Pride and prejudice has been adapted many times. Sometimes, it retains the original form, sometimes there’s creative inspiration involved. Of the latter form is the Lizzie Bennet Diaries; a web show that finished in March this year.

I discovered the series by accident; quite by accident. Owing to my habit of reading everything put before me, I happened to glance through a webpage that I opened by mistake. Honestly, I wasn’t even aware that something called Web shows even exists. And I’m super-glad I discovered this one.

Lizzie Bennet lives with her family comprising of her parents and their three daughters, Lizzie being the middle one. She’s twenty-four, a final year grad-school student of Mass Communications. Jane’s the eldest sister, Lydia ‘s the youngest. Since the adaptation was based in the year 2012, they showed only three children, while Mary Bennet became the first  cousin and Kitty Bennet the cat.

Lizzie has a video blog where she documents her family’s life, talking about Jane’s romance with Bing Lee (a play on Bingley. Smart, right?), her crazy baby sister Lydia, George Wickham  and of course, the proud Mr. Darcy.

The story starts with the ever-famous quote from Pride and Prejudice: It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife (on a t-shirt). 

The videos are recorded and edited by Liizzie’s best friend Charlotte Lu. Each video is about three minutes long and the series incorporated the social media beautifully and efficiently. Since the LBD is essentially a blog, the viewers got their dose of Pride and Prejudice actually happening on their Twitter feeds and Tumblr blogs! It was luck that I discovered the series after it was finished. Not complaining, I wouldn’t have had the patience to wait!

Lizzie is funny, ambitious, clever, thoughtful and yes, a little prejudiced. But she’s a good sister, and basically a good person, just like our original Elizabeth Bennet.

One of the highlights of her video blog was role play. Lizzie’s imitations of her mother are downright hilarious, and her interactions with pretend Darcy (role-played by Charlotte) are a delight to watch.

The best part about the adaptation is the focus on Lizzie’s, Jane’s and Charlotte’s individual careers. The choices that they make and the impact it has on their friendship is shown beautifully.

You can check out the entire series here.

Have you watched the Lizzie Bennet Diaries? Do you know about any other web-shows?