Jane Austen's classic novels have been brought to both the big and small screens many times, but rarely with the style, wit, and panache of the six BBC miniseries collected in this deluxe box set. Produced between 1971 and 1987, these outstanding examples of British television possess everything fans have come to expect from BBC period yarns: faithful adaptations of the original material, snappy dialogue, colorful characters, sterling performances, and extravagant, accurately recreated settings and costumes. Pride and Prejudice, Austen's best, is expertly adapted by novelist Fay Weldon in this 1985 version that benefits enormously from a sensational lead performance by Elizabeth Garvie in the role of Elizabeth Bennet, whose prejudicial first impressions of the prideful Mr. Darcy are gradually overturned. Likewise, Doran Godwin breathes life into the eponymous, self-satisfied heroine of Emma in this 1972 version of Austen's slyly satirical novel, which has been filmed several times and pillaged for numerous “contemporary” comedies. 1971's Persuasion, based on one of the author's more serious, melancholy tomes, has another strong female lead in Ann Firbank, playing a young woman who gets a second chance to win the man she once rejected. The 1981 Sense and Sensibility, which chronicles the lives of two strikingly different sisters grappling with their sudden impoverishment, features topnotch performances from Irene Richard and Tracey Childs. Mansfield Park, one of Austen's lesser works, nonetheless has delightfully dotty secondary characters, charmingly played in this 1983 adaptation by Anna Massey and Angela Pleasence. The set is rounded out by a 1987 production of Northanger Abbey, the closest Austen came to the floridly melodramatic Gothic romances of the 19th century. Although some of these are better than others (and the DVD quality is as good as might be expected from mid-'80s BBC fare), Austen fans will appreciate this complete--if extra-less--set covering all of Austen's finished novels (Sense and Sensibility and Northanger Abbey are on single-sided discs, with the others presented on double-sided discs). Recommended. (E. Hulse)
The Jane Austen Collection
BBC, 6 discs, 1,350 min., not rated, DVD: $59.98 Volume 19, Issue 6
The Jane Austen Collection
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