It is a truth universally acknowledged that Jane Austen adaptations never go out of style. Who can resist their heady mix of feuding sisters, candlelit ballrooms, frantic letter writing and long-awaited proposals, not to mention the sumptuous period costumes? As we prepare to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the prolific novelist’s birth, we revisit the dreamiest films and TV shows based on her beloved works.
Pride and Prejudice (1995)
The six-part BBC series is best remembered for featuring a damp Mr Darcy (Colin Firth) emerging from a lake – a moment that catapulted the British actor to stardom and dusted the cobwebs off Austen’s classic. Despite taking liberties with its source material, it remains the definitive version thanks to Jennifer Ehle, who is warm and witty as Elizabeth Bennet. Their romance blossoms over country walks and family dinners, and prickly social commentary soon gives way to marital bliss.
Sense and Sensibility (1995)
Ang Lee’s poignant take on Austen’s debut novel is a rhapsody of rain-soaked meadows and fireside reveries. Emma Thompson pens the Oscar-winning script and plays Elinor Dashwood, a single woman impoverished by the death of her father. Alongside her sister Marianne (a fiery Kate Winslet), she must sort through prospective suitors – Hugh Grant, Alan Rickman, Greg Wise – and secure her future. Cue poetry readings, awkward social calls and more than one tearful reunion.
Persuasion (1995)
Darker and more devastating than Austen’s earlier work is the story of Anne Elliot, a spinster who reconsiders marriage when her spurned lover returns from the Napoleonic Wars. Having been persuaded to break off their engagement seven years prior, she wonders if she has sacrificed her happiness for good. Amanda Root is plain-faced and pensive in the lead role, the perfect foil for Ciarán Hinds’ dashing Captain Wentworth who bristles with longing in every scene.
Emma (1996)
Austen may have described Emma Woodhouse as “a heroine whom no one but myself will much like”, but Gwyneth Paltrow’s sugary-sweet performance is impossible to hate. Blurring the line between ditzy and devilish, she sets out to marry off her friends – first her governess Miss Taylor (Greta Scacchi) and then young Harriet (Toni Collette). The consequences are disastrous, but there’s plenty of fun to be had along the way, in this screwball comedy crammed with colourful characters.
Mansfield Park (1999)
A study of class consciousness and colonial exploitation, Patricia Rozema’s adaptation of Austen’s third novel feels startlingly contemporary. Frances O’Connor stars as Fanny Brice, a girl sent to live with her wealthy aunt. She falls for the latter’s son Edmund (Jonny Lee Miller), but is treated like a servant and admonished when she muses that their profits are a product of the slave trade. Look out for Harold Pinter, too, who is thunderous as the plantation owner Sir Thomas Bertram.
Pride and Prejudice (2005)
Sun-soaked and set to a glorious classical soundtrack, Joe Wright’s fresh account of the Bennet sisters is a romp from start to finish. Keira Knightley makes for a quippy Elizabeth, while Rosamund Pike and Carey Mulligan shine as Jane and Kitty, the latter in her big-screen debut. Dances are planned, signals misread and hearts broken until Mr Darcy (a Byronic, pre-Succession Matthew Macfadyen) makes amends. Another scene stealer? Judi Dench, as the icy and insolent Lady Catherine de Bourgh.
Northanger Abbey (2007)
A fresh-faced Felicity Jones is Catherine Morland in this rambunctious retelling of Austen’s Gothic satire. High spirited to the point of being giddy, she devours heart-stopping novels and dreams of being ravished. When she is whisked off to Bath with friends, she meets the eligible Henry Tilney (JJ Feild) and the scheming Isabella Thorpe (Carey Mulligan) who tries to thwart their match. The tale culminates in a visit to a mysterious castle and Catherine soon lets her imagination run wild.
Love & Friendship (2016)
This dramatisation of the epistolary novel Lady Susan combines froth and frivolity with barbed wit. Kate Beckinsale is the titular heroine, a deliciously acerbic widow, eager to find husbands for herself and her daughter (Morfydd Clark). Chloë Sevigny lends support as her confidante Alicia Johnson, and the pair saunter through town in feathered hats gossiping about rakes and fortune hunters. The happy ending arrives as expected, but there are some surprises along the way.
Emma (2020)
With its lavish interiors and showstopping costumes, Autumn de Wilde’s Emma is Austen for the Instagram generation. Anya Taylor-Joy is perfectly cast as the whip-smart matchmaker, leading an eclectic ensemble that includes Mia Goth, Bill Nighy and Johnny Flynn. The dialogue sparkles, the love triangles multiply and fantasy collides with reality as Emma grapples with the pain of growing up. The result is a quirky melodrama that more than measures up to its predecessors.
Persuasion (2022)
An Austen heroine who winks at the camera, takes a leak in the woods, accidentally pours gravy over her own head and sports jewel-toned, rock ’n’ roll-inflected costumes which nod to Patti Smith and Debbie Harry? Carrie Cracknell’s fleet-footed, freewheeling take on this usually straight-laced and sombre tale casts Dakota Johnson as a thrillingly cheeky Anne Elliot, with Cosmo Jarvis as the heartbroken Wentworth, Henry Golding as the devilishly charming William Elliot, Nikki Amuka-Bird as the influential Lady Russell, Mia McKenna-Bruce as the spoiled Mary Musgrove and none other than Richard E Grant as Anne’s vain and profligate father. An unequivocal delight.
