Jane Austen has written some of the most iconic books in history and so it is no surprise that many of them have been adapted in both film and TV, and some several times at that. Here we’ll look at the films that have been ranked highest of them all.
But with Pride and Prejudice only making number six, who will get the top spot?
Here are the 11 best film adaptations of Jane Austen’s books as ranked by the Independent.
11. Pride and Prejudice (1940)
The first film adaptation of Pride and Prejudiced was well-received. It is flamboyant and funny with great costuming. Directed by Robert Z Leonard, it starred Laurence Olivier as Mr Darcy and Greer Garson as Elizabeth Bennet, with the screenplay written by Aldous Huxley and Jane Murfin.
10. Mansfield Park (1999)
With Frances O’Connor as Fanny Price and Jonny Lee Miller as Edmund Bertram and direction from Patricia Rozema, this romantic comedy did not resemble it’s origin text as much as other adaptations have. The fresh take on Mansfield Park added character traits of Jane Austen to the character of Fanny and created chemistry between Mary Crawford and Fanny. It received positive reviews for it’s boldness.
9. Emma (1996)
Gwyneth Paltrow starred in this remake of Emma, with Rolling Stone saying, “Gwyneth Paltrow works such magic in Emma that you can almost hear the click of a career locking into high gear.” The first-time director Douglas McGrath adapted the 1816 Austen novel.
8. Persuasion (1995)
This Bafta-award-winning film is based on Austen’s 1817 novel of the same name. From director Roger Michell, it stars Amanda Root as Anne Elliott and Ciaran Hinds as her lover, Captain Frederick Wentworth. The pair are reunited after an eight year hiatus following Anne being forced into rejecting his marriage proposal.
7. Emma (1996)
The second adaptation of Emma to join the list, this ITV film was dramatised by Davies, who had just done Pride and Prejudice for the BBC. It starred Kate Beckinsale as Emma Woodhouse, Mark Strong as George Knightley and Samantha Morton as Harriet Smith. It was widely considered to be better than the Miramax film adaption that was released in the same year.
6. Pride and Prejudice (2005)
Starring Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Bennet and Matthew Macfadyen as her romantic interest Mr Darcy, Joe Wright’s first feature film was a commercial success. Knightley received a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her part. It’s talented cast included the late Donald Sutherland (Mr Bennet), Rosamund Pike (Jane Bennet), Carey Mulligan (Kitty Bennet), Judi Dench (Lady Catherine de Bourgh) and Rupert Friend (George Wickham).
5. Northanger Abbey (2007)
Felicity Jones played Northanger Abbey’s heroine Catherine Morland, a young woman with a fevered imagination and a passion for Gothic novels. Things begin to spiral when her imagination astray. It was written by Andrew Davies, who also adapted 1995’s Pride and Prejudice for the BBC and then the TV adaptation of Emma the following year.
4. Bridget Jones Diary (2001)
It was the 1995 BBC series of Pride and Prejudice that inspired Helen Fielding to write her popular series of books, Bridget Jones Diary. It’s a bit of a nod to the series that Colin Firth – who played Mr Darcy – stars as Bridget’s (Renee Zellweger) love interest Mark Darcy in the films based on Fielding’s novels.
3. Love and Friendship (2016)
This is an Amazon original comedy that became a welcome addition to the Jane Austen adaption club. Based on Austen’s short epistolary novel Lady Susan, it stars Kate Beckinsale, as the book’s title character who’s a recent widow on the search to find a husband for herself and her daughter.
2. Clueless (1995)
This modern-day retelling of Emma, by Austen is a 1990s coming-of-age cult classic. Set in Beverly Hills, rather than the fictional village of Highbury, it stars Alicia Silverstone as Cher Horowitz – a rich high-school student who wants to help others to find love. It is still considered to be one of the best teen films of all time.
1. Sense and Sensibility (1995)
Emma Thompson spent five years writing what would become an Oscar-winning screenplay about the Dashwood sisters; masterfully updating it for a 20th-century audience. With direction from Ang Lee, the film starred Thompson as Elinor Dashwood and Kate Winslet as the younger sister Mariannne. After their father dies, the sisters are cut out of his will and forced to make lives of their own. Hugh Grant and Greg Wise played their suitors, with Alan Rickman as Colonel Brandon.