Emerald Fennell defends her "Wuthering Heights" by saying that isn't meant to be a faithful adaptation, but to capture the feeling of reading the book for the first time as a teenage girl.
What if we all made adaptations of classic novels based on our first-time readings (or misreadings) when we were teenagers, before we were old enough to understand the emotional nuances or the social contexts, or realize that fanon ≠ canon?
If I were to make an adaptation of Pride and Prejudice based on my first impressions (no pun intended) of the book when I read it in high school. here's what it would be like. Now, some of these things are already P&P fanon, and some already exist in real adaptations, including the most popular ones. But it would still be a distorted version of the book!
The costumes and hairstyles are a strange blend of Regency fashions and much later 19th century fashions, because in high school I didn't know much about period dress and just imagined a mishmash.
Elizabeth is portrayed as a flawless, “ahead of her time” Mary Sue role model, who really is the smartest person in the story and the excellent judge of character she thinks she is. She doesn’t need to grow or change herself, but is just the catalyst for Darcy’s growth so he can become her ideal man. She exits for the rest of us to wish we were her and to aspire to be like her. Because after I first read the book as a teen, I quickly forgot about Elizabeth’s flaws and growth, and only remembered how “awesome” she was; and I know I’m far from alone in doing this.
Darcy is a total jerk at first, with hardly any redeeming qualities, until Elizabeth's rejection makes him see the error of his ways. From that point on, he changes his whole personality for Elizabeth's sake. There's no reveal that he was always a good person and that Elizabeth was wrong about him; no healthy mutual growth between them; just a transformation on his part, like a "realistic" version of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, because the "I can fix him" fantasy is what appeals to teenage girls. Wickham won't even lie about him in this version; he'll only exist as Elizabeth's "romantic false lead" who later runs off with Lydia. (Because as a teen I didn't remember the details or importance of his lies.) And Darcy's housekeeper Mrs. Reynolds won't describe him as having been good to his servants all his life, but as having been a difficult master until very recently, when suddenly he became kind and caring because he was humbled after a lady broke his heart.
Elizabeth is a rugged, outspoken tomboy who has none of her canonical good manners or sociability, because to an immature modern reader, the fact that she has any feistiness at all must mean that she's completely "ahead of her time" and unladylike. And for this reason, she's portrayed as better than all the more proper lady characters, in a classic Not Like Other Girls™ way.
Elizabeth is also genuinely plain-looking. Darcy's assessment of her looks as merely "tolerable" is accurate, and he doesn't change his mind later, but falls for her despite her appearance. Because as a teenager, I overlooked the lines indicating that she really is pretty, and I thought that "part of the appeal" of the love story was that she finds romance despite her “homely” looks.
Darcy is much more emotional, and emotionally unstable, than Austen wrote him, because that's what teen girls find romantic. His reaction to Elizabeth rejecting his proposal is basically a temper tantrum like that of Little Women's Laurie.
Elizabeth is wildly attracted to Darcy from the start, even as she hates him, though of course she won't admit it. This is why she cries after she rejects his first proposal: not out of anger and stress, but because she's secretly already in love with him and it breaks her heart to say 'no'. Her love doesn't grow from respect and esteem: it's pure animal attraction, which respect and esteem just eventually give her the excuse to act on. In my immature first reading of the book, this is what I honestly thought her feelings were.
Mrs. Bennet is to blame for all her family's problems, while Mr. Bennet is the good, loving, sensible parent. Because as a teen, I took that early impression at face value and somehow missed that it's deconstructed by the end.
Jane is an icy, vapid mean girl, spoiled by being the favored "most beautiful" Bennet sister. (Because that's what I thought she would be like at first, before she surprised me by being sweet). She's not so different from Caroline Bingley, hence their friendship, and instead of being close confidantes, she and Elizabeth are sibling rivals in the vein of Amy and Jo March or Sansa and Arya Stark. But falling for Bingley, then losing him, and being snubbed by Caroline ultimately humbles and redeems her, improving her relationship with Elizabeth and making her worthy of Bingley's love.
Charlotte Lucas, Lady Catherine, and Mary Bennet are all omitted. (Because I remembered nothing about them after I first read the book in high school.) The Rosings visit is cut; the script finds another way for Darcy to cross paths with Elizabeth again for the first proposal to take place. And later, the reveal that Darcy arranged Lydia's marriage is the only catalyst that finally brings Elizabeth and Darcy together.
Mr. Collins is very much a "Gross Older Relation I Must Marry" (thanks to @bethanydelleman for that term), because I overlooked the mention of his young age. His proposal to Elizabeth also happens later in the story, at a more climactic point, and the threat of being forced into the marriage by her mother is a much more real and dramatic danger than it is in the book, because my young mind misremembered it as a bigger deal than it is.
Every character's actions revolve around Elizabeth, because she's the heroine (and as a teen I saw this fanon online and believed it). When Darcy convinces Bingley to leave Jane, it's not really for Bingley's sake at all, or even because he wants Bingley to marry Georgiana; it's to distance himself from Elizabeth by preventing his best friend from marrying her sister, the better to resist his attraction to her. And later, Wickham seduces Lydia purely as revenge on Elizabeth for breaking off their flirtation.
After Lydia's marriage, her whole family rejects her and none of them will ever see her or Wickham again. Because as a teen, I forgot that most of them forgive her.
Just imagine if I made this movie, and when people objected to how it bastardized Austen, I defended it by saying it was based on my teenage impressions of Pride and Prejudice, not on Austen's work itself.
