30-Day Book Meme: Days Nineteen & Twenty

Day 19 - Favorite book turned into a movie

Pride & Prejudice, by Jane Austen

Runners up: Atonement and Possession

(I would have gone with Daphne DuMaurier's Rebecca, but I still have yet to read that book!! I'm awful!!)

spoiler alert: they make it work

this doesn't happen

Now, if you do a search for Pride & Prejudice on IMDB, you'll come up with 15 or so titles, some of which are related to the "...and Zombies" franchise, most of which are tv mini-series, and one of which is a video game titles "Little Dogs on the Prairie: Pride, Prejudice and Fudge." Anyone else intrigued, yet terrified? 

Anyway, you've got your miniseries everyone knows from 1995 (Colin Firth, Jennifer Ehle) and you've got the more recent Joe Wright misfire from 2005 (Keira Knightley, Matthew MacFadyen - I never realized they both had alliterative names!) 

Whoever picked these
costumes should have been
fired. The pants are wrong
the dress is wrong. the
waistcoat is wrong. the
sleeves are wrong. *GAH*

The first film*, though, was in 1940 with Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier. And it's pretty terrible. The costumes are from the wrong period, the architecture is from the wrong period, Garson is actually 3 years older than Olivier, and you can tell.... I mean it's just...wrong. But it's fun to watch. 

But I'd like to point out two adaptations that get less notice, or at least that which show up at the very bottom of that list. 

yes!

The first is Bride & Prejudice, which is a Bollywood interpretation of the same story, and which does it better than the Garson/Olivier debacle. Also, its Elizabeth Bennet is Aishwarya Rai (Miss World 1994, also possibly the most beautiful woman in the world ever), and its Bingley is Naveen Andrews (LOST, Barbara Hershey's former love muffin...down, girls!) 

I could take or leave
Jemima Rooper, but the rest of the
cast is brilliant.

The second is ITV's miniseries "Lost in Austen" (not related to Emma Campbell Webster's Lost in Austen: Create Your Own Jane Austen Adventure) in which a twenty-something modern woman finds herself switching places with Elizabeth Bennet in fictional Georgian England. It mucks up the story a bit (which is definitely good for it, in this case!) and features Hugh Bonneville (whom Janeites will recognize from 1999's "Mansfield Park" (though, here, minus the bouffant), Alex Kingston (Dr. Corday on E.R.), Christina Cole (quintessential blonde foil to many a brunette heroine in films such as "What a Girl Wants," "Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day"...okay so that heroine was a redhead..., and the 2006 miniseries version of Jane Eyre which, by the by, is stunning), Lindsay Duncan (recently seen at BAM in John Gabriel Borkman with Alan Rickman and Fiona Shaw) and Guy Henry (whom Harry Potter fans may recognize as Pius Thicknesse in "Deathly Hallows.")

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*For the record, apparently there was a made for tv version in 1938, prior to the film in 1940... they had television in 1938? Who? Who had television? Maybe the Prime Minister. Anyway, it stars no one I've heard of, including someone called Curigwen Lewis (remind me to leave Curigwen off of my future baby names list). Also, there's an actor named John Whiting whose role(s) are listed as "Servant, Organ Grinder, Apothecary"... I'm not sure what the latter two have to do with Jane Austen, but I'm awfully curious. Also, the character list is awfully short: Lizzy, Mr. Darcy, Mr. Bennet, Jane, Lady Catherine, Sir William Lucas, Wickham, the organ grinder/apothecary, Denny, and another servant. To be honest, I'm not sure how they assembled anything like the plot with that collection of characters! I'm sure it's just missing things.... but if they remembered the organ grinder, how could they forget everyone else???

Day 20 - Favorite Romance Book

I'm going to assume that this means a book about romance, not a trashy romance novel...

Possession by A. S. Byatt

Day 01 – The best book you read last year
Day 02 – A book that you’ve read more than 3 times
Day 03 – Your favorite series
Day 04 – Favorite book of your favorite series
Day 05 – A book that makes you happy
Day 06 – A book that makes you sad
Day 07 – Most underrated book
Day 08 – Most overrated book
Day 09 – A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving
Day 10 – Favorite classic book
Day 11 – A book you hated
Day 12 – A book you used to love but don’t anymore
Day 13 – Your favorite writer
Day 14 – Favorite book of your favorite writer
Day 15 – Favorite male character

Day 16 – Favorite female character

Day 17 – Favorite quote from your favorite book

Day 18 – A book that disappointed you

Day 19 – Favorite book turned into a movie

Day 20 – Favorite romance book

Day 21 – Favorite book from your childhood

Day 22 – Favorite book you own

Day 23 – A book you wanted to read for a long time but still haven’t

Day 24 – A book that you wish more people would’ve read

Day 25 – A character who you can relate to the most

Day 26 – A book that changed your opinion about something

Day 27 – The most surprising plot twist or ending

Day 28 – Favorite title

Day 29 – A book everyone hated but you liked

Day 30 – Your favorite book of all time