The Devil and Daniel Webster Movie In the movie and the short story, "The Devil and Daniel Webster", written by Stephen Vincent Benet, there is illustrated the battle between the forces of good and evil. Although the story allows the reader to mentally picture the scenes and the mov...

A Long Day's Journey Into Night reveals the nature of the story in the title itself. All of the characters in the story are making a long journey towards darkness, their lives all were once happy and good, and have since become dismal and depressing. Every character has at least one specific probl...

Ethan Frome Ethan Frome is a story about a man who is torn between love and security. Ethan marries Zeena for security after he is left alone be his mother's death. When Zeena becomes ill, Mattie, a female relation is sent for. During her years stay Ethan falls in love with her. The movie ve...

Don Quixote was written by Miguel de Cervantes and translated, at least the version I read, by Tobias Smollett. The book itself is composed of two volumes with four books each. The comedic story stars Don Quixote, a disillusioned middle-aged Spanish gentleman, as a knights-errant and his squire, ...

A Passage to India When novels are turned into movies, each is subject to instant criticism. They are readily compared to one another. Not having read A Passage to India puts us at a disadvantage in comparing the novel and the film. Instead, we have to trust that David Lean's interpret...

There are several suggestions that Imelda Whelehan gives on how to approach the study of adaptations in her article, "Adaptations: The Contemporary Dilemmas." Whelehan offers advice to students of the hybrid study of adaptations by encouraging them to look beyond the fidelity of the original text....

Timothy Findley was a Canadian novelist and playwright, who was one of Canada's most famous writers. He was born in 1930 Toronto and was raised in the Rosedale district. He self educated himself after grade 10, after which he pursued a career in the arts, studying dance and acting despite his p...

The Humor of Pride and Prejudice Of all the novels that Jane Austen has written, critics consider Pride and Prejudice to be the most comical. Humor can be found everywhere in the book; in it's character descriptions, imagery, but mostly in it's conversations between chara...

"Like Water for Chocolate" was the first novel written by Laura Esquivel, which has been compared with that of the fairytale, Cinderella. Its success led to the immediate production of it into a film. Both the novel and film were released in the U.S. in 1993. "Like Water for Chocola...

Steinbeck depicts Curley's wife not as a villain, but rather as a victim. Like the ranch-hands, she is desperately lonely and has broken dreams of a better life. In the 1930's when this novella is set, American domestic life was still revolved around the servitude of the housewife. Women ...

One would think that the plot of a novel or play would mold its characters and determine whether they are interesting or not, however, even in a mediocre book, there can be a character that is interesting for some reason or other. This 'some reason or other' can be defined through the reader's r...

Stephen King is one of the most influential authors of today. His award-winning novels and short stories are known world -wide. His many awards and nominations have created a space for him in the literary world. King is a true ¡§Horror King¡, for his books, turned movies, have scared millions...

"To you I am neither a man nor a woman. I come before you as an author only. It is the sole standard by which you have a right to judge me- the sole ground on which I accept your judgement." - Charlotte Bronte, to a critic (Oates, V) Charlotte Brontë's reputation may be explained in part by the...

Films that are based on novels when compared often have many similarities and differences. The Beach directed by Danny Boyle and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Guillaume Canet, Robert Carlyle and Virginie Ledoyen. The genre of this film is Adventure/Drama because of the intense moments in ...

In the genre of science fiction, many writers have changed the way people think about the future and the thoughts of society, but none have created the same amount of change as Ray Bradbury. Through his unique writing style of combining science fiction and sophisticated writing, (Discovering Author...

Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen created one of literature's greatest pieces in 1813, titled Pride and Prejudice. Austen's novel is centered mostly in Longbourn, outside London. This is a rare work, including both romance and satire. Austen proves that she is truly one of the great...

Ondaatje's novel, In the Skin of a Lion, reflects the situation of immigrants and the political power structure in Canada earlier in the century. The writer argues that those at the top of society's power hierarchy during that period, from both a political and financial standpoint, were disregarding...

"A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" by James Joyce A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man -1914, 1915- draws on many details from Joyce's early life. The novel's protagonist, Stephen Dedalus, is in many ways Joyce's fictional double. Like Joyce himself, ...

Director Douglas McGrath took on a challenge when he agreed to direct Emma, a film adaptation of Jane Austen's timeless classic. It is always a gamble for a director to take on a much loved story for film, but McGrath has succeeded spectacularly in this lavish love story. Austen's novel ...