Most-read 2022: Everyone involved should be in prison: Netflix’s Persuasion reviewed

We’re finishing the year by republishing our ten most popular articles from 2022. Here’s number nine: Deborah Ross’s piece from July on the pitfalls of adapting Austen.

You may already have read early reviews of Netflix’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion saying it’s ‘the worst adaptation ever’ as well as ‘mortifying’ and ‘a travesty’, but I know you won’t believe it unless you hear it from me, so here you are: it is truly horrible. I would also add that everyone involved should probably be sent to prison. Not for life, but until we could be confident they’d learned the error of their ways and there was minimal risk of reoffending. A probation officer would possibly be required to keep a close eye, just to make sure. Better safe than sorry.

There are ways to adapt Austen for a contemporary audience, but those ways are not this way, and I say this not as a purist.