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Daniel Defoe

Robinson Crusoe. 1953. Luis Bunuel's only American-financed film is is a reasonably reliable version of the Daniel Defoe's novel about a 17th century shipwreck victim.

Robinson Crusoe. 2002.

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Robinson Crusoe. 2003. Animation.

Jonathan Swift

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Gulliver's Travels. 1996. Ebulliently imaginative and far more cleverly presented than you would expect from a TV miniseries, this adaptation of Gulliver's Travels succeeds by never pandering to the lowest common denominator. Closely based on Jonathan Swift's 1726 classic, it is enhanced by dazzling special effects

Gulliver's Travels. 1976. The combination of live action and animation give a three dimensional effect to this version of Jonathan Swift's classic story. Richard Harris stars as Gulliver as he explores the magical worlds and people he encounters.

Gulliver's Travels. 1939. This was only the second animated motion picture of its kind ever produced - the first being Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs.

Samuel Richardson

Clarissa. 1991. Adaptation of Richardson's novel. Clarissa struggles to remain pure and to convert adulterous Lovelace, while Lovelace fights to subdue her and to stay unaffected by his growing feelings for her.

Henry Fielding

Tom Jones. 1963. Based on the novel by Henry Fielding about the wild exploits of a rustic playboy.

Joseph Andrews.1977.

Sir Walter Scott

Ivanhoe. 1997. The quintessential novel about chivalry, Ivanhoe is set about a century after the Battle of Hastings, so that there is still conflict between the ruling Normans and the defeated Saxons in England. Because this is a mini-series we are able to enjoy every one of Scott's plots complications.

The Adventures of Robin Hood. 1938. Errol Flynn is the definitive Robin Hood in the most gloriously swashbuckling version of the legendary story.

Jane Austen

The Jane Austen Collection. Six features adapted from the novels by Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, Emma, Persuasion.

Pride and Prejudice. 2005.Winning wide acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic, this latest take on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is an all-round triumph. See also: Pride and Prejudice 1995 USA UK

Emma. A faithful, enchanting adaptation of Austen's nineteenth-century tale of Emma Woodhouse, a clever young woman whose mischievous matchmaking schemes nearly cost her her own shot at romance.

Persuasion. 1995. The story of a love that survives eight years of dormancy and the frustrating obstacles of class prejudice in 19th century England.

Sense And Sensibility. 1996. Emma Thompson scores a double bull's-eye with Sense and Sensibility. Not only does Thompson turn in a strong (and gently humorous) performance as Elinor Dashwood--the one with "sense"--she also wrote the witty, wise screenplay.

Lord George Gordon Byron

Byron. 2003. BBC drama on the life of Lord Byron. We go from Greece to London to Italy, back to Greece where he dies fighting for freedom.

Mary Shelley

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. 1994. Kenneth Branagh plays Frankenstein, a man so obsessed with conquering death that he decides to create life.

Frankenstein and The Bride of Frankenstein. 1931. Two classic Universal monster films

Gothic. 1986. Directed by Ken Russell. Horror story based on the events of one dark night in July 1816, when Lord Byron's houseguests Mary Shelley and Dr. Polidori, fuelled by gothic novels and laudanum, conceived Frankenstein and the Vampyre respectively.

Elizabeth Gaskell

North and South. 2005. Adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's novel. Margaret Hale, a southerner, has newly moved to the industrial town of Milton. When the workers of a cotton mill strike, Margaret immediately takes their side, already displaying a strong dislike for the mill's owner, John Thornton.

Wives and Daughters. 1999. Andrew Davies' adaptation of Mrs Gaskell's novel was hailed as the rediscovery of a "forgotten" classic novel and found the BBC on the crest of a wave with costume dramas

William Makepeace Thackeray

Vanity Fair. 1999. Vanity Fair Follows the fortunes of Becky Sharp as she climbs the social ladder. Determined to reach the top, Becky schemes and seduces those who get in her way. Her progress is threatened, however, when she encounters real love.

Vanity Fair. 2004. The corsets and high waists of the 19th century meet the lush colors and visual splendor of India in Vanity Fair, a classic novel translated into modern celluloid by Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding).

Vanity Fair. 1967. A BBC adaptation of Thackery's novel Vanity Fair which follows the relative changes in fortunes of two friends in the early 1800s.

