Back in the day

I still remember the first time I watched the BBC’s iconic 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.

At the time, my husband and I lived near San Francisco and were too poor to afford cable TV. My parents lived in Colorado and subscribed to A&E, the US network that, in January 1996, began broadcasting a hot new miniseries that had just taken the UK by storm. Mom and Dad recorded each episode on their VHS (I’ll explain later, kids) and mailed us the bulky cassettes. Over two nights—we all had work to do, so a five-hour-plus binge was unfeasible--we invited a Janeite friend over to our little apartment for a watch party.

I know I speak for Janeites everywhere when I say: Squee!  

And that wasn’t the only superlative Austen screen adaptation we saw that year. Around the same time, our local multiplex was showing the Emma Thompson-Ang Lee version of Sense and Sensibility. A few months earlier, we’d taken in Clueless, Amy Heckerling’s immortal Emma update.

Yeah, it was a golden age. (Shall we ever see its like again? Sigh.)

These nostalgic recollections were occasioned by the news that Jane Austen’s House, the museum located in the cottage in Chawton, England, where Austen spent the last eight years of her life, has just opened an exhibit called “Austenmania!” The exhibit, part of the museum's Austen 250 celebration, marks the thirtieth anniversary of the three adaptations I loved back in 1995-96, as well as the Amanda Root-Ciaran Hinds Persuasion, which aired on UK TV in 1995, ahead of a 1997 theatrical release in the US.

The year 1995, the museum’s website argues, was “an astonishing year of film and TV adaptations that changed the Austen landscape forever,” and for once, the hype is accurate: As I argued in my book, Colin Firth’s wet-shirt scene in P&P, and the explosion of fan enthusiasm it provoked, set the table for the Internet-driven fandom that has defined much of the Janeite experience ever since.

"The whole country tuned in to watch Pride and Prejudice and fell in love with Lizzy Bennet and Mr. Darcy," Sophie Reynolds, head of collections at Jane Austen's House, told the local paper. "It was a huge moment for Jane Austen’s House, too–visitor numbers went through the roof and have stayed high ever since--so it really feels as though the house is part of the story."

The exhibit, which runs through January 4 of next year, features scripts, production notes, posters, and merchandise from the four films, with the whole experience set to the memorable P&P soundtrack.

To my delight, I will be in the UK this summer, and my Chawton visit was booked even before I learned of this additional draw. Squee again! “Enjoy a trip back to the 1990s when Austenmania was in full swing!” the museum's website urges.

Oh, I will. I definitely will.