So for the past few weeks, I have been falling in love with Pride and Prejudice all over again. This time, because of The Lizzie Bennett Diaries, a modern adaptation for social media. It is the brain child of Hank Green, of the vlogbrothers, DFTBA records, VidCon, and ALL the other jobs; and Bernie Su, who created and wrote the web series Compulsions.
The story is told mainly from Lizzie’s perspective (and from her bedroom). In this version, she is a 24 year-old grad student in mass communications, creating this vlog with her friend Charlotte, a fellow grad student studying film. Her sisters Jane and Lydia (no Mary or Kitty in this version) drop into her room every so often, so we get to see their perspectives as well. The rest of the characters, we have met so far only as impersonations done by the four girls (Jane’s impersonation of Darcy is, by far, my favourite).
There are two 3-5 minute episodes a week, on Mondays and Thursdays, but the story continues behind the scenes throughout the week, because each of characters (even the ones we haven’t met yet), are on twitter, facebook, tumblr, google+, and post throughout the week, interacting with each other, and with the general public.
Now, obviously, being a modern adaptation of a classic, they cannot be absolutely faithful to the book, but it has been fascinating to watch how they bring the story into the 21st century, and to read Bernie Su’s blog posts on the subject. And there hasn’t been an episode yet (there are 19 as of this post) that hasn’t made me laugh aloud at least once. The vlog lives here.
In audiobook news, I have two new books coming out on Audible. Links upcoming, once they go live.