Artwork by Becky Kelley.
This blog post has been in the works for over six months, even before the musical theater where I work publicly announced that we would be presenting a new musical adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. And it has taken me this long to actually sit down and put it together. So that might tell you a bit about how 2019 is treating me.
ANYWAY.
I finally did it, and it is here, and I’m extremely stoked about it.
A note about process and adaptation selection: initially, I was planning on just ranking film/TV adaptations, but then thinking about that led to thinking about the film/TV adaptations that are in turn based on books, and that led me down a WHOLE rabbit hole because there are literally hundreds of book adaptations/offshoots. And because books are such a different medium, I’ve decided to separate into two sections: books and film/TV.
Books
10. Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding. Listen, I understand that a lot of people have very fond feelings for this book and the associated movies, but it is A HOT MESS. This was my first time reading it, and I’m 75% sure that if I had read it in late 90s/early 00s when it was in its heyday, I would have had different feelings. But reading it today? BOY, does it not hold up. I didn’t find anything about this book charming. I didn’t find anything about Bridget charming. I see none of Lizzy in Bridget; Lizzy actually cared about her people, and Bridget is the MOST self-centered. Perhaps most galling is that all I’ve heard for 20 years about this series is how Bridget is overweight and how Renee Zelwegger had to pack on the pounds to play her, and then I read the book and she is actually a totally reasonable and normal weight for a person her height, what the fuck. And can I say, as somebody who has some experience with disordered eating, and who can binge with the best of them, this girl tracked over 6,500 calories in one day (what? how?) and yet STILL her weight only fluctuates by a few pounds. I can’t with books like this. Most importantly, what is the basis for her relationship with Darcy? They don’t even really interact until page 200 of 257. Before that in the book, they meet two times, and there is no indication of lingering glances or exchanged barbs or anything like that to be the basis for a future relationship. Throw it ALL in the trash. (For a bonus, read this Goodreads review, with which I agree wholeheartedly.)
9. Epic Fail by Claire LaZebnik. This is a YA retelling, and I think maybe I wouldn’t have disliked it so much if I hadn’t read Pride first…? No, I probably still wouldn’t have liked it. Mr. Bennet felt completely out of place, since LaZebnik tried to keep him more in tune with old-school Mr. Bennet but modernized the rest? He’s also a schoolteacher and has an immense hatred of tutors? The dialogue was clunky, unnatural, and just not good. One of the biggest problems often with trying to do a YA retelling, is that putting Lizzy in high school makes the rest of the sisters SUPER BABIES, which makes it even more uncomfortable when they’re pursuing dudes in such an intense way. The character development was inconsistent – for example, Elise (our stand in for Lizzy) reads Oscar Wilde for fun (relatable) but then also comments that she “doesn’t use SAT words” like *checks notes* mercurial? Plus, I didn’t care for some of the characterizations of women, honestly.
8. First Impressions: An Amish Tale of Pride and Prejudice by Sarah Price. As you can tell by the title, this was an Amish retelling. I honestly had no idea there was such a market for Amish books, but Sarah Price seems to write explicitly Amish books, so…there must be at least SOME market for it. This book was mostly fine, but it just really wasn’t for me. Nothing too new or interesting to note here.
7. Unmarriageable by Soniah Kamal. Marketed as “Pride and Prejudice in Pakistan,” I was really looking forward to this one because one of the aspects of its long and broad appeal as a story that I have been looking at is whether it can cross cultures from the VERY English feeling of the original. (Overall, I would say YES! though I don’t think this was the strongest example.) My biggest issues were less with the retelling and more with some of the characterizations: Qitty is derided constantly for being overweight (“lost among the double chins”) and Charlotte Lucas mentions several times her “spoiled uterus” because she’s unable to have children. While I think Kamal included these aspects as a measure of holding up a mirror to things she has experienced and struggled with in her own culture, I think the method of doing so wasn’t well executed so it just all felt mean and hateful. That was my biggest takeaway from this book, and I truly don’t remember much else about it, which is not a great sign. But I did like the writing overall, and would read more from this author, so that’s not nothing.
6. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith. Okay, admittedly it’s been…almost 10 years since I last read this book, but I just remember finding it so delightful. Maybe not the most creative of the examples, and I am sure I would have some feelings about it reading it these days, but one of the most enjoyable and funny.
5. Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James. A good old-fashioned murder mystery combined with the characters we know and love from Pride and Prejudice. It’s not going to be everyone’s favourite, and it’s not even mine, but I did quite enjoy this one. Then again, I love Pride and Prejudice and I love murder mysteries, so you had me from jump.
4. Austenland by Shannon Hale. Who can’t relate to a woman who can’t get into dating real men because she’s been spoiled by Mr. Darcy? (Let’s be honest, there are lots of other reasons for not dating too, but that’s a pretty good one.) It’s definitely campy – perhaps exemplified most by the presence of Jennifer Coolidge in the film adaptation – but I think ultimately supports the idea of going after your dreams, even if that means realizing your dreams weren’t 100% what you thought they were.
3. Pride by Ibi Zoboi. Another YA adaptation, this one set in Brooklyn, and looking at the intersection of wealth and gentrification, the juxtaposition of wealth and race – the twist on the classic opening line: “It’s a truth universally acknowledged that when rich people move into the hood, where it’s a little bit broken and a little bit forgotten, the first thing they want to do is clean it up.” Zuri Benitez lives in a small apartment with her four sisters and her parents. Her eldest sister is home from college for the summer, and Zuri is just nailing down her college plans when a rich new family move into the building across the street. I found Pride an incredibly well executed adaptation that also incorporated some “big questions” that we think about as a society today. Plus, Zoboi fleshed out the Mary character a little bit, who I’ve always felt is the most underdeveloped.
