But Have You Read the Book?

52 Literary Gems That Inspired Our Favorite Films

By: Kristen Lopez

Narrated by: Tanis Parenteau

For film buffs and literature lovers alike, Turner Classic Movies presents an essential guide to 52 cinema classics and the literary works that served as their inspiration.

“I love that movie!”

“But have you read the book?”

Within these pages, Turner Classic Movies offers an endlessly fascinating look at 52 beloved screen adaptations and the great reads that inspired them. Some films, like Clueless—Amy Heckerling’s interpretation of Jane Austen’s Emma—diverge wildly from the original source material, while others, like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, shift the point of view to craft a different experience within the same story. Author Kristen Lopez explores just what makes these works classics of both the page and screen, and why each made for an exceptional adaptation—whether faithful to the book or exemplifying cinematic creative license.

Other featured works include:
Children of Men · The Color Purple · Crazy Rich Asians · Dr. No · Dune · Gentlemen Prefer Blondes · Kiss Me Deadly · The Last Picture Show · Little Women · Passing · The Princess Bride · The Shining · The Thin Man · True Grit · Valley of the Dolls · The Virgin Suicides · Wuthering Heights

Poor performance by narrator.

The Narrator mispronounced far too many words and names throughout this otherwise very interesting book.

Nice content but a bit amateurish.

Lots of errors. Lots of mispronunciations. Do we have editors and producers?

Someone should redo both the book and the read.

Riddled with mistakes and mispronunciations

This is a fantastic idea for a book severely hampered by a mediocre execution and (particularly) a terrible audio production. From aggravating glottal fry and swallowed "t"s, to the MANY mispronunciations / misspellings of dozens of names (Brontë, Jan De Bont, Larry McMurtry, Lorraine Gary to name but a few), one has to wonder if this book had any kind of editor looking out for the accuracy of the proceedings. I love a good behind-the-scenes-of-movies book, and was very excited reading the description for this one. But the cursory nature of the entries, lack of even well-known facts (like the oft-repeated story of Michael Douglas preventing his father Kirk from appearing in ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S nest for one), this book can't be thought of as anything but a disappointment in desperate need of a fact-check, spell-check, and professional narrator.

Unforgivable Mispronunciations

Was there no one to oversee this production? The narrator mispronounces so many names, it’s truly shocking. Very difficult to enjoy what would otherwise be an interesting book.