Virginia Woolf on Film
In 1926, when film was still a young and emerging artform, Virginia Woolf wrote the essay 'On Cinema', considering the medium with all its possibilities and limitations. In it, she is particularly outspoken on...
By the Book: The Sisters Brothers
Patrick deWitt’s 2011 novel The Sisters Brothers is very funny. Jacques Audiard’s new film adaptation of that novel is significantly less funny. Despite (or really, because of) this, the film is a great...
Why You Should Read Mortal Engines Before Seeing the Film
Let’s be real, there’s like a 50/50 chance that Mortal Engines is going to be any good, let alone do right by its source material. Fans of the book will agree that Peter Jackson, director of Lord of the...
It’s Alive! Frankenstein At The Movies
On a dark stormy night in 1818, a teenage girl wrote one of the most influential pieces of fiction in history. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has always appealed to movie makers – what better source...
By The Book – We Need To Talk About Kevin
What do you think of when you hear the name Kevin? For many, it’s Lionel Shriver’s creation of modern day demon child Kevin Khatchadourian, who commits a mass shooting at his school in the thriller novel...
By The Book – Blade Runner (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?)
Welcome to By The Book, where we compare books with their cinematic adaptations. Are they faithful and delightful partners in storytelling, or are the authors turning in their graves through these unholy...
Sad Russians: Top Five Russian Lit Adaptations
By reputation, Russian literary works are giants – War and Peace and Crime and Punishment are possibly the first to spring to mind among these classics, and their troubling psychological themes, large cast...
How One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Mastered the Art of Adaptation
Adaptations: they're never as good as the book. Lord of the Rings purists would mostly agree, and though Ang Lee and Emma Thompson did an Oscar-winning number on Sense and Sensibility, there's no way any of...
By The Book – Trainspotting
Welcome to By the Book, where we compare books with their cinematic adaptations. Are they faithful and delightful partners in storytelling, or are the authors turning in their graves through these unholy...
By The Book: The Girl On The Train
Welcome to By the Book, where we compare books with their cinematic adaptations. Are they faithful and delightful partners in storytelling, or are the authors turning in their graves through these unholy...
Jane Austen on Film: Clueless, Bridget Jones and Zombies
Ah, Jane Austen – perhaps the only British author who can boast of giving Shakespeare a run for his money in terms of both international profile and popularity. And where timeless personal quandaries and...
By The Book: The Martian
Welcome to By The Book, where we compare books with their cinematic adaptations. Are they faithful and delightful partners in storytelling or are the authors turning in their graves through these unholy...
By The Book: Watchmen
Welcome to By The Book, in which we take a look at cinematic adaptations of literary works. This feature is less a review of the merits and shortcomings of the films themselves, rather a study of the films as...
By The Book: Child 44
Welcome to By The Book, in which we take a look at cinematic adaptations of literary works. This feature is less a review of the merits and shortcomings of the films themselves, rather a study of the films as...
By The Book: The Damned United
Welcome to By The Book, where we compare the book with its visual adaptation. Are they faithful and delightful partners in storytelling or are the authors turning in their graves through these unholy versions...