Reading Comprehension

13 PRIDE AND PREJUDICE-INSPIRED MOVIES, BOOKS, TV SHOWS AND MORE, RANKED

by Kat Ward • @katfbward Posted October 27 2014 — 1:03 PM EDT

Pride and Prejudice

It’s a truth universally acknowledged that a person in want of a good project will

adapt Pride and Prejudice–if not always to dazzling effect. The latest take, a two-

part miniseries called Death Comes to Pemberley, premiered yesterday on PBS.

And if there’s anything P&P fans like almost as much as Austen’s book, it’s

consuming and then critiquing the various interpretations of it. Which is why we’re

taking this opportunity to rank 13 different iterations of Pride & Prejudice, from the

best (the 1995 miniseries starring Colin Firth is a nigh-untouchable high point) to

the significantly less great.

1. Pride and Prejudice (miniseries):

The 6-hour 1995 BBC version is the gold standard for faithful adaptation. Colin

Firth’s haughty, smoldering Darcy is the platonic ideal of the character, playing

beautifully off of Jennifer Ehle’s wry, mature Lizzy Bennet. Plus, the miniseries’

runtime means every nuance of Austen’s work (and her quippy dialogue) is

represented—while allowing for some creative liberties, like Firth’s Darcy taking a

bath, or a dip in a pond that leads to him striding about manfully in a wet white

shirt.

2. Pride & Prejudice (2005 film):

Purists might sniff at Keira Knightley’s tomboyish Lizzie and Matthew MacFadyen’s

awkward Darcy, but they’re still captivating. Ease your high standards for Austen

faithfulness and enjoy some gorgeous English scenery, and don’t think too hard

about why everyone seems to go tromping about in the same foggy field at

sunrise. (And MacFadyen’s duster is almost as great as Firth’s wet shirt.)

3. Pride and Prejudice (1940 film):

The great Laurence Olivier smolders with longing almost as well as Colin Firth, but

this double adaptation (of a play adapted from the book) suffers due to its

Hollywood-ified ending—Lady Catherine really approves of Lizzy? She was testing

her to see if she loved Darcy? No thanks.

4. Bridget Jones’s Diary (film):

For those of us who aren’t quite as perfect as Lizzie Bennet, Renee Zellweger’s

Oscar-nominated performance as Bridget Jones is a more relatable avatar. She’s

still headstrong and warm, but has a weakness for vodka, cigarettes, and Hugh

Grant’s unmentionables. The film also features a great moment of Darception: a

lovelorn Bridget watches the Colin Firth lake scene even while Firth himself plays

her romantic interest, Mark Darcy .

5. Longbourn (book):

Author Jo Baker delves into the downstairs of the Bennet household, following the

lives of their servants. Turns out there’s as much intrigue, drama, and heart-

pounding romance to be found there as there was in the drawing room. Cooks and

maids, they’re just like us!

6. The Lizzie Bennet Diaries (web series):

A charming P&P update for the social media era, told over the course of 100

YouTube videos. Lizzy is a vlogging grad student; Darcy is the founder of a cool

tech company called Pemberley. The series is a little limited by its form, but it still

manages to add new dimensions to beloved characters, particularly wild child

Lydia Bennet.

7. Bride & Prejudice (film):

This adaptation features the worst Mr. Darcy (sorry, Martin Henderson, but just

being handsome doesn’t cut it). While Bollywood song and dance numbers are an

improvement over stuffy balls, and former Miss World Aishwarya Rai glows in the

Lizzie Bennet role, the film is still kind of a mess. A lot of familiar faces do pop up,

with Naveen Andrews of Lost fame as Mr. Bingley and Alexis Bledel employing her

Rory Gilmore skillset as Georgina Darcy.

8. Death Comes to Pemberley (miniseries):

The adaptation of P.D. James’s Austen fanfic centers on a murder most foul

that entangles the black sheep of the Bennet clan: Lydia and George Wickham.

Even with all that promising build-up, it’s still a bit of a snoozer.

9. Pride & Prejudice (Marvel comic):

An unnecessary (and badly-illustrated) attempt to cash in on Jania (Jane Austen

mania, of course. I’m sorry). The story seems simple enough, but it turns out

Austen’s text is too rich to survive a quick translation to comics style.

10. Lost in Austen (miniseries):

The tale of a modern P&P fan who finds herself transported to Longbourn is a

genius premise, and there’s plenty to work with when you’re writing a parodic take

on Austen’s classic. But Lost misses its marks as often as it hits them—and has a

hard time tying up all the plots it spun off.

11. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (book):

Lizzie and Darcy had more than enough obstacles stacked against their happy

ending–money, social class, Mrs. Bennet. Did we really need to add a horde of the

undead? An upcoming film version might be more successful, as actually seeing a

bonnet-wearing Lizzy take out a zombie has a certain appeal.

12. Pulse and Prejudice (book):

Austen’s book has spawned dozens upon dozens of novels that continue the story

of Mr. and Mrs. Darcy, or contort favorite characters into new situations—so

maybe it was inevitable that we would end up with vampire Darcy.

13. Colin Firth as Wet Shirt Darcy statue:

This 12-foot fiberglass statue rising from the waters of Serpentine lake in Hyde

Park is nightmare fodder. Stare in its blank, dead eyes, and you’ll never want to

watch that wet-shirt scene ever again.