Screening Charles Dickens: A Survey of Film and Television Adaptations by William Farina (review)

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• Screening Charles Dickens: A Survey of Film and Television Adaptations by William Farina
• Adam Abraham (bio)

William Farina. Screening Charles Dickens: A Survey of Film and Television Adaptations. McFarland and Company, 2022. Pp. viii + 236. $39.95. ISBN 978-1-4766-8567-0 (pb).

The topic of Dickens and film is a promising one. Almost as soon as there were motion pictures, there were motion pictures based on the works of Charles Dickens. In 1897, just a few years after the first movies were projected, a New York-based film company produced Death of Nancy Sykes [sic], now apparently lost. D. W. Griffith, a pioneering director, learned techniques of cross-cutting and parallel action from Dickens's multiplot novels – a connection that Sergei Eisenstein articulates in a 1944 essay. Earlier books have explored this terrain, including Charles Dickens on the Screen (Pointer, 1996), Dickens on Screen (Glavin, 2003), Dickens and the Dream of Cinema (Smith, 2003), and works dedicated to the many versions of A Christmas Carol (Guida, 2000) or Great Expectations (McFarlane, 2008). Into this array enters Screening Charles Dickens, which proposes to update the field of knowledge.

Its author, William Farina, is something of a polymath. He has written a biography of Ulysses S. Grant; books on dogs, cabaret, and Arthurian romance; and a 2006 volume entitled De Vere as Shakespeare, an exploration of anti-Stratfordian theory. His analytical gaze now turns to cinematic and televisual adaptations of Dickens. In the new book's introduction, he argues that "the novels and short stories of Dickens have become nearly synonymous with the history of filmmaking" (1). By the end, he concludes, "Each generation needs its own versions of Copperfield, Pip, Heep, Scrooge, and Fagin (among many others), proving yet again the durability and indestructability of Dickens' storytelling art" (195). Both of these sentiments ring true; however, the pages that fall in between are tedious, repetitious, and marred by errors.

Farina has a tendency to say that which does not need to be said, like the legendary penny-a-liner increasing his or her word count. In the chapter on Dombey and Son, we learn the following: "By the late 1960s, much had changed from the 1930s" (91). For readers who are thus confused by points of chronology, the author explains that Alec Guinness appeared in a 1939 stage play "long before" his role in Star Wars, in 1977 (151). Further, we are told that Jim Carrey is a "celebrity star," which is unnecessary and redundant (66). Among the more unhelpful details is Farina's use of inclusive dates of death and birth for individuals. Within two consecutive sentences, we learn the years of birth and death for four people: Bernard Herrmann, Maxwell Anderson, Fred Spielman, and Janice Torre (61). Thus, the book begins to feel more like a graveyard. Also tedious are the many repetitions. The author mentions over and over again that Hablot K. Browne assumed [End Page 500] the cheerful pseudonym "Phiz" (13, 30, 48, 69, 86, and more). And a few Dickens adaptations are discussed at some length in multiple chapters; the TV series Dickens of London (1976) and The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017) are analyzed twice.

All of these points would be blemishes if the book were factually sound. However, there are errors that could have been fact checked. The book gets a few titles wrong: "Charles Dickens on Screen," without the the (3), and "All the Year Around" (130). In the 1994 film Quiz Show, according to Farina, Paul Scofield plays "game show host Mark Van Doren" (75). In fact, it was the Columbia professor's son Charles who appeared on game shows. Admirers of musical theatre will be surprised to read that Alain Boublil wrote the English-language adaptation of Les Misérables (the work of lyricist Herbert Kretzmer). And Farina undermines his credibility by confusing the terms film and video and by referring to color films as colorized. More distressing for readers of Dickens is the author's misunderstanding of the works that underlie this study. Farina seems to have forgotten the plot of Oliver Twist: he describes "an emotionally cold but secure rural upbringing," which precedes Oliver's...