AustLit

The Sun noted that this production was 'specially prepared for Leaving Certificate students'.

Source:

'Plays and Players', The Sun, 16 October 1953, p.16.

The reviewer in the Age noted:

Last Sunday the unexpected happened in the shape of a quite believable presentation in dramatic form of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice."

Cramming a whole novel into an hour of drama is a perfectly hopeless method of presenting even one tenth of the story. All that can emerge is a skeleton. That is unfair to the book and to the genius of Miss Austen who would have been horrified if she had heard the broadcast, and would probably have declined to permit it.

At the same time one had to applaud the skill with which Catherine Shepherd handled the adaptation. Although one cannot approve of such literary topiary one can forgive it a little if some of the essence of the original is preserved. In this instance that was done.

But why cannot this questionable practice be stopped and more encouragement be given for the production of original work? We have some excellent writers of short stories in Australia, who if it were made worth their while, could tell their tales through the dramatic medium equally as effectively.

Source:

'The Week in Wireless', The Age, 24 October 1953, p.16.