Novels and Plays that have been adapted as Highly Successful Films.

Xenophile

I wish to compile a reading list based on Novels and Plays that have been adapted as Highly Successful Films. Here are some of mine, even if yours appears on previous posts please feel free to include them again.

Brooklyn.............Colin Toibin
Atonement...........Ian McEwan
His Girl Friday............Ben Hecht
North By Northwest.........Ernest Lehman
The Maltese Falcon........John Huston
Some Like It Hot...........Billy Wilder
Midnight Cowboy..........Waldo Salt
No Country For Old Men..........Ethan and Joel Coen
The Big Sleep..................William Faulkner
Pride and Prejudice..............Jane Austen

wreade1872

Pandora's Box.............Frank Wedekind (Louise Brooks version of course)
Les Miserables.............Victor Hugo
Lord of the Rings.............J.R.R. Tolkien
Orlando.............Virginia Woolf
War of the Worlds.............H.G. Wells
Time Machine.............H.G.Wells
Phantom of the Opera.............Gaston Leroux
Dracula.............Bram Stoker
(also of course Frankenstein, Dr. Jeykl, Dorian Grey etc.)
Lair of the White Worm.............Bram Stoker
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.............Lewis Carroll
Casino Royale.............Ian Fleming
1984.............George Orwell
Prisoner of Zenda.............Anthony Hope (aka 'Dave' starring Kevin Kline)
Don Quixote.............Miguel de Cervantes (the film 'Super' with Ellen Page amongst many other versions)
Mary Poppins.............P.L. Travers
Cold Comfort Farm.............Stella Gibbons
Catch-22.............Joseph Heller
She.............H.Rider Haggard
The Mouse That Roared.............Leonard Wibberley
Howl's Moving castle.............Diana Wynne Jones
Zanoni.............Edward Bulwer Lytton (Hancock with Will Smith)
The Story of O.............Anne Desclos
Green Mansions.............W.H.Hudson (with Audrey Hepburn)
Heart of Darkness.............Joseph Conrad (Apocalypse Now)
The Land that Time Forgot.............Edgar Rice Burroughs
Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang.............Ian Fleming
Animal Farm.............George Orwell
The Boys from Brazil.............Ira Levin

Ok i may have stretched the word 'successful' a whee bit on this list .

wreade1872

A few more,
American Psycho.............Bret Easton Ellis
Fight Club.............Chuck Palahniuk
Oliver Twist.............Charles Dickens
A Christmas Carol.............Charles Dickens (muppets obviously)
Peter Pan.............J.M. Barry (animated)
Jungle Book.............Rudyard Kipling (animated)
The Adventures of Pinocchio.............Carlo Collodi (animated)
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.............Philip K. Dick (Bladerunner)
Haunting of Hill House.............Shirley Jackson (The Haunting 1963)
Let the Right One In.............John Ajvide Lindqvist
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.............Stieg Larsson
The Shining.............Stephen King
The Green Mile.............Stephen King
Carrie.............Stephen King
Jaws.............Peter Benchley
Jurassic Park.............Michael Crichton
Forest Gump.............Winston Groom
Cloud Atlas.............David Mitchell
We Need to Talk About Kevin.............Lionel Shriver
The Prestige.............Christopher Priest
Rum Punch.............Elmore Leonard (Jackie Brown)
Trainspotting.............Irvine Welsh
Mystic River.............Dennis Lehane
Nothing Lasts Forever.............Roderick Thorp (Die Hard)
Who Goes There?.............John W. Campbell Jr. (The Thing)
Requiem For A Dream.............Hubert Selby Jr
A Clockwork Orange.............Anthony Burgess
The Color Purple.............Alice Walker
Out Of Sight.............Elmore Leonard
Drive.............James Sallis
The Talented Mr. Ripley.............Patricia Highsmith
Interview with the Vampire.............Anne Rice
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.............Ken Kesey
To Kill A Mockingbird.............Harper Lee
Les Liaisons Dangereuses.............Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

Whosthis

Glengarry Glen Ross.........David Mamet
The Body(Stand By Me)......Stephen King

wreade1872

Xenophile wrote: »

I wish to compile a reading list based on Novels and Plays that have been adapted as Highly Successful Films. Here are some of mine, even if yours appears on previous posts please feel free to include them again.

Brooklyn.............Colin Toibin
Atonement...........Ian McEwan
His Girl Friday............Ben Hecht
North By Northwest.........Ernest Lehman
The Maltese Falcon........John Huston
Some Like It Hot...........Billy Wilder
Midnight Cowboy..........Waldo Salt
No Country For Old Men..........Ethan and Joel Coen
The Big Sleep..................William Faulkner
Pride and Prejudice..............Jane Austen

Eh? while i'm sure the Big Sleep written by Faulkner would be amazing :lol . The book was actually written by Raymond Chandler.
Faulkner was one of a number of screenwriters involved in the adaptation though.
And 'No Country for Old Men' is Cormac McCarthy.

