20 of the best book adaptations of all time

The adaptation is the ultimate Hollywood high-wire act. And adapting everything from classic literature to modern pop hits has led to an unfortunate battle between “which is better, the movie or the book?” when more often than not, enjoying both the source material and the adaptation is worth the time as they tend to add to, rather than subtract from each other. For the viewers and the readers who like their stories to work both ways, here are 20 worthy adaptations, ahead.

For all the thousands (we exaggerate) adaptations of Jane Austen’s novel out there, we should be truly fed up with seeing Emma on our screens, and yet 2020’s entry starring Anya Taylor-Joy and directed by Autumn de Wilde is as delightful as it is familiar. There’s a modern feel to de Wilde’s adaptation which makes Austen’s original sharp social satire a tad less pronounced, but the story becomes all the funnier and more frivolous for it. And yes, overall, it’s all still as charmingly chaotic as the source material intended. Taylor-Joy’s interpretation of Emma is what really sets the movie apart, as she somehow makes the titular character even more unapologetically unlikable at times. Emma herself couldn’t have made a better match. —Ruth Kinane

As the credits for Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln note, the Oscar-winning film is only “based in part” on Team of Rivals, Doris Kearns Goodwin’s immense biography of the 16th president (played on screen by Daniel Day-Lewis) and three of his political opponents-turned-cabinet members. Most of Lincoln’s running time dramatizes only a few pages of the tome, homing in on the president’s shady maneuvers to pass the 13th Constitutional Amendment, which abolished slavery in the U.S., through Congress. But watching Lincoln after reading Team of Rivals (or vice versa), you’ll be struck by how dexterously the film integrates details from throughout the book, with Lincoln’s convoluted reasoning for the Emancipation Proclamation’s legality, his relationships with his wife Mary (Sally Field) and Secretary of State William Seward (David Strathairn), and his habit of telling folksy stories and jokes (many transposed from page to screen near-verbatim) being just a few examples. A book and its adaptation rarely make such splendid companion pieces. —Tyler Aquilina

The 2010 captivity novel didn’t need all the magic of filmmaking to deliver a truly tense tale. Anyone who’s read the book knows all too well the feeling of anxiously racing through the pages, equal parts excited and afraid. When the movie adaptation hit the screens five years later, that breathless unease was just as present, forcing moviegoers to the very edge of their seats. As unsettling as it is heart wrenching, both the book and movie (adapted by author Emma Donoghue) pull the reader or viewer into the story’s dark, cramped space as suffocating as Room, before setting them loose into a bright, hopeful, open place, dazed yet still slightly on guard. —RK

Whether on the page or on screen, we want to be best friends with Princess Mia Thermopolis of Genovia. What can we say? She’s funny; she ends up in swoony romances; and oh yeah, she’s a freaking princess! In both the book and the film, Mia is a geeky 16-year-old who finds her life upended with the revelation that she is the princess of a small European principality. The film offers a winning early-career Anne Hathaway opposite the always elegant Julie Andrews as her grandmother. The book’s grandmere is more callous than charismatic, but with it comes the laugh-out-loud humor of Mia’s diary entries. Both page and screen offer the crowning jewel of great storytelling — plenty of heart. They’re a truly regal Genovian pair. —Maureen Lee Lenker

Author Ken Kesey reputedly disliked the 1975 film adaptation of his 1962 novel, putting him decidedly in the minority: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest became only the second movie in history to win the “Big Five” Oscars (Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, and Screenplay) and remains a hallowed classic to this day. The film is dominated by Jack Nicholson’s rambunctious McMurphy, who attempts to lead a mental hospital’s inmates in rebellion against the tyrannical Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher). The book is an altogether different experience, narrated by the seemingly deaf and mute “Chief” Bromden and colored by Kesey’s experiences working at a mental institution (and his experiences with psychedelic drugs). They’re both well worth your while — and both will haunt you well after you’ve finished them. —TA

Let’s just get this out of the way first: Tina Turner herself is not a fan of What’s Love Got to Do With It, the adaption of her autobiography I, Tina. But to ignore Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne’s performances is to miss out on some of the most taut energy ever caught on screen, and a role that earned Bassett a Best Actress nomination from the Academy. Between the movie and Turner’s book (her follow-up Tina Turner: My Love Story is also worth a pass), readers and viewers get a sense of how much story building goes into the myth of rock royalty’s biggest stars. —Sarah Sprague

Edith Wharton’s Pulitzer-winning novel sings on the page, the author’s deliciously wry prose painting the world of late-1800s, upper-class New York in vivid detail. In Martin Scorsese’s hands, the remarkably faithful 1993 adaptation sings on screen as well, with those vivid details coming to life through sumptuous production design, costumes, and cinematography. Oh, and there’s the story, of course: high-society lawyer Newland Archer (Daniel Day-Lewis) finds himself irresistibly drawn to his fiancée’s cousin Ellen (Michelle Pfeiffer), a free-spirited opposite to Archer’s bride-to-be (Winona Ryder). Their forbidden, simmering romance anchors an enveloping portrait of a bygone era and a caste as vicious, in its own way, as any of the Mafia clans in Scorsese’s crime movies. —TA

It’s a tale that’s been retold many, many times over the years (and for good reason) but 2019’s Greta Gerwig-helmed rendition offers a fresh, still-relevant-today take while remaining loyal to the overall spirit of the source material. More a reimagining than a retelling in many ways, the film doesn’t bypass some of the novel’s most iconic moments (a curling iron misstep, a near-death experience in an icy pond), but introduces a more modern tone that still succeeds in feeling true to Louisa May Alcott’s intentions to pen a story of female strength — a truly timeless notion. —RK

Beloved in almost equal measure, the book and film versions of To Kill a Mockingbird retain their power more than a half-century later, with their themes remaining all too potent in contemporary America. Gregory Peck’s portrayal of noble Alabama lawyer Atticus Finch has long since been enshrined as a performance for the ages, and Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book remains as widely read as ever. We can’t fathom what else we can add to the mountains of praise heaped on both to convince you to put To Kill a Mockingbird in front of your eyes if you haven’t already, but perhaps we’ll say this: We’d love to see a world in which everyone heeded its call for empathy. —TA

A post-apocalyptic story people actually enjoy. Based on the French graphic novel Le Transperceneige, the 2013 film Snowpiercer tells the story of a revolution on the train where humanity's remnants live after a second ice age. Director Bong Joon Ho's English-language debut depicts how even after the world ends, the issues facing the last refugees — class divides, segregation, and uprising — don't just go away because mankind is facing extinction, as revolutionary leader Curtis (Chris Evans) battles the controlling Mason (an almost unrecognizable Tilda Swinton) who works to keep the train and oppressive system propelling it forward moving. Snowpiercer was praised for its visually striking style and the director’s deep respect for the source material, which until the film’s release, had only been available in French and Korean. —Alamin Yohannes

Sisterhood is powerful. At least it is in the 2007 movie The Nanny Diaries, where female empowerment prevails and supercilious employer Mrs. X reconciles with the nanny she mistreated. Not so much, though, in the original book, where the nanny is overworked and underappreciated to the very end and Mrs. X’s reaction to learning of her husband’s infidelity is to close ranks with him and sneakily get pregnant. Essentially a beach read, Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus’ 2002 novel — based on their experiences working as nannies in New York City — is nonetheless an unflinching depiction of the wealthy Manhattan parents who are too busy getting mani-pedis and having affairs to love and raise their own children (and spouses). In the book, there is no comeuppance, no reformation, no reading-the-riot-act for these self-obsessed snobs. The film adaptation, however, opted for a happier ending, with Scarlett Johansson as the nanny ultimately giving them what-for and Laura Linney’s Mrs. X seeing the error of her ways. —Adrienne Onofri

A spymaster and a mole hunt for the ages made Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy a hit on both the page and the screen. The beloved 1974 John le Carré novel about spy George Smiley and his pursuit for a Soviet double agent in British Intelligence, has been praised by readers — and reputedly, spies themselves — for its vivid characters, realism, and taut story. The BBC serialized for novel for both television and radio, but it was until 2011 that le Carré's mole hunt hopped from the page to the big screen with Gary Oldman with in the role of Smiley and star-studded cast including Tom Hardy, Mark Strong, Colin Firth, Ciarán Hinds, and Benedict Cumberbatch, earning numerous award nominations along the way, including Oscar noms for Best Original Score, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Actor for Oldman, and was awarded the Best British Film at the BAFTAs. —AY

From the second Ross Poldark gets back from the war, his life is filled with heartbreak. His dad has died, his farm has gone downhill, and the woman he loves is engaged to his cousin. Both the novel and the series balance Poldark’s theme of heartbreak and rebirth with a deft touch, leaving readers and viewers invested in all of the characters, and finding their heroes may change as the story unfurls. No matter what; you are always hoping for at least one character to get the happy ending they have dreamed of, even if they hit some roadblocks along the way. —Jessica Leon

Inspired by his own experiences, Ned Vizzini’s 2006 novel It's Kind of a Funny Story follows the adventures of a teenage Craig Gilner, who is checked into a psychiatric hospital after reaching out for help. Vizzini's book, which critics found believable and honest, was selected by the American Library Association as one of the Best Books for Young Adults in 2007, and was brought to film audiences in 2010’s It's Kind of a Funny Story, starring Keir Gilchrist, Emma Roberts, and Zach Galifianakis. As Craig, Gilcrist brought the character's struggles and warmth to the screen in a film that side-stepped psych ward comedy cliches and leaned into its strong cast, and the tender moments between the three.  —AY

Viewers have had the pleasure of seeing Claire and Jamie Fraser’s love story play out over the course of five seasons on Starz so far, and in addition to the critically-acclaimed show, Outlander has eight books (and counting) in the series, each laying out a new adventure for the loving couple who were born centuries apart. Of course, the books are a bit more in-depth when describing the challenges that the two face, but the small-screen adaptation does a great job of showcasing the emotions that arise throughout the journey to find where they are needed in time. —JL

One of the most notable parts of Sally Rooney's millennial love story is the insight into Connell and Marianne's constant stream of consciousness; how much they’re overthinking every significant and less significant thought and feeling. In the Hulu adaptation of Normal People, those insights translate into stolen glances and pained silences. Any book reader is armed with that extra knowledge going in, but thanks to the stellar acting of the leads Daisy Edgar Jones and Paul Mescal, having read the novel isn’t a prerequisite for keenly experiencing the nuances of their emotions while watching the limited series. Both the book and the television show will leave you equally sad and horny — the show comes with the bonus of not having to just imagine Connell's lusted-after, um, chain. —RK

James Dashner’s Maze Runner novels follow the story of Thomas and his friends as they try to survive in a dystopian world full of twists and turns, keeping readers on their feet throughout, and their journey on screen is no different. Dylan O’Brien was able to fully captivate the sense of urgency and responsibility that Thomas displays while being forced to endure a test he does not even know he is being subjected to. There may have been some differences from page to screen, but the underlying themes of danger and the will to do anything to save the ones you love remain. —JL

In 2020, it’s safe to say that Steven Spielberg wouldn’t be the modern choice to adapt Alice Walker’s 1982 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Color Purple, but that doesn’t mean the director didn’t have the range to push beyond what filmgoers considered his normal blockbuster zone at the time. (By 1985, The Color Purple was already a literary sensation, and the movie itself would end as one of the biggest box office hits of the year.) But past the controversial awards history (The Color Purple was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and yet didn’t win a single one) and routine banishment of the book from reading lists, the stories of Black women working to assert their independence not only from society but from the cruel people in their own lives is worth visiting in both forms. In Walker’s book, much of the story is told through letters, adding a richness and depth to characters Celie (played by Whoopi Goldberg in the film) and Shug (Margaret Avery), giving their relationship more space to breathe and live, whereas in the film adaptation their bond is framed quietly in the background. The book is unflinching and can be at times a difficult, emotional read, and while the film adaption does not shy away from the abuse visited upon the main characters, it softens the edges. Don’t let the material intimidate readers and viewers; both the book and the movie are life-affirming odes to surviving with grace. —SS

Since its publication in 1903, Jack London’s novel The Call of the Wild has remained one of the most popular American classics for readers of every age willing to traverse the Alaskan wilderness with Buck, a rare canine character, and his relationships with both man and beast. The book has been adapted numerous times, most recently being the 2020 film starring Harrison Ford. While everyone loves a good story about man’s best friend, both the book and the film don’t necessarily have the happiest of endings, but despite this, The Call of the Wild is a story of adventure and love that has endured generations for fans. —JL

Atonement, both the novel by Ian McEwan and the film by Joe Wright, probes questions of guilt, redemption, and the narratives we spin to attempt to earn or bestow atonement. It circles around a forbidden romance between aristocratic Cecelia (Keira Knightley) and housekeeper’s son Robbie (James McAvoy) that rends their life in two when a stolen moment between them is misinterpreted by younger sister Briony (Saoirse Ronan). As World War II erupts, they all must face what they are to each other and how to recover from this searing lie. Wright’s film adapts an already exquisite novel with an almost mystical sleight of hand that breathes the literary into the visual, from its typewriter-infused score to its devastating use of frame stories and unreliable narrators. —MLL