A few months ago, I posted some poems-- works in progress-- that were inspired by watching repeatedly some of the much older versions of films and mini-series based on Jane Austen's novels. I have since removed those versions of the poems, but have now re-posted them again... here [because I'm still struggling to understand OS's copyright rules]. These are new versions, some including new material... and I have more in the works even now.

Please understand that poems are nearly always works in progress... never finished, only abandoned. These are not yet abandoned.

The films I watched during the past Christmas break while I was recuperating are all available on NetFlix, via InstantView... and these are the ones I like best...

Pride and Prejudice  (in fact, the casting, over all, is better in this version; please note in particular, Mrs. Bennet, Lady Catherine, and Lydia Bennet. Fay Weldon dramatised it, and was, with a few exceptions, mostly faithful to the novel.)

Mansfield Park (the more recent theatrical version was a travesty; it should have born a different name... loosely based, indeed!)

Sense and Sensibility  (the sisters are of more appropriate ages in this version, although Margaret is missing!, and Irene Richard who plays Charlotte in the P&P above, is Elinor here. I do quibble, however, with the liberties taken with the weather.)

Emma  (I confess, I was never really convinced by Gwyneth Paltrow's Emma. However, Doran Godwin seems born for the part.)

Yes, these much older versions are even better than that marathon series on PBS last year, and yes, this P&P is even better than the A&E version of P&P with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. Elizabeth Garvie and David Rintoul as Elizabeth and Darcy really do set an independent standard). 

Persuasion (not quite as old as the others, but still an excellent film, with Amanda Root and Ciaran Hind. The version of Persuasion from around that earlier time period was pretty awful; I could not watch even the first episode... I had to turn it off.)

If you prefer what Hollywood does to literature, you might not like these recommendations as well-- since they are certainly less sexy-- but if you care about the books at all, you might learn to like them even better.

After all, Austen was not writing bodice-rippers, nor even romances, but comedies of manners. In fact, in Northanger Abbey she parodied such works.

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Be forewarned... by no means should you watch the version of P&P with Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson. Regency England?! Hah! Try Tara, pre-Civil War. An even worse travesty, if possible, than that other version of Mansfield Park! Nothing there is remotely recognizable as even being loosely based on a work by Austen.