TAMPERING WITH THE CLASSICS.
The Editor, "The Listener." Sir-I feel that I should protest against the radio version of George Eliot’s "Silas Marner," which has been adapted and produced by those merchants in sudden death, blood, and hairraising horrors-George Edwards and Company. It is indeed sacrilegious to make such fantastic alterations to the original plot, and it amazes me that such stuff is sanctioned by the NBS. I need mention only a few of the absurdities in this radio production: Nancy Lammeter’s ridiculous interview with Squire Cass, the death of Molly in Marner’s cottage, Godfrey’s accusation of Silas Marner for the murder of Dunstan, the subsequent Court case, and the apparent invention of the character Felix Henderson. I do think that, if classical literature is to be adapted for radio, and I have no objection to this, it should be placed in more competent hands than those of George Edwards and his associates, whose proper themes are " The Case of the Night of Dread,’ etc. It would be more pardonable if these changes were necessitated by the different medium of expression, but this is not the case. If we must have trash, let us not gamper with the classics. Yours etc.,
OWEN R.
LEE
Christchurch, June 11, 1940.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19400705.2.11.4
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 54, 5 July 1940, Page 55
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208TAMPERING WITH THE CLASSICS. New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 54, 5 July 1940, Page 55
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