Charles Dickens is one of the most famous English writers of all time. With a career spanning over a dozen novels and several short stories, Dickens was a definitive writer of the Victorian era. The majority of his novels have been adapted for both the big and small screens, but his short stories haven't always had the same treatment.
His novella A Christmas Carol has had many adaptations, but some of his other works are barely known. Which of his short stories would make for good adaptations? To start, one has to know which have already been adapted.
Already Adapted: Oliver Twist
Oliver Twist was published serially from 1837 to 1839. It was Dickens' second novel and has been adapted for the screen and, most famously, the stage. Nearly every British schoolchild knows Oliver!, as it's a popular theater choice.
A coming-of-age tale, Oliver Twist features many of the same themes and character archetypes that would continue to make Dickens famous, including orphans, workhouses, and redemption fitting the crime. Oliver Twist's best screen adaptation is the 1968 film, which won several Academy Awards.
Not Yet: A Message From The Sea
Dickens' 1860 short story "A Message from the Sea" was written with Wilkie Collins, and it has yet to be adapted for the silver (or small) screen. However, it has many of the same themes that Dickens liked to use in all his works, including good triumphing over evil and the tale ending in marriage.
As a short story with a quick plot, it would work well for a short film or a 30-minute television slot. It was written for the Christmas edition of the magazine All the Year Round.
Already Adapted: David Copperfield
David Copperfield, a Dickens novel that was serialized from 1849 to 1850, was recently adapted into a film starring Dev Patel. It is one of the most popular of Dickens' novels and has been adapted several times.
Yet another coming-of-age tale, the story follows David Copperfield's life as he ascends slowly in Victorian London society. It is another of Dickens' novels that show a bleak look at childhood life during that time. Thankfully, the most recent adaptation is partly a comedy.
Not Yet: Wreck Of The Golden Mary
"Wreck of the Golden Mary" is an 1856 short novel Dickens wrote with several other authors, including but not limited to Wilkie Collins and Adelaide Procter. Like many of his other short stores, it hasn't been adapted. It tells the story of a shipwreck in 1851, while the titular Golden Mary is trying to get around Cape Horn on its way to California in search of gold.
The story is split into parts that tell the tale of the shipwreck from different perspectives, written by different authors. This short story was one of Dickens's Christmas stories, a tradition he kept up every year after writing A Christmas Carol.
Already: Great Expectations
Great Expectations has been adapted several times for both stage and screen, most recently in 2016. It is one of Charles Dickens's most famous novels but was written relatively late in his career, between 1850 and 1851. The story's most famous character is the widow Miss Havisham, who lives in her wedding dress, with all the clocks in her house turned to the time that she was abandoned at the altar.
Great Expectations features Dickens's main recurring themes of the protagonist feeling like an outcast and advancing through London's rungs of society. The 2012 film Magwitch was created to act as a prequel to Great Expectations, and the BBC adapted the period drama in 1999.
Not Yet: Tom Tiddler's Ground
"Tom Tiddler's Ground" is an 1861 short story by Charles Dickens in collaboration with other authors. The phrase, a reference to a children's game, has also appeared in three of his novels.
The structure is that of a list of stories, many written by other authors, as characters tell their stories to the hermit Mr. Mopes. The story has not received an adaptation but could work for an anthology series.
Already: A Christmas Carol
Adapted many times for both the big and small screen, A Christmas Carol is a family classic. A 2019 TV adaptation for FX delved further into Scrooge's past and gave the events from an even more terrible perspective than usual. While some adaptations of A Christmas Carol have become classics, others are less revered.
We all know the story of the miserly old man who is visited by three ghosts who convince him to change his ways. What's fascinating is that, as more adaptations get made, filmmakers learn how to change and expand on the story so it's still fresh and new.
Not Yet: The Haunted Man
The Haunted Man, also called The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain, is another of Dickens's Christmas novellas, written in 1848. More centering on the spirit of Christmas over the actual holiday, the story focuses on Professor Redlaw and his servants and friends.
The novella is divided up into three sections which all deal with a particular gift Redlaw has been given and how events carry out from there. It was staged as a Christmas Eve play in 1862, but has no other adaptations.
Already: The Cricket On The Hearth
The Cricket on the Hearth is yet another of Dickens's Christmas novellas and has had several stage, radio, and screen adaptations. It is a domestic tale featuring squabbles over an engagement and marital troubles.
Like many of Dickens's stories, it ends happily, making for quite the crowdpleaser. It has had several silent film adaptations, as well as a play and an opera. The Cricket on the Hearth was also the subject of an animated treatment by the team Rankin/Bass, who adapted The Lord of the Rings.
Not Yet: The Long Voyage
"The Long Voyage" is a Dickens short story published in December 1853. Instead of a Christmas tale, this story concerns New Year's Eve and was written for Dickens's magazine Household Words. It follows a man who loves to read of adventures but has never had any himself.
As the narrator reads, he subsequently tells the reader about all the adventures and shipwrecks he discovers. "The Long Voyage" hasn't had any adaptations, but would work for an anthology series, considering all the short stories told within it.