I don’t remember the first time I read Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice (P&P). But I do remember reading this eighteenth-century novel five times in my life. If I can allow myself some free time in the days to come, I would probably peruse it again, feel deeply once again the finer sentiments scattered in its lines and pages. P&P has always been a pleasure to read – the handsome Mr. Darcy is like a dream. The protagonist Elizabeth was indeed an intelligent, witty and bold woman of her time. But I never had an opportunity to watch TV or film adaptation of this classic until recently.
When I first read on Wikipedia that BBC aired P&P as a serial, I knew I had to watch it. The social networking sites have made things so accessible to the modern day humans that all I had to do was search for it on YouTube. Voila! On YouTube were all the episodes of this magnificent 1995 television adaptation, starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. I spent seven long hours watching the episodes, one after another. With tired eyes and a neck pain I watched every single episode. I knew I needed a break to rest my eyes. But my irresistible desire to watch how my all-time favorite characters were given life on the television stopped me from doing the justice to my weary eyes. After watching the last episode, which showed the happy union of Mr. Bingely-Jane Bennet and Mr. Darcy-Elizabeth Bennet, I closed my eyes and rested my head on a pillow. With my eyes shut, I thought what it was like to be born an Elizabeth in the eighteenth-century England, or what it would be like to meet a Mr. Darcy in real life. The characters and the plot of the eighteenth-century P&P still have the mesmerizing power to touch the hearts of its twenty-first century readers. A timeless novel, isn’t it?
I ran a search on Google to see if I could find more adaptations of this classic. It was only then it struck my mind that there was a Bollywood-style adaptation of P&P starring Aishwarya Rai and Martin Henderson. Based in Amritsar, London and Los Angeles, this Bollywood-style adaptation failed to spark the emotion that BBC’s Pride & Prejudice did. The biggest flaw that I, as an admirer of P&P, noticed was director Gurinder Chadha’s lack of success in correctly portraying Mr. Darcy as a reserved and an apparently conceited man. Of course, the plot was changed too as was obvious from the change in the title of the film.
Later that day, a friend suggested that I should try watching the film Pride& Prejudice, which was released in 2005. I searched and searched the free movie sites for a high-definition link of the film and it was not before long that I came across one. With Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen playing as Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy respectively, I thought that this 2005 adaptation of the classic book was a beauty. Macfadyen was an almost-perfect Mr. Darcy. Although the setting of the original proposal scene was changed for this movie, even so the proposal scene would touch a viewer’s heart. Macfadyen portrayed Mr. Darcy just so very brilliantly. It came as no wonder when I read later that Knightley earned the Oscar nomination for best actress for her grand performance in this film.
A day later, I tried watching the 1940 adaptation of P&P online. I must admit here that the Internet has just brought everything in the palms of my small hands. But I could not finish watching the film - the black and white film could not trigger much interest in a young woman living in the year 2010. Besides, the English language in those days was so very different too.
A novel that was probably first read in grade six still touches my heart in the same way. Austen’s prodigy as a writer was so well established in her theme, plot and characters that Austen and her Pride & Prejudice still remain as one of the most loved writers and romantic novels of all time.
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By Wara Karim
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