and a few more
The African Queen.............C. S. Forester
Air America.............Christopher Robbins
The Age of Innocence.............Edith Wharton
All You Need Is Kill .............Hiroshi Sakurazaka (Edge of Tommorrow)
Along Came a Spider.............James Patterson
The Amityville Horror.............Jay Anson
And Then There Were None .............Agatha Christie (not the original title obviously )
Babylon Babies.............Maurice Georges Dantec (Babylon A.D.)
Battle Royale .............Koushun Takami
Battlefield Earth............. L. Ron Hubbard
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ............. Lew Wallace
Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions.............Daniel Wallace
The Black Dahlia .............James Ellroy
Black Narcissus.............Rumer Godden
The Body Snatchers.............Jack Finney (Invasion of the Body Snatchers)
The Bonfire of the Vanities.............Tom Wolfe
Das Boot (The Boat).............Lothar-Günther Buchheim
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.............John Boyne
Buffalo Soldiers.............Robert O'Connor
Captain Blood: His Odyssey.............Rafael Sabatini
Car, Boy, Girl .............Gordon Buford (Herbie)
Carlito's Way.............Edwin Torres
Charlotte's Web.............E. B. White
The Children of Men.............P. D. James
Chocolat .............Joanne Harris
The Cider House Rules .............John Irving
Cocoon............. David Saperstein
The Day of the Jackal ............. Frederick Forsyth
The Dead Zone .............Stephen King
Death Wish.............Brian Garfield
Deliverance.............James Dickey
The Dirty Dozen.............E. M. Nathanson
Dune............. Frank Herbert
East of Eden............. John Steinbeck
Empire of the Sun............. J. G. Ballard
The Executioners.............John D. MacDonald (Cape Fear)
Fahrenheit 451.............Ray Bradbury
Fantastic Mr Fox............. Roald Dahl
First Blood .............David Morrell (Rambo)
Fletch .............Gregory Mcdonald
The Flight of the Phoenix ............. Elleston Trevor
Freaky Friday............. Mary Rodgers
From Here to Eternity.............James Jones
Girl with a Pearl Earring .............Tracy Chevalier
The Glass Inferno.............Thomas N. Scortia and Frank M. Robinson (Towering Inferno)
The Hellbound Heart .............Clive Barker (Hellraiser)
The Hours............. Michael Cunningham
I Am Legend.............Richard Matheson (Omega Man)
I Know What You Did Last Summer............. Lois Duncan
Immortality, Inc..............Robert Sheckley (Freejack)
The Incredible Journey.............Sheila Burnford
Indian Country .............Dorothy M. Johnson (A man called horse)
The Iron Man.............Ted Hughes (The Iron Giant)
Jumanji .............Chris Van Allsburg
Lolita.............Vladimir Nabokov
Logan's Run............. William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson
Make Room! Make Room! .............Harry Harrison (Soylent Green)
The Midwich Cuckoos.............John Wyndham (village of the damned)
Naked Lunch.............William S. Burroughs
The Neverending Story.............Michael Ende
One Gallant Rush .............Peter Burchard (Glory)
One Shot.............Lee Child (jack reacher)
Red Alert.............Peter George (Dr. Strangelove)
Sahara.............Clive Cussler
The Searchers.............Alan Le May (i think the Missing with cate blanchett is also an version of this)
Shutter Island.............Dennis Lehane
Solaris............. Stanislaw Lem
Stardust.............Neil Gaiman
Strip Tease.............Carl Hiaasen
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three.............Morton Freedgood
War Horse .............Michael Morpurgo
The Wheels Spins.............Ethel Lina White (the lady vanishes)
The Witches.............Roald Dahl
The Year of the Angry Rabbit.............Russell Braddon (Night of the Lepus, I had to include this one as it features giant killer rabbits and is highly successful at being truly terrible . )

Xenophile

Thank you for your input, which of any of the books would you include in the Leaving Certificate curriculum if you were asked for suggestions.


Battlefield Earth............. L. Ron Hubbard............. I am surprised that you have included this in your list as his brainwashing has been such a destructive force in the lives of so many people.

wreade1872

Xenophile wrote: »

Thank you for your input, which of any of the books would you include in the Leaving Certificate curriculum if you were asked for suggestions.


Battlefield Earth............. L. Ron Hubbard............. I am surprised that you have included this in your list as his brainwashing has been such a destructive force in the lives of so many people.

I expected your objection to be that its a terrible movie . Scientology is no worse than the other commercial religons and frankly the commercial ones are still less damaging than the non-commercial ones :P .
Besides i always think it a good idea to remind people that hubbard is a sci-fi writer and not a wizard :rolleyes: .

As for the Leaving Cert i'm afraid i haevn't read too many so its a little hard to say but:
Haunting of Hill House.............Shirley Jackson
Pride and Prejudice..............Jane Austen
Pandora's Box.............Frank Wedekind
Orlando.............Virginia Woolf
War of the Worlds.............H.G. Wells
Dracula.............Bram Stoker
Frankenstein.............Mary Shelley
Catch-22.............Joseph Heller
Heart of Darkness.............Joseph Conrad
Animal Farm.............George Orwell

As you can tell by this short list, my reading is somewhat antiquated .

echo beach

Xenophile wrote: »

Thank you for your input, which of any of the books would you include in the Leaving Certificate curriculum if you were asked for suggestions.

