Screen Adaptations: Sales Surge for Classic Literature

Penguin Classics reports a nearly 200 percent increase in sales across all formats for John Steinbeck's East of Eden since the October 1 debut of the Netflix limited series. The novel reached the number one spot on Amazon's bestsellers list 74 years after its initial publication. This spike in revenue coincides with a simultaneous release cycle for major screen adaptations of classic literature, signaling a shift in how studios market established intellectual property to modern audiences.

The current slate includes Christopher Nolan's adaptation of Homer's The Odyssey and Emerald Fennell's version of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. Fresh versions of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility and Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities are also arriving in the same period. The Economist notes that U.S. sales of The Odyssey have quadrupled this year, while Wuthering Heights topped Britain's bestseller list. These metrics indicate that audiences are returning to the source material alongside the visual releases.

Daniel West, who wrote the four-part A Tale of Two Cities for MGM+, described Dickens' 1859 novel as a unicorn because it had gone without a major screen adaptation for nearly 40 years. West and his producers considered a contemporary reimagining early in development but dropped the idea. They determined that the injustice and cruelty in the story already feel very 2026. West stated that he did not need to spoon-feed the audience the modernity of the narrative.

Zoe Kazan, who is directing and writing the East of Eden series, first read Steinbeck's novel at age 15. She spent a good 20 years wanting to bring it to the screen. Her grandfather, Elia Kazan, directed the 1955 film version, but Kazan aimed to cover more of the book than that earlier adaptation did. She views revisiting old novels as a connection across time and describes the process as the opposite of AI because it is not regurgitation.

Diana Reid, the screenwriter for Sense and Sensibility, calls the source material free IP. She argues that audiences want something substantial and find satisfaction in meeting characters from a different time and realizing they share the same emotional life. Reid feels relief at joining a long line of Austen adaptations because her version does not need to be definitive. She describes her approach as respect rather than reverence.

The writers focused their efforts on reconstructing character dynamics rather than changing the setting. West made Lucie Manette far more active than in the novel, where she is prone to weeping and fainting. In the series, she drives the investigation in the early episodes. He replaced Jarvis Lorry and Miss Pross with a new character named Hester, played by Sharon Duncan-Brewster. He also shaped Therese Defarge into someone who is radicalized over the course of the story and sharpened the central romance into a triangle among Sydney Carton, Lucie, and Charles Darnay.

Kazan focused on Cathy Ames, played by Florence Pugh, and was surprised to find that the character is almost always telling the truth. She came to see the story as a love story between brothers Adam and Charles, which Cathy interrupts. Reid allows Marianne and Elinor Dashwood to each grow into a bit of the other. Her biggest liberty is staging a duel between Colonel Brandon and John Willoughby that Austen only mentions. Reid kept many of Austen's funniest lines word for word.

All three writers hope viewers will go on to read the books. West stated that anything that can nudge people back toward bookshops and toward discovering those works again can only be a good thing. Kazan adds that the key is helping young people feel they can find pleasure in reading. Reid hopes her film can make Austen feel less intimidating and help viewers find emotional truth in a story they thought was too remote.