I love Jane Austen. I also love adaptations of classic literature into contemporary storytelling. When these two things merge, I am usually left a very happy reader. Just in case you’re a fan of those two things as well, here are 5 Jane Austen adaptations you should consider adding to your to-be-read list.
Austenland by Shannon Hale
“Pembrook Park, Kent, England. Enter our doors as a house guest come to stay three weeks, enjoying the country manners and hospitality–a tea visit, a dance or two, a turn in the park, an unexpected meeting with a certain gentleman–all culminating with a ball and perhaps something more.” Jane Hayes LOVES Pride and Prejudice. And she’s also very unlucky in life and love. Then she gets the wonderful idea to visit a Jane Austen inspired immersive amusement park. Who wouldn’t want to live in Regency Era England for just a few days? As one would expect, of a light, fun romantic comedy – hi jinks ensues and Jane finds that the romance she’s looking for might not be in the pages of the book she loves so much.
Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors by Sonali Dev
It is a truth universally acknowledged that only in an overachieving Indian American family can a genius daughter be considered a black sheep.” Dr. Trisha Raje is a neurosurgeon who is on the outs with her family after a tragic incident during college. Determined to get back in the family’s good graces, Trisha agrees to help her sister plan an important dinner party, but that puts her in the path of up-and-coming chef DJ Caine. It’s no surprise, in a book based on Pride and Prejudice that the two aren’t going to get along, but the friendship that blooms and Trisha’s reconciliation with her family is worth the read. And who can say no to a Bollywood inspired Austen adapatation? (You can also check out the sequel – Recipe for Persuasion for a new Raje family, Austen-inspired tale.)
Jane of Austin: A Novel of Sweet Tea and Sensibility by Hillary Manton Lodge
Just a few years after their father’s business scandal shatters their lives, Jane and Celia Woodward find themselves forced out of their San Francisco tea shop. The last thing Jane wants is to leave their beloved shop on Valencia Street, but when Celia insists on a move to Austin, Texas, the sisters pack up their kid sister Margot and Jane’s tea plants, determined to start over yet again. But life in Austin isn’t all sweet tea and breakfast tacos. Their unusual living situation is challenging and unspoken words begin to fester between Jane and Celia. When Jane meets and falls for up-and-coming musician Sean Willis, the chasm grows deeper.
For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund
It’s been several generations since a genetic experiment gone wrong caused the Reduction, decimating humanity and giving rise to a Luddite nobility who outlawed most technology. Elliot North has always known her place in this world. Four years ago Elliot refused to run away with her childhood sweetheart, the servant Kai, choosing duty to her family’s estate over love. Since then the world has changed: a new class of Post-Reductionists is jumpstarting the wheel of progress, and Elliot’s estate is foundering, forcing her to rent land to the mysterious Cloud Fleet, a group of shipbuilders that includes renowned explorer Captain Malakai Wentforth–an almost unrecognizable Kai. A an excellent read if you like a little science-fiction with your Austen.
The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet by Bernie Su and Kate Rorick
Based on the super popular web-series, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet tells the story of a college aged Lizzie who starts a video blog as a part of her senior thesis. She uses the blog to talk about her family and friends, relaying her mother’s desperate attempt to marry off her daughters, her sister Lydia’s precocious ways, and her frustrating interactions with the arrogant William Darcy. It’s fresh, contemporary, and has the added bonus of being a web-series that you can binge when you’re done!
