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01-08-2025
- Entertainment
- The Advertiser
Why we can't get enough Jane Austen and the hot new takes you need to know
Netflix is doing a new Pride and Prejudice. A fresh Sense and Sensibility film is on the way too. We ask the experts why we still so ardently admire and love Jane Austen 250 years after her birth. It is a truth universally acknowledged that a streaming service or movie studio or book publisher in want of a good fortune must be in possession of a hot new take on Jane Austen. And so it is, in this 250th year since the birth of the great novelist - the English language's most revered writer after William Shakespeare - that streaming giant Netflix will be adding to its endless carousel of episodes of Bridgerton, Wednesday, Stranger Things and Squid Game a shiny new "period-faithful" Pride and Prejudice miniseries billed as "both familiar and fresh". Also riding new generational waves of Austen adulation: movie makers Focus Features and Working Title Films, producers of the 2005 film version of Pride & Prejudice with its pulse-quickening, meme-worthy "hand flex" scene, who are shooting a new Sense and Sensibility feature film. Meanwhile, the BBC, which in 1995 gave us the definitive screen rendering of Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth in a blush-makingly wet shirt as Mr Darcy, is pumping out multiple TV treatments, including the documentary Jane Austen: Rise of a Genius and costume dramas Miss Austen and The Other Bennet Sister. Next month audiobook and podcast giant Audible takes Pride and Prejudice for its own spin around the ballroom in six languages, promising "cinematic sound design" and Marisa Abela, Harris Dickinson, Bill Nighy and Glenn Close leading the English-speaking cast. And, of course, the Austen-related books just keep coming in 2025: from a graphic novel depicting her life, The Novel Life of Jane Austen: A Graphic Biography by Professor Janine Barchas and illustrator Isabel Greenberg; to Jane Austen's Garden by Molly Williams, a botanical tour of Austen's era and novels; to the upcoming Jane Austen Insult Guide for Well-Bred Women, a collection of snarky witticisms compiled by Emily Reed; and Wild for Austen, American scholar Devoney Looser's subversive revision of Austen's image as a prim and proper spinster. More in a moment on the new screen Austens and their popular forerunners; the adaptations, extrapolations and reimaginings that help make way more visible - and more beloved - than any other novelist before or since a woman forced by the conventions of her day to publish her writing anonymously. First, some beneficent words of rapture and wise counsel from two distinguished patrons of all things Austen. Says Pamela Whalan, Austen scholar, lecturer and playwright: "I am a firm believer that nothing really replaces the reading of Austen's novels". The precious word "reading", of course, is given special emphasis in this declaration. Such Elizabeth Bennet-like prejudice from someone who has so proudly, painstakingly translated the language, characters, settings, emotions and insights of all six Austen novels into stage plays! "That might seem hypocritical considering I have adapted them for the stage," she explains. "But I see any adaptation as an introduction rather than a substitution for the delight of Austen's written word." Susannah Fullerton, literary historian, author of the memoir Jane & I: A Tale of Austen Addiction and president of the Jane Austen Society of Australia for "what seems like an age", concurs. "Everybody should read Jane Austen," she says. "Picking up what can look like a dusty old classic in the library or the bookshop can be off-putting for some people, which is such a shame because they're missing out on what I think is one of life's great literary experiences. There is just so much in these stories and characters to bring young people in particular back to reading." READ MORE: Sydney-based Ms Fullerton recently returned from the Global Jane Austen conference in the UK, where she presented on Austen "tourism". In October she will welcome guest speakers from the US and Norway to the society's annual conference in Canberra, a special celebration of "250 glorious years" of Austen. Before then, she will deliver a livestreamed public lecture on the writer's legacy at the National Library of Australia on August 20. "It really is very hard to keep up with everything that's happening this year in the Jane Austen world," she said. Which begs the question: why does Austen enjoy such unending appeal? "She makes us laugh, which in this sad world we're living in at the moment is very important," Ms Fullerton said. "She writes the world's greatest love stories and people love romance and a happy ending. And the quality of her prose - you never feel with Jane Austen that the editor should've gone through it with a red pen and, in this day and age of emojis and text messages and rather mangled English, it's a joy to read her beautifully written sentences. "For me, the major reason I go back to her books again and again is her phenomenal understanding of what makes people tick, of human nature. And that hasn't changed in the more than 200 years since she published her books. I think everybody knows characters like the ones Jane Austen created. You know, hypochondriac or stingy characters or people who talk too much like Miss Bates [from Emma]. "She really nails human nature and, while her characters might obviously be in bonnets and gowns and breeches, nothing much has changed about people and the things they do and what makes them behave the way they do." Ms Whalan, a Newcastle-based member of the Jane Austen Society of Australia for more than 30 years, has had her Austen plays published and performed in Australia and the US. "Jane Austen had a wonderful power of observation," she said. "She understood how people thought, behaved, needed, wanted. She was a realist and an optimist but was not a romantic. Her characters are based on normal people - people you could recognise as you go about your normal daily routine. "Times and society change but human nature does not. A woman who was worried about her future security and the security of her family is recognisable and creates sympathy even if the circumstances and solutions vary from time and place." Ms Whalan's favourite novel is Persuasion ("it has a bittersweet reality"), Emma is "absolute perfection when considering plot construction" and Sense and Sensibility shows Austen was grounded more "in the world of reality than romance". The opening line of Pride and Prejudice may be ingrained on the memories of the many millions who have read it over the centuries (''It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife"), but she does not rank the "light and frothy" novel as one of Austen's best. "Pride and Prejudice is a wonderful beginning but it is only the start of the Austen adventure," she said. "Remember, she wrote five other full-length novels as well as novella and the absolutely wonderful wicked and witty juvenilia." And yet, of all of the many Austen screen adaptations, the 1995 BBC TV version of the book is perhaps "the best reflection of her writing". The popularity of that series helped double the membership of the Jane Austen Society of Australia, which is why, like her literary heroine, Ms Whalan is a realist about the role films and TV play in bringing new audiences to Austen. "A visual presentation can act as an introduction to the enjoyment and understanding of an Austen novel," she said. "Film and television adaptations can provide a modern audience with information the novel does not, and never meant to, provide. Such adaptations are an entry point into a world [of different] clothing, manners, morals, daily life and language. [They] have the freedom to roam about the countryside and show us the grandeur of large social gatherings. But sometimes, in bringing us such visual splendour, they stray away from Miss Austen's focus on human beings." Ms Fullerton, too, admits to struggling with screen translations of the novelist's work. "It's always nice to see a well-made adaptation - it's a real pleasure," she says. An admirer of the 1995 Pride and Prejudice ("a very fine adaptation. It stuck very closely to the book and it had excellent acting"), she regards Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility film of the same year as her favourite screen Austen. "I think Emma Thompson did that wonderfully and it's the one I really love, so hopefully they will get it right with future versions," she said. Some subsequent screen Austens she describes as "totally disastrous". "You think 'Why did people bother?' I don't mind small changes from the book. Obviously that's going to happen when you're transferring a book to the screen and sometimes happens for good reasons. But when you make endless changes you think 'Why bother making a Jane Austen when you are cutting the novel to shreds?' So that really does upset me." Ms Fullerton cherishes Emma as "the total masterpiece" ("It's the world's greatest novel. I don't think one word of it could be changed to improve it in any way whatsoever.") but recommends the "totally gorgeous" Pride and Prejudice for newcomers: "If somebody's never read Jane Austen, that's a very, very good place to start". She hopes Netflix isn't tempted to tweak it too much to reach the TikTok generation: "I think the novel already does that - it talks to young people who are looking for good partners in their lives, who have to think about their careers and their financial security. "A complete modernisation, something like Clueless which was clever indeed in its treatment of Emma, can make sense but otherwise stick to the book, follow the norms of the era [and] all the things that concern Austen are still concerns young people in particular have in their everyday lives today". Jane Austen was born in Steventon, Hampshire, on December 16, 1775. She was the seventh of eight children and cherished her father Reverend George Austen's extensive library. When her father died in 1805, Jane, her mother and her only sister Cassandra were left financially dependent on their male relatives. She wrote most of her novels before she had turned 22, but the first was not published until she was 35. Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1816) were modest successes in her lifetime but published without her name on them. The author was identified only as "A Lady". Two other novels - Northanger Abbey and Persuasion - were published posthumously, following her death, aged 41, in Winchester on July 18, 1817. She also left behind the epistolary novella Lady Susan, two unfinished novels, Sanditon and The Watsons, her juvenile writing and hundreds of letters. She is buried in Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire. The cottage in Chawton, Hampshire, where she lived for the last eight years of her life is now a museum, Jane Austen's House. Miss Austen: Now showing on the ABC and ABC iView, this four-part BBC drama stars Keeley Hawes as Cassandra Austen, who was responsible for what some consider to be literature's greatest act of vandalism - destroying almost all of sister Jane's correspondence. Of an estimated 3000 letters, only about 160 survive - the rest burned to protect the writer's reputation and privacy. Gill Hornby's novel gets the full-blown Jane Austen period drama treatment, with Patsy Ferran as the young author and Synnove Karlsen as the younger Cassie. Hornby has said: "The fact that - thanks to Cassandra's bonfire - we know so little about the author has proved wildly successful. That element of mysterious, quiet dignity is crucial to the success of the Jane Austen brand". Jane Austen Wrecked My Life: Screening in selected cinemas, this Bridget Jones' Diary-esque French rom-com follows a desperately single bookshop keeper to a writers' retreat as she chases her Austen-influenced dream of becoming a romance novelist - and finding her own happily-ever-after. Pride and Prejudice (Audible series): This audio adaptation features the voices of Babygirl's Harris Dickinson as Darcy, Marisa Abela (who was singer Amy Winehouse in 2024 biopic Back to Black) as Elizabeth, Bill Nighy and Marianne Jean-Baptiste as Mr and Mrs Bennet and Glenn Close as Lady Catherine De Bourgh. Dropping worldwide on September 9 and promising "cinematic sound design", the producers say their retelling will remain "faithful to the original text" while adding a "unique interior perspective" from Lizzie. Sense and Sensibility (feature film): Focus Features and Working Title Films, which collaborated on 2005's Pride & Prejudice and the 2020 Anya Taylor-Joy version of Emma, are back in the Austen business with Daisy Edgar-Jones (star of acclaimed TV romance Normal People and 2024 film Twisters) in the lead role of Elinor Dashwood. Outlander's Esme Creed-Miles plays her sister Marianne, Outlander's Caitrona Balfe is Mrs Dashwood and George MacKay (from the Sam Mendes war saga 1917) is Elinor's love interest, Edward Ferrars. You'll recall in the 1995 version that Emma Thompson played Elinor, Kate Winslet was Marianne and Hugh Grant was Edward. The new script is by Australian author Diana Reid. Pride and Prejudice (Netflix series): Emma Corrin, who played Diana in The Crown and Connie in Netflix's 2022 film of Lady Chatterley's Lover, is Elizabeth Bennet (and also an executive producer) for this six-part series. Billed as a "faithful, classic adaptation", it also stars Jack Lowden as Darcy and The Favourite's Olivia Colman as Mrs Bennet. "Once in a generation, a group of people get to retell this wonderful story and I feel very lucky that I get to be a part of it," screenwriter Dolly Alderton has said. "I am so excited to reintroduce these hilarious and complicated characters to those who count Pride and Prejudice as their favourite book, and those who are yet to meet their Lizzie and Mr Darcy." Pride and Prejudice (1995): Incredibly, it's 30 years since the BBC's impeccably faithful, six-hour adaptation starring Firth and Ehle thrust Austen back into popular culture. Screenwriter Andrew Davies added a scene with Darcy emerging from a pond in a wet shirt, which made Firth a screen heartthrob. Alison Steadman gives the standout performance as the insufferably grasping Mrs Bennet. Where to watch: Stream it now on Stan, BritBox or Apple TV. Also in the 1990s: Emma Thompson's Oscar-winning Sense and Sensibility (1995) directed by Ang Lee; duelling 1996 versions of Emma starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Kate Beckinsale; Notting Hill director Roger Michell's 1995 Persuasion; Aussie actress Frances O'Connor in Mansfield Park (1999); and Clueless (1995), the spirited Beverly Hills teen twist on Emma starring Alicia Silverstone. Pride & Prejudice (2005): Grittier, sweatier and muddier than the 1995 series, director Joe Wright's film is returning to selected Australian cinemas for its 20th anniversary. It stars Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen, with Judi Dench, Donald Sutherland and Brenda Blethyn. Wright's blink-and-you'll-miss-it cutaway shot to Mr Darcy's "hand flex" after holding feisty Lizze's hand continues to provide ardent fans with TikTok's favourite visual shorthand for intense romantic yearning and frisson. Where to watch: In selected cinemas or stream on Netflix, Binge, Foxtel or Apple TV. Also in the 2000s: Renee Zellwegger torn between Colin Firth and Hugh Grant in 2001's Pride and Prejudice-inspired Bridget Jones's Diary; Bollywood musical comedy Bride and Prejudice (2005), an exuberant song-and-dance romance starring former Miss World Aishwarya Rai; Felicity Jones and Carey Mulligan in a Northanger Abbey (2007) scripted by Andrew Davies; the four-part Emma (2009) starring Romola Garai as Emma Woodhouse, Michael Gambon as her father and Jonny Lee Miller as Mr Knightley; Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016) starring Lily James; Kate Beckinsale in Love and Friendship (2016), based on early Austen work Lady Susan; the series Sanditon, with screenwriter Davies completing Austen's unfinished manuscript (2020-23); the unnecessary but extravagantly styled 2020 version of Emma starring Anya Taylor-Joy; and Dakota Johnson's not-very-persuasive Persuasion (2022). Vinyl revival: Decca Records has released the 2005 Pride & Prejudice movie soundtrack on vinyl for the first time to mark the film's 20th anniversary. The Oscar-nominated score was composed by Dario Marianelli and performed by acclaimed pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet and the English Chamber Orchestra. Lizzy, Darcy & Jane: This play by Joanna Norland draws on key events in Austen's life, including her romance with Tom Lefroy in 1796 and Harris Bigg-Wither's proposal in 1801, to playfully imagine what influenced the 20-year-old writer as she began a story in 1796 titled First Impressions, which would later become Pride and Prejudice. At Canberra REP Theatre from September 4-20. Pride and Prejudice by Bloomshed: This "raucous" stage production is billed as "searing social satire dressed as a period drama" with some modern angst woven in, including questions about the housing crisis, the institution of marriage, the meaning of love and the power of rom-coms and reality TV. Bloomshed's retelling ("With the cost of living rising, and Mr Bennet played by a potted monstera, how will the Bennet family hold onto their precarious position on the property ladder?") plays in Melbourne and Geelong in August and Canberra Theatre Centre in October. Jane Austen and her legacy: Susannah Fullerton delivers a public lecture exploring what makes Austen the world's favourite female novelist 250 years after her birth. This free event at the National Library of Australia in Canberra from 6pm-7pm on August 20 will be livestreamed. Bookings are essential. 250 Glorious Years: Jane Austen's Legacy: The annual 2025 conference of the Jane Austen Society of Australia in Canberra on the weekend of October 31-November 2 will feature presentations by Wild for Austen author Devoney Looser of Arizona State University, Norwegian Professor of English Literature Dr Marie Nedregotten Sorbo and Dr William Christie, Professor Emeritus at Australian National University, among other speakers. The Saturday evening dinner will include a demonstration of Regency dancing (Regency dress is welcome, but not required!). For details visit: Netflix is doing a new Pride and Prejudice. A fresh Sense and Sensibility film is on the way too. We ask the experts why we still so ardently admire and love Jane Austen 250 years after her birth. It is a truth universally acknowledged that a streaming service or movie studio or book publisher in want of a good fortune must be in possession of a hot new take on Jane Austen. And so it is, in this 250th year since the birth of the great novelist - the English language's most revered writer after William Shakespeare - that streaming giant Netflix will be adding to its endless carousel of episodes of Bridgerton, Wednesday, Stranger Things and Squid Game a shiny new "period-faithful" Pride and Prejudice miniseries billed as "both familiar and fresh". Also riding new generational waves of Austen adulation: movie makers Focus Features and Working Title Films, producers of the 2005 film version of Pride & Prejudice with its pulse-quickening, meme-worthy "hand flex" scene, who are shooting a new Sense and Sensibility feature film. Meanwhile, the BBC, which in 1995 gave us the definitive screen rendering of Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth in a blush-makingly wet shirt as Mr Darcy, is pumping out multiple TV treatments, including the documentary Jane Austen: Rise of a Genius and costume dramas Miss Austen and The Other Bennet Sister. Next month audiobook and podcast giant Audible takes Pride and Prejudice for its own spin around the ballroom in six languages, promising "cinematic sound design" and Marisa Abela, Harris Dickinson, Bill Nighy and Glenn Close leading the English-speaking cast. And, of course, the Austen-related books just keep coming in 2025: from a graphic novel depicting her life, The Novel Life of Jane Austen: A Graphic Biography by Professor Janine Barchas and illustrator Isabel Greenberg; to Jane Austen's Garden by Molly Williams, a botanical tour of Austen's era and novels; to the upcoming Jane Austen Insult Guide for Well-Bred Women, a collection of snarky witticisms compiled by Emily Reed; and Wild for Austen, American scholar Devoney Looser's subversive revision of Austen's image as a prim and proper spinster. More in a moment on the new screen Austens and their popular forerunners; the adaptations, extrapolations and reimaginings that help make way more visible - and more beloved - than any other novelist before or since a woman forced by the conventions of her day to publish her writing anonymously. First, some beneficent words of rapture and wise counsel from two distinguished patrons of all things Austen. Says Pamela Whalan, Austen scholar, lecturer and playwright: "I am a firm believer that nothing really replaces the reading of Austen's novels". The precious word "reading", of course, is given special emphasis in this declaration. Such Elizabeth Bennet-like prejudice from someone who has so proudly, painstakingly translated the language, characters, settings, emotions and insights of all six Austen novels into stage plays! "That might seem hypocritical considering I have adapted them for the stage," she explains. "But I see any adaptation as an introduction rather than a substitution for the delight of Austen's written word." Susannah Fullerton, literary historian, author of the memoir Jane & I: A Tale of Austen Addiction and president of the Jane Austen Society of Australia for "what seems like an