A radical look at Jane Austen as youâve never seen her â as a lover of farce, comic theatre and juvenilia. The Genius of Jane Austen celebrates Britainâs favourite novelist 200 years after her death and explores why her books make such awesome movies, time after time.
Jane Austen loved the theatre. She learned much of her art from a long tradition of English comic drama and took joyous participation in amateur theatricals and her visits to the theatre in London and Bath. Her juvenilia, then âSense and Sensibilityâ, âPride and Prejudiceâ, âMansfield Parkâ and âEmmaâ were shaped by the arts of theatrical comedy.
Her admiration for dramaâs dialogue, characterisation, plotting, exits and entrances is why she has been dramatised so successfully on screen in the last twenty years â and these versions are at the centre of her continuing fame, culminating in her celebration on ÂŁ10 note.
From the stage adaptations of Austenâs novels (including one called âMiss Elizabeth Bennetâ by A. A. Milne) to modern classics, including the BBC âPride and Prejudiceâ and âPersuasionâ, Emma Thompsonâs âSense and Sensibilityâ, and the phenomenally brilliant and successful âCluelessâ, âThe Genius of Jane Austenâ presents an Austen not of prim manners and genteel calm, but filled with wild comedy and outrageous behaviour.