Have You Read the Romance?

Is the book better than the movie? Sometimes yes, sometimes no, but inevitably, the film adaptation will differ from the printed source. They are different media. Movies must show the story while literature has an easier time getting inside the thoughts and emotions of its characters. And then there is problem of length. Mini-series aside, most novels will need trimming on their way to becoming a feature film. Something will be left out.

Kristen Lopez’s latest, But Have You Read the Book? Romance Edition, is that Hollywood staple—a sequel. It follows her 2023 book on movie adaptations of literature by zeroing in on the specific subject of romance. Her Romance Edition begins in the silent era with The Sheik (1921) and works forward through the advent of sound, changing mores and the passage of decades to Todd Haynes’ Carol (2015).

Although love and lust will always be integral to human nature, i.e. romance is a forever topic, attitudes have altered over time as reflected in the movies Lopez examines. The “rough wooing” of The Sheik is no longer acceptable. In the book, the character played by Rudolf Valentino rapes the female protagonist—repeatedly. Though softened for the screen, he is still depicted as gaining mastery by force, albeit some critics have discerned coded feminism in the story (the novel was written by Edith Maud Hull).

The far more enduring Laura (1944), a noir set amidst Manhattan’s upper class, is a murder mystery that delivers interesting, forthright suggestions about women in society. The screenplay toned down Vera Caspary’s novel, yet the title character’s predicament as a professional woman, pondering independence while navigating the shoals of male desire, remains clear.

Lopez’s 40 chapters includes movies familiar to mainstream audiences (Love Story), as well as titles known mostly to cineastes (Nick Cassavetes’ 2004 The Notebook). She provides plot summaries and comparisons between novels and screenplays set against her own analysis of what worked then and still works now.

But Have You Read the Book? Romance Edition is published by TCM/Running Press.