Jane Austen
Austen's novels have resulted in sequels, prequels and adaptations of almost every type, from soft-core pornography to fantasy. From the 19th century, her family members published conclusions to her incomplete novels, and by 2000 there were over 100 printed adaptations. The first dramatic adaptation of Austen was published in 1895, Rosina Filippi's "Duologues and Scenes from the Novels of Jane Austen: Arranged and Adapted for Drawing-Room Performance", and Filippi was also responsible for the first professional stage adaptation, "The Bennets" (1901). The first film adaptation was the 1940 MGM production of "Pride and Prejudice" starring Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson. BBC television dramatisations since the 1970s have attempted to adhere meticulously to Austen's plots, characterisations and settings. The British critic Robert Irvine noted that in American film adaptations of Austen's novels, starting with the 1940 version of "Pride and Prejudice" and continuing on to today, class is subtly downplayed as the United States is officially an egalitarian nation where all people are equal and the society of Regency England depicted by Austen that is grounded in a hierarchy based upon the ownership of land and the antiquity of the family name is one that Americans cannot embrace in its entirety.
Mr. Darcy's Daughters
Mr. Darcy's Daughters is a 2003 novel by the English author Elizabeth Aston, published by Simon & Schuster in the United States as her debut. Set in 1818, "Mr. Darcy's Daughters" is written as a sequel to Jane Austen's novel "Pride and Prejudice". It features the five daughters of Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet – aged 21 to 16 – as they navigate London society in the absence of their parents, who have embarked on a diplomatic post to Constantinople. In London, the sisters meet new friends and find themselves in various romantic entanglements, all while learning what is acceptable behaviour among the city's elite.