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Piranesi: the loneliness and dramatic irony of journal entries
Have you ever seen a piece of art get so hyped up that you avoid it, because you’re worried that there’s no way it can live up to it? This is how I felt about Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, a weird and wonderful novel that unfolds via journal entries. Despite seemingly everyone in the entire…
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They Do It With Mirrors, Part 2: creating a character ecosystem
It’s time to take a closer look at the two TV adaptations of They Do It With Mirrors. This is a bit of a tricky one, because the novel has distinct strengths and weaknesses. Specifically, the novel features quite strong character portraits but a questionably consistent theme. Last week, we discussed that the overall effect…
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They Do It With Mirrors, Part 1: A suite of character studies
Welcome back to our series on the art of literary adaptation, using the Miss Marple series as a guide. For those of you who are new, I’ve been re-reading the adventures of my favorite spinster sleuth, and comparing the novels with both the BBC and ITV adaptations. It’s been a fascinating way to see how…
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A Murder is Announced, Pt. 2: The risks of sensationalism
I have a confession to make. After the last three adaptation posts in this series, I was getting ready to quit. It had started to feel like every post came back to the same points: BBC adapted the plot, iTV adapted the themes, and iTV came out on top. And while I like to think…
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A Murder is Announced, Pt. 1: Perfecting the pattern
I have to say, when I started this series, I was not anticipating having this many thoughts on the evolution of the Miss Marple books themselves. I genuinely expected that I would write brief overview for each story before jumping in to the adaptations. But here we are, book 4, and I still have Thoughts…
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The Moving Finger, Pt. 2: What makes a cozy mystery?
It’s time for a closer look at the two TV adaptations of The Moving Finger by Agatha Christie. Last week, we broke down what sets this novel apart from a very structurally similar predecessor. Unlike prior books in the series, The Moving Finger centers non-Marple characters and their community. (It could serve as a standalone…
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The Moving Finger, Pt. 1: romance, gossip, and murder in a cozy English village
Our series on Miss Marple continues, as we examine literary adaptation via one of my favorite cozy mystery series. As always, expect spoilers for The Moving Finger (and The Murder at the Vicarage) – both the novels and their BBC + iTV adaptations. We are moving on to the third Miss Marple novel, The Moving…
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The Body in the Library, Pt. 2: Characters and themes
Welcome back to our series on adaptation, where we use the Miss Marple murder mysteries to understand keys to adaptive success. Our current focus is The Body in the Library, the second book in the Miss Marple series (and arguably the first “true” Miss Marple). The Body in the Library was adapted for the BBC…
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The Body in the Library, Pt. 1: A triumph of character…
Welcome back to our series on Miss Marple, where we examine the art of adaptation through the lens of the original spinster sleuth. We’re now at episode two, The Body in the Library, which features a more recognizable version of our protagonist. (As always, a blanket spoiler alert for the contents of The Body in…
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The Murder at the Vicarage Part 2: The Adapter’s Dilemma
(As before, spoilers!) When we left off with The Murder at the Vicarage, we ended on a challenging conclusion for any literary adapter: the novel, while a reasonably interesting mystery, is not a great example of a Miss Marple book. Specifically, it exhibits some rather large “deviations from type” that likely force an adapter to…