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Pride and Prejudice Mad

© Viola Ashford

The critic D.W. Harding wrote that Jane Austen's novels tend to be read by the sort of people she most despised. He would, no doubt, apply this condescending attitude to many of the fans of TV and movie adaptations of her novels. Many, mostly women, like these because of the fairy-tale romances, the exquisite costumes, the elegance of the Regency and the good-looking actors who play the roles. Whatever the reason, adaptations of her novels are usually very popular which can only be a good thing. In fact they are so popular at the moment that a new movie version of 'Pride and Prejudice' is now being filmed in England. There is no sign that people are tired of this 'Austenmania'!

There have been three major versions of Pride and Prejudice, some much better than others.

1940 Movie

The first version was the 1940 Hollywood film starring Greer Garson and Sir Laurence Olivier, adapted by Aldous Huxley. This movie has been called a travesty but that seems too strong a term. Perhaps because of the quality of the main stars it remains pleasant and enjoyable, although it certainly can't be called authentic by any stretch of the imagination. The screenplay is very different from the novel. The setting was changed from the Regency era to 1835 because the costumes of the Georgian period were considered unattractive! Mr. Collins is not the laughable bumbling character portrayed in the novel. Lady Catherine de Burgh suddenly changes from a nasty, snobbish old lady into one who wants to see Mr. Darcy find his true match.

Worst of all, however, Olivier played Darcy as a dandy and over-emphasized the unlikable aspects of his character: his rudeness, bad-temper and arrogance.

Greer Garson is this film's saving grace as Elizabeth with her very English charm, grace, wit and the right amount of assertiveness. She is always memorable.

1985 BBC TV SERIES

I haven't seen the second version, the BBC TV series starring Elizabeth Garvie and David Rintoul for a long time and I'd like to see it again. This was much more authentic than the movie and stuck closely to the original story. However, although Elizabeth Garvie was a lovely Elizabeth, this series was lifeless compared with the 1995 A&E version. In these old BBC adaptations the scriptwriters appear to have been too intimidated by the task of adapting Jane Austen's novels to try and inject flesh and blood into them.

David Rintoul's extremely arrogant and very stiff Darcy was another problem.