Austen’s reputation is inflected in the period 1975–2025 by new screen adaptations, with Andrew Davies’s BBC television adaptation of Pride and Prejudice in 1995 serving as a watershed moment (pun intended)!
Today, Jane Austen remains Hollywood’s darling and is honored on the Bank of England’s ten-pound note. She supports entire subgenres of creative reworkings and spoofs, as well as scholarly books.
In addition, large literary societies bear her name, and a seemingly endless traffic in souvenirs and tchotchkes engages established Janeites while attracting new devotees.
SCREEN ADAPTATIONS
We’ve made a curators’ selection, as there are simply too many:
VHS box of Pride and Prejudice. Directed by Cyril Coke. Written by Fay Weldon. BBC, 1980.
The five-episode dramatization starred Elizabeth Garvie as Elizabeth Bennett and David Rintoul as Fitzwilliam Darcy.
DVD box of special edition of Pride and Prejudice. Directed by Simon Langton. Written by Andrew Davies. BBC/A&E, 1995. Signed by Andrew Davies. Shown beside a Mr. Darcy paper doll greeting card, 2013.
This six-hour BBC Television production starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle first aired in 1995. Although Austen did not write the now legendary scene in which Lizzie confronts a drenched Darcy (that was Davies’s creation), this standout “wet shirt” moment from the production continues to galvanize Austen fans three decades on.
Press packet materials of director Ang Lee’s film Sense and Sensibility. Columbia Pictures, 1995. Included are cover page and photo signed by Emma Thompson.
Thompson earned an Academy Award for her screenplay and played Elinor Dashwood—with Kate Winslet, Alan Rickman, and Hugh Grant as Marianne Dashwood, Colonel Brandon, and Edward Ferrars, respectively.
DVD insert of Clueless. Directed by Amy Heckerling. Paramount Pictures, 1995.
This teen comedy starring Alicia Silverstone modernizes Austen’s Emma, with the heroine attending Highbury High School in Beverly Hills.
Dear, Nick. Persuasion. London: Methuen Film, 1996. Published screenplay based on the novel by Jane Austen, with cover photograph of Amanda Root as Anne Elliot.
Signed movie poster. Pride and Prejudice. Directed by Joe Wright. Universal Pictures, 2005. Featuring Keira Knightley, Matthew MacFadyen, Brenda Blethyn, Donald Sutherland, and Judi Dench.
Fowler, Karen Joy. The Jane Austen Book Club. New York: Plume, 2007. Movie tie-in edition.
Signed movie poster. Emma. Directed by Autumn de Wilde. Focus Features, 2020. Featuring Anya Taylor-Joy, Johnny Flynn, and Bill Nighy.
CELEBRITY CURRENCY
In England, the characters of Jane Austen have appeared on Royal Mail stamps twice, first in 1975, to mark the bicentennial of Austen’s birth, and again in 2013, to celebrate the bicentennial of Pride and Prejudice. That same year, the Bank of England added Austen’s likeness to the ten-pound note, albeit in the form of a much-contested and prettified Victorian engraving executed long after Jane’s death. Nonetheless, Austen is the only woman other than Queen Elizabeth II to be featured on British legal currency.
Commemorative stamp set. Royal Mail. “First Day Cover.” October 22, 1975. Four stamps in denominations of 8½p, 10p, 11p, and 13p. Postmarked Twickenham, UK.
Commemorative stamp set. Royal Mail. “Jane Austen Series.”2013. Six mint stamps: two first-class, two 77p, and two £1.28 denominations. United Kingdom.
Ten-pound note. Bank of England, 2013.Serial number: DK 12 982695.
STAGE ADAPTATIONS
Austen’s legacy of theatrical adaptations now also includes musicals and lighthearted spin-offs.
Gordon, Paul.Jane Austen's Emma.Directed by Robert Kelley. TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Palo Alto, CA, 2007. Theater program.
