Review of "Pride and Prejudice: The Graphic Novel"
So, I’ve reviewed the manga and Marvel adaptations of Pride and Prejudice. Now I’m going to review another comic adaptation of the book, this time by Laurence Sach and illustrated by Rajesh Nagulakonda. The graphic novel is actually formatted more like a magazine, which suits the style of the cover text.
My overall reaction? It’s…okay.
The dialogue and scenes are mostly faithful to the book and, unlike Marvel’s adaptation, there is some showing rather than telling. Georgiana Darcy’s attempted elopement with George Wickham is actually illustrated, rather than just being spelled out in the letter that Elizabeth reads. However, sometimes the captions take it upon themselves to narrate responses and scenes. For example, when Mr. Darcy tells Caroline Bingley that Elizabeth is “…one of the handsomest women of my acquaintance,” her reaction is not shown, but told in the accompanying caption.
In terms of the artwork, there’s a warm color palette that the author draws from that is pleasing, but the art is very inconsistent. On the one hand, I like how this Mr. Darcy looks more than I did the Marvel version. He looks young, lean, and relatively good-looking. On the other hand, his appearance changes often. On a lot of side profiles of him in smaller panels, his nose becomes a block and his face looks rougher, as if the artist was rushing. So, in the big panels where he’s in close-up or full-profile, he looks fine. But in the smaller profiles, he looks different and rushed, as do the other characters.
One character design I did not care for was Mr. Bingley’s. In many appearances, he looks heavier and older than Mr. Darcy, and, in my opinion, unattractive. Georgiana also looked a bit frumpy (although I found it interesting that she’s a brunette, since most adaptations cast her as a blonde). Although at least Elizabeth got to meet her in this version, unlike in the manga version.
Now, of course, this graphic novel disappointed me on another front, this time a more trivial and fan front, which is that Fitzwilliam and Elizabeth don’t get to kiss! Yes, in the Marvel version, they didn’t kiss either, but Mr. Darcy at least picked her up in his arms and you saw them about to kiss in the last panel. Here? Nothing. She says that her feelings have changed, they walk on, and then the reader sees them getting married. You only see them hold hands. Yawn. Again, I know that kissing in public was a faux-pas back then, but come on! That’s it? And the last panel of the comic is of Lady Catherine de Bourgh approaching Pemberley. Because that’s the note that you want to end on when reading about a romance: not an expression of love by the two leads, but of the disgruntled intrusion of their opponent. But at least Elizabeth calls Mr. Darcy “Mr. Darcy” and not “Darcy” (like her manga counterpart), so…points, I guess?
So, yes. A step up from the Marvel version in some respects and a downgrade in others. If I had to rate the three graphic novel versions of Pride and Prejudice that I’ve read so far, this would be #2, in the middle between Marvel’s (#3) and Udon Manga’s (#1). This version mostly elicits a “Meh” reaction from me.