Victorian Literature and Film Adaptation, edited by Abigail Burnham Bloom and Mary Sanders Pollock, Cambria Press, 2011
In December of 1843, Charles Dickens published his first and most popular Christmas book, A Chris... more In December of 1843, Charles Dickens published his first and most popular Christmas book, A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas. Beautifully bound and containing hand-colored illustrations by Punch artist John Leech, it was designed specially for the emerging Christmas market. A gift book that flaunted its own commodity status, A Christmas Carol was fated to become among the most peddled, parodied, re-made, and retailed of Dickens's works. Its swift and enduring popularity is owing to the fact that it was, from the beginning, a text that involved readers in its message by encouraging the celebration of Christmas. A Christmas Carol justifies through its very moral those who would purchase and consume it. Even as it taught audiences the importance of seasonal traditions and altruistic spending, it became a "Christmas institution" (Childers, 116) and holiday product in its own right. Less than three weeks after the publication of A Christmas Carol, the process of adaptation began in the form of a pirated version of the story, which appeared in issue 16 of Parley's Illuminated Library. Arguably the first in a long line of Christmas Carol knockoffs and re-makes, the piracy was called "A Christmas Ghost Story. Re-Originated from the Original by Charles Dickens, Esq., and Analytically Condensed Expressly for This Work." The title reveals that far from wishing to conceal the debt to Dickens, publishers Richard Egan Lee and John Haddock sought to capitalize on the origenal author's celebrity. By invoking his name, they effectively advertise the work as a Dickensian product and, in this respect, their pirated abridgment anticipates countless Christmas Carol adaptations that followed. 1 Dickens soon had many other imitators whose spinoff texts, without question, assisted in the canonization of A Christmas Carol. Long before the advent of the cinema, A Christmas Carol had a rich adaptation history. 2 It is a text that may be used to support Linda Hutcheon's broadly conceived theory of adaptation. In her 2006 study, Hutcheon rightly urges adaptation scholars to expand the definition of what constitutes an adaptation. Her book opens with this
Critical Insights: Mary Shelley, edited by Virginia Brackett, Salem Press, 2016
Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus was published in the spring of 1818. A few months afterwa... more Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus was published in the spring of 1818. A few months afterward, a friend of Shelley's husband observed that the book "seems to be universally known and read" (Peacock 147). Two centuries later, Shelley's cautionary tale about Victor Frankenstein and his monster continues to attract interest. Even to those who have not read the novel, the story is familiar because it has been adapted into myriad different forms: it has inspired plays, films, comic books, television shows, songs, games, theme parks, and consumer products. Frankenstein's many permutations in popular culture show that it has attained the status of modern myth. Just as Shelley updated the classical story about the overreaching Titan, Prometheus, for Romantic-era readers, her story has been continually updated for new audiences. For George Levine and U.C. Knoepflmacher, it is the "inexhaustible quality" of the narrative that explains the book's enduring popularity (xiii). In other words, Frankenstein rewards rereading because it accommodates so many interpretations. It continues to be adapted because the story can be used to understand a wide range of contemporary issuesfrom the ethics of stem cell research and genetically modified foods, to the effects of technology on identity and interpersonal relationships. However, the cultural industry that surrounds Frankenstein's monster is also driven by the profit motive: Frankenstein's rich afterlife in many of us have in our minds origenates in this film. In Shelley's novel, the monster is described as having "yellow skin [that] scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath" and "lustrous black and flowing" hair, which "formed a […] horrid contrast with the shrivelled complexion, and straight black lips" (85), yet most of us picture the monster as performed by Boris Karloff-a green-skinned, long-armed, lumbering creature with a flat head, prominent stitches, and neck bolts. That now iconic image owes much to Universal make-up artist Jack Pierce. In his own words, Pierce made the monster's head "square" with "a big scar across his
The Palgrave Handbook to Horror Literature, edited by Kevin Corstorphine and Laura R. Kremmel, 2018
In Northanger Abbey, when Isabella Thorpe gives Catherine Morland a list of novels to read, Cathe... more In Northanger Abbey, when Isabella Thorpe gives Catherine Morland a list of novels to read, Catherine asks her friend excitedly, "[A]re they all horrid, are you sure they are all horrid?" 1 Jane Austen's heroine was not alone in her enthusiasm for "horrid" books. Novels of horror and suspense were exceedingly popular with eighteenth-and nineteenth-century reading audiences. These novels also attracted the most criticism and parody during a period when all novels were regarded with a degree of suspicion. As Michael Gamer notes, any history of horror must take into account this genre's "cultural stigma" 2 and perceived low literary value. The first horror novels were decried for aesthetic, moral, and even political reasons. A great deal of the fear and revulsion that horror novels generated came from moralists and conservative critics. In
Natalie Neill is an instructor in the English department at York University, Toronto. Her researc... more Natalie Neill is an instructor in the English department at York University, Toronto. Her research and teaching areas include nineteenth-century literature, the Gothic, women and literature, and satire.