2. Longbourn by Jo Baker. This isn’t really an adaptation but more of an offshoot. It follows the servants who are working in the Bennet home during the events of Pride and Prejudice, as well as giving us a little bit of background, behind-the-scenes knowledge of the Bennet family we know and love. Probably the longest of the adaptations that I read and the one that made me cry the most, no question. Mary also gets a little more depth in this version, which I love. It is quite a bit grittier than Pride and Prejudice, and also content warnings for miscarriage and rape.
1. Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors by Sonali Dev. It’s not a direct adaptation, because it’s really like a gender-swapped version, and it’s got a bit more romcom than even the original, I would say. The Lizzy character is the rich one, and is a hyper-specialized surgeon, and the Darcy character is a poor chef trying to make a living to support his younger sister who has cancer. There were a couple of very small things that weren’t my favourite – like the off-handed comment that “doctor/patient confidentiality isn’t a thing in the Indian community,” YIKES – but overall, I really adored this one and would highly recommend. Perfect for summer reading. (Side note: the Darcy character goes by DJ, but his full name is Darcy James, and I couldn’t NOT think about Brian D’Arcy James while reading it, so that was fun.)
Books I DNF’d (did not finish) during this project: An Assembly Such As This by Pamela Aidan; Pride and Prejudice and Platypus by Vera Nazarian (I’m sure this one is a lot of fun and I just couldn’t the three or four times that I tried); The Austen Escape by Katherine Reay (DFN’d at 38%, after no discernible plot, character development, or movement), and Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin (I was really disappointed about this one because I’d been looking forward to it, but at 100 pages in, I just didn’t think the writing was quite there. Characters were inconsistent or one note, and the dialogue was underwhelming).
Film/TV
I saved this one for after the book section because I imagine it’s going to be the most contentious. When it comes to film/video adaptations, I find all almost all of them enjoyable in one way or another, so even though I did rank them, some of them are pretty close. I didn’t even try to watch Bridget Jones’s Diary after reading the book because just kill me.
(Side note: I think it’s truly awesome that so many P & P adaptations, but even in other Austen adaptations and period pieces in general, end up using the same costumes. The “trivia” pages on IMDB for all of these are filled with tidbits about which dresses were worn elsewhere. It feels like a shared legacy, and there’s something so special about that.)
6. The Lizzie Bennet Diaries on YouTube starring Ashley Clements and Daniel Vincent Gordh. A modernized version of the story, this adaptation is told through a series of vlogs ranging from 3 to 10 minutes. I’ve been hearing about this one basically since it started, likely because of vlogbrothers, but had never watched it before. While I like the concept, I think ultimately the dialogue/writing couldn’t decide whether it wanted to lean in to the modern take or call back to Pride and Prejudice, and so ended up being clunky and unwieldy at times. I also had some issues with some of the characterizations, though I can no longer remember specifics. Definitely worth watching through them, especially because they’re short and it’s easy to take breaks in between, but not my favourite.
5. Bride and Prejudice starring Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Martin Henderson. I truly did not realize how many recognizable faces are in this Bollywood adaptation. Can we talk about how Indira Varma doesn’t age? Ever? Anyway, this is one of the adaptations that is a lot of fun, but I didn’t really feel the chemistry and if you’re not feeling the chemistry for a Pride and Prejudice adaptation, well, nothing’s going to work for you.
4. Austenland starring Keri Russell and JJ Feild. I saw the movie for the first time several years ago but rewatched it recently as part of this endeavor (and also a weekend of Keri Russell movies, when I also watched Waitress for the first time). Jennifer Coolidge in a movie is honestly all I need to know most of the time, but it is pretty perfectly cast and is a lot of fun, and a fairly faithful adaptation to its direct book parent. (Unrelated, but it bothers me that JJ Feild’s name is spelled that way.)
3. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies starring Lily James and Sam Riley. I don’t think it’s classic, timeless art or anything, but this one is just so much fun. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, there are great homages to other adaptations (for example, the “Colin Firth jumping into the lake” moment), and the cast is pretty fantastic.
2. Pride and Prejudice 1995 miniseries from BBC starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. Look, I know people are going to have some feelings about me not ranking this number one. Colin Firth and that lake is a pretty transcendent moment for a lot of people. And I get it. Colin Firth is obviously swoonworthy as Darcy. This version is probably the most accurate, true-to-the-book adaptation because it has the most screen time of the ones I include here to really examine all of the small details. And that’s why it’s a very close second place.
1. Pride and Prejudice from Focus Features starring Keira Knightley and Matthew McFadyen. If you’re looking for shot-for-shot accuracy re: the book or Colin Firth, obviously the BBC adaptation is going to be the one for you. And though it’s close, this version is superior for me. There’s one particular moment that puts it over the edge, but overall beyond that particular moment, the movie is cinematically stunning, visually perfect, well cast, and a truthful adaptation.
And the moment that puts it over the edge is this 13 seconds of the movie. It is *chef’s kiss* perfection.
One of the reasons that I wanted to do a project like this is because I’ve been spending a fair amount of time recently thinking about where the widespread, deep devotion to and appeal for Pride and Prejudice stems from. I think there are likely quite a number of reasons is that it is likely one of the first “enemies to lovers” stories, which is still one of the most often used devices in books/film/television/etc. today. That storyline also makes it one of the original romcoms, and who doesn’t love a romcom?
But more to the heart of it, I think the story captures so many aspects that feel inherently, relatably human, which is how the story is so easily remixable, and how the foundation of it has such a broad appeal.
Do you have thoughts on the continued appeal of Pride and Prejudice? Do you feel a need to correct my rankings? I would love to hear your opinions.
Please note: this ranking is entirely subjective, but also the only correct and true ranking of Pride and Prejudice adaptations.
Jo In Real Life 