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This essay presents a critical reading of Seth Grahame-Smith's Pride and Prejudices and Zombies, one of the most perverse and yet the most insightful Austen spinoffs recently published. Its idea of heroine and hero competing in martial arts for the honour of the best zombie slayer, seemingly mischievous twist of the genteel aura of the Regency novel of manners, penetrates into the core of the novel and reveals what constitutes the matrix of manners. First, the essay analyzes how the idea of 'propriety' intrinsic to manners is deconstructed in the context of the zombie-pestered apocalyptic dystopia where manners cannot possibly be executed properly. Next, in the light of the dramatic dominance of bodily presence and bodily movement in Pride and Prejudices and Zombies, the essay looks into the significance of bodies in strengthening erotic elements and progressing romance plot. The corporeality of bodies is persistently invoked, and it is ultimately elevated into some kind of oriental chivalric code of honor. The essay, then, by observing the construction of rivalry between the authentic Japanese high culture and Chinese mass-market kitsch, examines how the class conflict is displaced with cultural conflict. Such shift of emphasis from class conflict to cultural conflict reflects the American anxiety about multiculturalism on one hand, and entails taming of feminist impulse on the other hand. The figure of zombies in Pride and Prejudices and Zombies, the essay concludes, works quite well in conveying the sense of perpetuation of threat of manners.