Barry Lyndon. 1975. Perhaps Stanley Kubrick's most underrated film, Barry Lyndon is adapted from the picaresque novel by William Makepeace Thackeray.

Three feature films. Vanity Fair. Sense and Sensibility. Shakespeare in Love.

Charles Dickens

Bleak House. 2005. Acclaimed writer Andrew Davies turns his talents to one of Charles Dickens' most brilliant novels - arguably the greatest ever depiction of Victorian London. Fresh and imaginative, yet faithful to the original

Charles Dickens Collection. Box set of adaptations of popular tales from Charles Dickens.

Great Expectations, and others. Boxed set of films.

David Copperfield. 1999. The BBC's adaptation of David Copperfield has something to suit every taste: a well-paced screenplay that keeps the tale bowling along without losing the delights of some of Dickens' most sparkling dialogue and a rich gallery of characters.

Oliver Twist. 2005.
See also: Oliver Twist 1948
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Anthony Trollope

The Barchester Chronicles. 1982. Adaptation of two Anthony Trollope novels. The respected Reverend of Barchester becomes a victim of association when the Church is accused of corruption.

The Pallisers. 1977. Drama which exposes the scandal and intrigue of the elite social strata of mid-Victorian society. Based on the political novels of Anthony Trollope.

The Anthony Trollope Collection. 1982. (The Barchester Chronicles / He Knew He Was Right / The Way We Live Now)

Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre. 1996. Victorian England, and an abused orphan becomes the governess of Thornfield Hall. There she meets Mr. Rochester. Based on the novel by Charlotte Bronte.

Jane Eyre.1983. This magnificent production recreates Charlotte Bronte's passionate and tender story of the love between a fiercely independent governess and her brusque, mysterious employer.

Jane Eyre. 1934.

Emily Bronte

Wuthering Heights. 1992. Peter Kosminsky's adaptation of Emily Bronte's novel.

Wuthering Heights.1970. The immortal story of defiant young lovers, Heathcliffe and Catherine who will not be separated - even by the grave.

Wuthering Heights. 1939. William Wyler's classic production with Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon.

Wuthering Heights. 2006. BBC.

Wuthering Heights and Tess of the D'Urbervilles. 1998. Acclaimed adaptations of Emily Bronte and Thomas Hardy's classic tragic novels.

Anne Bronte

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Victorian England, 1848. Helen Graham becomes the new tenant at Wildfell Hall. Her unconventional life hides a hidden past. A period drama based on the novel by Anne Bronte.

George Eliot.

The Mill on the Floss. 1978. George Eliot's classic tale of love, rejection and reconciliation in which Maggie Tulliver is a rare free spirit in Victorian society who has to look outside the love of her own family to find the companionship and life she craves.

Middlemarch. 1994. This BBC adaptation of George Eliot's Middlemarch is so remarkable that after viewing it disaffected English Literature students may find themselves revisiting the once-dreaded novel with pleasurable anticipation.

Silas Marner. A member of a strict religious community, is wrongly accused of theft and has no choice but to move to a faraway village.

Daniel Deronda. 2002. Masterpiece Theater's production of George Eliot's Daniel Deronda was adapted by Andrew Davies from George Eliot's last and, perhaps, most ambitious novel.

Wilkie Collins

The Woman in White. 1998. Based on the novel by Wilkie Collins, the first English detective novel.

The Moonstone. 1934. Based on the novel by Wilkie Collins.

Lewis Carroll

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. 1972. A fifiteen year old Fiona Fullerton heads an all star British cast in this double BAFTA winning musical comedy-widely regarded as the most lavish and most faithful adaptation of Lewis Carroll's classic novel.

Alice in Wonderland. 1966. An intellectual Alice in Wonderland made for television by Jonathan Miller.

Alice in Wonderland. 1999. Produced for NBC television

Alice in Wonderland. 1983. Part of the Broadway Theater Archives. Stage production

Alice in Wonderland. 1951 Disney adaptation of the Lewis Carroll classic

Thomas Hardy

Tess. 1980. Roman Polanski adapted Thomas Hardy's novel Tess of the D'Urbervilles and came up with this moody, haunting film starring Nastassia Kinski as the farm girl who is misused by the aristocrat for whom she works and who is then caught in a marriage where her initial happiness soon turns to grief.

