'The 21st-Century gym-toned bodies put me out': Four things Jane Austen adaptations get wrong - according to experts

A new film adaptation of the English novelist's Sense and Sensibility adds to a long line of attempts to translate Austen's timeless stories to the screen. But these are their common mistakes.

Jane Austen's timeless novels are always being re-adapted.

And there are two more major adaptations coming this year: Georgia Oakley's film version of Sense and Sensibility and a new TV series of Pride and Prejudice. They add to a long line of attempts to translate the works of the beloved 19th-Century author to the screen.

Each generation will have their favourites, and it is a truth universally acknowledged that no film or TV take on a book can ever be entirely faithful to the original text. But there are certain aspects of Austen adaptations that always rile up passionate Janeites.

Here are four things they consistently get wrong – according to experts.

1. They focus on fairytale romance

Romance takes centre stage in most Austen adaptations. But "Austen is much more focused on the heroine", Sutherland says. "She's a psychological novelist... that's what interests her." Austen presents the reader with imperfect heroines who face moral challenges and social obstacles independent of their male love interest – which makes them all the more relatable to modern women.

And while Austen may not have the same haunting allure as the gothic Victorian writers who came after her, she does touch on some heavier themes. In Mansfield Park, for example, she explores infidelity and gambling, while she references slavery on multiple occasions across her works (though it's greatly disputed what her thoughts on slavery were).

Of course, Austen's fairytale romantic moments are important – like Captain Wentworth's ardent love letter to Anne in Persuasion – but by promoting romance from a sub-plot to the main plot, adaptations can overlook Austen's class critique and her depiction of the bleak reality for women in the Regency era (around 1795-1837). Apart from Emma Woodhouse, the protagonist of Emma, most of the heroines in Austen's stories face financial precarity. 

"Austen knew her market," says Sandie Byrne, professor of English at the University of Oxford. "And she had to have the girl getting the boy, and the 'happy ever after' to sell her books – but she doesn't make the big kiss, or the proposal, or the wedding the climax of the book, and there's no description of the church and the fuss."

Plus a woman's need for security wouldn't have ended after marriage – her security would always rely on her husband's character and how they managed their finances. "The adaptations tend to show a rosy glow – everything's tied up and finished," Byrne says.

2. They get the costumes and styling – and teeth – wrong 

"Where are the bonnets?!" erupted Austen enthusiasts when Oakley's Sense and Sensibility trailer debuted, featuring scenes of 19-year-old Elinor (Daisy........

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