Whenever I see an adaptation of a good book, I walk into the theater or sit down in front of the television and tell myself that I must be prepared to handle the changes made to the story, however unreasonable they may seem to me. After all, books, comics, movies, television shows, and video games all present good methods for telling a story, but what works in one medium may not work so well in the other.
For example, most books require descriptions of locations, people, and the thoughts in the characters’ heads. The other mediums that I mentioned are visual- they don’t need to include a description of what Jay Gatsby looks like or how Nancy Drew is feeling because we should be able to see these things through an actor’s performance. Length is often a problem too- the stories in books can go on as long as the author wants; the stories in television shows and video games need to be long to fill out a certain number of episodes or levels, and movies have to be much more concise to meet a reasonable running time.
But sometimes I just can’t help feeling upset when I see what I believe are unnecessary changes to a good story. You would never know that Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was a critically successful film if you listened to me rant about it. Percy Jackson and the Olympians comes to mind too, and I have yet to see a faithful Dracula adaptation that respected Bram Stoker’s original novel.
Baz Luhrman’s The Great Gatsbypresented a whole different kind of experience for me. It has about five direct changes from the book that I can think of off the top of my head, and only one of them is important. It even has the narrator, Nick Carraway, writing about his experiences as he flashes back to his summer at West Egg, and some of the novel’s text is actually shown floating across the screen as the movie transitions from one scene to the next.
It has to be one of the most faithful adaptations of a book that I have ever seen.
Through this entry, we will see five American authors that
quit their jobs or ordinary lives to become writers. Most of them started in a
short age, and writing short stories having a spark of being a writer. What this
writes have in common is that they are Americans and they develop a great
career in early literature.
1. Edgar Allan Poe
Born on January 19, 1809, in Boston, Massachusetts, writer,
poet, critic, and editor Edgar Allan Poe's tales of mystery and horror gave
birth to the modern detective story and many of his works, including “The
Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Fall of the House of Usher,” became literary
classics. "The Raven," which he published in 1845, is considered
among the best-known poems in American literature.
Major Works
In late 1830s, Poe published Tales of the Grotesque and
Arabesque, a collection of stories. It contained several of his most
spine-tingling tales, including "The Fall of the House of Usher,"
"Ligeia" and "William Wilson." Poe launched the new genre
of detective fiction with 1841's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." A
writer on the rise, he won a literary prize in 1843 for "The Gold
Bug," a suspenseful tale of secret codes and hunting treasure.
In 1844, Poe moved to New York City where he published a
news story in The New York Sun about a balloon trip across the Atlantic Ocean
that he later revealed to be a hoax. His stunt grabbed attention, but it was
the 1845 publication of his poem "The Raven" which made him a literary
sensation. "The Raven" is considered a great American literary work
and one of the best of Poe's career. In the work, Poe explored some of his
common themes—death and loss. An unknown narrator laments the demise of his
great love Lenore. That same year, he found himself under attack for his
stinging criticisms of fellow poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Poe claimed that
Longfellow, a widely popular literary figure, was a plagiarist, which resulted
in a backlash against Poe.
Continuing work in different forms, Poe examined his own
methodology and writing in general in several essays, including "The
Philosophy of Composition," "The Poetic Principle" and "The
Rationale of Verse." He also produced another thrilling tale, "The
Cask of Amontillado," and poems such as "Ulalume" and "The
Bells."
Curiosities.
2. Washintong Irving
Considered the first
professional distinguished writer in the United States with short stories like
"Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,"
Washington Irving was influential in the development of the short story form
and helped to gain international respect for American literature
As a nineteen-year-old,
Irving began contributing letters under the pseudonym (assumed name) Jonathan
Oldstyle to a news-paper owned by his brother Peter. His first book, Salmagundi
(1807–08), was a collaboration with another brother, William, and their friend
James Kirke Paulding. This highly popular collection of short pieces poked fun
at the political, social, and cultural life of the city..
An American celebrity
After receiving warm praise from the literary and academic
communities, Irving set out on a tour of the rugged western part of the
country, which took him as far as Oklahoma. The expedition resulted in three
books about the region, notably A Tour on the Prairies (1835), which provided
easterners with their first description of life out west by a well-known
author. Irving eventually settled near Tarrytown, New York, at a small estate
on the Hudson River, which he named Sunnyside.
Among the notable works of Irving's later years is an
extensive biography of George Washington (1732–1799), which he worked on
determinedly, despite ill health, from the early 1850s until a few months
before his death in 1859. As America's first literary star with stories like
"Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," Irving
established an artistic standard and model for later generations of American
short story writers.
Facts
3. Harper Lee
Writer Harper Lee was born on April 28, 1926, in
Monroeville, Alabama. In 1959, she finished the manuscript for her Pulitzer
Prize-winning bestseller To Kill a Mockingbird. Soon after, she helped
fellow-writer and friend Truman Capote write an article for The New Yorker
which would later evolve into his nonfiction masterpiece, In Cold Blood. In
July 2015, Lee published her second novel Go Set a Watchman, which was written
before To Kill a Mockingbird and portrays the later lives of the characters
from her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Lee died on February 19, 2016, at the
age of 89.