Tess of the D'Urbervilles. 1998. Made for TV version of Thomas Hardy's classic novel in which a peasant girl becomes torn between two men. Set in the Victorian era, Tess's predicament and the hypocrisy of the era leads only towards tragedy.

Jude. 1996. Dramatic adaptation of Thomas Hardy's novel in which a stonemason dreams of a university education. Christopher Eccleston plays Jude Fawley, a self-educated stonemason who holds the dream of attending university but identifies with the working class. Kate Winslet plays his cousin Sue Bridehead, a young woman with suffragette leanings and a position as a teacher's assistant.

Far From the Madding Crowd. 1967. John Schlesinger's solid adaptation of Thomas Hardy's novel sees three rival suitors vying for the affections of the beautiful Bathsheba Everdene (Julie Christie decked out in a variety of bonnets and frilly dresses), who has just inherited a farm.

Bram Stoker

Bram Stoker's Dracula. 1992.

Dracula and House of Dracula. 1931. Two classic Universal monster films.

Horror of Dracula. 1958. Often regarded as the highlight of Hammer horror's oeuvre. Although based on the classic story, Hammer very much makes it their own.

Hammer Horror set: Curse Of Frankenstein, The Horror Of Dracula, The Mummy

The Lair of the White Worm. 1988. Adapted by Ken Russell from Bram Stoker's The Lair of the White Worm.

Robert Louis Stevenson

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. 1920. In this silent version John Barrymore is dignified and virtuous as Dr Henry Jekyll, and transforms into Id incarnate as the lascivious Mr. Hyde.

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. 1941. Spencer Tracy plays the benevolent Dr. Jekyll, whose experiments in releasing the evil impulses within himself transform him into the bestial Mr. Hyde.

Kidnapped. 2005. Dramatisation of Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped. In the politically divided Scotland of 1751, orphaned Davie Balfour leaves the peace of his idyllic Lowland home to seek out his inheritance from his estranged uncle.

Treasure Island. 1950. Of all the stories of sea and ships and daring desperate men, none can compare with the adventure of Treasure Island.

Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray. 1974. Adaptation of Oscar Wilde's nove.l A lush, cautionary tale of a life of vileness and deception or a loving portrait of the aesthetic impulse run rampant? Why not both? After Basil Hallward paints a beautiful, young man's portrait, his subject's frivolous wish that the picture change and he remain the same comes true. Dorian Gray's picture grows aged and corrupt while he continues to appear fresh and innocent..

The Oscar Wilde Collection. Includes 4 works: The Importance of Being Earnest. The Picture of Dorian Gray. An Ideal Husband. Lady Windermere's Fan

The Importance of Being Earnest. 2002. Comedy masterpiece set during the Victorian era.

The Importance of Being Earnest. 1952. If you're looking for the definitive example of dry wit, look no further than this version of The Importance of Being Earnest.

Joseph Conrad

Lord Jim. 1965. Film version of Joseph Conrad's classic novel about an idealistic young naval officer who, discharged for an act of cowardice, proves himself a hero when caught and tortured by a feudal war lord in the jungles and islands of the Far East.

Apocalypse Now. 1979. Francis Ford Coppola's masterful film about the moral madness of the Vietnam War was inspired by Joseph Conrad's novella, Heart of Darkness.

The Secret Agent. 1998. Adapted from a story by Joseph Conrad. Screenplay and direction by Christopher Hampton.

The Duellists. 1978. One of the great directorial debuts, Ridley Scott's The Duellists is an extraordinary achievement which weaves an epic-in-miniature set around the edges of the Napoleonic Wars. Based on a story by Joseph Conrad, in turn inspired by real events.

Swept From the Sea. Based on the Joseph Conrad story Amy Foster, a swirlingly romantic melodrama, tells the story of a Polish sailor shipwrecked and washed ashore on the English coast in the 19th century.

Rudyard Kipling

The Jungle Book. 1942. The original screen version of Rudyard Kipling's tale of a young boy who grows up with a family of wolves.

Kim. 1951. Adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's classic tale involving an orphaned English boy in 1880's India who assumes a native's identity and gets involved in local espionage plot.

