The best adaptations of Dickens' books

Dickens performed 'A Christmas Carol' over 100 times

The writer began performing readings of his works in 1853 and chose 'A Christmas Carol' for the inaugural event. In the 16 years that followed, he performed it over 100 times, using different voices for his characters and consistently revising the text for the stage.

Charles Dickens transformed Christmas into an important family-centric holiday

When Charles Dickens published “A Christmas Carol” in 1843, its story of an old man’s redemption helped reshape the holiday, popularizing themes of generosity, reflection, and family that transformed the Christmas season.

Dickens' live readings sometimes used visual projectors that predated cinema

Dickens was interested in adapting his work in various forms. With his live readings, he sometimes used a 'magical lantern,' a popular tool that projected moving slides. In addition, some stage plays of Dickens' work that included ghost scenes used the magical lantern to cast apparitions on stage.

Read the works of Charles Dickens

Dickens' work has long been in the public domain, meaning it's freely available to readers. Project Gutenberg's collection of Dickens' novels allows you to read classic novels like "Oliver Twist" and "A Tale of Two Cities," as well as early works like "Sketches by Boz," at no cost.

Dickens' childhood job influenced his novels

After his father was imprisoned, Dickens took up work in a shoe-blacking factory. His novels often featured hardscrabble protagonists, many of them children, forced to navigate the grim realities of the Industrial Revolution. Today, stories that follow in that model are described as "Dickensian."

None of Dickens' books has gone out of print

Dickens was a literary celebrity during his lifetime, but his popularity has endured over a century after his death. Publishers have kept his books in print to satisfy demand. It's paid off: "A Tale of Two Cities" alone has sold over 200 million copies.

Take a tour of Charles Dickens' London

Much of Dickens' fiction concerns Victorian London and its people. This tour of the city, led by Dickens biographer Simon Callow, walks you through significant sites, like the place where Dickens' parents were married, the shoe-blacking factory where he worked as a boy, and the place where he created his first magazine.

Despite his sometimes caustic satire, Dickens was ultimately an optimist

Michael Slater, a professor of Victorian literature at Birkbeck College, notes that Dickens' anger at Parliament and social injustice never got in the way of his optimism. "There is a constant allegiance to the lives of ordinary people and their pleasures," he said in a 2001 interview with "In Our Time."

A number of Hitchcock's most celebrated films are based on novels

Hitchcock’s films are often cited as being literary, and with good reason—many of them are based on works of literature. This list from the Los Angeles Public Library not only names the many novels that were adapted for the screen by Hitchcock, like "Rebecca (1940)," but also provides excellent context for how and why Hitchcock came to make his adaptations.

A list of nine quirky literary adaptations of Shakespeare's life and works

Although surprisingly little is known about the actual man, William Shakespeare holds an unrivalled place in English letters. His characters, from Hamlet to Hermione, have inspired countless imitators, responses, and caricatures, and this list gathers a few of the best for the modern reader, including Richard Adams' adaptation of King Lear through a story about dogs.

A guide to Jane Austen screen adaptations

This database from the Jane Austen Society of North America lists all of the film and television adaptations of Austen's novels, from classics like the 1995 BBC rendition of "Pride and Prejudice" and "Clueless" (a modernization of "Emma") to works loosely inspired by an Austen title, like "The Lake House," which uses "Persuasion" as a motif.

Dickens' unfinished 'Edwin Drood' inspired a Broadway musical

Dickens died before finishing "The Mystery of Edwin Drood." That means that the mystery at the center of the story was never revealed. Rather than finishing the narrative for Dickens, a 1985 musical adaptation—written by Rupert Holmes, who also wrote "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)"—allowed audiences to vote on how the story ends. The Broadway production won five Tony Awards, including best musical.

'The Dark Night Rises' was inspired by 'A Tale of Two Cities'

The 2012 Batman film makes several allusions to the Dickens novel, with one character even holding a copy of the book in a final scene. Director Christopher Nolan and his brother (and screenwriter) Jonathan Nolan frame Gotham as a place of inequity, much like Dickens does with London and Paris. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

Explore a list of the 100 best novels of all time, compiled by some of the world's best living writers, including Salman Rushdie, Stephen King, and Jennifer Egan.

Over the years, Baum’s story has had several adaptations and reinterpretations

The original 1900 book, ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,’ has been adapted in various forms for various audiences. There’s been a Muppet-centric Oz, a 3D-generated Dorothy, and one that imagines an adult Dorothy living as a children’s author in New York, just to name a few.

Barbara Kingsolver's 'Demon Copperhead' reframes Dickens for the opioid crisis

The 2022 novel is a retelling of Dickens' autobiographical coming-of-age novel "David Copperfield." Kingsolver moves the story from Victorian England to contemporary Appalachia, where the opioid crisis is raging. The book won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

100 of Broadway's best songs

From the pathos of "One Day More" from "Les Misérables," to the soaring "Defying Gravity" from "Wicked," this video showcasing 100 of Broadway's best songs will keep any musical theater lover quite busy. While the list trends toward modern pieces, there are still plenty of selections from classics and Tony Award winners like "Fiddler on the Roof" and "Miss Saigon."

