Adapt This: Beyond Pride and Prejudice
- 16 hours ago
- 3 min read
By Elizabeth Kerri Mahon
2026 has brought us not only a new adaptation of Wuthering Heights, but also, before the end of the year, a new Pride & Prejudice series and a new Sense & Sensibility film. On PBS, there are new adaptations of The Forsyte Saga and The Count of Monte Cristo. A new TV series based on Jane Eyre, starring Aimee Lou Wood, is in development. I know this is all recognizable IP with a built-in audience, but I long for movies/TV films based on lesser-known works. There’s a wealth of literature out there beyond Austen, Brontë, and Dickens.
For example, instead of new adaptations of Jane Austen’s six novels, what about exploring the novels of the women who influenced her? Maria Edgeworth, Ann Radcliffe, and Fanny Burney are just sitting there on the shelves begging for someone to dust them off and give them a whirl. Since they managed to eke out 3 seasons of Sanditon somehow, why not give Jane Austen’s other unfinished novel, The Watsons, a go? Since Outlander is about to finish its run on Starz, how about a gander at Sir Walter Scott’s Waverly Novels? There are 27 novels in the series. They don’t all have to be adapted, just the most cinematic. The Bride of Lammermoor is about the tragic love story of Lucy Ashton and Edgar, Master of Ravenswood (opera lovers are familiar with this story as Lucia di Lammermoor by Donizetti). There are also the novels of Dorothy Dunnett, the Lymond Chronicles, which follow the career of Francis Crawford from 1547 to 1558.
Instead of yet another version of The Forsyte Saga, why not redo Anthony Trollope’s The Palliser novels? Who wouldn’t want to watch a series about a character named Plantagenet Palliser? The books were adapted in the 1970s, starring Susan Hampshire with a very young Anthony Andrews in a small role. Set at the height of the Victorian era, this series has everything: politics, love triangles, beautiful dresses, balls, a main character who inherits a dukedom, all the things that people love in a costume drama.
As for the golden age of mysteries, I think it’s high time that we have a new adaptation of the Dorothy L. Sayers novels featuring Lord Peter Wimsey. The last series, way back in the early nineties, focused solely on the novels featuring Lord Peter and his love interest Harriet Vane. I propose Tom Hiddleston as Lord Peter and Hayley Atwell as Harriet Vane. Closer to home, we have Mary Roberts Rinehart, Craig Rice, or the Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters. I would also love to see someone tackle Anne Perry’s Thomas and Charlotte Pitt series. A TV movie, produced by Prince Edward’s production company, came out in 1998 with Keeley Hawes as Charlotte Ellison, but there’s been nothing since.
Instead of adapting The Great Gatsby, how about looking at F. Scott Fitzgerald’s other novels? Tender Is the Night was adapted into a TV series in the 80s, starring Peter Strauss, Mary Steenburgen, and Sean Young. Still, it’s well worth another look, as are his earlier novels, The Other Side of Paradise and The Beautiful and the Damned. I would love to see a new adaptation of Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises or even Somerset Maugham’s Of Human Bondage.
I’m dying for someone to do The Prisoner of Zenda. I always thought that it would be a great role for Sean Bean, but he’s too old for it now. I’d settle for Jamie Dornan, Henry Cavill, or Jack O’Connell. For romance, historical romance lovers have been asking for someone, anyone, to adapt any of Beverly Jenkins’ historical romances. I could go on and on through the oeuvre of Wilkie Collins, Sheridan Le Fanu, and Baroness Orczy’s Lady Molly of Scotland Yard series, but I think I’ll stop here!
Are there any novels that you are dying to see adapted for the screen?
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Elizabeth Kerri Mahon is a native New Yorker, actress, and history geek. Pretty Evil New York: True Stories of Mobster Molls, Violent Vixens, and Murderous Matriarchs (Globe Pequot Press), her first foray into historical true crime came out in October 2021.
You can find her and more of her writing on substack at the link provided: Elizabeth Kerri Mahon | Substack
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