Jane Austen in popular culture

The works of Jane Austen have been represented in popular culture in a variety of forms.

Jane Austen (16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist whose works include Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion. Her social commentary and masterful use of both free indirect speech and irony eventually made Austen one of the most influential and honoured novelists in English literature.

Filmography

In popular culture, Austen's novels have been adapted in a number of film and television series, varying greatly in their faithfulness to the originals.

Pride and Prejudice

Film

• Pride and Prejudice (1940 film), starring Greer Garson as Elizabeth Bennet and Laurence Olivier as Mr. Darcy.
• Pride and Prejudice: A Latter-Day Comedy (2003), a modern-day independent film adaptation.
• Pride & Prejudice (2005 film), starring Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Bennet and Matthew Macfadyen as Mr. Darcy.

Television

• Pride and Prejudice (1952 TV serial), starring Ann Baskett as Elizabeth Bennet and Peter Cushing as Mr. Darcy.
• Pride and Prejudice (1980 TV serial) (1980), BBC miniseries starring Elizabeth Garvie as Elizabeth Bennet and David Rintoul as Mr. Darcy.
• Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV serial), 1995 BBC miniseries starring Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth Bennet and Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy.
• Lost in Austen (2008 TV serial), 2008 BBC miniseries.

Adaptations

• Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), a loose adaptation by Helen Fielding based on her book of the same name. The movie stars Renée Zellweger in the Elizabeth Bennet-inspired role of Bridget; Colin Firth, literally as Mr. (Mark) Darcy; and Hugh Grant as the Wickham-inspired Daniel. The 1995 TV serial is specifically referenced in the book and subsequent movie, intentionally naming Mr. Darcy after the Pride and Prejudice character.
• Bride & Prejudice(2004), a Bollywood style adaptation directed by Gurinder Chadha and starring Aishwarya Rai and Martin Henderson.

See also List of artistic depictions of and related to Pride and Prejudice.

Emma

Film

• Emma (1948 film), starring Judy Campbell as Emma.
• Emma (1996 film), 1996 film directed by Douglas MacGrath and starring Gwyneth Paltrow as Emma and Jeremy Northam as Knightley.

Television

• Emma (1960 TV serial), starring Diana Fairfax as Emma.
• Emma (1972 TV serial), 1972 UK TV film starring Doran Godwin as Emma.
• Emma (1996 TV drama), 1996 UK TV film starring Kate Beckinsale as Emma.

Adaptation

• Clueless (1995 film), a modernization of the novel set in a Beverly Hills high school. The film was directed by Amy Heckerling and stars Alicia Silverstone.
• Clueless (TV series) was based on the 1995 film.

Sense and Sensibility

Film

• Sense and Sensibility (film), film starring Emma Thompson as Elinor Dashwood, Kate Winslet as Marianne Dashwood, with Hugh Grant as Edward Ferrars and Alan Rickman as Colonel Brandon. Directed by Ang Lee.

Television

• Sense and Sensibility (1971 TV serial), BBC series starring Joanna David as Elinor Dashwood and Ciaran Madden as Marianne Dashwood
• Sense and Sensibility (1981 TV serial), BBC series starring Irene Richard as Elinor Dashwood and Tracey Childs as Marianne Dashwood
• Sense and Sensibility (2008 TV serial), BBC series starring as Hattie Morahan as Elinor Dashwood and Charity Wakefield as Marianne Dashwood

Adaptation

• Kandukondain Kandukondain (2000), a contemporary Kollywood (Tamil) film set in the present, based on the same plot, starring Tabu as Sowmya (Elinor Dashwood), Aishwarya Rai as Meenakshi (Marianne Dashwood), with Ajit as Manohar (Edward Ferrars), Abbas as Srikanth (Willoughby) and Mammootty as Captain Bala (Colonel Brandon).

Persuasion

Film

• Persuasion (1995 film), made-for-television film which was released in US theatres by Sony Pictures Classics, starring Amanda Root as Anne and Ciarán Hinds as Captain Wentworth.

