STILL OBSESSED WITH AUSTEN
Only four of Austen’s novels were published during her lifetime. But despite her limited back catalogue and a career cut short by her early death, her books have inspired adaptations of almost every kind, from opera productions and Oscar-winning feature films to podcasts and softcore pornography. Here are just five of them:
1 Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
A parody mash-up novel set during a zombie apocalypse in England, it spawned an iphone app and was later adapted as a feature film starring Lily James and Sam Riley. The thematic sequel, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, pits mankind against giant lobsters and man-eating jellyfish, with Colonel Brandon depicted as a part-man, part-squid mutant. Both books credit Austen as co-author.
2 The Complete Works of Jane Austen
One of the best-known pieces by Californian artist Meg Cranston, this large inflatable sculpture was designed to contain the amount of air the artist’s lungs would exchange while reading Austen’s life work (100,000 litres). Described by Cranston as “a monument to the impact Austen’s writing had on me”, it featured in an exhibition of her work at Auckland’s Artspace gallery in 2007.
3 Marrying Mr. Darcy
A strategy card game where each player is a female character from Pride and Prejudice and has to improve their character and attract the attention of available suitors in the hope of marrying well. An Emma expansion and an Undead version of the game are also available.
4 Sanditon
This racy British costume drama was adapted from an unfinished Austen manuscript by Andrew Davies, the man behind the iconic 1995 Pride and Prejudice film and co-writer of Bridget Jones’s Diary,
a modern interpretation of the same book. Set during the Regency era at a seaside resort, Sanditon
was described by one reviewer as “good dirty endof-the-pier fun”. Currently screening on TVNZ+.
5 Hana Yori Dango/boys Over Flowers
Pride and Prejudice is translocated to an elite academy for rich kids in modern-day Tokyo in a Japanese manga by Yoko Kamio that was then released as a TV drama series. A Hindi soap opera Kahiin To Hoga (Will be Somewhere), also inspired by Darcy’s entanglement with the Bennet family, ran for 799 episodes in India from 2003 to 2007 and became one of the country’s most popular TV programmes.