| @Edu - yeah, it's the best 100 novels in English of the 20th century
@Zertrudetrout - I don't think it's at all focused on books turned into films. By my rough count, only about half the books on the list have been made into films. Of the top 10, Ulysses is basically unadaptable into film (there have been attempts, but none successful); Great Gatsby was the subject of a not particularly well regarded movie in the 70s; Portrait has never been adapted; Lolita was adapted into a reasonably well-regarded, but flawed Kubrick movie which has nowhere near the reputation of the book and a very boring movie with Jeremy Irons; Brave New World was adapted into an obscure made for TV movie; Sound and the Fury was apparently made into an obscure Yul Brynner movie that I doubt much of anyone has ever heard of; Catch-22 was adapted into a not particularly well-regarded movie; Darkness at Noon has never, so far as I can gather, been adapted; Sons and Lovers has been adapted a couple of times, but none of the adaptations is particularly well known; and The Grapes of Wrath, was, indeed, adapted into a well-regarded movie.
I'd say that of the top ten, only Grapes of Wrath really has a movie of it that is anywhere near as well-respected as the book. As others have noted, a number of pretty well regarded books that have been adapted into movies are *not* included - Gone with the Wind, To Kill a Mockingbird, Lord of the Rings, The Big Sleep. Only a pretty small number have really had adaptations that are as famous as the book - I, Claudius; All the King's Men; Deliverance; The Maltese Falcon; From Here to Eternity; Brideshead Revisited; Sophie's Choice; The Postman Always Rings Twice; and The Magnificent Ambersons would be the only ones I'd say qualify. |
