Product Description
The relationship between the Welsh and English within Great Britain is mostly characterised by tolerance, respect, and an intermixing of people and cultures. However, elements of mutual mistrust or dislike, and occasionally overt racism, also persist. Hatred or fear of the Welsh by the English or others has been termed "Cymrophobia. Antipathy to the English, by the Welsh or others, is termed "Anglophobia". The relationship has developed historically from the origins of the two nations, and been shaped by the military, political, economic and cultural power exercised by the much more populous English over the Welsh for many centuries; the marked differences between the English and Welsh languages, both spoken and written; and the high degree of cultural importance given by many in Wales to signifiers of national identity such as the language, literature, history, traditions, and the national sport of rugby union. The Anglo-Saxon invasions of Britain led to the formation of Wales between the 5th and 7th centuries. ... Read more

Product Description
Here is the only comprehensive reference to explore the many adaptations of the novel into film. Written by two acclaimed film scholars and authors, The Encyclopedia of Novels into Film examines the process and pitfalls of adaptation, providing readers with insights about how and why books are transformed for the silver screen.

Over 300 entries cover both American and foreign films, from classic works like Birth of a Nation and Gone With the Wind to contemporary hits, such as Sense and Sensibility and The English Patient. Spanning comedy, drama, film noir, science fiction, westerns, action, suspense, and children's literature, this encyclopedia also includes a wealth of photographs and portraits of selected authors.

Adaptations covered include: The Age of Innocence Babette's Feast Crime and Punishment Dracula From Here to Eternity Great Expectations Jaws Little Women Maltese Falcon M*A*S*H Portrait of a Lady Schindler's List Shaft The Time Machine Trainspotting Ulysses Valley of the Dolls Wuthering Heights Zorba the GreekAmazon.com Review
One of the great pleasures of moviegoing is seeing a belovednovel adapted for the screen; one of the big delights of novel readingis encountering a book that has been made into a favorite film. TheEncyclopedia of Novels into Films is an expansive volume that willguide you through the rich history of film adaptation. Each entryfalls into two parts: the first describes the original novel; thesecond assesses the film it inspired. Particularly interesting arerecords for books like Dracula, Les Misérables,Great Expectations, The Body Snatchers, and The GreatGatsby, which were each made into several radically differentmovies. Some entries may surprise you. Did you know that TheSilence of the Lambs, Shaft, and Rear Window werebestselling books before they became famous films? Trivia like this,along with larger issues about how to transform literature into visualart are covered in this wonderful and informative guide. --RaphaelShargel ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Brilliant concept poorly executed

Entirely justified in its conception, now into it's second edition, "The Encyclopedia of Novels into Film" will stand the test of time. No doubt it will improve with each edition. As yet it is an incomplete encyclopedia.

The book will improve if the authors adopt some of the simple techniques of novelists. Such as reviewing their own work by reading aloud. The style is academic, with excessively long sentences and unfamiliar words. Not suited to the material of novels and films or its readership.

The Appendix is really a conclusion. Parts of it are almost intelligible on first reading. The same is true of the the Introduction. The first object of writing novels or making films is to communicate. The authors would do well to study the Forward by Robert Wise.

The substantial number of novels/films included are alphabetically listed. Cross reference by genre would be useful. A large number are classics of their day. Cross reference by popularity, sales and critical review would be useful.

No rational is given for the selection of novels made into film nor for the length of space devoted to each. By the authors own admission, a number of pertinent novels/films are omitted. All to often the synopsis of the novel and/or film is inadequate for the uniformed reader. The occasional gross factal inaccuracy must be embarressing for those portraying themselves as academic authorities presenting an encyclopedia.

Nevertheless "...Novels into Film" should be a valuable resource for novelists who want their stories to transfer to film and film makers who want to enact use novels as a resource for stories. It is a fascianting account of the frequent disagreements between novelists and film makers on how a story should be told.


just Jack

Does Decent Job in Discussion, Commits Serious Mistakes in Details
This is a review of `The Encyclopedia of Novels into Films" Second Edition (Paperback Copyright 2005), by John C. Tibbetts and James M. Welsh.

The first entry of the second edition doesn't look good; you will see these on p. 1 of the book:

ADAPTATION (1876)
See THE ORCHRD THIEF

What??? The source material for the Nicholas Cage film was written in the 19th century? But hadn't Susan Orlean contributed her original article to New Yorker like 10 years ago? ...

