26. Dear Film Industry, Please Consider Adapting These Books by Women

AMY: Hey everyone, welcome back to another Lost Ladies of Lit mini episode. I’m Amy Helmes…

KIM: And I’m Kim Askew. So Amy, a few episodes back we talked a bit about “Bridgerton,” and it got me feeling all nostalgic for when you and I used to binge costume dramas together.

AMY: I think we should back up and first explain how our love of BBC miniseries is what sparked our friendship in the first place. As I recall it, I got dragged along by a colleague of mine to a media “networking” event (which, I never used to go to things like that), but he begged me to come along with him.

KIM: Our friend Matthew.

AMY: Yes. And Matthew and I were sitting at the bar just sort of like, “Why are we here?” I looked four feet away and I saw you in the middle of the crowd, standing there with your glass of wine with a smile on your face, but just like, “Oh my god, I don’t know anybody.”

KIM: I actually didn’t want to go at all. My boyfriend at the time was like, “Go! You need to meet new people and get out there.” I was trying to look for a job in L.A. I had moved without one. And I did not want to go all the way across town, because in L.A., that’s a huge deal, but I went to this MediaBistro event. I got my glass of wine and then I stood there, looking around, wishing I had not come. Until….

AMY: Until I said hello, because I was like, “This girl needs rescuing. I cannot sit here and watch her flounder.”

KIM: You felt sorry for me, and I needed someone to help me in that moment. I was actually desperate and alone! [laughing] And you! You made friends with me, and we hit it off!

AMY: It was during our conversation that we realized we had this mutual love.

KIM: Yeah. Of “Masterpiece Theater.” 

AMY: [laughing] Yes.

KIM: And also, just to add a little context, there are people that love “Masterpiece Theater” in Los Angeles, but it’s hard to find them. I mean, it’s a big city. It’s hard to find your tribe, so it was kind of amazing to me that I actually met someone who totally was into “Masterpiece Theater.”

AMY: “Masterpiece Theater” is kind of like code for “This person is going to understand everything that I like.” 

KIM: Yes. Exactly. They love to read, they’re an English major like I am, they see the world in a similar way. Basically, we became “Masterpiece Theater” buddies.

AMY: Yes. That actually leads us to our discussion topic for today’s episode which is “Which books by women authors would you love to see adapted for film?”

KIM: Right. Great question, and so Amy and I decided to each choose some books that we’d love to see turned into a movie or miniseries, and we’re going to share them with each other. So, Amy, do you want to go first?

AMY: Sure! So the first book I picked was Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton. It’s the story of hellbent social climber Undine Sprague. She’s an American beauty from a new-monied family and she has this never-ending quest for social success. She leaves a series of husbands in her wake in the process of trying to conquer society. And like all Edith Wharton novels, this one would be so visually stunning with all the filthy rich characters living in both New York and Paris. 

KIM: Oh, yeah. That would make an amazing miniseries or movie, for that matter.

AMY: And actually, we might not have to wait that long, because apparently, Sofia Coppola will be turning this one into a film. I guess she’s working on it.

KIM: Please let that be true. I mean, that would be incredible. 

AMY: Yeah, it would be good. Okay, so what did you come up with?

KIM: Besides adaptations of every book we’ve done an episode on so far, let’s see… I would really love to see an adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s Rose In Bloom. It’s a sequel to her novel Eight Cousins. The heroine in the book is Rose Campbell. She’s an orphan and heiress who goes to live with her wealthy relatives who all live near each other. She has various love interests, and she has to decide between one cousin who’s everyone’s favorite; he’s really handsome but troubled — and another, who’s sort of the underdog bookworm type. There are all these aunts and uncles and cousins with various personalities. It would be such a fun miniseries. I would love to see it adapted.

AMY: Okay, I’m going to make a confession though: I’ve never read it.

KIM: Oh my god, I have it! I think this is my mom’s copy from when she was younger that I actually have. I can loan it to you and you can read it!

AMY: Okay. Yeah. I’ve only ever read Little Women.

KIM: Yeah. I think most people have only ever read Little Women. Anyway… So what’s another one that you picked?

AMY: Okay, so, with the success of “The Queen’s Gambit,” it got me thinking about another story set in the1960s, that kind of era. This one is set in Paris, and I think it could be a fun film. It’s The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy. 

KIM: Oh my god, of course. Why didn’t I think of that? That’s brilliant! I love it, that would make a great miniseries! Absolutely, yeah.

AMY: So like my first pick, Custom of the Country, this one is also about a young American who ends up going to Paris looking for love. It’s really funny, it has a sort of “Bridget-Jonesy/Sex in the City” vibe. It was a bestseller when it came out and I know at some point we’ll probably devote some time to it in a future episode. I can totally picture this movie with that swinging, 1960s French yé-yé pop music in the background, and just the fashion and the colors. I think it would be really cute.

