Lost in Austen

Lost in Austen, a t.v. series produced in 2008 starring Jemima Roopert and Elliot Cowen, provides a unique twist on Jane Austen's, Pride and Prejudice. The series starts out with Amanda Price living a rather bland life, longing for a truly romantic relationship. While her boyfriend appears to be lazy and unwilling to go above and beyond for her, Amanda reads Pride and Prejudice as a way to escape her real life. After a couple days of reading this book, Amanda goes to the bathroom to find Elizabeth Bennet. Lizzie claims to have traveled through a door in her fathers house resulting in her appearance in Amanda's home. Amanda then goes through the door finding herself thrown into the novel. After spending several days in the novel and falling in love with  Darcy herself, Amanda finds herself back in modern day London. While trying to find Elizabeth in this modern world, Amanda discovers that Darcy had followed her to confess his love.

This adaptation of Pride and Prejudice remains fairly true to the original story. Mrs. Bennet is as frazzled and overwhelming as ever, Caroline is equally as off-putting, and Darcy is just as stoic as his character in the novel.While many aspects of the novel and Price's experiences living within the novel are quite similar, there are many differences as well. Her presence in the story throws several of the key relationships that take place in this great romance novel to be altered. Jane isn't with Bingley, Lydia isn't with Wickham, and most importantly, Elizabeth isn't with Darcy.

Rather than Elizabeth being with Darcy, Amanda finds herself falling deeply in love with him herself despite her knowledge of the way the romance story should take place. The relationship that Amanda and Darcy have is extremely similar to that of Darcy and Elizabeth in the novel. Both individuals fight the desire to be with one another even though they are fully aware that a deep connection sparked between them. Much like in the novel, Darcy and Amanda overcome several hardships with another and decide that the love they have for one another is a driving factor in everything they do. The intense desire for true love overcomes all barriers the couple is faced with.

In the final episode of the series, Amanda finds a way to have Jane and Mr. Bingley be together and live a happy life; an annulment. When Amanda tells Jane of this exciting news, Jane rejects the idea out of fear for what the community will say about her. During this time period, couples were not granted the ability to leave one another once a marriage had taken place, especially a woman. Amanda, however, allows Jane to see that regardless of societies views, Jane's happiness is what matters the most. This twist on the  role females had during this time period allows the characters in the novel, as well as viewers watching the series to see what taking power back for yourself as a woman looks like. By helping Jane finding a way to free herself, Amanda gives her the chance to grant herself power in the process.