Classic literature can take whatever we throw at it

Set Hamlet in space or turn Dorian Gray into a horror movie – it doesn't matter, because the classics are strong enough to bounce back.

I saw a bus, in front of the British Library, with an advert for the forthcoming Dorian Gray film plastered all over it. I'm not necessarily saying it will be bad, but the horror movie look of the poster, with Dorian Gray written in dramatic silver typeface, suggests this adaptation of Oscar Wilde's novel The Picture of Dorian Gray will have the same hyperbolic qualities as the film adaptation of Beowulf.

".....The British Library, of course, holds the classics – but just what gives a work the gold-standard seal? Without getting too tangled up, let's look back at the bus on the street outside. Dorian Gray, the film it advertises, may be a monstrosity or a masterpiece. But the fact remains that a 19th century novel is being adapted into a 21st century film; even if it's terrible, the status of the original novel won't be harmed....."

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