Putting something on the Leaving Cert curriculum is a sure way of stopping young people from reading it for pleasure. If there is a film version then they won't read the book at all.

Xenophile

echo beach wrote: »

Putting something on the Leaving Cert curriculum is a sure way of stopping young people from reading it for pleasure. If there is a film version then they won't read the book at all.

Very few young people read for pleasure. But many will come back in later life as the seed has been planted by books like Animal Farm, Pride and Prejudice, Amongst Women etc.

To get young people to read you would have to take away their smart phones and cancel all TV subscriptions to sports channels.

echo beach

Xenophile wrote: »

Very few young people read for pleasure.

The thriving Young Adult (YA) market would suggest that isn't the case.

But many will come back in later life as the seed has been planted by books like Animal Farm, Pride and Prejudice, Amongst Women etc.

I read widely but still avoid books that were on the 'modern novel' section when I did the Leaving Cert. I know it is an irrational prejudice but don't think I'm alone.
A key factor is example, both at home and in school. If teachers discuss the books they are reading themselves and the plays and films they go to see it can spark interest, but if the teachers never read anything that isn't on the curriculum there is a problem.

To get young people to read you would have to take away their smart phones and cancel all TV subscriptions to sports channels.

Maybe, but extreme measures often backfire.

Xenophile

Here is a Recommended Reading List for the GSCE, it may, hopefullly help you get over your prejudice.

1. 1984 – George Orwell

2. A Farewell to Arms – Ernest Hemingway

3. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Arthur Conan Doyle

4. The Aneid – Virgil

5. Anita and Me – Meera Syal

6. Atonement – Ian McEwen

7. Beowulf – trans. Seamus Heany

8. Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks

9. The Book Thief – Markus Zusak

10. Brighton Rock – Graham Greene

11. Catch 22 – Joseph Heller

12. The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger

13. The Color Purple – Alice Walker

14. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon

15. David Copperfield – Charles Dickens

16. The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown

17. Dracula – Bram Stoker

18. Enigma – Robert Harris

19. Fever Pitch – Nick Hornby

20. Fight Club – Chuck Palahniuk

21. Frankenstein – Mary Shelley

22. Girlfriend in a Coma – Douglas Coupland

23. The Great Gatsby – F.Scott Fitzgerlad

24. Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams

25. The Illiad – Homer

26. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell – Susanna Clarke

27. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte

28. Junk – Melvin Burgess

29. Life of Pi – Yann Martel

30. Lord of the Flies – William Golding

31. Noughts and Crosses – Malorie Blackman

32. Notes on a Scandal – Zoe Heller

33. Notes from a Small Island – Bill Bryson

34. Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck

35. The Picture of Dorian Grey – Oscar Wilde

36. Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier

37. Refugee Boy – Benjamin Zephania

38. The Road – Cormac McArthy

39. Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafón

40. The Shining – Stephen King

41. The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde – Robert Lewis Stevenson

42. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee

43. Touching the Void – Joe Simpson

44. The Turn of the Screw – Henry James

45. Ulysses – James Joyce

46. The War of the Worlds – H.G. Wells

47. The Wasp Factory – Ian Banks

48. White Teeth – Zadie Smith

49. Woman in Black – Susan Hill

50. The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins

Any Shakespeare play or collection of sonnets

Poetry [Rudyard Kipling, William Blake, Dylan Thomas, Seamus Heaney, Sylvia Plath, Robert Frost, Carol Ann Duffy, Christina Rossetti, Robert Browning, Simon Armitage, Grace Nichols, John Betjeman, Ted Hughes, Gillian Clarke]



Anything in particular on the above list that you have read and enjoyed and would like to recommend.

echo beach

There is a lot of good stuff on that list and something for all tastes. I'm ashamed to say more of it is on my 'to read' list than 'read' list. Is it a free choice of are there certain parameters around which texts are chosen?
With the exception of Homer and Virgil is very little in translation, which seems a pity given how few English students can speak and read a foreign language.
The one that jumps out is Dan Brown. Either somebody has a strange sense of humour (or irony) or it is there to show how bad writing can be commercially lucrative. Bill Bryson's book I thought was non-fiction and so also seems out of place, although there is a strong case to be made for having non-fiction on the curriculum.
Given how much they have done to get children and teenagers reading I was surprised none of the Harry Potter books feature.

My own favourites probably reflect my age and might not appeal to teenagers but I'd go for
David Copperfield
Jane Eyre
Of Mice and Men
Rebecca
To Kill a Mockingbird, all of which I read in my teens and still remember vividly, and Atonement

Xenophile

My own conclusion from looking at the website below, is that the above material changes above from year to year !


https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/254497/GCSE_English_language.pdf

echo beach

That is the English Language subject content, where the objective is to be able to speak, read and write well in English. There is also an option to study English Literature, as a separate subject. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/254498/GCSE_English_literature.pdf

Xenophile

"The Name of The Rose"..............Umberto Eco.