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.
Basingstoke
The former Town Hall, adjoining the old marketplace, houses the Willis Museum (originally the Basingstoke Museum, until 1956). This was founded and directed by Alderman George W. Willis, a local clocksmith, who served as Mayor of Basingstoke in 1923-24. He established the museum in 1931 and with much public support was able to build it up into a major collection on local history, with a particularly extensive collection (largely made by him) of prehistoric implements and of antique clocks and watches. His association with the expanding museum continued for forty years. Its central location today is where, once upon a time, Jane Austen and her sister used to go to dances. Although ostensibly set in Hertford, Austen's novel "Pride and Prejudice", written in 1797, is thought to have been based on her view of Basingstoke society two centuries ago.