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

A loss for words ... I am genuinely lost for words in my admiration of the novels but the title of today\u27s 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\u27t 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. \u27People just aren\u27t reading books any more\u27 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 \u27travel in the mind\u27. 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 - \u27I thought he was totally miscast\u27; \u27She would never have had her hair like that\u27; \u27I hated the music\u27; \u27It\u27s just not how I imagined it\u27