Tuesday, November 16, 2010

reading again

I've rediscovered the pleasure of analog text & I think I might just have to read this next...



Full disclaimer: I've never read any of the original Austen novels - I think the Edwardian Regency women bore me to tears. Nice dresses, though.

Also? Don't you just love these little book trailer films?


21 comments:

Alan said...

That certainly doesn't look boring.

Jeff the Baptist said...

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is great. Largely because it takes the original Austen and twists it while leaving the majority intact. Dawn of the Dreadfuls is a prequel and I doubt it's going to be as good.

Joanna said...

Pride and Prejudice is one of my favoritest books evar. Austen uses summary more than scene; once you wrap your head around that, you can't put it down.

I flipped through P&P&Z at a bookstore and almost chucked it at the wall. It took everything I loved about P&P, piled it in the center of the floor and proceeded to drop trou. You can guess what happened next.

I will not be watching this movie.

Anonymous said...

Movie?

breda said...

This is not a trailer for a movie. It's a trailer film, promoting the book. It's a new thing publishers are doing.

Joanna said...

They're making a movie out of it. I can't do video from this computer; I thought this was the trailer for the actual film.

My point still stands.

Nancy R. said...

The original P&P is not Edwardian (that's 100 years later), it's Regency. And keep in mind that it's satire. The A&E 6-part mini-series is awesome if you want to watch that first and then read the book (which is what I ended up doing). I think P&P&Z is funnier if you've read the original first, but yeah. It does lose someting in the translation.

"Dawn of the Dreadfuls" is okay, but there are continuity issues, if I remember correctly.

If you want to borrow my A&E CDs, let me know.

breda said...

Edwardian, Regency, whatever...not so much into the whiny, swooning, pampered British women hooplah. Thanks though.

breda said...

whiny, swooning, pampered, classist women

Sabra said...

Could be worse, could be a modern Regency romance, which has all the silliness of before, but with lots and lots of premarital sex. (I grew up reading Regencies. Barbara Cartland is spinning in her grave.)

P&P&Z is actually pretty good. I read the first chapter at a friend's house, and got the impression I'd 'get' it a lot more if I'd read the original.

Geodkyt said...

OH, Breda, but it's hillarious, once you figure out which characters are speaking with their tongues frimly in cheek.

Also enjoyable is playing the "Pin the Austin character personality on people I have known" game at home.

breda said...

And I've tried to watch those A&E films - I had to turn them off. Turns out I hate them more than Monty Python. Hard to imagine such a thing was possible. Don't even get me started on that simpering Gwenyth Paltrow in Emma. Blech.

I'm fairly convinced now that I won't like P&P&Z either, so thanks for that. I'll find another book.

Laura said...

i truly dislike anything i've read by Jane Austen...but P*P*Z is actually funny.

Anonymous said...

"They might be dead, but they're still Englishmen, dammit!"

If that's in the book there must be other gems as well. For that reason alone it might be worth the price to go looking.

stay safe.

Eagle said...

Breda, have you seen this? Jane Austen's Fight Club: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2PM0om2El8&feature=player_embedded#!

Joanna said...

"not so much into the whiny, swooning, pampered British women hooplah"

Hey now -- Elizabeth Bennet is one of the strongest female leads in literature. "Whiny" and "swooning" aren't anywhere near her vocabulary. She utterly refuses to let anyone else influence her life decisions, to the point of turning down two financially attractive marriage proposals and defying the nobility to their faces (one can buck the system without actively trying to destroy it). One reason she and Mr. Darcy are such a famous pair is because they both have such a strong sense of self-determination.

I will grant you that her mother and younger sisters are annoying as hell, but that's kind of the point of their characters.

ViolentIndifference said...

I'm on the side of the Austen H8ers. I can't get beyond the excessively verbose writing style. I honestly tried, though.

WV: ocurb. Oh, curb your word, Jane.

Anonymous said...

P&P&Z was quite an entertaining read, and likely the closest that I will ever get to a real Jane Austen novel.

Oh, for you Austenophiles, try the miniseries "Lost in Austen" for some REAL outrage!

Joanna - Elizabeth Bennet is one of the strongest female leads in literature.

I have to second that. Yeah, the real Lizzie doesn't know kung fu or pack a Brown Bess, but she was a tough-minded woman all the same. MUCH more worth winning than her prettier sister Jane, much less the simpering, cowering, I'm-going-to-cower-here-and-not-lift-a-finger-while-my-man-fights-for-his-life sort that seems to populate movies and books.

T said...

I'm with the Austenphiles and fans of P&P&Z and the prequel. I enjoyed all the books. Sense & Sensibility & Seamonsters was also great.

Austen always made her heroines women who weren't your average swooning, whiny Regency lady. Adding zombie slaying to the mix only makes things more awesome.

Breda, please don't give up on trying the zombiefied versions, at least!

misanthropic777 said...

I hadn't seen that Audible had this available - headed for my Ipod right now. Thanks!

Fred said...

I tried reading the first Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, but it's still Pride and Prejudice, just with zombies on occasion, and I couldn't get more than a couple chapters into it.