Luscombe, Tim, adapt. and dir.Northanger Abbey.By Jane Austen. Salisbury Playhouse, Salisbury, UK, 2007. Publicity card.
Theater program. Hamill, Kate, adapt.Sense and Sensibility.By Jane Austen.Directed by Eric Tucker. Folger Theatre, Washington, DC, 2016.
Ticket stubs. Hamill, Kate, adapt.Pride and Prejudice.By Jane Austen. Primary Stages, Cherry Lane Theatre, New York, NY. Performance attended December 16, 2017. (Austen’s birthday!)
Theater program. Reade, Simon, adapt. Pride and Prejudice. By Jane Austen. Theatre Royal, Bury St. Edmunds, UK, 2019.
Theater program. Hamill, Kate, adapt.Sense and Sensibility.By Jane Austen. Silicon Valley Shakespeare Company, San Jose, CA, 2022.
Publicity card. Lukis, Adrian, and Derrick Hartley. Being Mr. Wickham. Performed by Adrian Lukis. 59E59 Theaters, New York, NY, 2023.
Lukis played George Wickham in the 1995 BBC Television adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.
Publicity card. Collett, Nicholas, and Sam Wright. Prejudice and Pride. Directed by Nicholas Collett. Music and lyrics by Sam Wright. 59E59 Theaters, New York, NY, 2024.
The hapless Longborn Boys have exhausted all the employment options of East Tennessee and must now marry rich before they lose the family farm.
COMICS AND GRAPHIC NOVELS
A relatively recent addition to Austen’s legacy, illustrated books, comics, and graphic novels help inculcate young Janeites.
Orgullo y Prejucio.Novelas Immortales 9, no. 449. Mexico City: no publisher, June 25, 1986.
In this Spanish-language comic book, Señor Carlos Darcy rescues Isabel Bennet from the clutches of Alex Wickham, and the men come to blows. The dramatic fight scene features Spanish-language versions of POW and ZAP!
This is one of the many Dungeons & Dragons-style role-playing games in which players navigate Regency England generally or Austen’s novels specifically. Not all of these world-building games embrace “giant robots.”
Oakley, Jacqui. A Jane Austen Tarot Deck: 53 Cards for Divination and Gameplay. Clarkson Potter, 2020.
SPOOFS
Admirers of Shakespeare recognize a long-standing comic genre dubbed “travesties,” which simultaneously mocks and pays homage. Similarly, Austen’s reputation is robust enough to withstand parody.
Eckstut, Arielle, and Dennis Ashton.Pride and Promiscuity: The Lost Sex Scenes of Jane Austen.Edinburgh: Canongate Books, 2003.
Austen, Jane, and Winters, Ben H.Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. Philadelphia: Quirk Books, 2009.
Coombs, Kate.Goodnight Mr. Darcy: A BabyLit Parody Picture Book.Illustrated by Alli Arnold. Layton, UT: Gibbs Smith, 2014.
Goodwin, Alex, and Tess Newall.A Guinea Pig Pride and Prejudice.London: Bloomsbury, 2015.
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single guinea pig in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
FAN FICTION
From the serious to the tongue-in-cheek, Austen has inspired hosts of new stories and formats that take her characters into unexpected directions.
James, P. D.Death Comes to Pemberley. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2011.
Baker, Jo. Longbourn: A Novel. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2013.
Retold from the perspective of Sarah, the Bennets’ orphaned housemaid, the timeline of Pride and Prejudice is replayed with a focus on the daily challenges faced by the serving classes during the Napoleonic Wars.
Lampley, Alexis. Pride and Prejudice in Space. New York: Union Square, 2024.
Definitely out there.
SOCIETIES AND MUSEUMS
Jane Austen boasts the largest and most active literary societies in the world. The Jane Austen Society was founded in the United Kingdom in 1940, and the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) was founded in 1979. JASNA alone has approximately six thousand members.