No encyclopedia is proof against the accusation of omission. I know some things must go if others should remain. But there is still something we can do to make our books better, something like proofreading. I thought it might be helpful to read this book for I am working on my homepage where I need information about films and novels. Maybe I am mistaken.

In each entry the book's contributor(s) discuss the novels and the films based on them. The methods of discussion are not always the same, but they are mainly about the differences between the book and its adaptation with summery of the plot. Brief references are attached to each of the discussion, but not much, and sometimes the discussion seems too intent on pointing out the changes done to the original boo, but that is not a big problem. Any encyclopedias, even Wikipedia, are only a starting point for further research, and basic data will do. And it is certain that the summery of the novels and films comes in handy when you read or saw them long time ago.

What I disagree with this encyclopedia is that it omits most of the made-for-TV adaptations. The decision would be understandable if the book is written strictly for academic purpose, like the hard cover study published by university press. Scholars have to narrow down the theme, and there is a difference between `film' and `TV.' But as I said, this is an encyclopedia, gateway to more information and wider perspectives.

However, the book does not list many important works. In `Pride and Prejudice' the writer mentions briefly the outstanding Colin Firth version, giving only one phrase, which is `a 1985 British Broadcasting Corporation adaptation' (p. 360) That's it. And look, 1985? The correct year is of course 1995 (or the same company's older 1980 version). Either way, this is another incredible mistake and negligence that are unforgivable. In the page `How to Use This Book' the book goes: "Not only many of them (made-for-TV adaptations) of inferior quality, but they are usually difficult to obtain (either for general viewers or researchers). Both statements are absolutely wrong. As to the quality of some of the made-for-TV adaptations, I don't have to add anything more; as to the availability of the material, perhaps some people have never seen the receently released titles of DVDs.

But what I disliked about the book is ... I cannot find the right word, but ... its lack of enthusiasm, See the column of `Oliver Twist' for instance. About the Monogram version made in 1933, the books says, `Prints are not available for viewing" (p. 329) but this is not simply trueVHS is available for nearly 9 years, and I obtained a copy of several years ago. Of course this alone is not a big mistake, but if considered together with some other omissions, misprints (or misinformation) and questionable policy of the editing, it starts to look much bigger. Did they really do thorough research? Are they really thinking about the possible readers or researcher who might rely on the book?

I admit I got some information from this book, and that's the reason for giving three stars. But I was not impressed. I was and am more impressed with the numerous reviewers you can find at IMDb, whch might have already superseded this kind of book.

A College Course in Literature
Generally, I am suspicious of "encyclopedias" of film because they tend to be superficial or boring. Not so with this big book.
The authors begin by discussing a selected novel's plot, then assess the novel's strengths and weaknesses. After explaining the novel, the authors discuss whether the film was faithful to the novel - not only in the story but in mood and characterization.Of course, some will argue that "this movie should be included, that shouldn't."The book focuses on the most important novels OR the most important films based onnovels. (For example, I loved the movie based on the novel, ThePearl, but this film is not generally available.Overall, it is a very interesting resource for literature or film courses.Don't be afraid to buy it.

With a different title the right audience may have bought it
If this book had a more relevant title I think it would reach more of its target market and people not interested in its content wouldn't purchase it by mistake and be dissatisfied.
This huge book isn't an encyclopedia of every novel written which has had a film made from it or even every type or decade of literature.

95% of this book deals with either classic novels or black and white movies such as Huckleberry Finn, to Kill a Mockingbird, Wizard of Oz and that sort of thing. The modern era is severely neglected and the modern films mentioned seem there out of necessity so that the encyclopedia's facts are accurate. For example Emma is covered in depth, both the book and film with the same name but there are only a few brief paragraphs about the more modern version called Clueless.Reading these paragraphs you definitely pickup that the author wasn't too interested in informing us too much about the modern versions and doesn't consider them worthy of their time.

There are two Stephen King novels (why only two?) in here but that's about it for modern literature.These reports don't even compare the differences between the films and novels which make a lot of fans dislike the movie versions.Such as Carrie is a beautiful girl in the movie but in the novel was an ugly fat girl which made a lot more sense. With Misery the woman holding the author hostage cut off either his thumb or foot I can't remember which but in the movie only smashed it with a big hammer.This sort of controversial information is what I thought this encyclopedia would be full of.

This is a good book if you like literature or films from first half of last century but if you don't give this book a miss. ... Read more

Product Description
A fascinating and comprehensive exploration of Wales

Perfect for everyone from general readers to students to recreational or business travelers, the Teach Yourself World Cultures series explores language, history, art, politics, economics, cuisine, and much more. Each book in the series lists useful addresses, websites, and points of interest. Mixing historical information with travel tips, Teach Yourself World Cultures books are both educational and entertaining.

