ABSTRACT

Written specifically with the student in mind and focusing on a number of well-known texts, including Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Nicholas Nickleby, Nice Work and The Color Purple, the contributions in this book demonstrate how we can look critically at literary adaptations and learn to distinguish between mythical images and the reality of the process that constructed them. They argue that adaptations should not be seen as secondary or marginal, because through them we can enter into an exciting debate with the literary text itself. Originally published in 1993.

chapter |16 pages

Introduction

chapter 2|15 pages

Dismembering Devils

The demonology of Arashi ga oka (1988) and Wuthering Heights (1939)

chapter 3|15 pages

Dickens and Adaptation

Imagery in words and pictures

chapter 4|16 pages

Adapting Dickens to the Modern Eye

Nicholas Nickleby and Little Dorrit

chapter 5|25 pages

‘The Devil is Beautiful'

Dracula: Freudian novel and feminist drama

chapter 6|17 pages

A Woman's Love

D. H. Lawrence on film

chapter 7|17 pages

Shared Dreams

Reproducing Gone with the Wind

chapter 8|18 pages

Spies in the House of Quality

The American reception of Brideshead Revisited

chapter 9|18 pages

From Walker to Spielberg

Transformations of The Color Purple

chapter 10|16 pages

A Play for England

The Royal Court adapts The Playmaker