Jane Austen on Masterpiece Classic

This Sunday past, on January 13, 2008, I was able to record the first of six film adaptations of Jane Austen's novels, Persuasion.

It's a story of second chances between Anne Elliot (Sally Hawkins), the second and only sensible daughter of a spendthrift baronet, and Frederick Wentworth (Rupert Penry-Jones), the now-successful lover whom she was persuaded to spurn eight years prior.

PBS will be showing the "Complete Jane Austen," film adaptations of all Austen's completed novels - as well as a nostalgic biography - on Sundays through April (barring the first three fundraising weekends in March):

• Northanger Abbey*, Austen's parody of Gothic novels, is showing on Jan. 20 @9-10:30pm;
  
  
• Mansfield Park, Austen's most thematically-rich novel, is showing on Jan. 27 @9-10:30pm;
  
  
• Miss Austen Regrets, a dramatization of Austen's real-life courtships, is showing on Feb. 3 @9-10:30pm;
  
  
• Pride & Prejudice*, starring Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth Bennet & Colin Firth as Fitzwilliam Darcy, is showing in three parts on Feb. 10, 17 & 24 @9-11pm;
  
  
• Emma*, starring Kate Beckinsale as the eponymous lovable, but misguided matchmaker, is showing on Mar. 23 @9-11pm; and
  
  
• Sense & Sensibility*, the happily-ever-after stories of the eldest Dashwood sisters, will be shown in two parts on Mar. 30 & Apr. 6 @9-10:30pm.

* These films are adapted by Andrew Davies, a British screenwriter known to stay very faithful to his adaptations of classic works of literature.

The times listed are Eastern Standard Time, so check pbs.org for showings in your local area. For more background info on Austen or Regency England, click here. And lastly, to brush up on your Austen, visit Bibliomania!