More than two centuries after its initial publication, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice continues to captivate audiences and inspire a wealth of creative works, from faithful adaptations to entirely new narratives. The enduring romance between Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy has been a wellspring for numerous retellings, including the iconic 1995 Colin Firth-led series, recent Netflix dramas, and even loosely inspired films like Bridget Jones’s Diary. Beyond these official adaptations, a vibrant world of unofficial sequels and spin-offs flourishes, with Janice Hadlow’s The Other Bennet Sister standing as a notable recent example.
The 2020 novel, which was recently adapted for BBC One, shifts the focus to Mary Bennet, Elizabeth’s often overlooked and socially awkward sister. In Austen’s original, Mary is depicted as bookish and attention-seeking. However, Hadlow’s reimagining presents her in a more sympathetic light, exploring her quest for romance while navigating the constant underestimation from her own family. Ella Bruccoleri, known for her role in Call the Midwife, portrays Mary in the screen adaptation.
As is often the case with beloved source material, the adaptation has sparked a mixed reaction among fans. While many are thrilled to revisit the Bennet family on screen, others feel the series deviates too significantly from Austen’s original text. Interestingly, literary academics appear to hold a more open and accepting view towards fan-generated content inspired by Austen’s work.
The Appeal of Austen Spin-offs
John Mullan, a Professor of English Literature at UCL, expresses a particular fascination with Austen spin-offs, even more so than direct adaptations. He notes, “They are always somebody’s take on Jane Austen, and because they’re spin-offs, I don’t have to watch them flinching at all the things that they’ve got wrong.” Mullan finds he can engage with these works with less critical defensiveness, stating, “I feel less defensive about them than I do about the adaptations so I’m not an antagonist to spin-offs at all. The bottom line is – Jane Austen will survive it all.”
Professor Janet Todd OBE, a Cambridge professor and author of Living with Jane Austen, believes it is entirely appropriate for fans to reimagine Austen’s narratives. “She’s a national treasure and I think you can do with it what you want,” she explains. Todd does, however, caution against confusion: “I think the danger is if people mistake it for the actual Jane Austen novel and assume that it’s very similar to it.” For herself, Todd admits she is not the primary audience for fan fiction and spin-offs. “I do love the books and I actually find that I can read them over and over again – and I’d rather do that.”
The Other Bennet Sister marks the first Pride and Prejudice spin-off to be broadcast on the BBC in some time, following the 2013 adaptation of P.D. James’s Death Comes to Pemberley. Dr. John Lennard, a scholar of English Literature, highlights that the proliferation of fan fiction inspired by Austen’s novels has been a growing trend since the early 20th century.
“There is a lot of Jane Austen fic,” he states. “Although 95 per cent of it is Elizabeth and Darcy because they’re the sexy ones and a lot of the rest is Jane, sometimes Bingley depending on how people feel about him being a spineless twit – but the others have all received attention.” Dr. Lennard observes that giving a more favourable portrayal to characters like Mary is a common practice: “Mildly rescuing Mary in one way or another and saying that she’s not boring at all is almost normal, it’s very common indeed.”
Fan Fiction as a Gateway to Classics
While acknowledging that some academic scholars can be dismissive of Austen fan fiction, Dr. Lennard sees it as a valuable tool for encouraging engagement with the original works. “We spend our time trying really hard to get kids to be interested in reading classical literature and respond to it in writing – well, here are all these kids who are reading classical literature or other literature and responding to it in writing, and sometimes quite well,” he argues.
He elaborates on the pedagogical benefits: “I don’t want to replace every essay with fan fiction, but I myself would not mind, if I’m teaching Jane Austen, for one essay in the course to be to try writing a pastiche of the style. It makes you look at it really closely, which is the whole point.” Dr. Lennard’s own appreciation for fan fiction stems from his long-term immersion in the genre: “I have no problem with it – I’m interested in it. I’ve been reading fic for 20 years now since I stumbled into it and went, ‘What the hell is this? What are these 250,000 works in a universe I know really well and didn’t know existed?’”
Regarding The Other Bennet Sister, Todd suggests that Mary’s more sympathetic portrayal might be a reflection of contemporary sensibilities. “Pride and Prejudice mocks the ‘blue stocking’ woman – we’d call her now a classroom swot or a nerd – but we live in a much gentler, sentimental times than Austen and we no longer mock that type,” she observes. “So the character we’ve got on screen is not the woman in the book, who is a rather foolish girl who wants to be noticed in this big family by showing off. In the series, she becomes the spurned victim of a really nasty family.”
Todd admits to not disliking the adaptation entirely but expresses reservations: “I didn’t not enjoy it, but I disliked the endless repetition of Mary being humiliated, the stresses on her total lack of marriage prospects.”
Mullan adds a further perspective on modern interpretations of Austen’s characters: “Readings over the recent decades have sided in a feminist way with one of those characters in the novel who’s actually laughed at – Mrs Bennet, Mary Bennet, Charlotte Lucas. But that’s entirely to do with us, it’s nothing to do with Jane Austen.” He critiques some sympathetic readings: “Some of the sympathetic readings seem to me just completely wrong. The show says it’s Elizabeth Bennet’s overlooked sister but the point is that they’re all overlooked except Elizabeth in a way because we never enter the consciousness of any of them except Elizabeth. Even Jane – who features quite a lot – we don’t know what it’s like to be in her head. Whereas we know very well what it’s like to be in Elizabeth’s head and it’s the novel’s triumph.”
The Enduring Magic of Pride and Prejudice
What is it about Pride and Prejudice that continues to fuel such a vibrant and ongoing stream of fan-created content? Todd attributes its enduring appeal to its core element: “It’s the absolute romance, isn’t it? The formula is a winning one and it goes on through just about everything – whether it’s Daphne du Maurier and Georgette Heyer’s work or even Fifty Shades of Grey. It’s a female fantasy and it’s a very strong one.” The novel’s exploration of love, societal expectations, and personal growth provides a timeless framework that resonates with new generations of readers and writers, ensuring its legacy continues to evolve.
