Thinking about it, I think the Austen adaptation I would like to see / read was one that combined Pride and Prejudice with King Lear.
Rich but arrogant bachelor (Darcy / Lear) has choice between marrying three sisters. Proposes marriage to the one he likes best (Elizabeth / Cordelia), but she turns him down because he acts too proud. So he then goes and marries the other sister (Kitty / Goneril) but of course, she's only marrying him for his money and soon divorces him (claiming half his property in the process), only to marry his arch-rival (Wickham / Edmund) - a man who bears our hero an old grudge and dreams of usurping his power.
Stung by this treachery, Darcy asks after Elizabeth again, but hears rumours that she's gone off and married Mr. Collins and moved to France. Miserable and bitter, Darcy is left vulnerable, and easily seduced by Lydia / Regan (who, of course, has been having an affair with Wickham all along). This marriage proves short-lived as well and Darcy, heartbroken, deprived of three quarters of his fortune and out of favour with his aunt, turns to drink and gambling, eventually ending up in the poorhouse from where he is rescued by the ever faithful Bingley (Edgar).
In the meantime, Jane (Gloucester), makes a spirited attempt to protest Lydia's treatment of Darcy, whereupon Lydia blinds her with a hatpin, leaving Bingley with two invalids to take care of.
Eventually, Elizabeth returns and Darcy begs for her forgiveness, but it turns out she's only returned from France because she's dying of consumption. Her death drives Darcy mad and he commits suicide. Meanwhile, Bingley, distraught at the violence done his wife and by Wickham's usurpation of Pemberley, challenges him to a duel and kills him. Kitty and Lydia are left destitute (Pemberley having reverted to Darcy's aunt given that Wickham had no male heir) and join a nunnery. The book ends with Mr. Bennet (Albany) standing alone in his garden delivering a mournful speech.
There, that's what I call an adaptation.
Opening line: It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune is to God as a fly to wanton boys.
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Twitter
Posts
Posts
Of shoes -- and ships -- and sealing wax -- Of cabbages -- and kings -- And why the sea is boiling hot -- And whether pigs have wings.
About Me
- Falstaff
- Minneapolis, MN
- GB$(GL) d- s+:++ a C W+(++) w PS++ PE--(++) !tv b++++ DI++++ m++++ e++++ h+ r* z-->---
Blog Archive
-
▼
2007
(290)
-
▼
March
(25)
- The Abandoned Railroad
- His Dying Voice
- The Stage
- Turning over an old leaf
- Is it a bomb? Is it a stock market crash? No, it's...
- Black out
- Circumstance
- Someone to watch over me
- Lear and Prejudice
- Matthea Harvey
- Austen-tation
- There's more to handcuffs than the one your arrest...
- The Last Ride Together
- Unfinished
- Dance dance dance
- When Poets Attack
- Oh frabjous day!
- Fire Escape
- You know you're getting old when...
- The singing-masters of my soul
- By opposing, end them
- Argerich and Dutoit
- Three Movies
- Train spotting
- Such a long weekend
-
▼
March
(25)
Recent Comments
Method to the Madness
Subscribe To
Posts
Posts
Site Meter
StatCounter
E-mail:
specktre@gmail.com
10 comments:
No, no. This will never work. What would you do with the Earl of Kent, for instance?
Did you read this?
If you aren't careful, someone will take this and make another Dynasty with it. Dya really want that on your conscience? Do you?
LOL at the Opening Line. I also insist on a Pride and Prejudice-Titus Andronicus adaptation that ends with Mr Bennet inadvertently consuming a meat-pie made up of his daughters.
Hear hear! The next step would be to combine Mansfield Park with The Duchess of Malfi - Fanny could be the Duchess while Jack and Edmund could be Ferdinand and the Cardinal respectively. Mr. Crawford could be Bosola.
Even better - adapt Austen to Lorca.
raoul: Details, details.
venkat: Yes, I did actually.
revealed: You're on to me. I've been trying to hide it by pretending to be all highbrow, but my real ambition has always been to write daytime soaps.
jabberwock: Hmmm...Would you settle for a Hamlet version of Emma, with Emma as Ophelia, Knightley as Hamlet, Frank Churchill as Laertes and Mr. Wodehouse as the Ghost?
losrojillos: Oooh! I like that. Sense and Sensibility in Blood Wedding. Good stuff.
the way Elizabeth goes about marrying everyone except the hero reminded me of Dominique Francon and Scarlett o'Hara.
Arvind
Absolutely rocking post. Still rolling on the floor laughing.
The idea I found most ludicrous was Austen's mild-mannered Bingley challenging anyone to a duel - and killing him, no less.
Post a Comment