Posts tagged with classic-books
Sorry, Meg.
In news that will undoubtedly traumatize Wordcandy staff member Megan (who hates the book with a fiery passion), the Guardian is reporting that there will be a new film adaptation of Richard Adams’s 1972 novel Watership Down. The movie will be a co-production of the BBC and Netflix, and features...
Expanded (but not enough)
The more I think about Common Sense Media's list of 50 Books All Kids Should Read Before They're 12, the more I quibble with it. They chose a lot of great books, sure, but others range from flawed (Ender's Game) to age-inappropriate (The Fellowship of the Ring) to straight-up unworthy (The Bad Beginning: A Series of Unfortunate Events)...
The Story of Hong Gildong, translated by Minsoo Kang
The Story of Hong Gildong is a classic Korean novel, widely—but perhaps inaccurately—attributed to the 17th century author and courtier Heo Gyun. The character of Hong Gildong is so widely known in Korea that his name is routinely used as the instructional example on forms (à la “John Doe”). Western readers can now judge his story for themselves, as Penguin Classics has recently released a new translation of the text...
Weekly Book Giveaway: The Story of Hong Gildong, translated by Minsoo Kang
This week's Book Giveaway is the new Penguin Classics edition of The Story of Hong Gildong, featuring a new translation by Minsoo Kang. For all you k-drama geeks out there, this the Korean classic that inspired this TV show. For everyone else, just look at that cover! How could anyone pass that up...
So stoked
Penguin has just released their first "Penguin Classics" edition of a Korean novel: The Story of Hong GilDong, which they describe as "the quintessential Korean classic: the Robin Hood story of a magical boy who joins a group of robber bandits and becomes a king." This particular edition features...
Win some, lose some
So, bad news: according to THR, Mark Osborne's widely-praised and absolutely gorgeous-looking film adaptation of Antoine de Saint-Exupery's The Little Prince was quietly removed from Paramount's film-release schedule, which had originally slated the movie to open in the U.S. tomorrow...
Bigger, better, bloodier
And speaking of movie adaptations, the latest trailer is out for the upcoming remake of Ben-Hur, which looks, frankly, cheesy as hell. I'm not sure how interested the filmmakers are in the Christ parallels featured in the original novel...
The Watsons, by Jane Austen and John Coates
Sometime between 1803 and 1805, Jane Austen wrote the first five chapters of a novel called The Watsons. The story opens on a grim note: a young woman named Emma Watson returns to her family after spending many years in the care of a widowed and wealthy aunt. When her aunt makes a foolish second marriage, Emma is shipped off to her father's house, where she joins her three older sisters...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Lady Susan, The Watsons, Sanditon, by Jane Austen
This week's Book Giveaway is this Penguin Classics collection of Jane Austen's juvenilia and unfinished works: Lady Susan, The Watsons, Sanditon. We've already shared our thoughts on Sanditon (and its continuations), we're impatiently waiting for the film version of Lady Susan, and...
Unnecessary, but to be expected
According to Deadline, Disney is planning a live-action movie adaptation of E.T.A. Hoffman's The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. The film will be directed by Lasse Hallstrom, and called The Nutcracker and the Four Realms. This feels like a missed opportunity to me: see, I grew up with...
Source material
If you watched the recent BBC adaptation of Tolstoy's War and Peace, you might be interested in this recent Daily Mail article about some of the series' visuals...
What about that car, though?
Additional, far more exciting TV news: according to Variety, NBC has given a formal pilot order for a TV update of Cruel Intentions. The potential series "picks up 15 years after the movie left off and...
Emma, by Alexander McCall Smith
Emma Woodhouse is not my favorite Jane Austen heroine, but she deserves better treatment than she receives in Alexander McCall Smith's Emma, one of the six titles in The Austen Project, an attempt to re-imagine Austen's novels with a modern setting. Austen's Emma is a flawed but endearing character who eventually begins to correct her many faults; Smith's Emma, in contrast, is...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Emma, by Alexander McCall Smith
This week's Book Giveaway is Alexander McCall Smith's Emma, a modern re-telling of Jane Austen's novel of the same name. I have my doubts about the wisdom of this project, frankly. Not only is Smith inviting comparisons with the original novel, he's also inviting comparisons with Clueless, and that seems like a really stacked deck. Our review will follow shortly...
Cheese plays more of a supporting role
Okay, I'm not 100% sold on the idea that Heidi is primarily about cheese, but I totally believe that great children's literature is nearly always improved by a memorable food description, from The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe's tea party with Mr. Tumnus to...
CGI hands creep me out
The teaser trailer has been released for Disney's upcoming adaptation of Roald Dahl's The BFG. This has never been one of my favorite books, so...
Does not compute.
In an effort to arrive at a definitive list of the United Kingdom's greatest novels, BBC Culture contributor Jane Ciabattari polled 82 non-British book critics for their favorites. The resulting list is novels only (no short stories/poetry/plays), and it is perfectly respectable, although...
Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen
I have long owned the Mr. Boddington's Penguin Classics editions of Pride and Prejudice and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and both suffer from a major quality control issue: the ink periodically fades to near-invisibility. Still, I loved the line's cover art, so when their edition of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen
This week's Book Giveaway is the Mr. Boddington's Penguin Classics edition of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. This has never been my favorite Austen novel, but I figure the week after Thanksgiving is the best possible time to read a book about the heroism of family members who keep their personal issues to themselves...
It's not meant to be a horror story, but...
The Guardian recently posted one of their pictorial essays on the real bear who inspired Winnie-the-Pooh. Apparently, in 1914 a vet named Harry Colebourn was on his way to fight in World War I when...
So pretty! Also discounted!
First: Hi, guys! We're not doing a Book Giveaway this week, because it's so short. The Giveaway feature will return next Monday.
Second: if you too admired the very beautiful "Mr. Boddington's Penguin Classics" editions that were previously only available at Anthropologie, you...
It's no Moominworld
According to Jezebel, the Stockholm apartment of Astrid Lindgren, beloved author of the Pippi Longstocking series, is going to be opened to public tours. I was a little confused to hear that no one under age 15 will be admitted, but...
Newer & improved
Mental Floss recently posted some comparison images of the changes Richard Scarry’s 1963 picture book Best Word Book Ever underwent between its initial publication and...
Wasteful
While poking around a local bookstore, I finally had a chance to see Penguin's Classics Deluxe edition of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. The cover art is absolutely gorgeous, and I was immediately tempted to buy it... until I saw the price ($25! For a paperback!) and felt the weight (3 pounds! Also for a paperback!)...
Why bother?
The first trailer was released for Disney's upcoming live-action remake of The Jungle Book. It looks very... CGI. I can't believe there's really that much of a demand for this movie. I mean, if Disney is so hard up...
Dark Ages soap
Deadline recently posted an update on ITV's upcoming Beowulf miniseries, which they describe as a "Dark Ages Western". My hopes that this adaptation will be a hokey delight are high (the creators also produced Primeval, which pretty much rang the hokey delight bell, IMO), but..
Bewildering
According to Deadline, Warner Bros. plans to make a film version of Dante’s Inferno that will focus on the poem's "epic love story", which the article summarizes as "Dante [descending] through the nine circles of hell to save the woman he loves." I am so confused about this...
Maybe I'm missing the point?
io9 informs me that artist Thomas Lebrun is re-drawing Hergé’s most controversial Tintin comic, Tintin in the Congo. Hergé’s original story is infamous for its racist images, but Lebrun has a different focus—he is re-drawing Tintin as nude from the knees up in every panel...