For any and all fans of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice who were hooked on the online adaptation called The Lizzie Bennet Diaries the next question is now: “What’s next?”
Although the showrunner Bernie Su mentioned that there are a few ideas out there – but won’t say what exactly – it is up to the fans of web series to speculate what could work in a similar format.
If we are looking at specifically Jane Austen’s novels…
Much like how I did with various Modern Adaptations of Shakespeare’s Classics here is a quick list of various modernizations of Jane Austen’s novels that I have seen and appreciated on some level (so this is by no means a comprehensive list by any stretch of the imagination):
EMMA
Clueless
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
Bride and Prejudice
I Love You Because
The Lizzie Bennet Diaries
Now the interesting thing to note is that I actually did a little bit of research about this and realized that out of six of Jane Austen’s novels only two have been modernized and adapted whilst still keeping the intergrity of the primary storyline and the majority of the characters.
Rather odd if you ask me.
Granted one of the major modernizations that most everyone would know about but I have yet to have seen would be Bridget Jones’ Diary. Now why haven’t I seen it? Simple, because all the clips and trailers I have found online haven’t lured me enough to have any kind of desire to watch the movie itself. It is simple not my cup of tea from what I have been able to see. Sad isn’t it?
So since I have already devoted several posts to The Lizzie Bennet Diaries I am not going to touch that particular modern adaptation in this particular post, instead just focusing on the other three…
DISCLAIMER: I am not in any way affiliated with The Lizzie Bennet Diaries… I am just a fan that recently came across the YouTube online series and fell in love with the storytelling… who is providing her own supposition on what could happen down the road.
From yesterday’s post I did fall down a hell of a rabbit hole… but there was something that was nagging at me.
When looking at the various YouTube accounts for The Lizzie Bennet Diaries… during the time that Lydia was separated from Jane and Lizzie she created the YouTube Account: The Lydia Bennet. So when Jane and Lizzie are off on their real world adventures, Lydia kept up her own account which have now been featuring… you guessed it: George Wickham…
Interesting how something that would appear to be so small before would mean so much now…
Well while scouring the internet I came across this little gem: The Gigi Darcy YouTube Channel.
Yup apparently the little sister of William Darcy has her own YouTube Channel… granted there haven’t been any videos uploaded at the moment… but if you have caught up with The Lizzie Bennet Diaries AND know Pride and Prejudice like that back of your hand like I do (well almost do)… then you should know where exactly in the story this is all coming about.
If you are unfamiliar with the Pride and Prejudice story and do not wish to **potentially** be spoiled do not read any further and just move on your merry way through the internet.
If you ARE FAMILIAR but are still confused and do not wish to **potentially** be spoiled then again… do not read any further and just move on your merry way through the internet.
If you are familiar with Pride and Prejudice and you enjoy the story like myself so much that you can’t help but put clues together and living with the characters then you probably should have figured out by now like I have that…
I fell down a rabbit hole… a major rabbit hole. It was a rabbit hole so deep that I haven’t really taken any time to get out of it because it is so much fun in this rabbit hole.
So what am I going on about?
Well.. as I was lurking at the Pemberley Discussion Boards, I noticed via the Austenations board the acronym LBD with a vast number of episodes. I got curious… when looking at a few posts and how it would appear to be Pride and Prejudice related and how certain characters were emulated other characters I can’t help but be intrigued with this conundrum.
Thank goodness for Google… kind of.
A quick Google look up for LBD revealed a long list of various companies and groups with the initials LBD… but nothing Jane Austen related… which is what hit me.
Another quick Google look up for LBD and “Jane Austen” revealed the website The Lizzie Bennet Diaries: An Online Adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice which led to the online web series of the same name… And OH. EM. GEE.
According to the website it is…
The home of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries an online modernized adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.
Developed by Hank Green and Bernie Su
And they went all out… a fair number of the characters have twitter accounts, there is a tumblr, there is even an online presence for the companies featured on the show (Collins and Collins, Pemberley Digital) outside of the actual Lizzie Bennet Diaries series…
First a quick round up… here is how the characters have been changed / adapted from the original Jane Austen novel: