From 1940 to today

Austen on screen

A guide to every major adaptation

Jane Austen wrote six completed novels. Hollywood, the BBC, ITV, and now Netflix have made many dozens of films, miniseries, and modern reinventions from them. This index covers the ones worth knowing.

Pride & Prejudice

The most-adapted Austen novel by a wide margin — nine major screen versions and counting.

1995 · BBC / A&E
Pride and Prejudice (TV series)
Jennifer Ehle & Colin Firth
Six episodes; the lake scene; the most influential televised Austen ever made.
2005 · Working Title
Pride & Prejudice (film)
Keira Knightley & Matthew Macfadyen
Joe Wright’s feature debut; muddy hems; the dawn proposal.
1940 · MGM
Pride and Prejudice (film)
Greer Garson & Laurence Olivier
Aldous Huxley co-wrote the screenplay; relocated visually to a Victorian aesthetic.
1980 · BBC
Pride and Prejudice (TV)
Elizabeth Garvie & David Rintoul
Five episodes; novel-faithful, formal, much loved by Austen scholars.
2001 · Working Title
Bridget Jones’s Diary
Renée Zellweger & Colin Firth
Helen Fielding’s contemporary transposition; Mark Darcy is a barrister; Firth is again the Darcy.

Sense & Sensibility

1995 · Columbia
Sense and Sensibility (film)
Emma Thompson & Kate Winslet
Ang Lee directs; Thompson’s screenplay won her a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar.
2008 · BBC
Sense and Sensibility (TV)
Hattie Morahan & Charity Wakefield
Three-part Andrew Davies adaptation; slower-paced and more interior than the 1995 film.
1981 · BBC
Sense and Sensibility (TV)
Irene Richard & Tracey Childs
Seven episodes; the foundational televised version.

Mansfield Park

1999 · Miramax
Mansfield Park (film)
Frances O’Connor & Jonny Lee Miller
Patricia Rozema directs; foregrounds the slavery question; controversial reinterpretation.
1983 · BBC
Mansfield Park (TV)
Sylvestra Le Touzel
Six episodes; the most novel-faithful version on screen.
2007 · ITV
Mansfield Park (TV)
Billie Piper
Single feature-length episode; condensed, contested casting.

Emma

2020 · Working Title
Emma (film)
Anya Taylor-Joy & Johnny Flynn
Autumn de Wilde’s feature debut; pastel palette; Oscar nominations for costume and makeup.
1995 · Paramount
Clueless
Alicia Silverstone
Amy Heckerling relocates Emma to Beverly Hills; the most-watched Emma on screen.
1996 · Miramax
Emma (film)
Gwyneth Paltrow & Jeremy Northam
Douglas McGrath’s adaptation; Paltrow’s breakout American-actress-as-Englishwoman moment.
1996 · ITV
Emma (TV film)
Kate Beckinsale & Mark Strong
Andrew Davies’s screenplay; many Austen readers’ quiet favorite.
2009 · BBC
Emma (miniseries)
Romola Garai & Jonny Lee Miller
Four-hour adaptation; the longest Emma on screen.

Northanger Abbey

2007 · ITV
Northanger Abbey (TV film)
Felicity Jones & JJ Feild
Andrew Davies’s screenplay; widely regarded as the best version of this rarely-adapted novel.
1986 · BBC
Northanger Abbey (TV)
Katharine Schlesinger & Peter Firth
Stylized, dreamlike; Maggie Wadey’s screenplay.

Persuasion

2022 · Netflix
Persuasion (film)
Dakota Johnson & Cosmo Jarvis
Carrie Cracknell’s feature debut; modernized fourth-wall-breaking style; widely panned by Austen readers.
1995 · Sony
Persuasion (film)
Amanda Root & Ciarán Hinds
Roger Michell directs; widely considered the definitive screen Persuasion.
2007 · ITV
Persuasion (TV film)
Sally Hawkins & Rupert Penry-Jones
Adrian Shergold directs; Hawkins delivers an unusually quiet, watchful Anne.
1971 · BBC
Persuasion (TV)
Ann Firbank
Five-episode adaptation; the foundational televised version.

Other Austen on screen

Browse the six novels

Each novel page includes a complete adaptations table for that book.

→ Read the Jane Austen biography

Sources: Wikipedia’s articles on each adaptation, the BFI screen archive, and standard reference works on Austen on screen including Sue Parrill’s Jane Austen on Film and Television. Austen.com is an independent literary fan site that has hosted the complete novels since 1997.