Fan Works and the Law

Abstract

We might think that fictional worlds are, or at first appear to be, bounded by the works that create them. Once the reader has reached the last page of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, the story is over: or is it? In fact, Pride and Prejudice has spawned countless adaptations and reinterpretations. Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy reprise their difficult courtship on the screen in the persons of Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier, or as Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfayden, or Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth, or as countless others. They have made it to Bollywood as Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Martin Henderson and, returning to their print origins, they have battled the undead in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2009). Wickham has been charged with murder in Death Comes to Pemberley (2011), while Elizabeth, Mr. Darcy and others have explored their kinkier sides in Pride and Promiscuity (2003). Mr. Darcy, sans Elizabeth, has found himself unexpectedly transported to the twenty-first-century romantic novel in Seducing Mr. Darcy (2008). And there are over 3,500 Pride and Prejudice stories on fanfiction.net.