'To Kill a Mockingbird'
Soon Lee was engrossed in her own literary success story. In
July 1960, To Kill a Mockingbird was published and picked up by the
Book-of-the-Month Club and the Literary Guild. A condensed version of the story
appeared in Reader's Digest magazine. The work's central character, a young
girl nicknamed Scout, was not unlike Lee in her youth. In one of the book's
major plotlines, Scout and her brother Jem and their friend Dill explore their
fascination with a mysterious and somewhat infamous neighborhood character
named Boo Radley.
The work was more than a coming-of-age story: another part
of the novel reflected racial prejudices in the South. Their attorney father,
Atticus Finch, tries to help a black man who has been charged with raping a
white woman to get a fair trial and to prevent him from being lynched by angry
whites in a small town.
The following year, To Kill a Mockingbird won the
prestigious Pulitzer Prize and several other literary awards. Horton Foote
wrote a screenplay based on the book and used the same title for the 1962 film
adaptation. Lee visited the set during filming and did a lot of interviews to
support the project. Earning eight Academy Award nominations, the movie version
of To Kill a Mockingbird won three awards, including best actor for Gregory
Peck's portrayal of Finch. The character is said to have been based on Lee's
father.
In November 2007, President George W. Bush presented Lee
with the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her "outstanding contribution
to America's literary tradition" at a ceremony at the White House.
Interview:
4. Mark Twain
Born on November 30, 1835, in Florida, Missouri, Samuel L.
Clemens wrote under the pen name Mark Twain and went on to author several
novels, including two major classics of American literature: The Adventures of
Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He was also a riverboat pilot,
journalist, lecturer, entrepreneur and inventor. Twain died on April 21, 1910,
in Redding, Connecticut.
Personal Struggles
But while those years were gilded with awards, they also
brought him much anguish. Early in their marriage, he and Livy had lost their
toddler son, Langdon, to diphtheria; in 1896, his favorite daughter, Susy, died
at the age of 24 of spinal meningitis. The loss broke his heart, and adding to
his grief, he was out of the country when it happened. His youngest daughter,
Jean, was diagnosed with severe epilepsy. In 1909, when she was 29 years old,
Jean died of a heart attack. For many years, Twain's relationship with middle
daughter Clara was distant and full of quarrels.
In June 1904, while Twain traveled, Livy died after a long
illness. "The full nature of his feelings toward her is puzzling,"
wrote scholar R. Kent Rasmussen. "If he treasured Livy's comradeship as
much as he often said, why did he spend so much time away from her?" But
absent or not, throughout 34 years of marriage, Twain had indeed loved his
wife. "Wheresoever she was, there was Eden," he wrote in tribute to
her.
Twain became somewhat bitter in his later years, even while
projecting an amiable persona to his public. In private he demonstrated a
stunning insensitivity to friends and loved ones. "Much of the last decade
of his life, he lived in hell," wrote Hamlin Hill. He wrote a fair amount
but was unable to finish most of his projects. His memory faltered. He had
volcanic rages and nasty bouts of paranoia, and he experienced many periods of
depressed indolence, which he tried to assuage by smoking cigars, reading in
bed and playing endless hours of billiards and cards.
Samuel Clemens died on April 21, 1910, at the age of 74, at
his country home in Redding, Connecticut. He was buried in Elmira, New York.
Some Facts
5. F. Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896, in St.
Paul, Minnesota. His first novel's success made him famous and he married the
woman he loved, his muse Zelda, but he later descended into drinking and his
wife had a mental breakdown. Following the unsuccessful Tender is the Night,
Fitzgerald moved to Hollywood and became a scriptwriter. He died of a heart
attack in 1940, at age 44, his final novel only half completed.
'The Great Gatsby' and Other Career Breakthroughs
The novel's new incarnation, This Side of Paradise, a
largely autobiographical story about love and greed, was centered on Amory
Blaine, an ambitious Midwesterner who falls in love with, but is ultimately
rejected by, two girls from high-class families. The novel was published in
1920 to glowing reviews and, almost overnight, turned Fitzgerald, at the age of
24, into one of the country's most promising young writers. One week after the
novel's publication, he married Zelda Sayre in New York. They had one child, a
daughter named Frances Scott Fitzgerald, born in 1921.
F. Scott Fitzgerald eagerly embraced his newly minted
celebrity status and embarked on an extravagant lifestyle that earned him a
reputation as a playboy and hindered his reputation as a serious literary
writer. Beginning in 1920 and continuing throughout the rest of his career,
Fitzgerald supported himself financially by writing great numbers of short
stories for popular publications such as The Saturday Evening Post and Esquire.
Some of his most notable stories include "The Diamond as Big as the
Ritz," "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Camel's
Back" and "The Last of the Belles."
In 1922, Fitzgerald published his second novel, The
Beautiful and Damned, the story of the troubled marriage of Anthony and Gloria
Patch. The Beautiful and Damned helped to cement his status as one of the great
chroniclers and satirists of the culture of wealth, extravagance and ambition
that emerged during the affluent 1920s—what became known as the Jazz Age.
