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Book version/ film version

1 reply

Somesweetday · 10/05/2026 16:25

I'm quite prepared to be told this is the wrong place to start this thread but I thought people who are interested in reading were the most appropriate people to ask about this.
Basically it's about original novel v film, or televised version.

My usual view is that the original novel, by default is preferable to any filmed version. My favourite film is Room with a View which I've watched multiple times. Although I had read various E M Forster novels I had never read the book until last year

I enjoyed the book, took any differences from the film in my stride, until I got to the post script which very briefly gave the writers view of how the characters lives panned out in the future, which isn't covered in the film at all. I can't tell you how upsetting I found the author's projection into the future. It's taken away a lot of the pleasure I got from the film. In a similar way to imagining how mundane and unhappy the lives of Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam D'arcy were after intensity of their romance.

I just wondered how other readers coped with the book v film problem.

OP posts:
ReignOfError · 10/05/2026 20:56

I almost always prefer the book; exceptions have included The Princess Bride, Project Hail Mary, several James Bond films, Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

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