Tuesday, February 17, 2026

Domestic dialog

 I said that I could think of few novels that had been turned into successful films.

The Wise Woman said that a person who had, as a boy, promised his parents he’d be good if they didn’t make him go to the movies really shouldn’t venture into film criticism. She mentioned several films, including “The Maltese Falcon.”

Stung, I replied that I was thinking about the kinds of novels she’d taught in literature classes.

She queued up “Far from the Madding Crowd,” the 2015 version. I had to admit I enjoyed it.

Thomas Hardy’s novel was published, in monthly installments, in The Cornhill Magazine in 1874. I wondered whether novels written and published as serials were easier to adapt to film. I said that at least the screenwriter had parts to work with — installments, if not scenes.

The Wise Woman is not sure which is worse: to have a husband who is not interested in film or to have one who is newly interested in film.

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Domestic dialog

 I said that I could think of few novels that had been turned into successful films. The Wise Woman said that a person who had, as a boy, pr...