age", concurs. "Everybody should read Jane Austen," she says. "Picking up what can look like a dusty old classic in the library or the bookshop can be off-putting for some people, which is such a shame because they're missing out on what I think is one of life's great literary experiences. There is just so much in these stories and characters to bring young people in particular back to reading." READ MORE: Sydney-based Ms Fullerton recently returned from the Global Jane Austen conference in the UK, where she presented on Austen "tourism". In October she will welcome guest speakers from the US and Norway to the society's annual conference in Canberra, a special celebration of "250 glorious years" of Austen. Before then, she will deliver a livestreamed public lecture on the writer's legacy at the National Library of Australia on August 20. "It really is very hard to keep up with everything that's happening this year in the Jane Austen world," she said. Which begs the question: why does Austen enjoy such unending appeal? "She makes us laugh, which in this sad world we're living in at the moment is very important," Ms Fullerton said. "She writes the world's greatest love stories and people love romance and a happy ending. And the quality of her prose - you never feel with Jane Austen that the editor should've gone through it with a red pen and, in this day and age of emojis and text messages and rather mangled English, it's a joy to read her beautifully written sentences. "For me, the major reason I go back to her books again and again is her phenomenal understanding of what makes people tick, of human nature. And that hasn't changed in the more than 200 years since she published her books. I think everybody knows characters like the ones Jane Austen created. You know, hypochondriac or stingy characters or people who talk too much like Miss Bates [from Emma]. "She really nails human nature and, while her characters might obviously be in bonnets and gowns and breeches, nothing much has changed about people and the things they do and what makes them behave the way they do." Ms Whalan, a Newcastle-based member of the Jane Austen Society of Australia for more than 30 years, has had her Austen plays published and performed in Australia and the US. "Jane Austen had a wonderful power of observation," she said. "She understood how people thought, behaved, needed, wanted. She was a realist and an optimist but was not a romantic. Her characters are based on normal people - people you could recognise as you go about your normal daily routine. "Times and society change but human nature does not. A woman who was worried about her future security and the security of her family is recognisable and creates sympathy even if the circumstances and solutions vary from time and place." Ms Whalan's favourite novel is Persuasion ("it has a bittersweet reality"), Emma is "absolute perfection when considering plot construction" and Sense and Sensibility shows Austen was grounded more "in the world of reality than romance". The opening line of Pride and Prejudice may be ingrained on the memories of the many millions who have read it over the centuries (''It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife"), but she does not rank the "light and frothy" novel as one of Austen's best. "Pride and Prejudice is a wonderful beginning but it is only the start of the Austen adventure," she said. "Remember, she wrote five other full-length novels as well as novella and the absolutely wonderful wicked and witty juvenilia." And yet, of all of the many Austen screen adaptations, the 1995 BBC TV version of the book is perhaps "the best reflection of her writing". The popularity of that series helped double the membership of the Jane Austen Society of Australia, which is why, like her literary heroine, Ms Whalan is a realist about the role films and TV play in bringing new audiences to Austen. "A visual presentation can act as an introduction to the enjoyment and understanding of an Austen novel," she said. "Film and television adaptations can provide a modern audience with information the novel does not, and never meant to, provide. Such adaptations are an entry point into a world [of different] clothing, manners, morals, daily life and language. [They] have the freedom to roam about the countryside and show us the grandeur of large social gatherings. But sometimes, in bringing us such visual splendour, they stray away from Miss Austen's focus on human beings." Ms Fullerton, too, admits to struggling with screen translations of the novelist's work. "It's always nice to see a well-made adaptation - it's a real pleasure," she says. An admirer of the 1995 Pride and Prejudice ("a very fine adaptation. It stuck very closely to the book and it had excellent acting"), she regards Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility film of the same year as her favourite screen Austen. "I think Emma Thompson did that wonderfully and it's the one I really love, so hopefully they will get it right with future versions," she said. Some subsequent screen Austens she describes as "totally disastrous". "You think 'Why did people bother?' I don't mind small changes from the book. Obviously that's going to happen when you're transferring a book to the screen and sometimes happens for good reasons. But when you make endless changes you think 'Why bother making a Jane Austen when you are cutting the novel to shreds?' So that really does upset me." Ms Fullerton cherishes Emma as "the total masterpiece" ("It's the world's greatest novel. I don't think one word of it could be changed to improve it in any way whatsoever.") but recommends the "totally gorgeous" Pride and Prejudice for newcomers: "If somebody's never read Jane Austen, that's a very, very good place to start". She hopes Netflix isn't tempted to tweak it too much to reach the TikTok generation: "I think the novel already does that - it talks to young people who are looking for good partners in their lives, who have to think about their careers and their financial security. "A complete modernisation, something like Clueless which was clever indeed in its treatment of Emma, can make sense but otherwise stick to the book, follow the norms of the era [and] all the things that concern Austen are still concerns young people in particular have in their everyday lives today". Jane Austen was born in Steventon, Hampshire, on December 16, 1775. She was the seventh of eight children and cherished her father Reverend George Austen's extensive library. When her father died in 1805, Jane, her mother and her only sister Cassandra were left financially dependent on their male relatives. She wrote most of her novels before she had turned 22, but the first was not published until she was 35. Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1816) were modest successes in her lifetime but published without her name on them. The author was identified only as "A Lady". Two other novels - Northanger Abbey and Persuasion - were published posthumously, following her death, aged 41, in Winchester on July 18, 1817. She also left behind the epistolary novella Lady Susan, two unfinished novels, Sanditon and The Watsons, her juvenile writing and hundreds of letters. She is buried in Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire. The cottage in Chawton, Hampshire, where she lived for the last eight years of her life is now a museum, Jane Austen's House. Miss Austen: Now showing on the ABC and ABC iView, this four-part BBC drama stars Keeley Hawes as Cassandra Austen, who was responsible for what some consider to be literature's greatest act of vandalism - destroying almost all of sister Jane's correspondence. Of an estimated 3000 letters, only about 160 survive - the rest burned to protect the writer's reputation and privacy. Gill Hornby's novel gets the full-blown Jane Austen period drama treatment, with Patsy Ferran as the young author and Synnove Karlsen as the younger Cassie. Hornby has said: "The fact that - thanks to Cassandra's bonfire - we know so little about the author has proved wildly successful. That element of mysterious, quiet dignity is crucial to the success of the Jane Austen brand". Jane Austen Wrecked My Life: Screening in selected cinemas, this Bridget Jones' Diary-esque French rom-com follows a desperately single bookshop keeper to a writers' retreat as she chases her Austen-influenced dream of becoming a romance novelist - and finding her own happily-ever-after. Pride and Prejudice (Audible series): This audio adaptation features the voices of Babygirl's Harris Dickinson as Darcy, Marisa Abela (who was singer Amy Winehouse in 2024 biopic Back to Black) as Elizabeth, Bill Nighy and Marianne Jean-Baptiste as Mr and Mrs Bennet and Glenn Close as Lady Catherine De Bourgh. Dropping worldwide on September 9 and promising "cinematic sound design", the producers say their retelling will remain "faithful to the original text" while adding a "unique interior perspective" from Lizzie. Sense and Sensibility (feature film): Focus Features and Working Title Films, which collaborated on 2005's Pride & Prejudice and the 2020 Anya Taylor-Joy version of Emma, are back in the Austen business with Daisy Edgar-Jones (star of acclaimed TV romance Normal People and 2024 film Twisters) in the lead role of Elinor Dashwood. Outlander's Esme Creed-Miles plays her sister Marianne, Outlander's Caitrona Balfe is Mrs Dashwood and George MacKay (from the Sam Mendes war saga 1917) is Elinor's love interest, Edward Ferrars. You'll recall in the 1995 version that Emma Thompson played Elinor, Kate Winslet was Marianne and Hugh Grant was Edward. The new script is by Australian author Diana Reid. Pride and Prejudice (Netflix series): Emma Corrin, who played Diana in The Crown and Connie in Netflix's 2022 film of Lady Chatterley's Lover, is Elizabeth Bennet (and also an executive producer) for this six-part series. Billed as a "faithful, classic adaptation", it also stars Jack Lowden as Darcy and The Favourite's Olivia Colman as Mrs Bennet. "Once in a generation, a group of people get to retell this wonderful story and I feel very lucky that I get to be a part of it," screenwriter Dolly Alderton has said. "I am so excited to reintroduce these hilarious and complicated characters to those who count Pride and Prejudice as their favourite book, and those who are yet to meet their Lizzie and Mr Darcy." Pride and Prejudice (1995): Incredibly, it's 30 years since the BBC's impeccably faithful, six-hour adaptation starring Firth and Ehle thrust Austen back into popular culture. Screenwriter Andrew Davies added a scene with Darcy emerging from a pond in a wet shirt, which made Firth a screen heartthrob. Alison Steadman gives the standout performance as the insufferably grasping Mrs Bennet. Where to watch: Stream it now on Stan, BritBox or Apple TV. Also in the 1990s: Emma Thompson's Oscar-winning Sense and