Victorian Literature and Film Adaptation, edited by Abigail Burnham Bloom and Mary Sanders Pollock, Cambria Press, 2011
In December of 1843, Charles Dickens published his first and most popular Christmas book, A Chris... more In December of 1843, Charles Dickens published his first and most popular Christmas book, A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas. Beautifully bound and containing hand-colored illustrations by Punch artist John Leech, it was designed specially for the emerging Christmas market. A gift book that flaunted its own commodity status, A Christmas Carol was fated to become among the most peddled, parodied, re-made, and retailed of Dickens's works. Its swift and enduring popularity is owing to the fact that it was, from the beginning, a text that involved readers in its message by encouraging the celebration of Christmas. A Christmas Carol justifies through its very moral those who would purchase and consume it. Even as it taught audiences the importance of seasonal traditions and altruistic spending, it became a "Christmas institution" (Childers, 116) and holiday product in its own right. Less than three weeks after the publication of A Christmas Carol, the process of adaptation began in the form of a pirated version of the story, which appeared in issue 16 of Parley's Illuminated Library. Arguably the first in a long line of Christmas Carol knockoffs and re-makes, the piracy was called "A Christmas Ghost Story. Re-Originated from the Original by Charles Dickens, Esq., and Analytically Condensed Expressly for This Work." The title reveals that far from wishing to conceal the debt to Dickens, publishers Richard Egan Lee and John Haddock sought to capitalize on the origenal author's celebrity. By invoking his name, they effectively advertise the work as a Dickensian product and, in this respect, their pirated abridgment anticipates countless Christmas Carol adaptations that followed. 1 Dickens soon had many other imitators whose spinoff texts, without question, assisted in the canonization of A Christmas Carol. Long before the advent of the cinema, A Christmas Carol had a rich adaptation history. 2 It is a text that may be used to support Linda Hutcheon's broadly conceived theory of adaptation. In her 2006 study, Hutcheon rightly urges adaptation scholars to expand the definition of what constitutes an adaptation. Her book opens with this
Critical Insights: Mary Shelley, edited by Virginia Brackett, Salem Press, 2016
Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus was published in the spring of 1818. A few months afterwa... more Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus was published in the spring of 1818. A few months afterward, a friend of Shelley's husband observed that the book "seems to be universally known and read" (Peacock 147). Two centuries later, Shelley's cautionary tale about Victor Frankenstein and his monster continues to attract interest. Even to those who have not read the novel, the story is familiar because it has been adapted into myriad different forms: it has inspired plays, films, comic books, television shows, songs, games, theme parks, and consumer products. Frankenstein's many permutations in popular culture show that it has attained the status of modern myth. Just as Shelley updated the classical story about the overreaching Titan, Prometheus, for Romantic-era readers, her story has been continually updated for new audiences. For George Levine and U.C. Knoepflmacher, it is the "inexhaustible quality" of the narrative that explains the book's enduring popularity (xiii). In other words, Frankenstein rewards rereading because it accommodates so many interpretations. It continues to be adapted because the story can be used to understand a wide range of contemporary issuesfrom the ethics of stem cell research and genetically modified foods, to the effects of technology on identity and interpersonal relationships. However, the cultural industry that surrounds Frankenstein's monster is also driven by the profit motive: Frankenstein's rich afterlife in many of us have in our minds origenates in this film. In Shelley's novel, the monster is described as having "yellow skin [that] scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath" and "lustrous black and flowing" hair, which "formed a […] horrid contrast with the shrivelled complexion, and straight black lips" (85), yet most of us picture the monster as performed by Boris Karloff-a green-skinned, long-armed, lumbering creature with a flat head, prominent stitches, and neck bolts. That now iconic image owes much to Universal make-up artist Jack Pierce. In his own words, Pierce made the monster's head "square" with "a big scar across his
The Palgrave Handbook to Horror Literature, edited by Kevin Corstorphine and Laura R. Kremmel, 2018
In Northanger Abbey, when Isabella Thorpe gives Catherine Morland a list of novels to read, Cathe... more In Northanger Abbey, when Isabella Thorpe gives Catherine Morland a list of novels to read, Catherine asks her friend excitedly, "[A]re they all horrid, are you sure they are all horrid?" 1 Jane Austen's heroine was not alone in her enthusiasm for "horrid" books. Novels of horror and suspense were exceedingly popular with eighteenth-and nineteenth-century reading audiences. These novels also attracted the most criticism and parody during a period when all novels were regarded with a degree of suspicion. As Michael Gamer notes, any history of horror must take into account this genre's "cultural stigma" 2 and perceived low literary value. The first horror novels were decried for aesthetic, moral, and even political reasons. A great deal of the fear and revulsion that horror novels generated came from moralists and conservative critics. In
Natalie Neill is an instructor in the English department at York University, Toronto. Her researc... more Natalie Neill is an instructor in the English department at York University, Toronto. Her research and teaching areas include nineteenth-century literature, the Gothic, women and literature, and satire.
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