The Fist adaptations of literature

Wordcount: 510

Written by Richard Patterson

Entertainment and media come in many different forms, but they are ultimately co-dependent on each other. A major example of this is the cross-medium of book-to-film adaptations that have been in place for years. There are many reasons that a book could be adapted into a film primarily being profit, playing off of the work’s initial print success. Alternatively, there is also the motivation to bring attention to the original book by making it more accessible to other fans. We’ll be exploring in this article a different array of adaptations from books to visual media.

The First adaptations of literature

The first book-to-film adaptation was the 1896 short silent film, Trilby and Little Billee written by George L. Du Maurier. Unfortunately, no remains of the film have made it to the modern day, making the film a piece of lost media. The same could be said about the 1897 Death of Nancy Sykes, a film based on the Charles Dickens novel: Oliver Twist. Thankfully, an early adaptation that remains is the 1899 silent film Georges Méliès- Cinderella.

The film was 6-7 minutes long and is a summarized retelling of the original fairytale and is available to watch online. When the 1930s came along, studios were already becoming familiar with the lucrative potential of turning popular novels into films using newfound technology. This was considered the Golden Age of Hollywood with classic adaptations of The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind’ becoming iconic films.

Reasons For Adaptations

In the entertainment industry, it’s common to see print series made into films or TV series. Given its popularity, quite unsurprisingly, some of the most famous films in history are adaptations from books. Such as The Lord of the Rings/Middle Earth series, The Godfather, The Hunger Games series, and many more. Film franchises saw a growth in popularity after their successful adaptations of novels by extending their reach further than a “reader” audience. In turn, this also brought attention back to the original work. This is because some film adaptations can’t cover everything in the books, fans will seek out the original medium to learn more.

Animated adaptations are the standard in the anime industry. For years, adaptations of manga/light novel series and even classic Japanese stories have been made into anime in some form. In some cases, anime productions only take a specific portion of the story it’s sourced from, there are two main reasons for this. Firstly, the main reason is that an anime typically has a short season of 12 episodes and for time purposes is unable to depict the full story. Another rumored reason is that the anime was created to advertise the manga/light novel series by drawing in more fans.

Closing thoughts

It’s interesting how long the idea of adapting books into shows and movies has been around. Some may see it as a way to keep retelling and keep older works of art relevant. It’s not only keeping these classic stories relevant and in the public eye but it’s also making them more accessible. So, storytelling and entertainment aren’t exclusive to only the written page, or the big screen, but depend on each other heavily.

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Work Cited

“The Art of Book-to-Movie Adaptations | UT Permian Basin Online.” UT Permian Basin’s Online Degree Programs, https://online.utpb.edu/about-us/articles/humanities/the-art-of-book-to-movie-adaptations/. Accessed 19 November 2024.