Pride-and-Prejudice

Inspired by Pride and Prejudice
FILM ADAPTATIONS
Director Robert Z. Leonard released the first film adaptation of Pride and
Prejudice in 1940, with Greer Garson as Elizabeth and Laurence Olivier as
Mr. Darcy. Eminent novelist and satirist Aldous Huxley was the screenwriter
for this cinematic comedy of manners, which gently satirizes the practice of
marrying for position and wealth. An eagerly anticipated feature of Austen
adaptations is the depiction of the period, and although Leonard’s film does
not strictly adhere to the novel (for example, it takes place in 1835), the
costumes and set designs earned an Academy Award for Best Art Direction in
a black-and-white film.
British novelist and Austen critic Fay Weldon was more faithful to
Austen’s text when she wrote the screenplay for the 1979 BBC miniseries
Pride and Prejudice. Directed by Cyril Coke and filmed in the English
countryside, this version features Elizabeth Garvie and David Rintoul. Coke
devotes considerable energy in this nearly four-hour production to capturing
the manners, costumes, and styles of Regency England.
Director Simon Langton’s 1995 miniseries for BBC and A&E television
has eclipsed the 1979 version in popularity. Andrew Davies adapted the novel
for this four-and-a-half-hour production. Much of the subtlety of Austen’s
narrative, lost in the stripped-down 1940 film, emerges in this version, the
most faithful to date. Jennifer Ehle stars as Elizabeth, and Colin Firth plays
Darcy; the two are particularly expressive, wordlessly conveying complex,
shifting emotions and capable of dark wit. This version spends more time on
the parallel romance of Jane and Bingley, played by Susannah Harker and
Crispin Bonham-Carter. The period is captured magnificently, with authentic
dances, music, costumes, manners, and scenery. Filmed on location in the
Derbyshire countryside and featuring a mansion reliably resembling
Pemberley, this three-part adaptation delivers a near-perfect picture of Jane
Austen’s world and society.
LITERATURE
Rudyard Kipling’s short story “The Janeites,” published in its final form in
1926, describes the experiences of the shell-shocked veteran Humberstall,
who recalls his induction into a secret Jane Austen society while in the