This lively and accessible textbook, written by an expert in film studies, provides a fascinating introduction to the process and art of literature--to--film adaptations. * Provides a lively, rigorous, and clearly written account of key moments in the history of the novel from Don Quixote and Robinson Crusoe up to Lolita and One Hundred Years of Solitude * Includes diversity of topics and titles, such as Fielding, Nabokov, and Cervantes in adaptations by Welles, Kubrick, and the French New Wave * Emphasizes both the literary texts themselves and their varied transtextual film adaptations * Examines numerous literary trends -- from the self--conscious novel to magic realism -- before exploring the cinematic impact of the movement * Reinvigorates the field of adaptation studies by examining it through the grid of contemporary theory * Brings novels and film adaptations into the age of multiculturalism, postcoloniality, and the Internet by reflecting on their contemporary relevance.