Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

It was only a matter of time before I was going to write a rant about this excellent novel. Well. To be more specific, this excellent novel/film/ABC mini-series (and yes, specifically ABC as they are an entity unto itself). To make things easier, let’s just call it a story.

You see, the first time I was ever introduced to Lizzie and the oh so luscious Mr Darcy was in that one excellent ABC adaptation. At the tender age of approximately eight and three quarters, I was already quite besotted with Colin Firth’s delightfully broody Mr Darcy. Seriously. Who wouldn’t be? But until then, I had not even considered reading Austen. I had read from the Bronte sisters, but for some reason, Austen never occurred to me. No matter that the subject matter was generally quite along the same lines (the social lives of the lovely ladies from the poor/struggling/not swimmingly rich English gentry); Austen just did not do it for me. 

And today, not much has changed. 

I find that Austen writes with a drive and energy that inspires characters such as Colin Firth Mr Darcy, and mammoth book selections such as the Complete Works of Jane Austen. Which is all well and good, except for the fact that, after reading Pride and Predjudice, Emma and Sense and Sensibility seem surprisingly similar.

You might even say that I might enjoy an occasional stoning with particularly sharp rocks since I may even imply that Jane Austen was the Jodi Piccoult of her time. Possibly. At least Jane didn’t spell her name with a ‘y’, I guess.

But I say this with caution as I do feel that the similarities stop at the repetition of story line, general discussion of female and the accessibility of said stories to a female readership. You see, Jane (we are on first name terms) is not only much more well-written than her contemporary, but she was a bit of a suffragette in her time in a way that Piccoult will never be. In an era where women were still bartered off as currency for male power and ownership, Austen’s women were powerful, intelligent and made men go a little gaga and weak at the knees. It is because of this and the general development of women’s rights in Western society that Austen’s work has somehow transcended time, space and technology.

How many authors of modern English have inspired so many adaptations and appropriations in film and literature? My several classes of university english expertise tell me that the answer is ‘not many’. While, I must admit, many of these text adaptations and appropriations are not shining beacons of literature, I feel that many of these filmic representations are most excellent. In fact, some of the filmic representations of the textual appropriations of an Austen work are much improved when transferred onto celluloid (e.g. Bridget Jones’ Diary). 

When considering such a case, one might even think that Austen might have done better as a playwright. Maybe. Possibly. But then, who reads plays on rainy days wrapped in a doona with nice mug of tea in hand? Not me, I tells ya. Not me.

Tags: Austen, Books, Colin Firth, Mr Darcy, Pride and Prejudice, women