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A critical examination of the long established tradition of adapting classic novels to film or TV screen. It is historically wide-ranging, encompassing novelists from Jane Austen to Michael Ondaatje. The early cinema ransacked literature for stories suitable for retelling in moving pictures. Dickens was particular popular in the silent days and has remained so every since. As the art of the cinema matured, and cinematography, music, special effects and sound were improved, the art of dramatization began to produce high quality version of respected novels. This service to literature was one way the cinema gained respectablity.