Sensibility (1995) directed by Ang Lee; duelling 1996 versions of Emma starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Kate Beckinsale; Notting Hill director Roger Michell's 1995 Persuasion; Aussie actress Frances O'Connor in Mansfield Park (1999); and Clueless (1995), the spirited Beverly Hills teen twist on Emma starring Alicia Silverstone. Pride & Prejudice (2005): Grittier, sweatier and muddier than the 1995 series, director Joe Wright's film is returning to selected Australian cinemas for its 20th anniversary. It stars Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen, with Judi Dench, Donald Sutherland and Brenda Blethyn. Wright's blink-and-you'll-miss-it cutaway shot to Mr Darcy's "hand flex" after holding feisty Lizze's hand continues to provide ardent fans with TikTok's favourite visual shorthand for intense romantic yearning and frisson. Where to watch: In selected cinemas or stream on Netflix, Binge, Foxtel or Apple TV. Also in the 2000s: Renee Zellwegger torn between Colin Firth and Hugh Grant in 2001's Pride and Prejudice-inspired Bridget Jones's Diary; Bollywood musical comedy Bride and Prejudice (2005), an exuberant song-and-dance romance starring former Miss World Aishwarya Rai; Felicity Jones and Carey Mulligan in a Northanger Abbey (2007) scripted by Andrew Davies; the four-part Emma (2009) starring Romola Garai as Emma Woodhouse, Michael Gambon as her father and Jonny Lee Miller as Mr Knightley; Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016) starring Lily James; Kate Beckinsale in Love and Friendship (2016), based on early Austen work Lady Susan; the series Sanditon, with screenwriter Davies completing Austen's unfinished manuscript (2020-23); the unnecessary but extravagantly styled 2020 version of Emma starring Anya Taylor-Joy; and Dakota Johnson's not-very-persuasive Persuasion (2022). Vinyl revival: Decca Records has released the 2005 Pride & Prejudice movie soundtrack on vinyl for the first time to mark the film's 20th anniversary. The Oscar-nominated score was composed by Dario Marianelli and performed by acclaimed pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet and the English Chamber Orchestra. Lizzy, Darcy & Jane: This play by Joanna Norland draws on key events in Austen's life, including her romance with Tom Lefroy in 1796 and Harris Bigg-Wither's proposal in 1801, to playfully imagine what influenced the 20-year-old writer as she began a story in 1796 titled First Impressions, which would later become Pride and Prejudice. At Canberra REP Theatre from September 4-20. Pride and Prejudice by Bloomshed: This "raucous" stage production is billed as "searing social satire dressed as a period drama" with some modern angst woven in, including questions about the housing crisis, the institution of marriage, the meaning of love and the power of rom-coms and reality TV. Bloomshed's retelling ("With the cost of living rising, and Mr Bennet played by a potted monstera, how will the Bennet family hold onto their precarious position on the property ladder?") plays in Melbourne and Geelong in August and Canberra Theatre Centre in October. Jane Austen and her legacy: Susannah Fullerton delivers a public lecture exploring what makes Austen the world's favourite female novelist 250 years after her birth. This free event at the National Library of Australia in Canberra from 6pm-7pm on August 20 will be livestreamed. Bookings are essential. 250 Glorious Years: Jane Austen's Legacy: The annual 2025 conference of the Jane Austen Society of Australia in Canberra on the weekend of October 31-November 2 will feature presentations by Wild for Austen author Devoney Looser of Arizona State University, Norwegian Professor of English Literature Dr Marie Nedregotten Sorbo and Dr William Christie, Professor Emeritus at Australian National University, among other speakers. The Saturday evening dinner will include a demonstration of Regency dancing (Regency dress is welcome, but not required!). For details visit: Netflix is doing a new Pride and Prejudice. A fresh Sense and Sensibility film is on the way too. We ask the experts why we still so ardently admire and love Jane Austen 250 years after her birth. It is a truth universally acknowledged that a streaming service or movie studio or book publisher in want of a good fortune must be in possession of a hot new take on Jane Austen. And so it is, in this 250th year since the birth of the great novelist - the English language's most revered writer after William Shakespeare - that streaming giant Netflix will be adding to its endless carousel of episodes of Bridgerton, Wednesday, Stranger Things and Squid Game a shiny new "period-faithful" Pride and Prejudice miniseries billed as "both familiar and fresh". Also riding new generational waves of Austen adulation: movie makers Focus Features and Working Title Films, producers of the 2005 film version of Pride & Prejudice with its pulse-quickening, meme-worthy "hand flex" scene, who are shooting a new Sense and Sensibility feature film. Meanwhile, the BBC, which in 1995 gave us the definitive screen rendering of Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth in a blush-makingly wet shirt as Mr Darcy, is pumping out multiple TV treatments, including the documentary Jane Austen: Rise of a Genius and costume dramas Miss Austen and The Other Bennet Sister. Next month audiobook and podcast giant Audible takes Pride and Prejudice for its own spin around the ballroom in six languages, promising "cinematic sound design" and Marisa Abela, Harris Dickinson, Bill Nighy and Glenn Close leading the English-speaking cast. And, of course, the Austen-related books just keep coming in 2025: from a graphic novel depicting her life, The Novel Life of Jane Austen: A Graphic Biography by Professor Janine Barchas and illustrator Isabel Greenberg; to Jane Austen's Garden by Molly Williams, a botanical tour of Austen's era and novels; to the upcoming Jane Austen Insult Guide for Well-Bred Women, a collection of snarky witticisms compiled by Emily Reed; and Wild for Austen, American scholar Devoney Looser's subversive revision of Austen's image as a prim and proper spinster. More in a moment on the new screen Austens and their popular forerunners; the adaptations, extrapolations and reimaginings that help make way more visible - and more beloved - than any other novelist before or since a woman forced by the conventions of her day to publish her writing anonymously. First, some beneficent words of rapture and wise counsel from two distinguished patrons of all things Austen. Says Pamela Whalan, Austen scholar, lecturer and playwright: "I am a firm believer that nothing really replaces the reading of Austen's novels". The precious word "reading", of course, is given special emphasis in this declaration. Such Elizabeth Bennet-like prejudice from someone who has so proudly, painstakingly translated the language, characters, settings, emotions and insights of all six Austen novels into stage plays! "That might seem hypocritical considering I have adapted them for the stage," she explains. "But I see any adaptation as an introduction rather than a substitution for the delight of Austen's written word." Susannah Fullerton, literary historian, author of the memoir Jane & I: A Tale of Austen Addiction and president of the Jane Austen Society of Australia for "what seems like an age", concurs. "Everybody should read Jane Austen," she says. "Picking up what can look like a dusty old classic in the library or the bookshop can be off-putting for some people, which is such a shame because they're missing out on what I think is one of life's great literary experiences. There is just so much in these stories and characters to bring young people in particular back to reading." READ MORE: Sydney-based Ms Fullerton recently returned from the Global Jane Austen conference in the UK, where she presented on Austen "tourism". In October she will welcome guest speakers from the US and Norway to the society's annual conference in Canberra, a special celebration of "250 glorious years" of Austen. Before then, she will deliver a livestreamed public lecture on the writer's legacy at the National Library of Australia on August 20. "It really is very hard to keep up with everything that's happening this year in the Jane Austen world," she said. Which begs the question: why does Austen enjoy such unending appeal? "She makes us laugh, which in this sad world we're living in at the moment is very important," Ms Fullerton said. "She writes the world's greatest love stories and people love romance and a happy ending. And the quality of her prose - you never feel with Jane Austen that the editor should've gone through it with a red pen and, in this day and age of emojis and text messages and rather mangled English, it's a joy to read her beautifully written sentences. "For me, the major reason I go back to her books again and again is her phenomenal understanding of what makes people tick, of human nature. And that hasn't changed in the more than 200 years since she published her books. I think everybody knows characters like the ones Jane Austen created. You know, hypochondriac or stingy characters or people who talk too much like Miss Bates [from Emma]. "She really nails human nature and, while her characters might obviously be in bonnets and gowns and breeches, nothing much has changed about people and the things they do and what makes them behave the way they do." Ms Whalan, a Newcastle-based member of the Jane Austen Society of Australia for more than 30 years, has had her Austen plays published and performed in Australia and the US. "Jane Austen had a wonderful power of observation," she said. "She understood how people thought, behaved, needed, wanted. She was a realist and an optimist but was not a romantic. Her characters are based on normal people - people you could recognise as you go about your normal daily routine. "Times and society change but human nature does not. A woman who was worried about her future security and the security of her family is recognisable and creates sympathy even if the circumstances and solutions vary from time and place." Ms Whalan's favourite novel is Persuasion ("it has a bittersweet reality"), Emma is "absolute perfection when considering plot construction" and Sense and Sensibility shows Austen was grounded more "in the world of reality than romance". The opening line of Pride and Prejudice may be ingrained on the memories of the many millions who have read it over the centuries (''It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife"), but she does not rank the "light and frothy" novel as one of Austen's best. "Pride and Prejudice is a wonderful beginning but it is only the start of the Austen adventure," she said. "Remember, she wrote five other full-length novels as well as novella and the absolutely wonderful wicked and witty juvenilia." And yet, of all of