Ode to Pride: An Informal Account of Pride & Prejudice-Related Content

Closing out my journey through Pride & Prejudice wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t also include a run-down of the adaptations, unofficial sequels, and zombiefied retellings I’ve ingested over the years. 

Books

Bridget Jones’s Diary (1996): There’s something to be said about staying away from novels about lonely thirty-somethings when you’re just out of high school, but I enjoyed it anyway. Bridget is no Lizzy, but the emphasis on self-discovery is still here. I was surprised by how well combining Mrs. Bennet and Lydia into one character worked. At the end of the day, I get the feeling that Helen Fielding likes and respects the source material enough to pay homage without feeling confined to the plot.

Mr. Darcy’s Daughters (2003): If you write a continuation of one of the best love stories in the English language but you decide not to include either of the two leads from the original, then what are we doing here? It’s fun to see similarities between the five Darcy offspring and the Bennet sisters, but less fun waiting for their stories to resolve. Elizabeth Aston at least cares about her original characters and has enough sense of justice to make sure Wickham was killed off.

Pride & Prejudice & Zombies (2007): Well, you know what you’re getting from this based on the title. In concept, it’s a funny joke. But when you have to read it, boy oh boy, it’s a long set-up to get to the punchline. There are a few tantalizing signs that Seth Grahame-Smith knows enough about the source material to critique it, but not enough to keep an Austenite’s interest. In between the zombie-killing sprees are long stretches of Austen’s original text, devoid of zombies, brains, sword fights, and Darcy’s new level of cattiness. On the other hand, part of the joke is that there is no point to this monster-mashup, so why complain? I have no interest in seeing the movie.

The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet (2008): Woof. This mystery includes complete character overhauls, a Darcy who has forgotten the lesson he learned from the original novel, an underground cult, and a main character who makes only slightly more sense than her setting. What’s not to love? The real mystery here is who Colleen McCullough wrote this for, because it wasn’t for P&P fans.

Love, Lies, And Lizzie (2009): Cute and bland, this high school alt fanfic tries to coast on the spark of the original. Rosie Rushton’s writing style is too stiff to really get into anything like character nuance. The way she chooses to update the Lydia subplot is nice.

Prom and Prejudice (2011): Another teen update, Prom doesn’t offer any deep insights into the evolving dynamic between its Lizzie and Darcy (renamed James—yuck). Elizabeth Eulberg makes some effort to show Lizzie’s journey of self-discovery, which separates Prom from the pack. 

Eligible (2016): With the inclusion of a reality show, a severe age lift for the Bennet sisters, an emphasis on upper-middle class financial woes, and a Lizzie-Darcy dynamic that doesn’t always follow P&P convention, this is one of the more off-beat adaptations out there. I for one am glad that Curtis Sittenfeld had free rein to do as she pleased, even if sometimes Eligible reads like a fever dream written by an English Lit professor. Her version of the Wickham drama is fresh while feeling relatively natural, and now more than ever I love reading about a Lizzie Bennet who’s a hop-skip-and-a-jump away from forty. Eligible’s Darcy comes across as a human rather than a generic snob, unlike most adaptations. Sure, the reality show angle is kind of unbelievable, but it’s as clear a metaphor for unrealistic expectations and the pageantry of rich singles as anything.

Movies/TV

“Pride & Prejudice” (1940): Wildly silly and melodramatic by turns, this adaptation really picks and chooses which elements of the novel to play off and which to discard. Keep: Mrs. Bennet’s frantic matchmaking, Lizzie’s joke-cracking, Darcy’s conceit, Mr. Collins’s cringe. Toss: Lady Catherine’s entire reason for existing. Add the obvious 1930s acting style and overwrought score and you’ve got a puff period piece on your hands. But the heart of the novel is still there, buried underneath those audacious bonnets and voluminous petticoats. The arrow-shooting scene is peak Lizzy, while the line, “Oh, to be really refined, you have to be dead” would, I suspect, have the approval of Austen herself.

“Pride and Prejudice” (1995): Still the golden standard in my mind, and I know I’m not the only one, this adaptation shows that you can hew closely to the source material and still have a lot of fun. I have so many good things to say about it that I have trouble articulating its flaws. The performances carry the story so well that you barely notice when the plot drags during the fifth episode. Colin Firth’s nuanced take on Darcy is pitch-perfect, but let’s not forget that the whole thing wouldn’t have worked without the balanced playfulness Jennifer Ehle brought to Lizzy. Happy thought indeed.

“Bridget Jones’s Diary” (2001): The film of the book leaves the Pride & Prejudice plot structure intact while trimming the excessive plot cul-de-sacs, which is why it works so well. By focusing on Bridget’s relationships with her parents, wicked Daniel and snooty family friend Mark Darcy, the movie gets the essence of P&P and provides a big dose of romance. If you miss Lizzy triumphing over the Lady Catherines and Miss Bingleys of the modern world, then at least you can enjoy Darcy giving this version’s Wickham the ass-kicking he deserves. He does it again in the sequel. I’m going to go watch a clip of it right now, in fact.

“Bride & Prejudice” (2004): It’s big, loud, colorful, and fun. The lack of charisma in its male lead almost doesn’t matter thanks to Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s Lalita, who embodies the spirit and energy of Lizzy. “No Life Without Wife” is probably the best distillation of the core of P&P’s satire set to music. Sometimes the culture clash gets in the way of the story—Darcy’s an American new money hotel mogul, Lalita’s passionate about staying true to her Indian roots and sneers at his privilege—but it definitely makes you think.

“Pride & Prejudice” (2005): Sometimes adaptations work by melding together a few disparate elements and hitting the main plot points at a breezy clip. The artfully dirty aesthetic, cool color palette, lush cinematography, and romantic score all work in harmony, and Keira Knightley’s brand of cheek is the cherry on top. Some consider this the barefoot cousin to the 1995 miniseries, but I’ve never seen it like that. “Your hands are cold.” How can anyone top that?

“Lost in Austen” (2008): Do I have to? This bizzaro version of P&P ranks so low for me that I nearly forgot to include it on this list. Technically it’s not bad (love the Bennet parents and the Miss Bingley twist near the end), but I cannot get behind its premise. A modern-day woman gets to take Elizabeth Bennet’s place in her own story and spend the whole time waiting for Mr. Darcy to ... act like Colin Firth? There’s meta, and then there’s just plain sloppy. Maybe I’m missing that, much like ... & Zombies, the pointlessness is the point.

“The Lizzie Bennet Diaries” (2012): Perhaps the most all-encompassing modern adaptation—so modern that it debuted on YouTube and is designed to be consumed on multiple social media platforms. But strip it down to its bare bones and it still sparkles as both a re-telling of P&P and as a story about sisterhood and navigating an often cruel and cynical world. There has never been a Lizzie quite like Ashley Clements, who starts by snarking her way through the vlogs before revealing a heart that’s not quite as hardened as she thinks. LBD gives Lydia’s character a much-needed fresh spin and makes Darcy appear (at first) to be a soulless trust fund hipster, but it weaves in the themes of the novel in a way that elevates them instead of merely regurgitating them. For me, this is the new gold standard.