Austen-Mania

Look out Michael Crichton: Jane Austen is becoming filmdom's favorite novelist

By Laura Miller

Dec 2, 1995 | "Every thing united in him; good understanding, correct opinions, knowledge of the world and a warm heart. He had strong feelings of family-attachment and family-honour, without pride or weakness; he lived with the liberality of a man of fortune, without display; he judged for himself in every thing essential, without defying public opinion in any point of worldly decorum. He was steady, observant, moderate, candid; never run away with by spirits or by selfishness which fancied itself strong feeling; and yet, with a sensibility to what was amiable and lovely, and a value for all the felicities of domestic life."

Thus Jane Austen defines an excellent man in her last novel, "Persuasion," and dares us to find his equal in our own public and private spheres: Bill Clinton? Ross Perot? Brad Pitt? Kurt Cobain?

Perhaps the yearning for such an individual inspires the current wave of Austen novels committed to celluloid. It began with the Alicia Silverstone vehicle, "Clueless" (a crypto-Emma), gathered steam with Roger Michell's fine "Persuasion" (now in theaters), and will carry on through the December release of "Sense and Sensibility" (starring Hugh Grant and Emma Thompson) and a new BBC version of "Pride and Prejudice," concluding, fittingly, with a film version of "Emma" more faithful to the original.