Netflix will release its adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice this autumn, starring Emma Corrin as Elizabeth Bennet and Jack Lowden as Mr Darcy. The announcement initially alarmed Austen fans, following the streaming platform's critically panned 2022 version of Persuasion.
The teaser trailer shows stolen looks and longing between the two leads in their enemies-to-lovers romance. The series arrives as the first small-screen adaptation since the BBC's 1995 classic with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle.
Yearning as a storytelling trend
The adaptation is part of a growing trend in storytelling that emphasises yearning, honour and common decency, themes that resonate in an era of dating apps and toxic masculinity. The latest season of Bridgerton, featuring the romance between Benedict Bridgerton and Sophie Baek, was among the most popular outings of the series, largely due to its focus on forbidden longing.
The BBC's period drama The Other Bennet Sister, which explores the romance between Mary Bennet and Tom Hayward, has proved so popular that a Christmas special has been commissioned. The series also offered a fresh take on Mr Collins, bringing new poignancy to the character.
Broader cultural resonance
Jenny Han's The Summer I Turned Pretty also found success with its brooding hero Conrad Fisher, capturing something lost from modern romance. ITV's 2008 miniseries Lost in Austen similarly touched on the idea that romance is dead in the modern era, as its heroine Amanda Price ends up inside Pride and Prejudice.
Another Austen adaptation, Sense and Sensibility starring Caitríona Balfe and Daisy Edgar-Jones, will be released on September 25, following Ang Lee's acclaimed 1995 film. Netflix's Pride and Prejudice already has a more sensuous quality than its 1995 counterpart, closer to Joe Wright's 2005 film starring Matthew Macfadyen and Keira Knightley.
The six-part series may marry the aesthetics of the 2005 version with the substance of the 1995 drama. Audiences, it seems, are yearning for more yearning.
