ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that one must look back to the nineteenth century to see the beginnings of the commercial adaptation industry that dominates the present. Although discussions of longevity and canonicity may seem better suited to the study of literary classics rather than popular adaptations, the idea deserves more consideration. Examining historical case studies through the lens of contemporary adaptation studies shows that early stage adaptations largely determined which nineteenth-century novels were transformed into "culture-texts". Continued adaptation and appropriation into a range of popular forms eventually ensured their place in the literary canon. The adaptation industry that formed around Dickens's early novels shows how adaptation can fuel a text's or a novelist's popularity, helping to canonize them or make their works classics-not the other way around. Canon formation to be open to continuous critique and constant change through feminist and other counter-discursive, critical models.
