"PRIDE AND PREJUDICE" (1940) Review

There have been at least eight adaptations of "Pride and Prejudice", Jane Austen's 1813 novel. But as far as I know, only four are well known or constantly mentioned by many of the novelist's present-day fans. And one of the four happens to be the movie adapted in 1940 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Directed by Robert Z. Leonard, "PRIDE AND PREJUDICE" told the story of the five unmarried daughters of a 19th century English landowner and the efforts of his shrill wife to get them married before his estate is inherited by a distant male cousin. For years, this version...

SOCIAL CLASS AND THE BENNET FAMILY IN "PRIDE AND PREJUDICE"

Considering how long I have been a fan of Jane Austen’s 1813 novel, "PRIDE AND PREJUDICE" and its numerous television and movie adaptations, I am surprised that I have never considered something about its heroine, Elizabeth Bennet, and her family. Ever since I have been reading numerous articles about the novel and its adaptations, I have noticed that many have labeled the Bennet family as members of the middle-class or the upper middle-class in Regency England. And it finally occurred to me that many of these fans were in error.


I...

When I first heard that a new Pride and Prejudice film was in the works, I was both apprehensive and excited. I had seen every single film adaptation made of my favorite Jane Austen book and considered the A&E version starring Colin Firth as Mr Darcy and Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth Bennett the end-all. As a miniseries, it was able to closely follow the book and not omit any of the wonderful parts that made the novel a classic. With a movie made for the big screen, important plot twists and scenes would have to be removed to fit in the allotted time. It was with slight trepidation that I...

from the Huffington Post:

I've published twenty books in genres from memoir to mystery but I never thought of doing an Austen mashup until I read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

While I enjoyed Zombies at first because it was surprising and funny, eventually it started to feel like a one-note protest against all the decorous PBS Austen series and all the die-hard Austen fans around the world. Dude, forget carriages and bonnets, gimme brains!

Zombies reads like graffiti, which can be ugly or beautiful depending on your point of view. You see that split on amazon.com, where half the reviewers give...