[Savage Beast]

I never much liked Great Expectations. I don't know why they keep making movies of it.

Dickens' stories tend to be good, but he's too wordy. The Victorians tended to be, but, on top of all that, he got paid by the world.

I don't think Dickens is nearly as good as Jane Austen. Or Victor Hugo, Leo Tolstoy, or Fyodor Dostoevsky. Some outstanding flicks, serialized for TV, have been made of Jane Austen's and Tolstoy's tales, but I've never seen a good one of Hugo's or Dostoevsky's.

[Savage Beast]

paid by the word

[Clutch Martin]

I’ve been reading James Joyce’s Ulysses for 50 years off and on, I just can’t seem to stay interested. Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is so much more interesting both grammatically and in content.

[Right Brigade]

What?
No Mark Twain?
How very positively continental of you.

/said in jest

[MD Expat in PA]

Leo Tolstoy was quite “wordy” FWIW.

[MD Expat in PA]

Leo Tolstoy was quite “wordy” FWIW.

[ExGeeEye]

There was a not-awful French version of Les Miserables that I had back in the VHS days. The dubbed English not quite ruined it.

[x]

See the 1970 Russian version of Crime and Punishment. Would you seriously expect the British or Americans to do Dostoevsky very well?

The 1960s Russian War and Peace was also better than anything the English-speaking world has done. It's said to be the most expensive film ever made, but that's because the regime gave the filmmakers everything they wanted without demanding payment.