1) Pride and Prejudice and Zombies adds martial arts and zombie attacks to Jane Austen's original novel, creating a literary mashup. Some critics see it as commercial, while others view it as a delightful reimagining. 2) The graphic novel is targeted towards mature audiences who can understand its complex narrative and high-level dialogue. It appeals more to females due to its romantic elements and more to higher socioeconomic classes due to its complexity and price. 3) The main characters Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy realize they are in love as they join together to face challenges throughout their quest against zombies. Secondary characters help the main characters develop while advancing the plot.

1. Critical Review
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, published in April 2009, are the first of the current trend of literary
mash ups. Author Seth Grahame Smith took Jane Austen’s original text of Pride and Prejudice and
added zombie attacks and martial arts defences to turn the original text into an action thriller included
with the original base line of the text. The novel can be considered a product of the recent
capitalization on Jane Austen’s work in the form of sequels and retelling of the original novels. Some
critics claim that Grahame Smith’s work is merely a commercial tactic, while others view it as a
delightful reimagining of Austen’s novel.
The main target audience for this particular graphic novel starts at a mature adult age as the text and
style of this what of a mature adult would understand and ages underneath are not targeted as the
likeliness of them understanding the plot and narrative of this graphic novel. There isn’t a specific
gender target for this audience although it could be more targeted towards the female gender as it
contains romance as well as action and thrills. The graphic novel could also be targeted to more of
the working class and above as the narrative is of a high complexity and therefore those of a high
education and a high level of knowledge so this means that those of a working class and above are
targeted more so than others. It could also be targeted more to the working class as it is a high priced
novel and therefore the targeted audience should have a good amount of disposable income to
consider purchasing the novel as a luxury item.
The main characters in this graphic novel have certain personalities that can perhaps clash
throughout the novel although towards the finish of the comic there are revelations of those
characters which mean that each main character is rounded where throughout the novel the
characters themselves have realisations about themselves and others around them. The other
characters in this novel which aren’t the main characters but are more out of the picture are flat
characters which mean that these characters do not have their own realisation but assist the
realisation of the rounded main characters. The first main character Elizabeth Bennet is the daughter
of Mrs Bennet with other sisters that also are considered main characters, this character in particular
is driven to be a warrior without grace although when she comes to a realisation that she is in love
with another main character their love combined conquers that challenges that the characters must
face throughout this novel. The other main character Fitzwilliam Darcy who is the other half to
Elizabeth Bennet travels the same journey as Elizabeth but ends being head over heels for her as the
couple continue their quest together in each other’s arms. The other main characters also share love
affairs to help each other to conquer the journey that each person must face but together the
characters can conquer together which creates this novel to not just be an action thriller but to also be
a romance which is similar to the original piece by the author Jane Austen who created the original
“Pride and Prejudice”.
The narrative of a comic is more of the language that is used between characters and the sections in
which the novel is told not from other characters. This particular novel does not follow the normal
code and conduct of a comic but has more of an old fashioned form of language which can be
complex hence the reason for targeting the novel at such a mature age. The narrative is also laid out
in a short amount of time so there is a lot of time lost in this novel but the long speeches from each
character enables this to happen as each character has enough speech time to create the space
between the lost times but also to be able to keep understanding of the novel.
The design of this novel is black and white which leads to a classic outlook which this novel does
provide in its colouring and its language. The black and white frames in this novel give the impression
of an older time when colour wasn’t an option which helps its scheme of old fashioned. The language
of the characters helps to create an older time when the English language was more complex to
understand although it has its understanding through its images. The final aspect that provides the
support that this novel is of an old fashion design is the clothing and other items in the frames which
are too of an old fashioned scheme, the clothes are of the same era of the language which is also old
fashioned.
The layout of this novel is of the typical codes and conventions of a comic where there are panels
separated with break panels. This is a positive aspect to the layout as the novel varies and estranges
from typical codes and conventions there must be some aspects to help the audience to understand

2. that it is still a comic. There are other aspects that follow the same codes and conventions such as
the reading form is still from left to right and continues throughout the pages.
There are some positives and negatives that I can notice in this graphic novel and both must be
pointed out and recognised to make a justified final judgment. There are two positives that are most
notable in this particular novel. The first positive comment is that the style of the graphic novel is old
fashioned, this is represented through the narrative, fashion and overall scheme of the graphic novel.
This is positive as it is not common in most comics so therefore it a fresh idea which is an attraction
for the target audience even more so than the other aspects that attracts the target audience. The
second positive point of this graphic novel is that it combines romances and action which is not
common in the codes and conducts of comics. This also gives this comic more of an edge as there is
old fashioned romance with the modern time thriller, although this idea appears as if it couldn’t be
possible to create such a graphic novel but it has been achieved and I do believe that it has been a
success as it is being transformed into film which doesn’t happen often in the comic industry.
Although there are positives, there are some negatives which let the success of the graphic novel
down just a fraction. There are again two point that I stumbled across, the first point is that the graphic
novel is in black and white which means that there is no space or option to present colours to
represent emotions or atmospheres which means that this novel relies on its speech and body
language of the characters to give off impressions of emotion and atmospheres. The issue in this
graphic novel is due to its black and white colouring it means that it is more difficult for the reader to
understand the levels of emotions and atmosphere in the novel. The second point which I noticed in
this graphic novel is that the speech of the characters is so complex that it can just as hard to
understand the speech of the characters as understanding the emotional aspects in the novel. This
creates a problem where it is hard to understand the scenarios in the novel which could provide the
audience with either a reason not to purchase the graphic novel or with a reason to be disappointed
with the result of the novel after purchase.
Overall this novel has its successes and its failures but I would rate this novel successful as despite
the colouring emotion and difficult narrative, the novel brings it all to a success with its synopsis and
its use of other elements that helps it to be a success.