H G Wells

War of the War of the Worlds. 2005. Directed by Steven Spielberg, Staring Tom Cruise. A contemporary retelling of H.G. Wells’ seminal classic, the sci-fi adventure thriller reveals the extraordinary battle for the future of humankind through the eyes of one American family fighting to survive it.

War of the Worlds. 1954. Visionary producer George Pal brought the classic HG Wells story of a Martian invasion to the big screen, and it instantly became a science-fiction classic and winner of the 1953 Academy Award for Best Special Effects.

The Time Machine. 1960. Producer-director George Pal's The Time Machine reshaped HG Wells' thoughtful, ironic novel into a two-fisted action movie, but one that still appeals to children and adults immensely and deserves its classic status.

First Men in the Moon. 1964. An adaptation of H.G. Wells' famous science fiction novel. A group of United Nations astronauts are alarmed at the tales told by a scientist who claims to have been attacked on the moon. The next planned mission to the moon may be under threat from ant-like creatures.

The Shape of Things to Come. 1979. Remake of a 1936 sci-fi future dystopia tale by H.G. Wells.

John Galsworthy

The Forsyte Saga. 1969. 26-episode production, based on several novels and short stories by John Galsworthy.

William Somerset Maugham

Of Human Bondage. W. Somerset Maugham's novel receives an excellent adaptation to the screen in this 1934 film directed by John Cromwell.

3 Leading Ladies Of The Silver Screen Vol. 2: Of Human Bondage, Behave Yourself, Home Town Story

The Razor's Edge. 1946. Based on W. Somerset Maugham's highly acclaimed 1944 novel, this is an ambitious account of one man's quest for spiritual identity.

The Moon and Sixpence. 1943.

Being Julia. 2004. Adaptation of the 1937 novel Theatre by W. Somerset Maugham.

Edgar Wallace

King Kong. 2005. Based on a story by Edgar Wallace.

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King Kong. 1933. Based on a story by Edgar Wallace. The Original Black and White Classic starring Fay Wray

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King Kong. 1976 remake

Circus of Fear. 1967. Based on a story by Edgar Wallace. A circus becomes the location for stolen loot and murder.

The Phantom of Soho. 1966. Based on a story by Edgar Wallace.

E M Forster

A Passage to India. 1985. David Lean's adaptation of EM Forster's mysterious tale of racism in colonial India, turned out to be the master director's final film. Subtle and grand at the same time, Lean's adaptation is faithful to the book.

A Room With a View. 1986. Splendidly adapted from the novel by E.M. Forster; a comedy of the heart, a passionate romance and a study of repression within the class system of manners and mores.

Howards End. 1992. E M Forster's beautifully subtle story of the criss-crossing paths of the privileged and those they disdain.

Where Angels Fear to Tread. 1991. An adaptation of E.M. Forster's debut novel. A woman who has recently lost her husband visits Italy where she soon marries again.

Maurice, 1987, deals with a theme few period pieces dare mention--a young man's struggle with his homosexuality. It's not just a gay coming-of-age story, however. The hero wrestles with British class society as much as his personal and sexual identity.

James Joyce

Bloom. (Bl,.m). 2003. Adaptation of James Joyce's Ulysses. By writer and director Sean Walsh.

Ulysses. 1967. Dublin: June 16th, 1904. Stephen Daedalus, a poet, embarks on a day of wandering about the city during which he finds friendship and a father figure in Leopold Bloom, a middle-aged Jew. Meanwhile, Bloom’s day, illuminated by a funeral and an evening of drinking and revelry that stirs paternal feelings towards Stephen, ends with a rapprochement with Molly, his cuckolding wife.

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. 1977. Stephen Dedalus is a young man growing up in Ireland in the early part of the twentieth century. He starts to feel a stranger in his own land as he starts to understand the nature of art and politics and he has to make a decision whether to accept exile in another land or stay and fight.

The Dead. 1987. Adaptation of the final story from Joyce's Dubliners, directed by John Huston.

Nora. 2000. The story of one of the great literary love affairs of the twentieth century between James Joyce and Nora Barnacle. Nora, whilst working in a hotel in Dublin, meets Joyce, who immediately falls in love with her.

Virginia Woolf

To the Lighthouse. 1983. A faithful dramatization of Virginia Woolf's novel. A lecturer, his family, the spinster Aunt Lily, an old friend, and a student, Charles Tansley, spend a summer in an isolated house in Cornwall just before World War I.