the many Austen screen adaptations, the 1995 BBC TV version of the book is perhaps "the best reflection of her writing". The popularity of that series helped double the membership of the Jane Austen Society of Australia, which is why, like her literary heroine, Ms Whalan is a realist about the role films and TV play in bringing new audiences to Austen. "A visual presentation can act as an introduction to the enjoyment and understanding of an Austen novel," she said. "Film and television adaptations can provide a modern audience with information the novel does not, and never meant to, provide. Such adaptations are an entry point into a world [of different] clothing, manners, morals, daily life and language. [They] have the freedom to roam about the countryside and show us the grandeur of large social gatherings. But sometimes, in bringing us such visual splendour, they stray away from Miss Austen's focus on human beings." Ms Fullerton, too, admits to struggling with screen translations of the novelist's work. "It's always nice to see a well-made adaptation - it's a real pleasure," she says. An admirer of the 1995 Pride and Prejudice ("a very fine adaptation. It stuck very closely to the book and it had excellent acting"), she regards Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility film of the same year as her favourite screen Austen. "I think Emma Thompson did that wonderfully and it's the one I really love, so hopefully they will get it right with future versions," she said. Some subsequent screen Austens she describes as "totally disastrous". "You think 'Why did people bother?' I don't mind small changes from the book. Obviously that's going to happen when you're transferring a book to the screen and sometimes happens for good reasons. But when you make endless changes you think 'Why bother making a Jane Austen when you are cutting the novel to shreds?' So that really does upset me." Ms Fullerton cherishes Emma as "the total masterpiece" ("It's the world's greatest novel. I don't think one word of it could be changed to improve it in any way whatsoever.") but recommends the "totally gorgeous" Pride and Prejudice for newcomers: "If somebody's never read Jane Austen, that's a very, very good place to start". She hopes Netflix isn't tempted to tweak it too much to reach the TikTok generation: "I think the novel already does that - it talks to young people who are looking for good partners in their lives, who have to think about their careers and their financial security. "A complete modernisation, something like Clueless which was clever indeed in its treatment of Emma, can make sense but otherwise stick to the book, follow the norms of the era [and] all the things that concern Austen are still concerns young people in particular have in their everyday lives today". Jane Austen was born in Steventon, Hampshire, on December 16, 1775. She was the seventh of eight children and cherished her father Reverend George Austen's extensive library. When her father died in 1805, Jane, her mother and her only sister Cassandra were left financially dependent on their male relatives. She wrote most of her novels before she had turned 22, but the first was not published until she was 35. Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1816) were modest successes in her lifetime but published without her name on them. The author was identified only as "A Lady". Two other novels - Northanger Abbey and Persuasion - were published posthumously, following her death, aged 41, in Winchester on July 18, 1817. She also left behind the epistolary novella Lady Susan, two unfinished novels, Sanditon and The Watsons, her juvenile writing and hundreds of letters. She is buried in Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire. The cottage in Chawton, Hampshire, where she lived for the last eight years of her life is now a museum, Jane Austen's House. Miss Austen: Now showing on the ABC and ABC iView, this four-part BBC drama stars Keeley Hawes as Cassandra Austen, who was responsible for what some consider to be literature's greatest act of vandalism - destroying almost all of sister Jane's correspondence. Of an estimated 3000 letters, only about 160 survive - the rest burned to protect the writer's reputation and privacy. Gill Hornby's novel gets the full-blown Jane Austen period drama treatment, with Patsy Ferran as the young author and Synnove Karlsen as the younger Cassie. Hornby has said: "The fact that - thanks to Cassandra's bonfire - we know so little about the author has proved wildly successful. That element of mysterious, quiet dignity is crucial to the success of the Jane Austen brand". Jane Austen Wrecked My Life: Screening in selected cinemas, this Bridget Jones' Diary-esque French rom-com follows a desperately single bookshop keeper to a writers' retreat as she chases her Austen-influenced dream of becoming a romance novelist - and finding her own happily-ever-after. Pride and Prejudice (Audible series): This audio adaptation features the voices of Babygirl's Harris Dickinson as Darcy, Marisa Abela (who was singer Amy Winehouse in 2024 biopic Back to Black) as Elizabeth, Bill Nighy and Marianne Jean-Baptiste as Mr and Mrs Bennet and Glenn Close as Lady Catherine De Bourgh. Dropping worldwide on September 9 and promising "cinematic sound design", the producers say their retelling will remain "faithful to the original text" while adding a "unique interior perspective" from Lizzie. Sense and Sensibility (feature film): Focus Features and Working Title Films, which collaborated on 2005's Pride & Prejudice and the 2020 Anya Taylor-Joy version of Emma, are back in the Austen business with Daisy Edgar-Jones (star of acclaimed TV romance Normal People and 2024 film Twisters) in the lead role of Elinor Dashwood. Outlander's Esme Creed-Miles plays her sister Marianne, Outlander's Caitrona Balfe is Mrs Dashwood and George MacKay (from the Sam Mendes war saga 1917) is Elinor's love interest, Edward Ferrars. You'll recall in the 1995 version that Emma Thompson played Elinor, Kate Winslet was Marianne and Hugh Grant was Edward. The new script is by Australian author Diana Reid. Pride and Prejudice (Netflix series): Emma Corrin, who played Diana in The Crown and Connie in Netflix's 2022 film of Lady Chatterley's Lover, is Elizabeth Bennet (and also an executive producer) for this six-part series. Billed as a "faithful, classic adaptation", it also stars Jack Lowden as Darcy and The Favourite's Olivia Colman as Mrs Bennet. "Once in a generation, a group of people get to retell this wonderful story and I feel very lucky that I get to be a part of it," screenwriter Dolly Alderton has said. "I am so excited to reintroduce these hilarious and complicated characters to those who count Pride and Prejudice as their favourite book, and those who are yet to meet their Lizzie and Mr Darcy." Pride and Prejudice (1995): Incredibly, it's 30 years since the BBC's impeccably faithful, six-hour adaptation starring Firth and Ehle thrust Austen back into popular culture. Screenwriter Andrew Davies added a scene with Darcy emerging from a pond in a wet shirt, which made Firth a screen heartthrob. Alison Steadman gives the standout performance as the insufferably grasping Mrs Bennet. Where to watch: Stream it now on Stan, BritBox or Apple TV. Also in the 1990s: Emma Thompson's Oscar-winning Sense and Sensibility (1995) directed by Ang Lee; duelling 1996 versions of Emma starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Kate Beckinsale; Notting Hill director Roger Michell's 1995 Persuasion; Aussie actress Frances O'Connor in Mansfield Park (1999); and Clueless (1995), the spirited Beverly Hills teen twist on Emma starring Alicia Silverstone. Pride & Prejudice (2005): Grittier, sweatier and muddier than the 1995 series, director Joe Wright's film is returning to selected Australian cinemas for its 20th anniversary. It stars Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen, with Judi Dench, Donald Sutherland and Brenda Blethyn. Wright's blink-and-you'll-miss-it cutaway shot to Mr Darcy's "hand flex" after holding feisty Lizze's hand continues to provide ardent fans with TikTok's favourite visual shorthand for intense romantic yearning and frisson. Where to watch: In selected cinemas or stream on Netflix, Binge, Foxtel or Apple TV. Also in the 2000s: Renee Zellwegger torn between Colin Firth and Hugh Grant in 2001's Pride and Prejudice-inspired Bridget Jones's Diary; Bollywood musical comedy Bride and Prejudice (2005), an exuberant song-and-dance romance starring former Miss World Aishwarya Rai; Felicity Jones and Carey Mulligan in a Northanger Abbey (2007) scripted by Andrew Davies; the four-part Emma (2009) starring Romola Garai as Emma Woodhouse, Michael Gambon as her father and Jonny Lee Miller as Mr Knightley; Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016) starring Lily James; Kate Beckinsale in Love and Friendship (2016), based on early Austen work Lady Susan; the series Sanditon, with screenwriter Davies completing Austen's unfinished manuscript (2020-23); the unnecessary but extravagantly styled 2020 version of Emma starring Anya Taylor-Joy; and Dakota Johnson's not-very-persuasive Persuasion (2022). Vinyl revival: Decca Records has released the 2005 Pride & Prejudice movie soundtrack on vinyl for the first time to mark the film's 20th anniversary. The Oscar-nominated score was composed by Dario Marianelli and performed by acclaimed pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet and the English Chamber Orchestra. Lizzy, Darcy & Jane: This play by Joanna Norland draws on key events in Austen's life, including her romance with Tom Lefroy in 1796 and Harris Bigg-Wither's proposal in 1801, to playfully imagine what influenced the 20-year-old writer as she began a story in 1796 titled First Impressions, which would later become Pride and Prejudice. At Canberra REP Theatre from September 4-20. Pride and Prejudice by Bloomshed: This "raucous" stage production is billed as "searing social satire dressed as a period drama" with some modern angst woven in, including questions about the housing crisis, the institution of marriage, the meaning of love and the power of rom-coms and reality TV. Bloomshed's retelling ("With the cost of living rising, and Mr Bennet played by a potted monstera, how will the Bennet family hold onto their precarious position on the property ladder?") plays in Melbourne and Geelong in August and Canberra Theatre Centre in October. Jane Austen and her legacy: Susannah Fullerton delivers a public lecture exploring what makes Austen the world's favourite female novelist 250 years after her birth. This free event at the National Library of Australia in Canberra from 6pm-7pm on August 20 will be livestreamed. Bookings are essential. 