KIM: Yeah. So my next one is The Little Duke. It’s by Charlotte Mary Yonge, and it’s on our list of possible lost ladies episodes because it’s wonderful. It was published in 1854, and I loved it as a child. I think it was another of my mom’s books from her bookshelves. I have this gorgeous hardback copy from back then, and I should loan it to you, Amy, because I think Jack and Julia might like it. It’s set in the 10th century, and the title character, the Little Duke, is Richard, Duke of Normandy. (He’s the great-grandfather of William the Conqueror.) In the book, his father was murdered (as he was in history) and then he’s essentially kidnapped by his overlord, King Louie, and becomes a playmate of the king’s spoiled children. The character of the little duke is just so well done; you feel really committed to his journey, and it’s really a moral and historical tale. And actually, this is really cool, Mark Twain said it inspired his book, The Prince & The Pauper. So I think it would make a great adaptation.

AMY: It’s so long ago; that would be interesting to see something that far back.

KIM: Yeah. Yeah, it’s not as common. I guess some people might think it’s a little saccharine. I don’t. I think it’s beautiful.

AMY: I know this next book gets put on every list of books that need to be made into movies. I really don’t know why it hasn’t been adapted yet. It’s The Secret History by Donna Tartt. 

KIM: It was supposed to be made? A long time ago, right?

AMY: I had read that Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne were originally planning to write the screenplay for this one.

KIM: Wow!

AMY: The director who optioned it was Alan Pakula. (I don’t know how you say his last name) But he optioned the film rights, but then he died, and so it all just went nowhere. 

KIM: Okay.

AMY: And then in 2002, Gwyneth Paltrow and her brother wanted to make it with Miramax, but that didn’t go anywhere either.

KIM: Right.

AMY: And then more recently, Bret Easton Ellis and one of Tartt’s old classmates at Bennington College, Melissa Rosenburg (who I believe is some sort of producer/director), they wanted to turn it into a television series. I don’t know, though. Apparently the adaptation of Tartt’s other bestseller, The Goldfinch, kind of got less-than-stellar reviews. I didn’t even bother seeing it because it got such terrible reviews.

KIM: They’re so different though. I mean this one needs to be made. I’m up for that. I mean, I think this is a moneymaker for whoever decides to do it.

AMY: It’s set at a small liberal arts college, and it revolves around a murder that happens among this group of kind of young Bohemian “cool kids.” You would cast this movie with beautiful young actors and actresses, and it would have a very Dark Academia aesthetic, because the characters in the book are all Classics majors, like Greek and Latin classics. So I could see what this movie would look like, and it would be really cool.

KIM: It would be brilliant. I think now is the perfect time.

AMY: Yeah. Your turn.

KIM: This one is for “Masterpiece Mystery.” Sarah Caudwell’s “Hilary Tamar” mystery series. I read them a while ago, and they’re wonderful. They’re very British, very clever and really funny. And the books are: Thus Was Adonis Murdered, The Shortest Way to Hades, The Sirens Sang of Murder and The Sybil in Her Grave. And the narrator is a professor of medieval law at Oxford. Hilary Tamar is the narrator, and we never find out his or her gender, so that’s a mystery all the way through (his, her or their gender). And the mysteries revolve around his four former students who are now practicing barristers and the characters are just so charming and the mysteries are so fun. There’s all this wordplay and inside jokes about British society. And the covers are illustrated by Edward Gorey, so I mean, how perfect? It would be great for Masterpiece!

AMY: I love that idea. They could go either way with the casting.

KIM: Absolutely. Oh, it would be so fun! Maybe we should adapt this for ourselves?

AMY: Yeah. Would be good. Okay, my next book… this one is really kind of kooky. It was published back in 1915 and it’s called Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, about a lost society of women living in a remote part of the world that are able to reproduce asexually and they’ve never had men in their midst for 2,000 years because the men were all killed in a volcanic eruption. So it’s kind of that land where Wonder Woman originates from… it’s kind of like that combined with maybe Planet of the Apes, which is a weird comparison, but it’s kind of like that because these two male explorers happen upon this community. The men are taken prisoner, but they come to find out that the women have created this utopian, perfect society. It’s very sci-fi. The men wind up forming romantic attachments on the island, and that does not go very well. But it’s a very feminist story, so I think it’s very of-the-moment, even though it’s a bit wacky.

KIM: I want to read that, and I think we should also probably do an episode on that.

AMY: Yeah. For sure. So listeners, we’d love to hear your recommendations for miniseries you think we ought to watch, so if you have any favorites that are already out there (any past BBC productions or “Masterpiece Theaters”) let us know what your favorites are.

KIM: Yeah. You can share them in our Facebook group, or on Instagram. And books by female authors you’d love to see adapted for film? Tell us what you think. We want to hear that!

AMY: I’m pretty sure next week’s Lost Lady of Lit would not have wanted to sit on the couch for hours at a time watching television, unlike us.

KIM: No, she was far too great an adventurer for that, and thank goodness. She was busy literally sailing around the world with her literary superstar husband (but sadly, she tends to get lost in his shadows even though she, herself, was a published author and had an incredibly intriguing life.)

AMY: We’re talking about Charmian Kittredge London was a bona fide BADASS. So we’ll be discussing her and her most famous work, The Log of the Snark, next week, and we’ll be joined by the pre-eminent authority on Charmian London, poet and biographer Iris Jamahl Dunkle.

KIM: I can’t wait for that!

AMY: So don’t forget to rate and review us where you listen to this podcast, and we will see you next week everyone! 

KIM: our theme song was written and performed by Jennie Malone, and our logo was designed by Harriet Grant. Lost ladies of lit is produced by Kim Askew and Amy Helmes