Mrs Dalloway. 1998. A drama based on the novel by Virginia Woolf which tells the story of an MP's wife who meets a former lover at a party.

Orlando. 1993. Drama based on the book by Virginia Woolf, which tells of Orlando, a 'person' searching for new experiences, existing as both a man and a woman through 400 years of history; from the reign of Elizabeth I to the present day.

The Hours. 2003. An adaptation of the novel by Michael Cunningham, this is the story of three women living in different time periods of the Twentieth Century all linked by a work of literature. In 1923 Virginia Woolf starts to write her novel 'Mrs Dalloway' whilst struggling to cope with depression and mental illness. In 1951 Laura Brown, a dissatisfied housewife contemplates her own life after reading 'Mrs Dalloway'. In 2000 editor, Clarissa Vaughan, struggles to look after her ex-lover, Richard Brown, who is losing his battle with Aids. Richard nicknames her 'Mrs Dalloway'.

Carrington. 1995. Film about Lytton Strachey - a member of Virginia Woolf's 'Bloomsbury Group' - and his relationship with the painter Dora Carrington. Direction and screenplay by Christopher Hampton. Based on the book Lytton Strachey by Michael Holroyd.

D H Lawrence

Sons and Lovers. 1960. Adaptation of D H Lawrence's.

Sons and Lovers. 2003. Gertrude is trapped in an unhappy marriage to Walter and channels all her love into her sons - particularly Paul. When Paul falls in love with two women a fatal battle of possessive love follows. Based on the classic novel by D H Lawrence.

Women in Love. 1969. Ken Russell directed what is one of the most passionate and involving adaptations of D H Lawrence. Oliver Reed and Alan Bates star as friends who fall in love with a pair of sisters.

The Rainbow. 1989. A respectable and picturesque realisation of D H Lawrence's novel. The Rainbow is director Ken Russell's prequel to his 1969 version of Women in Love. By Russell's standards, this is a remarkably restrained treatment of Lawrence's novel.

Lady Chatterley’s Lover. BBC adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's literary classic

See also: 1981 with Sylvia Kristel USA UK

Jean Rhys

Quartet. 1981. Director James Ivory brings the bohemian Paris neighbourhood of Montparnasse in the 1920s to life in this film based on the novel by Jean Rhys.

J R R Tolkien

The Lord of the Rings. Trilogy. The extended editions of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings present the greatest trilogy in film history in the most ambitious sets in DVD history, bringing J.R.R. Tolkien's work to the screen.

The Lord of the Rings. The Return of the King. Not only is the third and final instalment of Peter Jackson's adaptation of the works of J.R.R. Tolkien the longest of the three, but a full 50 minutes of new material pushes the running time to a whopping 4 hours and 10 minutes.

The Lord of the Rings. The Two Towers. 2002. With significant extra footage and a multitude of worthwhile bonus features this extended version of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is a colossal achievement.

The Lord of the Rings. The Fellowship of the Ring. 2001. In every aspect, the extended edition of Peter Jackson's epic fantasy The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is superior to the theatrical version. No-one who cares at all about the film should ever need to watch the original again.

J R R Tolkien. Master of the Rings. 2004.

Dame Rebecca West

The Return of the Soldier. 1982. From the novel by Dame Rebecca West. Starring Alan Bates, Julie Christie, Ann-Margret, and Glenda Jackson.

Aldous Huxley

VHS video. Brave New World. 1998. Based on the novel by Aldous Huxley this is the story of two people who live in a society where human emotions are forbidden. VHS video.

L P Hartley

The Go-Between. 1970. Screenwriter: Harold Pinter. Director: Joseph Losey. An old man (Michael Redgrave) thinks back to a summer many years before when, as a young boy, he stayed with the aristocratic Maudsley family in their beautiful house in the Norfolk countryside.

Robert Graves

I Claudius. 1977. An epic saga of dynastic conflict at the heart of Imperial Rome, I Claudius was the landmark BBC drama series of the 1970s. The series dramatises the human face of ancient Rome as interpreted by Robert Graves in his two novels I, Claudius and Claudius The God.

The Shout. 1978. Based on a story by Robert Graves. A macabre tale about a man who believes he has the power to kill with a horrifying death shout. He tells his tale to a composer ho becomes obsessed with harnes