“And what did I find? An accurate, daguerreotyped portrait of a commonplace face a carefully-fenced, highly-cultivated garden, with neat borders and delicate flowers but no glance of a bright, vivid physiognomy, no open country, no fresh air, no blue hill, no bonny beck. Brontë, author of the grim “romance” Jane Eyre, wasn’t backwards about coming forward with her criticism: “Why do you like Miss Austen so very much? I am puzzled on that point,” she wrote, explaining that she got the book after Lewes talked it up.
In 1848, 31 years after Austen’s death, Charlotte Brontë picked up Pride and Prejudice on the recommendation of friend and literary critic George Henry Lewes. In 2009, Sir Elton John’s Rocket Pictures even talked about producing Pride and Predator, a mash-up pairing Regency England with the be-mandibled aliens of the Predator movies (regrettably, it never panned out).īut despite how beloved Pride and Prejudice is, there have been plenty of people who hated it. Darcy Versus the Aliens, which is exactly what it sounds like. It’s been expanded in hundreds of pieces of published fan fiction, from best-selling crime novelist P.D. The story has been re-told from Darcy’s perspective ( Darcy’s Story), shifted to America ( Darcy on the Hudson), and, of course, transformed into soft-core Regency-era erotica ( Pride & Prejudice: Hidden Lusts Pride and Prejudice: The Wild and Wanton Edition).
Since then, few books have been reinvented as much and as often as Pride and Prejudice: In addition to the straightforward adaptations for film, television, and stage, the story has been re-set in 20th century London ( Bridget Jones’s Diary), in Bollywood ( Bride and Prejudice), at a Mormon university ( Pride and Prejudice: A Latter-Day Comedy), in modern-day Israel, around New York’s rock scene, during a zombie apocalypse, and put to music ( Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice: A Musical). It wasn’t until the 20th century that the book and its author were rediscovered and lifted to the rarefied place in the English literature pantheon they hold today. Though the novel was reviewed positively and was well-received by the upper classes at the time, it was no widespread sensation. Austen’s family, however, probably didn’t see much of that success: She sold the novel’s copyright to her publisher for £110 (just over $10,000 in today's dollars) and died just a few years later, in 1817. The story of how Miss Elizabeth Bennet’s disdain for the wealthy, prideful Fitzwilliam Darcy turned to love has never been out of print, and has sold more than 20 million copies since its first appearance more than 200 years ago. It appears on best-loved literature lists across the globe, is a fixture in high school classrooms, and has spawned a rabid fan base and countless film and television adaptations. It is a truth universally acknowledged that few books are as beloved as Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, which was published on January 28, 1813.
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