The Complete Jane Austen
We finished watching the Complete Jane Austen on PBS last weekend and I have to say that I really enjoyed a number of the adaptations. My three favorite include, “Northanger Abby” (2007), “Pride and Prejudice” (1995), and “Sense and Sensibility” (2008). These portrayals illustrate what it must have been like to live in the tight social context of upper class Georgian England. Austen masterfully flaunts how the young next generation must navigate the fine line between, class, income, status, and love. Of course the films make no mention of what the bottom 99% of English society is doing at the time. These characters are all about connections, emotions, families, and all that jazz. The stories are almost like little social experiments that Austen concocts. She added in a lot of status, mixes in a potential income if they marry X, and then throws in a dash of family calamity. In the end, it always works out for the best and the newly weds cart off to their inherited English countryside mansion with wide smiles upon their brow. It’s pure fantasy for the modern day life. Jane Austen has her following just as J.R.R Tolkien has his. I however can claim a membership to both fan clubs.