250 Glorious Years: Jane Austen's Legacy: The annual 2025 conference of the Jane Austen Society of Australia in Canberra on the weekend of October 31-November 2 will feature presentations by Wild for Austen author Devoney Looser of Arizona State University, Norwegian Professor of English Literature Dr Marie Nedregotten Sorbo and Dr William Christie, Professor Emeritus at Australian National University, among other speakers. The Saturday evening dinner will include a demonstration of Regency dancing (Regency dress is welcome, but not required!). For details visit: Netflix is doing a new Pride and Prejudice. A fresh Sense and Sensibility film is on the way too. We ask the experts why we still so ardently admire and love Jane Austen 250 years after her birth. It is a truth universally acknowledged that a streaming service or movie studio or book publisher in want of a good fortune must be in possession of a hot new take on Jane Austen. And so it is, in this 250th year since the birth of the great novelist - the English language's most revered writer after William Shakespeare - that streaming giant Netflix will be adding to its endless carousel of episodes of Bridgerton, Wednesday, Stranger Things and Squid Game a shiny new "period-faithful" Pride and Prejudice miniseries billed as "both familiar and fresh". Also riding new generational waves of Austen adulation: movie makers Focus Features and Working Title Films, producers of the 2005 film version of Pride & Prejudice with its pulse-quickening, meme-worthy "hand flex" scene, who are shooting a new Sense and Sensibility feature film. Meanwhile, the BBC, which in 1995 gave us the definitive screen rendering of Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth in a blush-makingly wet shirt as Mr Darcy, is pumping out multiple TV treatments, including the documentary Jane Austen: Rise of a Genius and costume dramas Miss Austen and The Other Bennet Sister. Next month audiobook and podcast giant Audible takes Pride and Prejudice for its own spin around the ballroom in six languages, promising "cinematic sound design" and Marisa Abela, Harris Dickinson, Bill Nighy and Glenn Close leading the English-speaking cast. And, of course, the Austen-related books just keep coming in 2025: from a graphic novel depicting her life, The Novel Life of Jane Austen: A Graphic Biography by Professor Janine Barchas and illustrator Isabel Greenberg; to Jane Austen's Garden by Molly Williams, a botanical tour of Austen's era and novels; to the upcoming Jane Austen Insult Guide for Well-Bred Women, a collection of snarky witticisms compiled by Emily Reed; and Wild for Austen, American scholar Devoney Looser's subversive revision of Austen's image as a prim and proper spinster. More in a moment on the new screen Austens and their popular forerunners; the adaptations, extrapolations and reimaginings that help make way more visible - and more beloved - than any other novelist before or since a woman forced by the conventions of her day to publish her writing anonymously. First, some beneficent words of rapture and wise counsel from two distinguished patrons of all things Austen. Says Pamela Whalan, Austen scholar, lecturer and playwright: "I am a firm believer that nothing really replaces the reading of Austen's novels". The precious word "reading", of course, is given special emphasis in this declaration. Such Elizabeth Bennet-like prejudice from someone who has so proudly, painstakingly translated the language, characters, settings, emotions and insights of all six Austen novels into stage plays! "That might seem hypocritical considering I have adapted them for the stage," she explains. "But I see any adaptation as an introduction rather than a substitution for the delight of Austen's written word." Susannah Fullerton, literary historian, author of the memoir Jane & I: A Tale of Austen Addiction and president of the Jane Austen Society of Australia for "what seems like an age", concurs. "Everybody should read Jane Austen," she says. "Picking up what can look like a dusty old classic in the library or the bookshop can be off-putting for some people, which is such a shame because they're missing out on what I think is one of life's great literary experiences. There is just so much in these stories and characters to bring young people in particular back to reading." READ MORE: Sydney-based Ms Fullerton recently returned from the Global Jane Austen conference in the UK, where she presented on Austen "tourism". In October she will welcome guest speakers from the US and Norway to the society's annual conference in Canberra, a special celebration of "250 glorious years" of Austen. Before then, she will deliver a livestreamed public lecture on the writer's legacy at the National Library of Australia on August 20. "It really is very hard to keep up with everything that's happening this year in the Jane Austen world," she said. Which begs the question: why does Austen enjoy such unending appeal? "She makes us laugh, which in this sad world we're living in at the moment is very important," Ms Fullerton said. "She writes the world's greatest love stories and people love romance and a happy ending. And the quality of her prose - you never feel with Jane Austen that the editor should've gone through it with a red pen and, in this day and age of emojis and text messages and rather mangled English, it's a joy to read her beautifully written sentences. "For me, the major reason I go back to her books again and again is her phenomenal understanding of what makes people tick, of human nature. And that hasn't changed in the more than 200 years since she published her books. I think everybody knows characters like the ones Jane Austen created. You know, hypochondriac or stingy characters or people who talk too much like Miss Bates [from Emma]. "She really nails human nature and, while her characters might obviously be in bonnets and gowns and breeches, nothing much has changed about people and the things they do and what makes them behave the way they do." Ms Whalan, a Newcastle-based member of the Jane Austen Society of Australia for more than 30 years, has had her Austen plays published and performed in Australia and the US. "Jane Austen had a wonderful power of observation," she said. "She understood how people thought, behaved, needed, wanted. She was a realist and an optimist but was not a romantic. Her characters are based on normal people - people you could recognise as you go about your normal daily routine. "Times and society change but human nature does not. A woman who was worried about her future security and the security of her family is recognisable and creates sympathy even if the circumstances and solutions vary from time and place." Ms Whalan's favourite novel is Persuasion ("it has a bittersweet reality"), Emma is "absolute perfection when considering plot construction" and Sense and Sensibility shows Austen was grounded more "in the world of reality than romance". The opening line of Pride and Prejudice may be ingrained on the memories of the many millions who have read it over the centuries (''It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife"), but she does not rank the "light and frothy" novel as one of Austen's best. "Pride and Prejudice is a wonderful beginning but it is only the start of the Austen adventure," she said. "Remember, she wrote five other full-length novels as well as novella and the absolutely wonderful wicked and witty juvenilia." And yet, of all of the many Austen screen adaptations, the 1995 BBC TV version of the book is perhaps "the best reflection of her writing". The popularity of that series helped double the membership of the Jane Austen Society of Australia, which is why, like her literary heroine, Ms Whalan is a realist about the role films and TV play in bringing new audiences to Austen. "A visual presentation can act as an introduction to the enjoyment and understanding of an Austen novel," she said. "Film and television adaptations can provide a modern audience with information the novel does not, and never meant to, provide. Such adaptations are an entry point into a world [of different] clothing, manners, morals, daily life and language. [They] have the freedom to roam about the countryside and show us the grandeur of large social gatherings. But sometimes, in bringing us such visual splendour, they stray away from Miss Austen's focus on human beings." Ms Fullerton, too, admits to struggling with screen translations of the novelist's work. "It's always nice to see a well-made adaptation - it's a real pleasure," she says. An admirer of the 1995 Pride and Prejudice ("a very fine adaptation. It stuck very closely to the book and it had excellent acting"), she regards Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility film of the same year as her favourite screen Austen. "I think Emma Thompson did that wonderfully and it's the one I really love, so hopefully they will get it right with future versions," she said. Some subsequent screen Austens she describes as "totally disastrous". "You think 'Why did people bother?' I don't mind small changes from the book. Obviously that's going to happen when you're transferring a book to the screen and sometimes happens for good reasons. But when you make endless changes you think 'Why bother making a Jane Austen when you are cutting the novel to shreds?' So that really does upset me." Ms Fullerton cherishes Emma as "the total masterpiece" ("It's the world's greatest novel. I don't think one word of it could be changed to improve it in any way whatsoever.") but recommends the "totally gorgeous" Pride and Prejudice for newcomers: "If somebody's never read Jane Austen, that's a very, very good place to start". She hopes Netflix isn't tempted to tweak it too much to reach the TikTok generation: "I think the novel already does that - it talks to young people who are looking for good partners in their lives, who have to think about their careers and their financial security. "A complete modernisation, something like Clueless which was clever indeed in its treatment of Emma, can make sense but otherwise stick to the book, follow the norms of the era [and] all the things that concern Austen are still concerns young people in particular have in their everyday lives today". Jane Austen was born in Steventon, Hampshire, on December 16, 1775. She was the seventh of eight children and cherished her father Reverend George Austen's extensive library. When her father died in 1805, Jane, her mother and her only sister Cassandra were left financially dependent on their male relatives. She wrote most of her novels before she had turned 22, but the first was not published until she was 35. Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1816) were modest successes in her lifetime but published without her name on them. The author was identified only as "A Lady". Two other novels - Northanger Abbey and Persuasion - were published posthumously, following her death, aged 41, in Winchester on July 18, 1817. She also left behind the epistolary novella Lady Susan, two unfinished novels, Sanditon and The Watsons, her juvenile writing and hundreds of letters. She is buried in Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire. The cottage in Chawton, Hampshire, where she lived for the last eight years of her life is now a museum, Jane Austen's House. Miss Austen: Now showing on the ABC and ABC iView, this four-part BBC drama stars Keeley Hawes as Cassandra Austen, who was responsible for what some consider to be literature's greatest act of vandalism - destroying almost all of sister Jane's correspondence. Of an estimated 3000 letters, only about 160 survive - the rest burned to protect the writer's reputation and privacy. Gill Hornby's novel gets the full-blown Jane Austen period drama treatment, with Patsy Ferran as the young author and Synnove Karlsen as the younger Cassie. Hornby has said: "The fact that - thanks to Cassandra's bonfire - we know so little about the author has proved wildly successful. That element of mysterious, quiet dignity is crucial to the success of the Jane Austen brand". Jane Austen Wrecked My Life: Screening in selected cinemas, this Bridget Jones' Diary-esque French rom-com follows a desperately single bookshop keeper to a writers' retreat as she chases her Austen-influenced dream of becoming a romance novelist - and finding her own happily-ever-after. Pride and Prejudice (Audible series): This audio adaptation features the voices of Babygirl's Harris Dickinson as Darcy, Marisa Abela (who was singer Amy Winehouse in 2024 biopic Back to Black) as Elizabeth, Bill Nighy and Marianne Jean-Baptiste as Mr and Mrs Bennet and Glenn Close as Lady Catherine De Bourgh. Dropping worldwide on September 9 and promising "cinematic sound design", the producers say their retelling will remain "faithful to the original text" while adding a "unique interior perspective" from Lizzie. Sense and Sensibility (feature film): Focus Features and Working Title Films, which collaborated on 2005's Pride & Prejudice and the 2020 Anya Taylor-Joy version of Emma, are back in the Austen business with Daisy Edgar-Jones (star of acclaimed TV romance Normal People and 2024 film Twisters) in the lead role of Elinor Dashwood. Outlander's Esme Creed-Miles plays her sister Marianne, Outlander's Caitrona Balfe is Mrs Dashwood and George MacKay (from the Sam Mendes war saga 1917) is Elinor's love interest, Edward Ferrars. You'll recall in the 1995 version that Emma Thompson played Elinor, Kate Winslet was Marianne and Hugh Grant was Edward. The new script is by Australian author Diana Reid. Pride and Prejudice (Netflix series): Emma Corrin, who played Diana in The Crown and Connie in Netflix's 2022 film of Lady Chatterley's Lover, is Elizabeth Bennet (and also an executive producer) for this six-part series. Billed as a "faithful, classic adaptation", it also stars Jack Lowden as Darcy and The Favourite's Olivia Colman as Mrs Bennet. "Once in a generation, a group of people get to retell this wonderful story and I feel very lucky that I get to be a part of it," screenwriter Dolly Alderton has said. "I am so excited to reintroduce these hilarious and complicated characters to those who count Pride and Prejudice as their favourite book, and those who are yet to meet their Lizzie and Mr Darcy." Pride and Prejudice (1995): Incredibly, it's 30 years since the BBC's impeccably faithful, six-hour adaptation starring Firth and Ehle thrust Austen back into popular culture. Screenwriter Andrew Davies added a scene with Darcy emerging from a pond in a wet shirt, which made Firth a screen heartthrob. Alison Steadman gives the standout performance as the insufferably grasping Mrs Bennet. Where to watch: Stream it now on Stan, BritBox or Apple TV. Also in the 1990s: Emma Thompson's Oscar-winning Sense and Sensibility (1995) directed by Ang Lee; duelling 1996 versions of Emma starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Kate Beckinsale; Notting Hill director Roger Michell's 1995 Persuasion; Aussie actress Frances O'Connor in Mansfield Park (1999); and Clueless (1995), the spirited Beverly Hills teen twist on Emma starring Alicia Silverstone. Pride & Prejudice (2005): Grittier, sweatier and muddier than the 1995 series, director Joe Wright's film is returning to selected Australian cinemas for its 20th anniversary. It stars Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen, with Judi Dench, Donald Sutherland and Brenda Blethyn. Wright's blink-and-you'll-miss-it cutaway shot to Mr Darcy's "hand flex" after holding feisty Lizze's hand continues to provide ardent fans with TikTok's favourite visual shorthand for intense romantic yearning and frisson. Where to watch: In selected cinemas or stream on Netflix, Binge, Foxtel or Apple TV. Also in the 2000s: Renee Zellwegger torn between Colin Firth and Hugh Grant in 2001's Pride and Prejudice-inspired Bridget Jones's Diary; Bollywood musical comedy Bride and Prejudice (2005), an exuberant song-and-dance romance starring former Miss World Aishwarya Rai; Felicity Jones and Carey Mulligan in a Northanger Abbey (2007) scripted by Andrew Davies; the four-part Emma (2009) starring Romola Garai as Emma Woodhouse, Michael Gambon as her father and Jonny Lee Miller as Mr Knightley; Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016) starring Lily James; Kate Beckinsale in Love and Friendship (2016), based on early Austen work Lady Susan; the series Sanditon, with screenwriter Davies completing Austen's unfinished manuscript (2020-23); the unnecessary but extravagantly styled 2020 version of Emma starring Anya Taylor-Joy; and Dakota Johnson's not-very-persuasive Persuasion (2022). Vinyl revival: Decca Records has released the 2005 Pride & Prejudice movie soundtrack on vinyl for the first time to mark the film's 20th anniversary. The Oscar-nominated score was composed by Dario Marianelli and performed by acclaimed pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet and the English Chamber Orchestra. Lizzy, Darcy & Jane: This play by Joanna Norland draws on key events in Austen's life, including her romance with Tom Lefroy in 1796 and Harris Bigg-Wither's proposal in 1801, to playfully imagine what influenced the 20-year-old writer as she began a story in 1796 titled First Impressions, which would later become Pride and Prejudice. At Canberra REP Theatre from September 4-20. Pride and Prejudice by Bloomshed: This "raucous" stage production is billed as "searing social satire dressed as a period drama" with some modern angst woven in, including questions about the housing crisis, the institution of marriage, the meaning of love and the power of rom-coms and reality TV. Bloomshed's retelling ("With the cost of living rising, and Mr Bennet played by a potted monstera, how will the Bennet family hold onto their precarious position on the property ladder?") plays in Melbourne and Geelong in August and Canberra Theatre Centre in October. Jane Austen and her legacy: Susannah Fullerton delivers a public lecture exploring what makes Austen the world's favourite female novelist 250 years after her birth. This free event at the National Library of Australia in Canberra from 6pm-7pm on August 20 will be livestreamed. Bookings are essential. 250 Glorious Years: Jane Austen's Legacy: The annual 2025 conference of the Jane Austen Society of Australia in Canberra on the weekend of October 31-November 2 will feature presentations by Wild for Austen author Devoney Looser of Arizona State University, Norwegian Professor of English Literature Dr Marie Nedregotten Sorbo and Dr William Christie, Professor Emeritus at Australian National University, among other speakers. The Saturday evening dinner will include a demonstration of Regency dancing (Regency dress is welcome, but not required!). For details visit:
Telegraph
20-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Bridget Jones producer bounces back from Hollywood strikes
The British production company behind the Bridget Jones films has enjoyed a rebound in profits after being hit by the Hollywood strikes. Working Title Films, which is behind a string of classics including Notting Hill, Love Actually and Shaun of the Dead, reported a 10pc increase in pre-tax profits to £584,000 in 2024. It marked the production company's most profitable year since 2016 and a rebound from 2023, when it was hit by an industry-wide shutdown in filming during the US actors' and writers' strikes. Revenues dipped slightly from £13m to £12.4m. Bosses said they had prioritised development during the strikes to ensure the company had a strong slate of films ready to go once the industry was back up and running. Working Title's successes last year included Blitz, a World War Two drama directed by Steve McQueen, and The Substance, a body horror featuring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley that was nominated for five Oscars. The company will be hoping for a major boost this year from Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy, the fourth instalment in the popular series. The film smashed box office records on its release in February, securing the highest-ever opening weekend for a UK romcom. Working Title said it had 49 active projects in development at the end of last year. The company last month announced a new adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility starring Normal People actress Daisy Edgar-Jones. Working Title was founded in 1984 and gained its first commission from the newly-created Channel 4 to make My Beautiful Laundrette, a comedy drama featuring Daniel Day-Lewis that told the story of a gay romance between a Pakistani Briton and an English punk. Since 1992, the studio has been co-chaired by film industry stalwarts Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner. Its parent company is NBCUniversal, the Hollywood giant owned by US media conglomerate Comcast. Working Title, which is headquartered in London's Marylebone, has produced more than 100 films that have grossed at least $7.5bn (£5.6) worldwide. Its films have collected 14 Oscars and 40 Baftas, as well as a host of other awards. Mr Fellner is among a number of high-profile figures from the creative industry who have opposed the Government's plans to let tech firms train their AI models on British content without a creator's permission unless the rights holder explicitly opts out. He told the Financial Times earlier this year that the move posed an 'existential threat' to film studios. The AI bill finally passed last month after lengthy wrangling in the House of Lords. In addition to its studio operations, Working Title also backs the London Screen Academy, a sixth form college in Islington offering training to young people aiming to enter the film and TV industries. In 2023, Mr Bevan and Mr Fellner struck a deal alongside composer Hans Zimmer to buy the BBC's historic Maida Vale Studios and turn it into a school for musicians.