Teach Yourself World Cultures: Wales provides:

*A balanced and comprehensive overview of the nation--from geography to political history to the workplace environment of today
*Valuable information on the people and their customs
*Practical vocabulary and language tips for the traveler
*Recipes for common dishes of the region ... Read more

Product Description
Ronald Schleifer offers a powerful reassessment of the politics and culture of modernism. His study analyzes the transition from the Enlightenment to post-Enlightenment ways of understanding in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He argues that this transition expresses itself centrally in an altered conception of temporality. Addressing a variety of disciplines, this study examines the period's remarkable breaks with the past in literature, music, and the arts more generally, and engages with the work of writers and thinkers as varied as George Eliot, Walter Benjamin, Einstein and Russell. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Countries and Their Cultures, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 2662 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Covers the broad range of popular religious culture of the United States at the close of the twentieth century. Beliefs, practices, symbols, traditions, movements, organizations, and leaders from the many traditions in the pluralistic American community are represented. Also includes cults and phenomena that drew followers, such as Heaven's Gale and UFOs. ... Read more

Product Description

Students, Anglophiles, and literature hounds will want to delve into this delightful survey of foodways of a culture both ancient and cutting edge. Only in recent years have modern kitchen conveniences become taken for granted all over Britain. British cooking has also made tremendous strides lately, and the changes in shopping and food options, preparation, restaurant-going, and diet are detailed.The cooking traditions and classic dishes for which Britain is known are described as well, as they still help to define the people.

Commercialization and globalization are shown to characterize British foodways today. For instance, Britain's regionalism is eroding. Health and environmental issues such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy have come to the fore. Television cook shows are all the rage. Women working outside the home and the increase in single-parent households fuel the demand for quick and pre-prepared meals. The trends are well supported by statistics. A timeline, glossary, and resource guide enhance the narrative.

Product Description
Fifty years after the death of her husband, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Constanze reflects on her long life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An interesting love story
people all over the world have heard of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, asuperstarin his time. But what about his wife? Mozart's bad habits ofdrinking, and spending far more money than he can earn has put a strain ontheir relationship. His wife Constanze faithfully repaid his debts, forgavehim when he chased after other women. ... Read more

Product Description
Matthew Arnold's famous series of essays, which were first published in book form under the title Culture and Anarchy in 1869, debate important questions about the nature of culture and society.Arnold seeks to find out what culture really is, what good it can do, and if it is really necessary.He contrasts culture, which he calls the study of perfection, with anarchy, the mood of unrest and uncertainty that pervaded mid-Victorian England.
This edition reproduces the original book version, revealing the immediate historical context and controversy of the piece.The introduction and notes broaden out the interpretative approach to Arnold's text, elaborating on the complexities of the religious context.The book also reinforces the continued importance of Arnold's ideas its influences in the face of the challenges of multi-culturalism and post-modernism.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Witty, ironic, and irrepressible classic
This was probably Arnold's greatest work, and it can still be read with profit today. Mainly a reaction to the social and cultural uncertainties of mid-Victorian England, Arnold attempted to analyze and solve the problem of anarchy and cultural uncertainty as he saw it in this witty and articulate collection of essays. The U.S. is in a similar uncertain state today, but unfortunately we're more likely to see more false pundits pandering nonsense rather than another Matthew Arnold, whose intelligence, wit, and uncommon sense seem to be all too rare today in this country. As the Encyclopedia Britannica puts it, "Arnold saw in the idea of "the State," and not in any one class of society, the true organ and repository of the nation's collective "best self." No summary can do justice to this extraordinary book; it can still be read with pure enjoyment, for it is written with an inward poise, a serene detachment, and an infusion of mental laughter, which make it a masterpiece of ridicule as well as a searching analysis of Victorian society. The same is true of its unduly neglected sequel, Friendship's Garland (1871)." ... Read more

Product Description
Matthew Arnold's famous series of essays, which were first published in book form under the title Culture and Anarchy in 1869, debate important questions about the nature of culture and society.Arnold seeks to find out what culture really is, what good it can do, and if it is really necessary.He contrasts culture, which he calls the study of perfection, with anarchy, the mood of unrest and uncertainty that pervaded mid-Victorian England.
This edition reproduces the original book version, revealing the immediate historical context and controversy of the piece.The introduction and notes broaden out the interpretative approach to Arnold's text, elaborating on the complexities of the religious context.The book also reinforces the continued importance of Arnold's ideas its influences in the face of the challenges of multi-culturalism and post-modernism.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Politically Correct Yalies
Trendy revisionist garbage as to be expected from the Yale imprimature. This edition is strictly for collegial faculty club bores. Get the edition edited by Stefan Collini instead he's less interested in himself.

