The Classics Club monthly meme is another way to bring members of The Classics Club together. The post for the month will go up on the main page of this blog on the 2nd of the month, and you’ll have all month to respond over at your blog.
Q: What are your thoughts on adaptions of classics? Say mini-series or movies? Or maybe modern approaches? Are there any good ones? Is it better to read the book first? Or maybe just compare the book and an adaptation?
A: I cringe every time I see a new “Pride and Prejudice and Vampires”. Why can’t authors leave well enough alone? I am not completely opposed to retellings of classics but usually lean towards fictional novels on persons involved with said classic, such as Alice Liddell in Alice I Have Been or Edgar Allen Poe’s mistress Frances Osgood in Mrs. Poe.
Despite my dislike for novel retellings I do enjoy seeing movie adaptions although they are almost never as good as the book. The two I find exceptional are 1995’s Pride and Prejudice, one because it has Colin Firth in it and secondly I feel it is the best portrayal because unlike 2005’s it doesn’t skim over the story but takes it time, not bothering to take time management into consideration. The other is Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Ring Trilogy. My second reasoning for P&P rings true here but I also feel that the director captured Middle Earth just as I had pictured it.
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