I know I said I wouldn't.

Possibly I was influenced by the upcoming Halloween horrors, and most assuredly it had to do with my needing something light and silly to brighten the past few weeks at the Arvo Job, but the fact remains that even though I swore a while back that I would not risk contaminating my pristine Austen with the popular mashups, I must confess that my lunchtime audio book at the moment is Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

It's not entirely as amusing as I had hoped it would be, and some parts are heavy-handed and tedious, but it has elicited enough snorts and smirks to keep me listening. It's best when it pokes fun at women working hard to maintain their decorum under trying conditions i.e. slaying zombies, which, by the by, Austen herself does most beautifully without the aid of ninjas or the undead, but hey, where's the splatter and vomit in that? And apropos society's expectations of ladylike demureness and modesty, a literary parody that always makes me giggle is the Bret Harte version of Jane Eyre Miss Mix by Ch--l--tte Br--nte from 1867, which has great lines like: I saw from the way that he wiped his feet on my dress that he had again forgotten my presence and He seized a heavy candlestick, and threw it at me. I dodged it submissively, but firmly.

Anyway, the Bennett girls' reactions to the insufferable Mr Collins are especially entertaining, and I'm enjoying Lady Catherine's martial arts snobbery, which dictates that Japanese techniques are superior and desirable, whilst training with Chinese monks, as the less wealthy Bennett girls have done, is decidedly déclassé.