Adapting Novels to the Stage

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Adapting Novels to the Stage (Critical Survey of Drama)

Overview

Plays are an older art form than novels, dating back to the ancient Greeks, but the theater often looks to the younger medium for new material. The most obvious challenge to adapting a novel to the stage arises from the fact that authors intend their novels to be read, whereas playwrights, with the exception of George Bernard Shaw, intend their plays to be seen and heard. A play is a visual and auditory experience, while reading a novel is a literary and imaginative one.

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