It is not one of Davies' most consistent adaptations, but still, it's an easy-to-watch introduction to one of Austen's lesser-known novels. There are things to like about Davies' 'Northanger Abbey,' even while it is flawed and superficial, particularly when the storyline collapses awkwardly toward the end. There's a nice scene early in 'Northanger Abbey' when heroine Catherine Morland and hero Henry Tilney are talking about flirting while flirting, and Davies makes their clever 'meta' exchange - talking about talking - feel like a Victorian invention.

And yet Davies knows how to clear off the dust, too, to translate all the 19th-century manners and obscurities for today's audiences. If you're a fan of filmed classic novels, you've probably already admired Davies' work as the screenwriter of some of PBS's best 'Masterpiece Theatre' productions - 'Bleak House,' 'Middlemarch,' 'The Way We Live Now,' and the 'Pride and Prejudice' - that would be the 1995 version starring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth, with all due respect to Sir Laurence O.ĭavies has a pleasing way of staying true to his masterful sources in spirit and detail, never imposing a contemporary vision onto them in the way Jane Campion and Laura Jones did in 1996 with 'The Portrait of a Lady,' by making the Henry James novel into a tale of domestic abuse.

on Channel 2, was written by Andrew Davies. This new PBS adaptation of Jane Austen's 'Northanger Abbey,' tomorrow at 9 p.m.

Jj feild northanger abbey