Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

I have often expressed the view here that a lot of English literature is pretty boring. I should know, I studied it for three years. Obviously, I'm not saying all or even most of it is boring. Take The Battle of Maldon, for example—how could a poem about fighting Vikings be boring? No, I'm just talking about those novels which are regarded by dons (unless they're medievalists or Shakespeare scholars) as the quintessence of literature—novels which aren't really about anything. (Except "eternal human verities" of course, but who wants to read about them? They're eternal; we've seen them all before.) I'm sure plenty of professors look down on Joseph Conrad simply because his books have things like wars and storms (which as Epicurus said, "are good to read about"). I, on the other hand, am well known (to the extent that I am known at all) for my dislike of Jane Austen, who writes exquisite prose about nothing much. But surely there is room for compromise. Here is a book that may have the best of both worlds: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance—now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem!. From the blurb …

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies features the original text of Jane Austen's beloved novel with all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie action. 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.