From Page to Screen: A Tale of Two Worlds

Thursday, June 5, 2025
4:00 pm
The Paley Museum, 25 West 52 Street, NYC
Curator: Ron Simon

From the beginning, television aspired to bring the best of literature to a larger audience. In the early 1950s TV regularly adapted live the works of Shakespeare, Dickens, and Jane Austen. The advent of the miniseries allowed television to develop more complex themes and deeper character exploration, undertaking such masterworks as The Forsyte Saga and Brideshead Revisited. Head curator Ron Simon will examine the evolving relationship between books and television, illustrating how television tackled such early classics as Moby Dick and The Scarlett Letter, while also giving such authors as William Faulkner and James Baldwin a platform to understand the roots of their artistry. Simon will discuss why many critics consider the best of contemporary TV as the New Novel, while literary adaptations abound on TV, from The Handmaid’s Tale to Game of Thrones.

Free for Paley Members, included in General Admission.
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