Jane Austen’s 250th birthday is today, these are the best adaptations of her stories

If we could have extended human life forever, Jane Austen would have turned 250 years old today.

What would Austen have made of life and modern dating trends in 2025? Would she have been excited or appalled by Tinder?

It’s a truth universally acknowledged that Austen’s influence on literature, film, TV and other forms of storytelling, the entire rom-com genre, can’t be understated. She elevated that which was – and continues to be in some quarters – considered frivolous, women’s emotional lives, as worthy of being centred.

So, on this, her 250th birthday, you could pick up one of her novels in tribute, or watch one of the great adaptions of her stories and her legacy.

EMMA (2020)

Emma Woodhouse is a meddler – or if you ask her, a matchmaker. She may present as a wealthy, spoilt and shallow young woman who places far too much importance on status and suitability, but even she can’t escape Cupid’s arrow.

Autumn de Wilde’s adaptation from a screenplay by Kiwi author Eleanor Catton and starring a pre-Queen’s Gambit Anya Taylor-Joy is a delightful confection that still has sharp edges. It also features some absolutely gorgeous costuming and production design.

CLUELESS

Clueless is the best adaption of Emma that isn’t. But is. Transforming the characters and setting to 1990s Beverly Hills among the social elite of high school teenagers, Amy Heckerling’s story is fun, frothy and emotionally affecting.

She also captured through Alicia Silverstone’s pitch-perfect performance the essential core of Emma Woodhouse as a good human with good intentions who actually manages to grow.

SENSE & SENSIBILITY (1995)

There have been several handsome adaptations of the recently impoverished Dashwood sisters’ story but Ang Lee’s version stands above all. There’s the sweeping romance, those charismatic performances and, of course, that superb, Oscar-winning screenplay by Emma Thompson.

A young Kate Winslet is transcendent as the impulsive Marianne, who lets her heart lead, while Thompson plays the considered and more reserved Elinor, who has to learn to give life and love a chance.

PRIDE &PREJUDICE (1995)

Perhaps Austen’s most beloved story (not that we’re picking favourites), the story of Elizabeth Bennett and the initially frosty Mr Darcy has that irresistible pull of what would become a trope – enemies become lovers.

The 2005 adaptation with Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen (yes, it’s been 20 years since that came out, do you feel old?) is great, but the 1995 BBC series was definitive. We’d be lying if the sight of Colin Firth emerging from that fountain didn’t have something to do with that designation.

MANSFIELD PARK (1999)

There are purists who may take umbrage with the changes filmmaker Patricia Rozema made to her version of Mansfield Park, especially in terms of expanding Austen’s throwaway references to the British slave trade, or the more active nature of the character of Fanny Brice.

So this Frances O’Connor-starring film is a more modern retelling even if it is still a costume drama. There’s no rule that says Austen can’t be updated, you might even imagine that she would approve.

PERSUASION (1995)

The last novel Austen completed before her death, Persuasion asks if it’s possible for a second chance at love, especially after your engagement was broken due to the influence of other people.

This 1995 adaptation (that really was THE year for Austen adaptations, wasn’t it?) stars Amanda Root as Anne and Ciaran Hinds as Captain Wentworth. It’s the gold standard in Persuasion adaptations because that fourth-wall-breaking Dakota Johnson version certainly is not.

BRIDGET JONES DIARY

It’s no secret that Helen Fielding was hugely influenced by Pride & Prejudice when she wrote Bridget Jones’ Diary, and particularly the BBC miniseries, which is what makes the casting of Colin Firth as Mark Darcy such a winking masterstroke.

Bridge isn’t exactly like Lizzie Bennett even if she has the same tendency to saying things that maybe should be better left unsaid, at least at first. But that’s the reason we love Bridget, because even though she feels the pressure to conform to a standard, she is always loveably herself.

JANE AUSTEN WRECKED MY LIFE

This 2024 French rom-com is a sweet and charming film that draws on Austen’s legacy, featuring a bookseller who spends more time buried in books than engaging with the real world, partly due to an unresolved trauma.

The action kicks off when she attends to a writers’ residency dedicated to Austen, where she meets Oliver, a descendent of the famed author. You can guess at what happens.

LOST IN AUSTEN

The wonderful thing about Austen’s enduring power is that she has created these worlds that feel incredibly immersive. Maybe, for some, too immersive.

This 2008 miniseries starring Jemima Rooper takes it literally when Amanda, a modern-day young woman living in London finds herself transported to Longbourn, the home of the Bennets out of Pride & Prejudice, while Elizabeth is now in 21st century London.

SANDITON

Writer Andrew Davies, who wrote the BBC Pride & Prejudice miniseries took Austen’s unfinished manuscript Sanditon and expanded it into a 20-episode TV series.

The story concerns the dramas and relationships of a seaside resort and the adventures of Charlotte, a new arrival in town whose initial excitement gives way to confusion when she discovers the scheming and manipulation of the early 19th century social set.

DEATH COMES TO PEMBERLEY

A more unusual Austen-adjacent story, Death Comes to Pemberley takes the characters out of Pride & Prejudice and continues the story of Elizabeth and Mr Darcy six years after their marriage. But also, it’s a moody murder mystery. How’s that for different?

It stars Matthew Rhys and Anna Maxwell Martin as the famed pair, and the goings-on one night at Pemberley when the dastardly Wickham is found holding the body of another man, and blaming himself for the death. But what really happened?