P&P is the flagship of the Austen fleet
Well, that’s perhaps a bit of a tortured metaphor, but it’s late and we are still a trifle jet-lagged, so cut us a break.
Mary Houlihan, writing in the Chicago Sun-Times, writes about how Pride and Prejudice is dominant amongst Jane Austen’s novels, both in print and on film.
There once was a time when the novels of Jane Austen were in vogue only in the classroom and the hearts of her ardent fans. But in the mid-’90s all that changed when the 19th century British author’s works became part of popular culture with well-received television and film adaptations of Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Persuasion and Sense and Sensibility.
But among her novels, it is Pride and Prejudice, Austen’s most popular work, that continues to spread “Austenmania” to new generations. It all started with the 1995 British miniseries starring Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth and Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy, in a performance that continues to make hearts flutter to this day.
Pride and Prejudice is the current selection of Chicago’s “One Book, One Chicago” reading series.
