This book derives its inspiration, in part, from the recent crop of films based on Jane Austen's novels. But it does not offer a systematic study of any one of these films: instead it makes use of them, or parts of some of them, in order to throw renewed light upon the classic texts from which they derive and depart, and to propose a general theory of adaptation. Films directly based on the novels are not the only ones discussed, for perhaps even more interesting are others which, besides imitating her work, raise in the course of their action and dialogue the nature and status of ‘Jane Austen’ within our culture. I am interested in the general topic of artistic recreation and remaking, and the role Jane Austen plays in the contemporary cultural imagination. I have wagered that ‘object-relations’ psychoanalysis, which has studied the various phenomena of human love, might throw some light on our love of aesthetic objects as well, but this theory is drawn upon selectively. As a consequence, this book's handling of psychoanalytic theory may strike professionals in the field as decidedly sketchy. My excuse is it has been rarely applied to the discussion not of the internal life of ‘characters’ but to the understanding of the artistic processes of recreation itself.

I should like to thank the friends and colleagues who have helped me with this book.