Decider Essentials

10 Best Jane Austen Adaptations Available To Stream

By Meghan O'Keefe @megsokay
Published July 8, 2014, 9:00 a.m. ET

It is a truth universally acknowledged that Jane Austen’s novels will never stop being adapted for film, television (and web series). And so, how is the casual Austen fan supposed to slog through the mire of all the Jane Austen adaptations* on streaming? Which miniseries on Netflix is the one with Colin Firth? (Hint: None of them.) Where can you find the miniseries with Colin Firth? (Hint: Amazon.) What other adaptations are even worth checking out?**

Fear not! Decider.com knows Jane Austen. Here are the 10 Essential Jane Austen adaptations on streaming that you should devote your heart to.


10) The Lizzie Bennet Diaries

Pride & Prejudice got a 21st century makeover when it was recently adapted into a sprawling web series called The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. Purists might wrinkle their noses, but lead actress Ashley Clemments gives us a sharp, witty and charmingly modern read on Lizzie that makes you desperate to find out what happens next (even if you know full well what happens next…) The Lizzie Bennet Diaries are also good to check out if only because they might be the start of a revolutionary new way to adapt books as vlogs. The folks behind The Lizzie Bennet Diaries are well into their Emma adaptation: Emma Approves.

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries can be streamed in a myriad of different ways, but its original home was on YouTube.

9) Pride & Prejudice

Guys, give black & white movies a chance! The 1940 Pride & Prejudice is a delightful romp and gorgeously acted film. Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier infuse Lizzie and Darcy’s banter with the sharp, witty cadence that epitomized 1930s and 1940s romcoms. And that’s not a bad thing! It’s a very good thing! And this film is a very good film.

Pride & Prejudice (1940) is available for rental on Amazon.


8) Mansfield Park (1999)

Mansfield Park holds a particularly controversial place amongst Jane Austen fans. It may not seem racy or edgy now, but at the time, people balked at how sexually explicit this adaptation was. However, the biggest controversy surrounds the film’s depiction of Fanny Price. Fanny is beloved by Austenites because she’s one of the most demure and most patient of Jane Austen’s heroines. She’s also hated by some fans because she can come across like a boring doormat.

This film adaptation combined Fanny’s classic persona with Austen’s own silently subversive personality. Here, Fanny becomes a budding writer who retells the history of England for laughs and makes light of everyone’s personal drama. The source material for these writings? Austen’s own juvenilia.

Mansfield Park (1999) is available for rental on Amazon. 

7) Bridget Jones’s Diary

Bridget Jones’s Diary might be the most meta Jane Austen adaptation of all time. Writer Helen Fielding got hooked on the 1995 Pride & Prejudice miniseries and transferred Elizabeth Bennet’s love life and suitors to 1990s London. She based Mark Darcy on Colin Firth, so when the time came to adapt the best-seller for the big screen, they, uh, got Colin Firth to play Mark Darcy. The film is also cast with a veritable stable of Austen film alums including Hugh Grant, Gemma Jones and Embeth Davidtz.

Bridget Jones’s Diary is available for rental on Amazon. 

6) Emma (2009)

There have been a great many charming onscreen Emmas, but we prefer the criminally underrated Romola Garai’s take on the character. Both Kate Beckinsale and Gwyneth Paltrow accurately depicted her privileged naivety, but Garai also gives Emma her luminous warmth. There’s a reason why she’s a queen bee who gets her way: you want her to. Oh, and Jonny Lee Miller is at his absolute best as Mr. Knightley.

Emma (2009) is available to stream on Amazon Prime.

5) Persuasion (1995)

Persuasion is the mature and classy Austen fan’s jam. Incidentally, Persuasion is also Austen’s most mature romance. It’s not about young love birds navigating the minefield of courtship. It’s about full-grown adults who regret their choice to not marry when they were young. Can you go back? Can you reclaim love? Can you resist Ciaran Hinds in a naval uniform? Persuasion asks these questions and answers, “Yes!”, “Yes!” and “NO! You cannot resist Ciaran Hinds!”

Persuasion (1995) is available for rental on Amazon. 

4) Sense & Sensibility (1995) 

Sense & Sensibility is just a damn good film.It’s got an incredible cast and a brilliant director, but its true strength is in actress and writer Emma Thompson’s screenplay. Thompson won an Academy Award for her adaptation that seamlessly pays homage to Austen’s work, while peeling back all of the characters’ dignified layers to reveal the layers of seething passion within them all.

Sense & Sensibility (1995) is available to stream on Netflix.

3) Pride & Prejudice (2005)

A lot of Jane Austen fans don’t like to admit how good Joe Wright’s 2005 film adaptation ofPride & Prejudice is because they feel like they are betraying loyalty to the 1995 miniseries. I say, why can’t we enjoy both? Joe Wright found beautiful and creative ways to tell Austen’s dialogue-heavy story onscreen. Whether that means capturing the closeness of Lizzie and Jane’s relationship by filming them whispering under the sheets or positioning Darcy’s emotionally tumultuous first proposal in the rain, Wright utilized the film medium to its full effect. (Not to mention the fact that every subsequent television Austen adaption has stolen from this film…*cough* ITV *cough*) This film version has is a fresh take on Darcy: MacFayden’s performance shows Darcy not as a pompous snob, but a socially awkward man. Oh, and there’s the fact that this film features the film debut of an unknown actress named Carey Mulligan.

Pride & Prejudice (2005) is available to stream on Amazon.

2) Pride & Prejudice (1995)

The BBC’s 1995 mini-series adaptation of Pride & Prejudice is considered by many to be the par exemplar of what an Austen adaptation should be. It’s incredibly accurate to Austen’s writing, is humming with modern sexuality and made Colin Firth a worldwide sex symbol. It’s simply the best. Well, it’s almost the best.

Pride & Prejudice (1995) is exclusively available on Amazon. 

1) Clueless

In case, you’re scratching your head, Clueless is indeed a modern adaptation of Jane Austen’sEmma and it’s also the best book-to-screen adaptation of a Jane Austen book ever. A great adaptation shouldn’t be slavishly faithful to the source. It should stay true to the spirit of the characters, the plot and the story’s tone, while offering audiences a new perspective on the work through the medium of film. Clueless does all this and more.

Jane Austen’s work was not seen as stuffy or prudish by her readers. She was slick, chic, sexy and funny. If Austen had lived in the 21st century, her life and career would have probably looked a lot more like Tina Fey’s and a lot less like Charlotte Bronte’s. Clueless captures this and illustrates that even though Austen was writing at the height of the Regency period, her characters and stories work in any time.

Clueless is available to stream on Netflix and Amazon.

*We only considered adaptations (broad and traditional) of the Austen literary canon. Stories about Jane Austen fans who talk about Jane Austen, meet Jane Austen or who are Jane Austen did not qualify. Sorry, Lost In Austen, The Jane Austen Book Club, Becoming Jane andAustenland fans.

**Also we want to give honorable mentions to Northanger Abbey (2007), Bride & Prejudice and that one sketch from That Mitchell and Webb Look. They came under consideration, but ultimately lucked out.