"It was an age of miracles," Fitzgerald wrote, "it was an age of
art, it was an age of excess, and it was an age of satire."
Seeking a change of scenery to spark his creativity, in
1924, Fitzgerald moved to France, and it was there, in Valescure, that
Fitzgerald wrote what would be credited as his greatest novel, The Great
Gatsby. Published in 1925, The Great Gatsby is narrated by Nick Carraway, a
Midwesterner who moves into the town of West Egg on Long Island, next door to a
mansion owned by the wealthy and mysterious Jay Gatsby. The novel follows Nick
and Gatsby's strange friendship and Gatsby's pursuit of a married woman named
Daisy, ultimately leading to his exposure as a bootlegger and his death.
With its beautiful lyricism, pitch-perfect portrayal of the
Jazz Age, and searching critiques of materialism, love and the American Dream,
The Great Gatsby is considered Fitzgerald's finest work. Although the book was
well-received when it was published, it was not until the 1950s and '60s, long
after Fitzgerald's death, that it achieved its stature as the definitive
portrait of the "Roaring Twenties," as well as one of the greatest
American novels ever written.
F. Scott Fitzgerald died believing himself a failure. None
of his works received anything more than modest commercial or critical success
during his lifetime. However, since his death, Fitzgerald has gained a
reputation as one of the pre-eminent authors in the history of American
literature due almost entirely to the enormous posthumous success of The Great
Gatsby. Perhaps the quintessential American novel, as well as a definitive
social history of the Jazz Age, The Great Gatsby went on to become required
reading for virtually every American high school student, and has had a
transportive effect on generation after generation of readers.
In the following video, a short analysis is presented. Created from the point of view of a casual reader who finds the issues of the book very
fascinating.
My name is Eder. My height is 1.77 mts. I have a dog that I
love so much. I can not pass an entire day without drinking soda, I suffer from
insomnia and sometimes I'm half stubborn. I've never been in jail but I was
close to be. I'm black hair, and a
little bit stingy. I keep my tidy neat and I get bored on Christmas Eve. I can
say that I am of few friends. I hate bad faces and I suspect smiles. My right
eyebrow is cut off and people say I'm good even if I'm not baptized. I love the
fire even if the fire burns me. I sleep on my stomach and always in pajamas. I
do not wear a jacket or tie, and I do not like protocol. I enjoy good company
but I can take care of myself. I am not alcoholic,
but sometimes I get drunk with phrases. I do not make plans, I improvise for
that reason I do not brake. For me, the one that wants light blue, better mixes
blue and white. I have several addictions and I take care of them. But I do not
accept if you try to teach me. I want to choose which poison to poison me with.
I already learned to falsify my smile. I already changed my
bed, I made comedy, I made drama. I was already ethical and I was erratic, I
was skeptical and I was fanatic.
I was against and I was in favor. What gave me pleasure now gives me pain. And With
the entire world I am at hand since I do not play, I neither lose nor win. I do
not have much or I have little As I do not think I'm not mistaken. And as goals
I do not draw I do not know what a failure is. Joy and sadness is the same for
me That I do not care to feel Because in the angle of life I have decided to be
the bisector. But I'm not so complicated to run away or stay here in silence. But
I am not so simple to warn that there are not a hundred words that can define
me.
That relating to myself, in literature: I am a person who
does not like to read books or literal works in general. But I really enjoy
poetry. Especially the one that is full of nostalgia, some feeling of sadness. To
mention some authors, I like to read and try to understand Benedetti, Machado,
Neruda, Garcia Marquez. At the time of writing, I love using literary figures
such as ambiguity, hyperbole, antithesis, irony, and paradox.
Talking about the bookss we read the last semester, the one
that liked the most whas Oliver Twist. I liked because it present a complete
new way of seeing the world: through the eyes of an orphan.
In this case, Oliver Twist amazed me in different ways. I
didn’t expect this
story: heart-breaking at the beginning, recovering at the
end.
Oliver Twist is a good young boy. He is sweet, innocent and
he has purest heart
of all. However, the people who treat him are miserable and
hit and insult him
just because they are mean and criminal. When you read about
these kinds of
persons, you feel sorry for Oliver as he is just a poor boy
trying to find a
place in this world. But you also feel sorry for the bad ones:
they are as bad
as that because the society makes them bad. It’s not their
fault.
My favourite character of the novel was Nancy. She is a
prostitute, a young girl who hasn’t had an easy life
but she is sweet and her sacrifice helps Oliver. She
protects him until the
end, with her bravery and she can’t betray the horrible man
she loves. I also
liked Rose, who is a great girl and offers help for Nancy.
However, she can’t
leave her man alone.
The rhythm of the book is paused, calm but it’s incredible:
you can imagine
everything in your mind and, then, even if you’ve seen the
movie, you discover
new things that you didn’t know about the original story.
I recommend this book to everyone who likes England and who
wants to learn
about these cruel years. It is such a hard book but
necessary to understand
how lucky we are now and how much we have to fight to stop
unfairness in our
