Nearly half of Hollywood films are adaptations of plays, novels, and stories. Indeed, most people encounter Shakespeare, Jane Austen, and Charles Dickens in screen versions rather than the original sources. Yet few viewers ponder the changes involved in translating words into images and narrative perspectives into cinematic frames. Often, discussions of a film’s success bog down in questions of “fidelity,” “imitation,” or “contemporary influences.” We will survey a brief history of important literary texts adapted for the “big screen” to clarify what is gained but also lost in any process of adaptation.