The 10 best TV spin-offs ever

The spin-off is a much-maligned genre, often seen as a cash grab more than an artistic enterprise. This list argues otherwise, offering 10 excellent series that come close to besting their source material.

Explore a list of the best novels of all time

10 books that get the theatre world right

The theatre world is filled with drama—both on and offstage—thanks to big egos, imagined slights, and tense interpersonal dynamics. Despite that reality, it's not easy to portray what goes on behind the scenes on the page. This list breaks down some of the exceptions, featuring 10 novels that accurately capture the insular world and fascinating personalities who populate it.

The 2017 adaptation of King's 'IT' is the most successful horror movie ever

The 2017 adaptation of Stephen King's horror novel "IT" wasn't the first adaptation for the screen, but it was the most successful. It broke multiple box-office records, becoming the highest-grossing horror movie in history. This resource breaks down every record it broke in its theatrical release.

The best movies about Wall Street

From Martin Scorsese’s “The Wolf of Wall Street,” to “American Psycho” starring Christian Bale, Hollywood has no shortage of Wall-Street-centric filmography. These films often distinguish themselves by interrogating why excess wealth and success are so often deemed synonymous in American culture.

Why Percival Everett decided to reimagine 'Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'

Percival Everett's novel "James"—a retelling of Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Jim, an escaped slave—was one of the most acclaimed books of 2024. In this interview, Everett explains why he decided to rework the classic American novel and why he felt it was necessary to infuse his own with a different voice.

Explore 14 iconic self-driving cars from television and film

From the heroic KITT from "Knight Rider" and Batmobile from "Batman" to the demonically possessed Christine from Stephen King’s "Christine," many of the vehicles on this list are examples of how classic cars have been personified in media.

Auditions for the US adaptation of 'The Office' included many now-famous actors

When NBC decided to adapt "The Office" for American audiences, they auditioned in several comic character actors, including Seth Rogen, Bob Odenkirk, Kathryn Hahn, and Adam Scott. Though those actors didn't land the parts, they did end up with major roles in other critically-acclaimed movies and TV shows, including "Knocked Up," "Abigail All Along," "Better Call Saul," and "Severance."

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.

Scroll through a 75-year timeline of Ogilvy’s iconic ads

From the brilliant Rolls-Royce slogan that David Ogilvy wrote himself (“at 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock”) to Dove’s early 2000s campaign for Real Beauty, these 75 ads are among the best in advertising agency Ogilvy’s history.

See 33 images that became central to huge scandals, including a young Charles and Camilla, Michael Jackson's baby on a hotel balcony, and Hugh Grant's mugshot.

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

A century of Billboard issues documenting the evolution of popular music.

Famed poet TS Eliot rejected the manuscript for George Orwell's political fable 'Animal Farm,' writing that its criticism of authoritarianism was not 'the right point of view.'

Mid-century modern graphic designers, known for their bright colors and bold lines in advertising, also found success with children's books.

As of 2025, the most cited papers in science include a review of graphene, methods to improve image recognition, streamlining electron density calculations, and optimizing protein studies.

Watch a 1934 short film starring jazz legend Cab Calloway, a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance's music scene

Dozens of S&P 500 stocks, including Coca-Cola and Walmart—known as the dividend aristocrats—have increased dividends every year for 25 years

The Brothers Grimm were lawyers before they were storytellers, but became interested in fairy tales as they began investigating how rules and customs had been passed down through cultures.

Dorothy's famous entrance into Oz in 'The Wizard of Oz' relied on analog tricks, including a body double and sepia-toned paint, as much as it did on technology

The most expensive ad of all time was for Chanel No. 5 perfume and cost roughly $33M to produce in 2004—about $57M in today's dollars.

Explore an interactive map of battles from the American Revolution, along with detailed summaries of each engagement

The Dracula character, now seen as the vampire archetype, was inspired by a seafood-induced nightmare its creator experienced.

In 1939, baseball star Lou Gehrig delivered his inspirational 'Luckiest Man' speech after retiring due to the health condition that now bears his name.

'Silent' fireworks have gained more interest in recent years as a quieter celebratory option.

See the 25 of the best photos of auroras from around the world.

The history of many kitchen appliances involves unexpected discoveries and applications, including wartime radar turned hamster defroster and replacing an 'ice king' with heat-stealing boxes.

El Niño, Spanish for 'the boy,' was named after Jesus Christ because the phenomenon resembled the weather changes observed around Christmastime.

Explore the history, structure, and species of Australia's Great Barrier Reef with this interactive journey narrated by Sir David Attenborough.

Crows are believed to have intelligence on par with a seven-year-old child and demonstrate complex behaviors, from problem-solving with tools to recognizing human faces.

See the evolution of Ebola vaccine and treatment development.

Play the role of a student in a game where you try to navigate college and remain debt-free, selecting different income levels, high school experience, race, ethnicity, and more.

To reduce wrinkles in clothing, research recommends gentle wash cycles with more water and tumble drying with smaller loads and longer times.