Nearly two hundred years after her death, Jane Austen is more popular than ever. Film adaptations, biographies, sequels, retellings, an action figure—Janeites can’t get enough of their favorite writer, and publishers and Hollywood are happy to oblige.
While there were various television versions of Jane Austen’s novels produced throughout the twentieth century, 1995 saw the “golden age” of Jane Austen adaptations, with an enormously popular BBC miniseries of Pride and Prejudice, starring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth in the lead roles, and a major motion picture of Sense and Sensibility, directed by Ang Lee and starring Emma Thompson (who won an Academy Award for writing the screenplay) and Kate Winslet. Other film and television adaptations of Persuasion, Emma, and Mansfield Park followed, the latter a controversial postmodern interpretation that brought filming of Austen novels to a screeching halt for several years. A second wave of Jane on film kicked off in 2005 with Bride and Prejudice, a contemporary Bollywood-style musical adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, and the first major motion picture adaptation of Pride and Prejudice since 1940, starring Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen in the lead roles. The films listed are either available for purchase on DVD or in production at press time.
1981: BBC television series, starring Irene Richard as Elinor and Tracey Childs as Marianne
1995: Columbia Pictures, starring Emma Thompson as Elinor and Kate Winslet as Marianne
2007: BBC television series, from a script by Andrew Davies
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
1940: MGM, starring Greer Garson as Elizabeth and Laurence Olivier as Mr. Darcy
1980: BBC television series, starring Elizabeth Garvie as Elizabeth and David Rintoul as Mr. Darcy
1995: BBC/A&E television series, starring Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth and Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy
2005: Working Title Films, starring Keira Knightley as Elizabeth and Matthew Macfadyen as Mr. Darcy
MANSFIELD PARK
1983: BBC television series, starring Sylvestra Le Touzel as Fanny and Nicholas Farrell as Edmund
1999: Miramax, starring Frances O’Connor as Fanny and Jonny Lee Miller as Edmund
2007: ITV television film, starring Billie Piper as Fanny and Blake Riston as Edmund
EMMA
1972: BBC television series, starring Doran Godwin as Emma and John Carson as Mr. Knightley
1996: Miramax, starring Gwyneth Paltrow as Emma and Jeremy Northam as Mr. Knightley
1996: ITV/A&E television film, starring Kate Beckinsale as Emma and Mark Strong as Mr. Knightley
1986: BBC/A&E television film, starring Katharine Schlesinger as Catherine and Peter Firth as Henry
2007: ITV television film starring Felicity Jones as Catherine and JJ Feild as Henry
PERSUASION
1971: BBC television version, starring Anne Firbank as Anne and Bryan Marshall as Captain Wentworth
1995: Sony Classics/Masterpiece Theatre, starring Amanda Root as Anne and Ciarán Hinds as Captain Wentworth
2007: ITV television film starring Sally Hawkins as Anne and Rupert Penry-Jones as Captain Wentworth
BIOGRAPHICAL FILMS
2007: Becoming Jane, Ecosse Films, starring Anne Hathaway as Jane Austen and James McAvoy as Tom Lefroy
2007: Miss Austen Regrets, BBC television series
AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT …
Some filmmakers have recreated Jane Austen’s stories in the present day, often in specific cultural settings that mimic the “three or four families in a country village” that was Jane Austen’s preferred milieu.
Clueless, Paramount Pictures, 1995: A contemporary adaptation of Emma, written and directed by Amy Heckerling, starring Alicia Silverstone.
Kandukondain Kandukondain (“I Have Found It”), Sri Surya Films, 2000: Tamil-language Bollywood adaptation of Sense and Sensibility, starring Aishwarya Rai.
Pride and Prejudice: A Latter-Day Comedy, Excel Entertainment, 2003: A contemporary “Mollywood” (set in the Mormon community) adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, starring Kam Heskin and Orlando Seale.
Bridget Jones’s Diary, Miramax, 2003: Sometimes claimed as a modern adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, the film adaptation is so different from the original book by Helen Fielding that much of the P&P feeling is lost, despite Colin Firth’s patented Darcy smolder.
Bride and Prejudice, Miramax, 2005: A contemporary Bollywood-style musical adaptation, directed by Gurinder Chadha, starring Aishwarya Rai and Martin Henderson.
Wishbone: “Furst Impressions” and “Pup Fiction”: Wishbone was a PBS television series for children in the 1990s, featuring a Jack Russell terrier called Wishbone, who would act out stories from classic literature alongside human costars to impart a life lesson to the young viewers. Two of Jane Austen’s novels were adapted for the series: Pride and Prejudice became an episode called “Furst Impressions” and Northanger Abbey became an episode called “Pup Fiction.” Wishbone is our favorite Henry Tilney on film.
Since Jane Austen first wrote her novels, readers have become so attached to the characters that they have wanted to know what happened to them after the action of the novels ended. In James Edward Austen-Leigh’s memoir, he reveals that Jane told her nieces and nephews stories about their favorites to satisfy their curiosity; others have drawn their own conclusions and committed their stories to the page with varying degrees of success and popularity among Janeites.
Unsurprisingly, Pride and Prejudice has inspired most of these stories, including sequels, retellings of the original from another character’s point of view (particularly Darcy’s), retellings set in modern times, and even a series of mysteries featuring Mr. and Mrs. Darcy as sleuths. Jane herself is the detective in a series of mysteries by Stephanie Barron, and novelist Karen Joy Fowler’s novel The Jane Austen Book Club is a contemporary comedy of manners about a book club that reads only Austen. There are several completions each of The Watsons and Sanditon, and the two Bridget Jones novels were inspired by Jane Austen novels (Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion). Jane Austen fan fiction communities flourish on the Internet, and some of the authors have published their work. Some sequels and fan fiction even follow the characters into previously uncharted Austen territory: the bedroom. There are so many Austen completions and continuations that a bibliography has been published: After Jane by Jennifer Scott.