The 36 Best Film Adaptations of Classic Novels

By YPB TeamNov 2

Sweeping Hollywood epics share the shelf with quiet, faithful period pieces, and every pick began as a novel readers still return to.

1
Gone with the Wind (1939)
Victor Fleming's adaptation of Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel, starring Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara, won eight competitive Academy Awards including Best Picture.
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2
To Kill a Mockingbird
Robert Mulligan's 1962 film of Harper Lee's 1960 novel earned Gregory Peck the Academy Award for Best Actor as Atticus Finch.
664pts
3
The Grapes of Wrath
John Ford's 1940 film of John Steinbeck's 1939 novel won Oscars for Ford as director and for Jane Darwell as Ma Joad.
623pts
4
Little Women (1994)
Gillian Armstrong's version cast Winona Ryder as Jo March, earning Ryder a Best Actress Oscar nomination.
561pts
5
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)
Charles Laughton plays Quasimodo opposite Maureen O'Hara's Esmeralda in William Dieterle's RKO adaptation of Victor Hugo's novel.
519pts
6
A Room with a View
The 1985 Merchant Ivory film of E. M. Forster's 1908 novel won three Oscars, among them Best Adapted Screenplay for Ruth Prawer Jhabvala.
519pts
7
Wuthering Heights (1939)
William Wyler's take on Emily Brontë's novel stars Laurence Olivier as Heathcliff, and Gregg Toland's camerawork won the Oscar for Best Cinematography.
470pts
8
Tess
Roman Polanski's 1979 adaptation of Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles, starring Nastassja Kinski, won three Oscars.
470pts
9
The Count of Monte Cristo (2024)
Pierre Niney plays Edmond Dantès in this French adaptation of Alexandre Dumas's novel, which received 14 César Award nominations.
415pts
10
Emma. (2020)
Autumn de Wilde's first feature stars Anya Taylor-Joy as Jane Austen's matchmaking heroine Emma Woodhouse.
415pts
11
Jane Eyre (2011)
Cary Joji Fukunaga's film of Charlotte Brontë's novel pairs Mia Wasikowska as Jane with Michael Fassbender as Rochester.
415pts
12
Barry Lyndon
Stanley Kubrick's 1975 adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray's 1844 novel shot some candlelit scenes with ultra-fast Zeiss lenses made for NASA.
415pts
13
Ben-Hur (1959)
William Wyler's epic of Lew Wallace's 1880 novel won a record 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
415pts
14
Doctor Zhivago
David Lean's 1965 film of Boris Pasternak's novel won five Academy Awards, including Best Adapted Screenplay for Robert Bolt.
415pts
15
The Leopard
Luchino Visconti's 1963 film of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's novel, starring Burt Lancaster as the Prince of Salina, won the Palme d'Or.
415pts
16
Bram Stoker's Dracula
Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 version with Gary Oldman as the vampire won three Academy Awards, including Best Costume Design.
351pts
17
Pride & Prejudice (2005)
Joe Wright's debut feature cast Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Bennet, a role that brought her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress.
351pts
18
Oliver Twist (1948)
David Lean's second Dickens film features John Howard Davies as Oliver and Alec Guinness as Fagin.
351pts
19
War and Peace (1965–67)
Sergei Bondarchuk's four-part Soviet film of Leo Tolstoy's novel won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
351pts
20
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
Lewis Milestone's film of Erich Maria Remarque's 1929 novel won the Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director.
351pts
21
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Miloš Forman's 1975 adaptation of Ken Kesey's 1962 novel, with Jack Nicholson as McMurphy, won all five major Academy Awards.
351pts
22
The Wizard of Oz
MGM's 1939 Technicolor musical of L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel stars Judy Garland as Dorothy and won the Oscar for Best Original Song with "Over the Rainbow".
351pts
23
Frankenstein (1931)
James Whale's Universal horror film, drawn from Mary Shelley's 1818 novel by way of a stage play, made Boris Karloff famous as the Monster.
351pts
24
Rebecca (1940)
Alfred Hitchcock's first Hollywood film, taken from Daphne du Maurier's 1938 novel, won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
351pts
25
The Age of Innocence
Martin Scorsese's 1993 adaptation of Edith Wharton's Pulitzer Prize–winning 1920 novel stars Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer and Winona Ryder.
351pts
26
Little Women (2019)
Greta Gerwig wrote and directed this take on Louisa May Alcott's novel with Saoirse Ronan as Jo March; it won the Oscar for Best Costume Design.
277pts
27
David Copperfield (1935)
George Cukor's MGM adaptation of the Dickens novel features W. C. Fields as Mr. Micawber and was nominated for Best Picture.
277pts
28
Great Expectations (1946)
David Lean's Dickens adaptation with John Mills as Pip won Academy Awards for black-and-white cinematography and art direction.
277pts
29
The Last of the Mohicans
Michael Mann's 1992 film, with Daniel Day-Lewis as Hawkeye, draws on James Fenimore Cooper's 1826 novel and the 1936 screen version.
277pts
30
East of Eden
Elia Kazan's 1955 film of the last part of John Steinbeck's 1952 novel gave James Dean his first starring role.
277pts
31
Moby Dick (1956)
John Huston directed Gregory Peck as Captain Ahab from a screenplay he co-wrote with Ray Bradbury.
277pts
32
The Great Gatsby (2013)
Baz Luhrmann's 3D version of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby and won Oscars for production and costume design.
189pts
33
Far from the Madding Crowd (1967)
John Schlesinger directed Julie Christie as Bathsheba Everdene in this version of Thomas Hardy's 1874 novel.
189pts
34
Howards End
Emma Thompson won the Best Actress Oscar for this 1992 Merchant Ivory adaptation of E. M. Forster's 1910 novel.
189pts
35
Dracula (1931)
Tod Browning's Universal film, based on Bram Stoker's novel and its Broadway stage version, stars Bela Lugosi as the Count.
189pts
36
Sense and Sensibility (1995)
Ang Lee directed Emma Thompson's script of the Jane Austen novel, and it won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
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