The Best Jane Austen Adaptations

From contemporary takes to faithful adaptations, these are the Austen-inspired movies and series we can’t get enough of.

Even though she only wrote six novels , Jane Austen is one of the world ’s most - adopt author . Her volume continue to inspire relatively faithful renditions and total left turns likewise . This year alone , we ’ve father both . Netflix ’s twee newPersuasion , asterisk Dakota Johnson and Henry Golding , falls into the faithful category , while the Hulu rom - comFire IslandupdatesPride and Prejudicewithin a contemporary queer haven . The ideas Austen put forward — the imperativeness localise on woman to marry , the eighteenth - one C division dynamics that still have n’t vanish — stay redolent , and her famous witticism has n’t lost its sharpness with clock time . In purity of Austen ’s legacy , Thrillist round up our favorite picture and show base on her work .

Bridget Jones’s Diary(2001)

Bridget Jones ’s Diaryis not only one of the effective rom - coms of all time . It also breathe contemporary , mussy life history into Austen - pep up characters and their romantic comedy of errors . Like Austen and Elizabeth Bennet before her , generator Helen Fielding ’s dear Bridget has become a British pappa - civilization icon herself ( so much so that Renée Zellweger is basically an honorary Brit ) . A fun - loving , career - tending everywoman , she ’s less interested with the monetary prospects of married couple and more so with how beau monde views " singleton " and her close at hand days being seen as a " spinster . " It remains fucking funny , delightfully casting famed Mr. Darcy actor Colin Firth asMarkDarcy . As any good Austen novel will obligate you to open up your heart , Bridget Jones ’s Diaryhas the business leader to obligate you to run into the snow after the one you love , with or without your pant on . — Sadie Bell

Clueless(1995)

Has there ever been a better example of taking a classic news report and translating it for a advanced milieu thanClueless ? Doubt it . Amy Heckerling took the clappers of Austen’sEmma — an overly convinced young woman who prides herself on matchmaking and is unaware of her own blind muscae volitantes — and turn it into something exhaustively peculiar in its own right . It ’s gruelling to even readEmmanow without thinking of Cher Horowitz and her bon mots . — Esther Zuckerman

EMMA.(2020)

Although it ’s one of the most recent Austen adaption , this variant ofEmmais unbelievably close to its source material . But rather than being a BBC - nitty-gritty period piece , thisfilm directorial unveiling from Autumn de Wilde(known for place music videos for the likes of Florence and the Machine and Jenny Lewis ) is impeccably fashionable and creates a whimsical period - piece world of its own . Its decadent production designing and costume take on a soft chromaticity that complements the banquet at high tea leaf , and nearly every spot of dialogue , looking of longing , and act of suit is choreographed pulsation - by - pulsation to the grudge . There ’s a nervy sense of humor to it , too , and Anya Taylor - Joy plays the iconic marriage broker as conniving as she ought to be . It may be a Regency - set adaptation , but it ’s one filled with 2020 ’s style . — SB

Fire Island(2022)

Fire Island ’s leading man , Noah ( Joel Kim Booster ) , callsPride and Prejudice ’s celebrated opening line " hetero nonsense . " Noteverysingle man want a partner , he insists , contradicting Austen ’s sententious assertion about mating . By the oddment of the flick , however , the caper ’s on him . While vacationing with friends at the nominal gay New York mecca , Noah meets a standoffish attorney ( Conrad Ricamora ) who easy ignite his fondness — the Mr. Darcy to his Elizabeth Bennet . On the periphery , there ’s a Jane Bennet ( run by Bowen Yang ) , a Charles Bingley ( James Scully ) , a Lydia ( Matt Rogers ) , even a Mrs. Bennet ( Margaret Cho ) . As a whole , Fire Island — written by Booster and directed by Andrew Ahn ( Driveways)—works well in some ways than others . But as an Austen adjustment , it ’s an unconventional , effectual pleasure . — Matthew Jacobs

Love & Friendship(2016)

Based on Austen ’s sly epistolary novelLady Susan(with a title take away from a story she write as a fry ) , Whit Stillman ’s hilariously funnyLove & Friendshipunravels the entire societal social organization of a clique of quidnunc and effortlessly stitches it back up again . The widowed yet still vernal Lady Susan Vernon ( Kate Beckinsale ) is determined to splice off her eligible daughter Frederica ( Morfydd Clark ) and also find a hubby for herself , but her daughter ca n’t fend the doltish Sir James ( Tom Bennett ) , who follows her around despite her best effort . Lady Susan herself has a reputation for being an accomplished flirt , and no eligible bachelor trusts that she ’ll be faithful . When she and her daughter get romantically involved with multiple men , they launch a tornado of chaos within their friend group . High jinks ensue . — Emma Stefansky

Mansfield Park(1999)

somewhat much every Austen adjustment deviates from its seed material in some elbow room , even the period - faithful ones , but Patricia Rozema’sMansfield Parkis famed for just how much it diverge — and for what it adds . A contemporary - tending reimagining that lays bare the oppressions and hypocrisies its characters are living under , the film stars Frances O’Connor as Fanny Price , sent to exist with her wealthy protracted family and immediately drawn into the complex intrigues of her cousins ' lifespan , come down in and out of dear with men who ca n’t make up their brain . The motion picture famously includes depictions of extramarital sex , apparently something that would not have appear in the Koran , and openly critiques the principal character reference ' involvement in the slave trade : Mansfield Park ’s riches total from a grove in Antigua , a fact brushed aside in the al-Qur’an but not in the film . While it ’s not precisely close to the words themselves , it is perhaps a more faithful adaptation of Austen herself , who sprinkled atop her harmless romance novels many barely hold in unfavorable judgment of the social structures she and her contemporaries were living under . — due east

Sense and Sensibility(1995)

The combination of the uncontrollable humour of Emma Thompson and the directorial brainiac of Ang Lee wee the 1995 cinema version ofSense and Sensibilityone of the best literary adaptations ever made . Thompson , who also wrote the screenplay , stars as the sensible Elinor Dashwood alongside a freshly - faced , pre - TitanicKate Winslet — playing her more uninitiated baby , Marianne — as they search for matches that can leave love as well as stableness . Plus , it give us Thompson ’s incredible Golden Globeacceptance speech , done , in role , as Austen herself . — EZ

Pride and Prejudice(1995)

The BBCPride & Prejudiceis arguably the ur - Austen adjustment . The six - instalment miniseries is fabulously close , so much that hatful of high school student have probably watched it instead of doing the assigned meter reading . It ’s still first-class , a perfectly cast interpretation of one of the most beloved works of literature of all time . So much of that is thanks to the brilliant work of Colin Firth , inhabiting a role that all of his subsequent work would have to live up to , and Jennifer Ehle . Firth , with his uptight bristle , is the idealistic Darcy , while Ehle ’s Lizzy Bennet brims with intelligence operation . — EZ

Pride & Prejudice(2005)

Audiences were ab initio worried that director Joe Wright ’s take on Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy would n’t compare to the 1995 miniseries , and Austen obsessives were hesitant about changes made to the plot . But this Austen flick has gone down as a favorite among certain millennials . Its foresightful , talkative shots capturing the English countryside and lucent ballrooms are simply breathtaking , transport you to Austen ’s romanticist world unlike any other . WhileMatthew Macfadyen ’s Darcyisn’t as beloved as Colin Firth ’s , Kiera Knightley gives one of her best functioning as Elizabeth , and the rest of the corps de ballet ’s charm bring a fussy youthfulness to this version . It ’s as every bit as visceral asPride and Prejudicecan be .

best jane austen adaptations