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Trending shows and films on the digital streaming channels dominate tea break talk and water cooler chat these days. These glossily made series and straight-to-small-screen films are often truly excellent in their own right, but many would not exist were it not for the classics of literature from which they are drawn, or from which they at least draw inspiration, and which maybe merit reading before engaging in a binge-watching session! In this list we consider some of the current and upcoming televisual treats and the essential literary works that spawned them.
Set during the Regency Period, the hugely popular ITV/PBS series Sanditon will be embarking on its third season in 2023. Quite a feat, given the series is derived from an unfinished novel by Jane Austen comprising 24,000 words only, but equally perhaps testament to Austen's amazing skill as a creator of characters and settings. Jane Austen wrote Sanditon in the last few months of her life, setting it against a backdrop of seaside resorts and the then burgeoning enthusiam for health spas and faddish cures which was of course to carry on through the Victorian era. The satirical social commentary alone makes Sanditon an important work for Jane Austen readers, but it is also significant for featuring her only character of colour, the mixed-race heiress Miss Lambe. This beautiful deluxe edition also features two other lesser-known works by Jane Austen, 'Lady Susan' and 'The Watsons'.
No-one has yet been quite brave enough to transfer J.R.R. Tolkien's mythopoeic masterpiece The Silmarillion to the screen, but Amazon's original series The Rings of Power is the next best thing for those desperately missing Peter Jackson's vision of Middle Earth. The Amazon series, which draws upon a combination of The Silmarillion, The History of Middle-Earth and other works that chronicle the mythos outside the more well-known works by Tolkien, has been criticised by some for certain liberties taken with the time-line and characterisations. Here at CHL HQ we respect the diligence that has gone into the research, and will happily accept some artistic licence, but if you really want to understand the will of Eru the way Tolkien intended, you have to read The Silmarillion! This Book Club Associates edition is identical to the format of the first edition, with Tolkien's drawing of an emblem of Lúthien Tinúviel (of 'Beren & Lúthien' fame) to the jacket's upper panel.
The lastest 'k-drama' to be globally syndicated to seemingly universal acclaim is the tvN/Netflix adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's 1868/69 novel, Little Women. The new Korean series serves as a spikier, darker counterpoint to the original recounting of the joys and sorrows of the four March sisters as they grow into young women in 19th century New England, and certainly makes for compelling viewing. But to get the most out of it and enjoy the various references one really has to read Alcott's classic first. The edition here is perfectly illustrated by the British illustrator & watercolourist Rene Cloke, and would make a charming addition to any booklover's shelves.
Maestro of the macabre Guillermo del Toro brought Halloween to life all too creepily this year with his Cabinet of Curiosities on Netflix. Eight terrifying tales, two of which were based on stories by H.P. Lovecraft, the best of these being the Cthulian 'Pickman's Model', only one of the many disturbingly wonderful stories to appear in this Lovecraft anthology, The Haunter of the Dark. Bringing any of Lovecraft's mind-bending, dimension-warping stories to televisual life is frankly quite remarkable, but to truly comprehend this author's work you have to read him...albeit at the risk of losing your own sanity...
Staying with Señor Del Toro, you would need to be made of wood to not be aware of his recent re-rendering of the classic story of Pinocchio for Netflix. This full-length, stop-motion version features the voice talents of multiple cinematic luminaries, including Ewan McGregor, Ron Perlman (a Del Toro favourite) and Tilda Swinton, and is wonderful. But there is something charming and pleasingly clever about the original text by Carlo Collodi (real name Carlo Lorenzini), first published in Florence in book-form in 1883, which is hard to surpass. That the edition on offer here also boasts an introduction by Whisky Galore author Compton Mackenzie plus plain & full-colour illustrations is just the icing on the cake! And I promise my nose did not grow when I wrote that.
"Obscenity only comes in when the mind despises and fears the body, and the body hates and resists the mind." D.H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley's Lover
Netflix's recent adaptation of one of the 20th century's most controversial books has wilfully embraced the racy and desperately hedonistic aspects of the original novel by Lawrence, and splendidly sublimated smut...but to truly understand why Lady Chatterley's Lover kicked up such a storm of controversy upon its publication in the UK one has to read the original! This wholly unexpurgated edition, published for the New Penguin Clothbound Classics series and handsomely bound in full cloth incorporating a take on Lawrence's famous phoenix motif, would make the perfect gift for anyone who is enjoying the series.
A perennial Christmas favourite, and a story that has been memorably adapted for the screen on numerous occasions, from Disney to the Muppets, Bill Murray, Blackadder and beyond. The latest animated version of Dickens' Christmas Carol is quite rightly storming the Netflix charts, but how many of us have actually read the original? And how many knew it was only one of five 'Christmas' titles by Dickens? The collectable edition shown here presents an excellent opportunity to engage with the original story as actually written, and also includes one of Dickens' other Christmas stories, 'The Cricket on the Hearth', originally published in 1845.
One of Edgar Allan Poe's most famous stories, The Fall of the House of Usher is set to be one of the big Netflix smashes of 2023. It will be interesting to see how they develop this gothic classic into a multi-episode series, or given the current trend, a multi-season series, but if the prospect of the Usher family's demise and the attendant horror therein has piqued your curiosity you should definitely check out this collection of Poe's weird & supernatural stories first, which also includes other spine-tingling classics such as 'The Masque of the Red Death', 'The Cask of Amontillado', 'The Pit and the Pendulum', 'The Tell-Tale Heart' and 'The Murders in the Rue Morgue'. All illustrated with gleefully sinister monochromatic woodcuts by Douglas Percy Bliss.
Whilst the phrase 'straight to television' in regard to films has become less stigmatised in recent years, thanks to the growing spending power of the digitally streaming channels and the talents they attract, we would not want to be accused of any bias against movies on the big screen! Here are our two top tips for upcoming films based on books for 2023.
Kenneth Branagh's Hercule Poirot returns to our screens in 2023, in the spooky whodunit A Haunting in Venice. Adapted from Agatha Christie's 1969 novel Hallowe'en Party, this promises to be a treat for those who enjoyed Branagh's renderings of Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile, and early reports suggest it will play heavily on the supernatural aspect. Prepare yourself by reading the book first...
It is hard to imagine a remake of The Wizard of Oz given the mainstream success and cult status the 1939 film enjoys. But that has not deterred Black-ish creator Kenya Barris taking on the task, with his modern, LGBTQ-literate reimagining due out in 2023. The films, like the spin-off musical Wicked, stem from the book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum, originally published in 1900, one of fourteen 'Oz' books he wrote between 1900 & 1920. To find out where it really all began check out this vintage illustrated edition from 1963, published dos-a-dos with Mark Twain's classic The Prince and the Pauper.
With the increasing production values of the popular shows and films on digital channels these days, and the actors, directors & screenwriters they bring aboard, it does seem like a new golden age of 'television' in many ways. However, by necessity these versions are often condensed or truncated when compared to their original books, or nuanced in some way which can be delightful but nevertheless lacks the complexity of the story as originally authored. That some series don't know when to call it a day can also be detrimental to the original books' attractiveness to potential readers. Add to this that perhaps no televisual rendering can really compare to the richly immersive scope of one's own imagination, we at Country House Library would, unsurprisingly perhaps, always recommend reading the book first! We will make it our mission to keep abreast of current and upcoming trends to continue championing this cause...
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