(guest post by Lauren Bailey)
The English literary canon is filled
with rich material just waiting to be brought to the big screen. There are so
many classics that have yet to get the visual treatment, so many of which would
blow contemporary TV dramas out of the water. I know what you might be
thinking—many TV adaptations of literary novels tend to fall short or fail to
do any justice to the source material at all. We’ve all had the experience
where we eagerly await the release of a movie or miniseries adapted from one of
our favorite books, only to be letdown by the finished product.
But there are those instances where
directors bring real magic to the screen with miniseries and TV shows that pay
homage to the literary source material. When an adaptation is done write, it
makes up for all the lesser versions out there. I’m looking at you, Pride and Prejudice and Brideshead Revisited.
I’d like to that this opportunity to
list some classic English works of fiction that I think would make for
outstanding television. Without further ado, here are three works that place on
the top of my list.
Lights, cameras, action!
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
It seems an outright tragedy that more
people in show business haven’t utilized Chaucer’s endlessly hilarious,
complex, and still current fables and tales in the iconic The Canterbury Tales. I reread many of the tales on a regular
basis, and it never ceases to amaze me how many of the stories within resonate
with some aspect of contemporary politics, current events, or everyday living.
There’s a timelessness about Chaucer’s storytelling that makes him a pleasure
to read even now.
So many of them are ready made for an
on-screen treatment: The Knight’s Tale
with its pomposity and high-court chivalry, The
Miller’s Tale with it’s outrageous toilet humor, the riddle of The Franklin’s Tale, the clever feminist
romp of The Merchant’s Tale. An
ambitious director with an eye for the medieval aesthetic would be remiss to
pass up such an adaptation, even if they just tell a single tale!
Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell
This complex story by Elizabeth Gaskell
is a hallmark of Victorian literature. Set in the gritty industrial city of
Manchester during the middle of the nineteenth century, Mary Barton follows a social web of working class families as they
navigate the trials of living during such hard times. The focus of the novel is
the titular character, Mary Barton, who falls into an unlikely love triangle
with two men of vastly different social standings. Her struggle to find true
love set against the grim circumstances of industrial living make this story an
ideal candidate for a realistic and stirring period drama.
Middlemarch by George Eliot
Finally there’s George Eliot’s
masterpiece Middlemarch, which some
English professors and writers consider to be one of the greatest works of
fiction ever written about England. Middlemarch
is also a Victorian novel, set in the fictional city of Middlemarch. Middlemarch got the adaptation treatment
in 1994 from the BBC, but I think it’s high time that someone produced an
updated version of the classic. Perhaps the next adaptation would benefit from
some screenwriters who really understand how to make a great period drama for a contemporary audience—we’re
looking at you, Downton Abbey writers.
Anyway, on to the actual story behind
George Eliot’s Middlemarch. It involves
the complex stories of a wide cast of characters, the most prominent of them
bring Dorothea Brooke and Tertius Lydgate, both well-meaning people who try to
change the social fabric of their society for the better. They both struggle to
overturn established social conventions that inhibit a large part of English
society, among them women, the poor, and the working classes. It’s a sweeping
narrative that’s about as dense and Victorian as they get. The nuances of the
story should make it ripe material for a long TV series.
What are some works of English
literature that you’d like to see in a TV adaptation? Let me know!
Lauren Bailey is a freelance blogger who
loves writing about education, new technology, lifestyle and health. As an
education writer, she works to provide helpful information on the best online colleges and courses
and welcomes comments and questions via email at blauren 99 @gmail.com.