Television

• Persuasion (1960 series), BBC miniseries starring Daphne Slater as Anne and Paul Daneman as Captain Wentworth.
• Persuasion (1971 series), BBC miniseries starring Anne Firbank as Anne and Bryan Marshall as Captain Wentworth.
• Persuasion (2007 TV drama), miniseries filmed in Bath in September 2006 for ITV, with Sally Hawkins as Anne, Rupert Penry-Jones as Wentworth, and Anthony Stewart Head as Sir Walter Elliot, and Julia Davis.

Mansfield Park

Film

• Mansfield Park (film) 1999 film directed by the Canadian Patricia Rozema, and starring Frances O'Connor, Embeth Davidtz, Sheila Gish and Harold Pinter.

Television

• Mansfield Park (1983 TV serial) miniseries starring Sylvestra Le Touzel, Nicholas Farrell, and Anna Massey
• Mansfield Park (2007 TV drama), miniseries directed by Iain B. MacDonald. With Billie Piper as Fanny

Adaptation

• Metropolitan (1990 film) a loose adaptation set in modern day Manhattan and Long Island. Written and directed by Whit Stillman, and starring Edward Clements, Carolyn Farina, Taylor Nichols, and Chris Eigeman (Jane Austen is also mentioned throughout the film.)

Northanger Abbey

Film

• Northanger Abbey (1986 film), directed by Giles Foster and released in 1986, starring Peter Firth in the role of Henry Tilney.

Television

• Northanger Abbey (2007 TV drama), directed by Jon Jones and released in 2007, starring Felicity Jones as Catherine Morland and JJ Fields as Henry Tilney.

Non-book based

• The 1980 film Jane Austen in Manhattan is about rival stage companies who wish to produce the only complete Austen play "Sir Charles Grandison" (from the Richardson novel of the same title), which was rediscovered in 1980.

• A semi-biographical 2007 film Becoming Jane, was directed by Julian Jarrold and stars Anne Hathaway as Austen. The film centers around her purported romance with young Tom Lefroy, played by James McAvoy. It is very loosely based on brief mentions of him in two of her letters to her only sister Cassandra.

• Another 2007 semi-biographical film, this one produced by the BBC for television, Miss Austen Regrets. It focuses on the last few years of Austen's life, in which she looks back on her life and loves. Jane Austen is played by Olivia Williams.

• The 2007 film The Jane Austen Book Club is about a group of people who form a Jane Austen discussion group. Much of the dialogue concerns her novels and her personal life.

• In the radio sitcom Old Harry's Game, Jane Austen is a minor recurring character who is in Hell. In it, Austen is discovered to have been incredibly violent, rude and foul-mouthed personally. As a result, she is one of the few people in Hell that Satan is frightened of and whom other sinners such as Hitler look up to.

Plays and Musicals

• Pride and Prejudice (1935) dramatized by Helen Jerome

• First Impressions (1959), a Broadway musical adaptation of Pride and Prejudice
• "JANE, the musical" debuted in June 2006 in the West Midlands, UK. It is a West-end style musical theatre production based on the life of Jane Austen. The musical, directed by Geetika Lizardi, focuses on Austen as a modern heroine, a woman who chose art and integrity over the security of a loveless marriage.
• Emma, A New Musical (2007) based on the novel "Emma"
• Pride and Prejudice, The Musical (2007). Music and Lyrics by Rita Abrams. Book by Josie Brown.

Bibliography

• Macdonald, Gina and Andrew Macdonald, eds. Jane Austen on Screen. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. ISBN 0521793254.
• Pucci, Suzanne Rodin and James Thompson, eds. Jane Austen and Co.: Remaking the Past in Contemporary Culture. Buffalo: State University of New York Press, 2003. ISBN 0791456153.
• Troost, Linda and Sayre Greenfield, eds. Jane Austen in Hollywood. 2nd ed. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2001. ISBN 0813190061.