Daily Junction.mobi portal<p>Yet The Female Quixote also invites us to question why female reading habits attract such scrutiny in the first place. Much like modern debates about <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-romantasy-our-experts-explain-the-bestselling-book-trend-224269">romantasy</a> or <a href="https://theconversation.com/slash-fiction-cosplay-and-sherlocked-a-guide-to-fandom-39882">fan fiction</a>, Lennox’s novel exposes the tendency to <a href="https://medium.com/illumination/let-me-enjoy-reading-without-being-judged-for-my-taste-bd59f000d3cd">dismiss the cultural interests of women</a> as frivolous, unhealthy or delusional. </p>
<p>A smart adaptation could capture both the comedy of Arabella’s misconceptions, and the novel’s surprisingly sympathetic defence of the pleasures of imaginative reading.</p>
<h2>4. <a href="https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15793/9780199536931">Evelina: Or, The History of a Young Lady’s Entrance Into the World</a> (1778) by Fanny Burney</h2>
<figure class="align-right "> <img alt="Book cover" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/760772/original/file-20260918-50-2yl58s.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.1&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/760772/original/file-20260918-50-2yl58s.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.1&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=911&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/760772/original/file-20260918-50-2yl58s.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.1&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=911&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/760772/original/file-20260918-50-2yl58s.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.1&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=911&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/760772/original/file-20260918-50-2yl58s.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.1&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1145&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/760772/original/file-20260918-50-2yl58s.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.1&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1145&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/760772/original/file-20260918-50-2yl58s.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.1&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1145&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"> <figcaption> <span class="caption">blank.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Oxford World's Classics</span></span> </figcaption> </figure>
<p>Evelina is perhaps the easiest sell of all because <a href="https://medium.com/@jgstovall/fanny-burney-paving-the-way-for-jane-austen-and-the-brontes-3424b2e827c1">its often seen as Austen before Austen</a>. Following a young woman as she enters fashionable society for the first time, the novel combines romance, comedy and social satire with a heroine whose uncertainty about the world around her makes her instantly relatable. </p>
<p>But beneath its humour lies a story about the challenges of establishing your own identity in a society obsessed with status and reputation. </p>
<p>Burney was <a href="https://www.brlsi.org/talk/fanny-burney-jane-austens-favourite-writer/">one of Austen’s favourite authors</a> and readers familiar with Pride and Prejudice and Emma will recognise many of the qualities that Austen would later make famous. So an adaptation of Evelina would offer something both fresh and familiar by giving viewers a chance to revisit the literary world that made Austen possible in the first place.</p>
<h2>5. <a href="https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15793/9780199537419">The Mysteries of Udolpho: A Romance</a> (1794) by Anne Radcliffe</h2>
<figure class="align-right "> <img alt="Book cover" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/760773/original/file-20260918-50-qr7lks.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.1&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/760773/original/file-20260918-50-qr7lks.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.1&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=912&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/760773/original/file-20260918-50-qr7lks.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.1&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=912&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/760773/original/file-20260918-50-qr7lks.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.1&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=912&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/760773/original/file-20260918-50-qr7lks.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.1&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1146&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/760773/original/file-20260918-50-qr7lks.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.1&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1146&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/760773/original/file-20260918-50-qr7lks.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.1&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1146&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"> <figcaption> <span class="caption"></span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Oxford World's Classics</span></span> </figcaption> </figure>
<p>A riot of gothic excess, Anne Radcliffe’s chiller arrives packed to the brim with <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/discover/articles/what-is-gothic-literature">many of the ingredients</a> that have recently enjoyed a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/culture/article/20210311-the-books-that-are-channelling-our-fears">cultural renaissance</a>: crumbling castles, sublime landscapes, dark family secrets, brooding villains and a pervasive atmosphere of mystery. But the novel’s enduring appeal lies in the way it uses these gothic trappings to explore very real anxieties about female precarity and male power. Isolated, surveilled and threatened by powerful men, the fate of heroine Emily St. Aubert explores inheritance, coercion, gender, and authority.</p>
<p>Now, don’t get me wrong, Austen remains endlessly adaptable. I, for one, will be watching the latest takes on her work when they land on our screens. But as this list shows, Jane’s was never the only game in town. The novels beloved by Austen and her contemporaries were often stranger, riskier and more inventive than the stories that often make it to our screens. Three centuries on, they may be ready for their big moment.</p>
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<p><span><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/amy-louise-blaney-586071">Amy Louise Blaney</a>, Knowledge Exchange Coordinator, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-wolverhampton-1002">University of Wolverhampton</a></em></span></p>
<p>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/stop-adapting-jane-austen-five-other-18th-century-writers-perfect-for-the-screen-292178">original article</a>.</p> </div>