The Thirty-eighth George Eliot Memorial Lecture, 2009- A Loss for Words

Authors

Giles Foster

Date of this Version

2010

Document Type

Article

Citation

The George Eliot Review 41 (2010)

Comments

Published by The George Eliot Review Online https://GeorgeEliotReview.org

Abstract

A loss for words ... I am genuinely lost for words in my admiration of the novels but the title of today's talk is intended to dig a bit below the surface of simple enjoyment and highlight some of the differences - strengths and weaknesses - between novels and adaptations. What words alone can and can't do. What a film adaptation can achieve and omit. What a stage version can offer. And we should not forget other experiences of encountering books - a mother reading to children, a radio or audio tape reading.

A few years ago there was a lot of discussion about the death of the novel. 'People just aren't reading books any more' was an often heard (or read) sentiment. I always disagreed because at least in my little world which includes a daily journey by train and tube into London there has always been a high proportion of passengers with their noses in books.

I love to see someone totally immersed in reading, wrapped up in their own world. You are happy for them - the peace, the opportunity for imaginative 'travel in the mind'. And on a crowded train if you are standing you may look over their shoulder and be rather curious and a little jealous of what they are reading.

The experience of reading a novel is different in so many ways from the experience of watching a film. And any adaptation, particularly of a book that is as well known and loved as Adam Bede, will always invite criticism - 'I thought he was totally miscast'; 'She would never have had her hair like that'; 'I hated the music'; 'It's just not how I imagined it'.