If Hollywood is the measure, classic novels written by women are all the rage.
In the coming months, “Nosferatu” actor Emma Corrin will star as Lizzie Bennet in a Netflix adaptation of “Pride and Prejudice,” Daisy Edgar-Jones will headline a new “Sense and Sensibility” movie, and Aimee Lou Wood will play the titular character in a television adaptation of “Jane Eyre.” Earlier this year, director Emerald Fennell’s version of “Wuthering Heights” grossed more than $240 million at the box office.
That’s just on the screen. The publishing industry is showing renewed interest in these women-authored classics, releasing a new “Pride and Prejudice” audiobook and a slew of titles that rework novels like “Little Women.”
“My question is whether we’re in a resurgence, or if it’s just a continuation of this trend in the adaptation world that I think came about in the 1990s,” said Cristina Richieri Griffin, an assistant professor in the English department at the University of Virginia. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s just showing up in new ways now.”
Rachel Haines, a doctoral student in the UVA English department, teaches a class charting the romance novel from Jane Austen to Emily Henry. (Contributed photo)
In addition to 19th-century fiction, Griffin teaches a course on adaptation.
Women have been central to the English-language novel since it emerged, both as writers and readers, she said. Austen’s first novel, “Northanger Abbey,” was a response to the Gothic fiction she read. In that way, women’s presence in adaptations and reinterpretations is hardly new.
Rachel Haines, a doctoral candidate in the English department, said there’s a more general trend in the popularity of romance.
“A lot of people I know are reading things like ‘A Court of Thorns and Roses’ and the romantasy genre in general,” she said. “It’s a lot more socially acceptable to read these things and take them seriously now.”
She does take them seriously. This semester, Haines is teaching a course on the “love plot,” which charts the genealogy of contemporary romance novels beginning with “Pride and Prejudice.”
According to the American Enterprise Institute’s Survey Center on American Life, 56% of Gen Z adults say they didn’t date during their teenage years. When their own love lives leave them wanting, some people may turn to a vicarious experience of romance.
“With adaptations, with romance novels, we expect the ending. Since we know what’s going to happen, it feels safe and even therapeutic to engage with them,” Haines said.
The most popular novels from the 19th century feature people navigating the byzantine social codes of the British upper class while pursuing romance – or at least marriage. That can seem far removed from the lives of many American readers today, when people are generally less formal and don’t rely on marriage to protect family assets. But certain themes still ring true.
An expert in adaptations, English professor Cristina Richieri Griffin says the best adaptations teach you something new in an old work. (Contributed photo)
“Every adaptation reminds us that there are some human experiences and social structures that are timeless,” Griffin said.
She pointed to her favorite Austen adaptation, “Clueless” (an update of “Emma”). The ’90s Los Angeles Valley is a far cry from an 1800s Surrey, England, village. But nosiness, friendships, social rivalries, misunderstandings and rumors are near-universal experiences.
Even the strict rules for public behavior described in novels like “Wuthering Heights” and “Pride and Prejudice” remain relevant today. Social interactions, both platonic and romantic, can feel especially tense when any perceived misstep can be publicized online. Even reading in public can get someone criticized as “performative.”
That’s part of the magic of an adaptation, Griffin said.