IOL News
17-07-2025
- Entertainment
- IOL News
Lena Dunham's 'Too Much': a deep dive into love and trauma
Megan Stalter and Will Sharpe deliver stellar performances in 'Too Much'. Image: X 'Too Much', the new romantic comedy created by Hollywood actress Lena Dunham, has been earning worldwide acclaim for its take on modern relationships. The Netflix series delves deep into the universal experience of not feeling safe in relationships. As the title suggests, it emotionally relates to the legions across the globe from different walks of life who have ever felt, well, 'too much.' The series also unpacks the struggle of making relationships work as both parties have to commit to creating a safe space for each other, while juggling other challenges like careers, family and friends - all while carrying decades worth of personal trauma. Megan Stalter and Will Sharpe in 'Too Much'. Image: X With its sharp humour and an impressive casting of A-listers to breakthrough talents, the rom-com has been sparking debates worldwide as it continues to rank amongst the most-watched shows on the streaming giant, including in South Africa, where it has remained in the Top 10 since its premiere on Friday, June 11. 'Too Much' is the brainchild of the 'Girls' writer and star, with whom she worked on it with her husband, Luis Felber. The actress has explained in an interview that the series draws inspiration from her own life as, like the show's protagonist, she moved from New York to London in 2021, where she ended up meeting her husband, who, like the main character's love interest, is also a British musician. Despite this, Dunham has insisted that 'Too Much' is not meant to directly mirror her life, opening the possibilities for a creative exploration. Meanwhile, Working Title Films, the production company behind the 'Bridget Jones' movie franchise, also produced the show. It centres around Jessica, who is portrayed excellently by 'Hacks' breakout star Megan Stalter. Following a devastating break-up, the chaotic New Yorker in her mid-thirties decided to move to London. It is here where she meets a struggling bar singer Felix, played by 'The White Lotus' actor, Will Sharpe. On her first day in the city, she meets Felix at a pub and their connection is immediate and intense. Megan Stalter and Will Sharpe deliver stellar performances in 'Too Much'. Image: X While Jessica struggles to be away from her family in America as she adjusts to life in the UK, one thing that starts to go well in her life is her relationship with Felix, which continues to strengthen. They spend hours walking through London and talking on their first date, and the couple move in together after just a few months. But as their quirky and heartwarming love story plays out, Jessica and Felix are forced to contend with their individual traumas. Jessica comes from a complicated female-dominated family, including her sister (Dunham), her mother (Rita Wilson), and her grandmother (Rhea Perlman). She is also still processing the pain for her ex-boyfriend, Zev (Michael Zegen), leaving her for a social media influencer, Wendy Jones (Emily Ratajkowski). Meanwhile, Felix is also still traumatised by past relationships and is also battling with his strained family relationships. In his mid-thirties, he lacks ambition and is a recovering addict. And despite their connection, Jessica and Felix must also overcome dating red flags in order to keep their love alive. What truly sets 'Too Much' apart in the rom-com world, with its abundance of offerings, is the stellar performances. The chemistry between Jessica and Felix is electric, despite the cringy awkwardness, which I found to be genuine and authentic. Stalter and Sharpe must be commended for their stellar performances. The manner in which they bring this powerful and modern love story to life resonates with many, and they are brilliant in displaying a range of emotions, from euphoria to heartbreak. The supporting cast, including Dunham in the background as Nora, Jessica's older sister, as well as Ratajkowski, Wilson and Perlman, also delivered heartwarming performances. The storyline is also incredibly powerful as 'Too Much's' themes of grief, heartbreak, personal growth and love are ones that many streamers will be able to relate to. The show's take on personal insecurities and the desire for romantic relationships to be a safe haven has also been intriguing viewers. The intelligent infusion of humour in 'Too Much' also solidifies its success as it acts as satire and opens the door for deeper reflection while also adding balance to this nuanced and emotional story. Some other elements which I enjoyed on the show are Rita Ora's surprise appearance as well as Fergie's 'London Bridge' aptly being used as the soundtrack for this honest and hilarious love story. * I give it 4 out of 5 stars.
Yahoo
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Daisy Edgar-Jones To Topline Adaptation Of Jane Austen's ‘Sense And Sensibility' For Focus Features & Working Title
Daisy Edgar-Jones is set to headline a new adaptation of Jane Austen's classic Sense and Sensibility for Focus Features and Working Title Films, the companies announced on Wednesday. The project returns Focus and Working Title to Austen's body of work, following their collaboration on an Academy Award-winning 2005 adaptation of Pride & Prejudice and a 2020 adaptation of Emma. More from Deadline Hayley Kiyoko's 'Girls Like Girls' Sets Maya da Costa & Myra Molloy At Focus Features Universal International Studios & Working Title Win Bidding War For 'Little Hands,' Partial Manuscript By Celia Walden, With Eye Toward Series Adaptation BBC & Working Title Developing 'A Passage To India' TV Series BAFTA nominee Georgia Oakley will direct from a script by bestselling author Diana Reid. Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner of Working Title Films will produce alongside India Flint of November Pictures and Jo Wallett. Originally published anonymously with the byline reading 'By A Lady,' Austen's Sense and Sensibility follows sisters Elinor (Edgar-Jones) and Marianne Dashwood, opposites in their emotional approach, as they navigate love, loss, and financial uncertainty amid the societal expectations of 18th century England. Austen's 1811 debut novel established her as a literary force and remains a cornerstone of English literature. Best known on the film side for roles in films like Twisters and Where the Crawdads Sing, Edgar-Jones was BAFTA and Golden Globe-nominated for her lead role opposite Paul Mescal in Hulu's Normal People, also garnering a Golden Globe nomination for her work on Under the Banner of Heaven. Oakley is coming off her debut feature, Blue Jean, which earned her a BAFTA Award nomination for Outstanding Debut, as well as the People's Choice Award at the Venice Film Festival. Screen Daily was first to the news of the new project. Best of Deadline 2025-26 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Tonys, Emmys, Oscars & More Men of Steel: Every Actor Who Has Played Superman - Photo Gallery 'Michael' Cast: Who's Who In The Michael Jackson Biopic
Yahoo
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Esmé Creed-Miles Joins Daisy Edgar-Jones In ‘Sense And Sensibility'
Esmé Creed-Miles has joined Daisy Edgar-Jones in the new adaptation of Sense and Sensibility from Focus Features and Working Title Films. Miles will portray Marianne Dashwood, previously portrayed by Kate Winslet in the 1995 film directed by Ang Lee. The actress posted photos with the novel as a subtle announcement that she had gotten the co-lead part. Edgar-Jones will star as Elinor Dashwood. More from Deadline Daisy Edgar-Jones To Topline Adaptation Of Jane Austen's 'Sense And Sensibility' For Focus Features & Working Title Filmmaker Alexandra McGuinness Sets 'Lucia' As Next Project; 'Hanna's Esmé Creed-Miles To Star In Drama About James Joyce's Daughter Universal Pictures Promotes Niels Swinkels To Focus Features International Distribution President Georgia Oakley will direct the remake of Lee's film from a script by bestselling author Diana Reid. Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner of Working Title will produce alongside India Flint of November Pictures and Jo Wallett. The project marks another collaboration between Focus and Working Title on a piece of Austen's work following their collaboration on the Oscar-winning Pride & Prejudice (2005) starring Keira Knightley, Matthew Macfadyen, Rosamund Pike, Donald Sutherland, Carey Mulligan, Jena Malone, Kelly Reilly and many more, as well as the 2020 adaptation of Austen's Emma starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Johnny Flynn, Mia Goth, Josh O'Connor and Callum Turner. Originally published anonymously with the byline reading 'By A Lady,' Austen's Sense and Sensibility follows sisters Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, opposites in their emotional approach, as they navigate love, loss and financial uncertainty amid the societal expectations of 18th century England. Austen's 1811 debut novel established her as a literary force and remains a cornerstone of English literature. Find Miles' post below: Best of Deadline 'The Buccaneers' Season 2 Release Schedule: When Do New Episodes Come Out? 'The Buccaneers' Season 2 Soundtrack: From Griff To Sabrina Carpenter 2025 TV Series Renewals: Photo Gallery