"...in praise of Culture..."
[From the Plains of Troy...
awakened from the dream]

[in his own words...]

"The whole scope of the essay is to recommend
culture as the great help out of our present
difficulties; culture being a pursuit of our
total perfection by means of getting to know,
on all matters which most concern us, the best
which has been thought and said in the world,
and, through this knowledge, turning a stream
of fresh and free thought upon our stock
notions and habits, which we now follow

staunchly but mechanically, vainly imagining
that there is a virtue in following them
staunchly which makes up for the mischief
of following them mechanically."
* * * * * * * * *

"Culture, which is the study of perfection,
leads us, as we in the following pages have
shown, to conceive of true human perfection
as a HARMONIOUS perfection, developing all
sides of our humanity; and as a GENERAL
perfection, developing all parts of our
society.For if one member suffer, the
other members must suffer with it; and
the fewer there are that follow the true
way of salvation, the harder that way is
to find."
* * * * * * * * *

"Now, and for us, it is a time to Hellenise,
and to praise KNOWING; for we have Hebraised
too much, and have over-valued DOING.But the
habits and discipline received from Hebraism
remain for our race an eternal possession;
and, as humanity is constituted, one must never
assign them the second rank to-day, without
being ready to restore them to the first rank
to-morrow.To walk staunchly by the best
light one has, to be strict and sincere
with oneself, not to be of the number of
those who say -- and do not; to be in
earnest, -- this is the discipline by which
alone man is enabled to rescue his life
from thraldom to the passing moment and
to his bodily senses, to ennoble it, and
to make it eternal."
* * * * * * * * *

Note for the fashion con-science
This edition is preferable to the gimmicky version published by Yale, where the original text is lost beneath the imposition of leftist ideologues.

A Breeze of Sanity
So much of modern criticism has go so far afield, that the appellation has almost lost any sense to it. To recapture what criticism meant before the novel, but useless ideas of structuralism, post-structuralism,deconstruction, post-modernism, et alia, Matthew Arnold is about as good aplace to begin. His "Function of Criticism" and "Anarchy andCrticism" have become classics, even if they've been hidden from sightby academicians' self-serving agendas to bring nothing to light. This isn'ta "conservative" vs. "liberal" thing, but an"intelligible and meaningful" vs. "labyrinthine andcockamamie" thing. Arnold is like encountering hermeneutics by havingfirst visited Thomas Aquinas, or having studied democracy by having firststudied Hobbes. Arnold is a seminal thinker, crtic, and student of the artsand society. He belongs in criticism's lexicon well before de Saussure,Derrida, Lacan, at alia.

For anyone hoping to grasp the roots of modern conservatism
Matthew Arnold, a British poet and critic, wrote on the importance of culture in this work.He defined culture, famously, as "sweetness and light" - implying that culture represented everything good, everythingnot barbaric.The work is most important for the way it forwards thenotion of an "organic" society - that is, a society that evolvesslowly, that grows into maturity, that does not strive for sudden"advances" led by experts working all at once to implement greatchange.For anyone wondering about the relationship between modernconservatism and classical Liberalism, this is a decent place to start. "I am a Liberal," Arnold writes in the introduction, "yet Iam a Liberal tempered by experience, reflection, and renouncement, and Iam, above all, a believer in culture."If you wish to take anintellectual journey from Burke to Bork, Arnold must make up one leg ofyour trip. ... Read more

Product Description
Bruce Arnold has been one of Ireland's leading journalists and critics for over 40 years. In this selection of some of his most memorable essays and articles, Arnold casts his expert eye on Irish literature, art and contemporary culture. The book is divided into three sections, with the first section covering broad cultural issues, including the title essay, "The Spire", plus essays on the Charlton years, Riverdance and a moving tribute to Jack Lynch. The second section focuses on literature and includes essays on Brendan Kennelly, Samuel Beckett and Seamus Heaney, among others. The third section covers art and features essays on Jack Yeats, Mainie Jellett, Paul Henry, Derek Hill, William Orpen and other prominent Irish artists. Taken together, this collection of writings provides a fascinating look at Ireland's rich cultural heritage as seen by one of its leading commentators and writers. ... Read more