how this will ruin her family's reputation, he finds Wickham. Wickham only marries Lydia after his debts are paid off and he is given a large sum of money by Darcy.



Darcy also goes and straightens the situation out between Jane and Bingley, so that the two of them are soon engaged. He does all this for Elizabeth....*sigh*
Darcy saves the day, professes his love once again to Elizabeth, and they live happily ever after....

'If you will thank me,'' he replied, ``let it be for yourself alone. That the wish of giving happiness to you might add force to the other inducements which led me on, I shall not attempt to deny. But your family owe me nothing. Much as I respect them, I believe I thought only of you.'


Elizabeth was too much embarrassed to say a word. After a short pause, her companion added, ``You are too generous to trifle with me. If your feelings are still what they were last April, tell me so at once. My affections and wishes are unchanged, but one word from you will silence me on this subject for ever.''

Becky's Book Reviews is hosting the Mini-Austen Challenge. This is right up my alley because I am a big Jane Austen fan.





'These "mini-challenges" are not as open-ended as most challenges. But they're not strict either. One would be to read and/or watch at least two Jane Austen novels/movies in 2008. Masterpiece Theatre is showing all 6 movies in the 2008 season. I am going to be aiming for all 6. But if you want to just watch two movies and blog about them, that is fine too.'






I've been re-reading my favorite Austen novel, Pride & Prejudice.


'It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.'



'I do, I do like him,' she replied, with tears in her eyes, 'I love him. Indeed he has no improper pride. He is perfectly amiable. You do not know what he really is...'






Tonite PBS is playing the movie version of 'Persuasion'