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Jane Austen's career as a novelist began in 1811 with the publication of "Sense and Sensibility". Her work was finally adapted for the big screen with the 1940 filming of "Pride and Prejudice" which was very successful at the box office. No other film adaptation of an Austen novel was made for theatrical release until 1995. Amazingly, during 1995 and 1996, six film and television adaptations appeared: firstly "Clueless", then "Persuasion", followed by "Pride and Prejudice", "Sense and Sensibility", the Miramax "Emma", and the Meridian/A&E "Emma". This book traces the history of film and television adaptations of Jane Austen manuscripts, compares the adaptations to the manuscripts, compares the way different adaptations treat the novels, and analyzes the adaptations as examples of cinematic art. The first of seven chapters explains why the novels of Jane Austen have become a popular source of film and television adaptations. The following six chapters each cover one of Austen's novels: "Sense and Sensibility", "Pride and Prejudice", "Emma", "Mansfield Park", "Persuasion" and "Northanger Abbey". Each chapter begins with a summary of the main events of the novel.Then a history of the adaptations is presented followed by an analysis of the unique qualities of each adaptation, a comparison of these adaptations to each other and to the novels on which they are based, and a reflection of relevant film and literary criticism as it applies to the adaptations.
I have read other books that analyse presentations of Austen's novels on film and television, and generally these have been rather academic and fairly heavy going in places. Parrill's book is much easier reading, but I did feel that it was lacking in depth and there were certain inaccuracies in the text - she seems confused over Miss Steele's first name and not aware that someone with the title of Doctor would be a cleric rather than a medic.
Parrill looks at each novel and it's adaptations in turn, and the book is illustrated with black and white stills. Each chapter begins with a synopsis of the novel before moving on to consider the adaptations. I was interested in the structure of earlier adaptations that Parrill has gleaned from the screenplays, but with the more recent and generally available adaptations I feel she spends too much time describing what is happening and not enough time in analysis of the presentation! I also got the feeling that Parrill was partially seduced by the Hollywood gloss, particularly in the case of the Miramax version of Emma as she seemed to like it just because she thought the actors were nice to look at! She is then particularly unjust (in my opinion) to Sylvestra Le Touzel and Doran Godwin as she doesn't think they are pretty enough and is rude enough to accuse Ellen Dryden of being fat! I am somewhat puzzled as to her reaction to the adaptations of the 1970's and 1980's as her main objection to them appeares to be that they remained by and large faithful to the novel text!
This is a pricey book with the text just running to under 200 pages (filmographies, bibliography and index take up a good few pages at the back), so I would consider spending your hard earned cash elsewhere.
