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Curated playlist

Fantasy novels adapted into films

  • The Lord of the RingsA Collins contact told Tolkien that The Lord of the Rings "urgently wanted cutting."
  • The Borrowers (novel)In the novel The Borrowers, tiny people take household items that vanish. It won the 1952 Carnegie Medal.
  • The HobbitA publisher let his 10-year-old son decide whether to print The Hobbit.
  • Charlie and the Chocolate FactoryDahl's early drafts of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory had nine golden tickets, not five.
  • The Two TowersTolkien was "not at all happy about the title The Two Towers." He never settled which two of five towers it meant.
  • Gulliver's TravelsGulliver's Travels gave computer science the terms big-endian and little-endian.
  • The Return of the KingTolkien disliked the title The Return of the King because it gave away too much. He preferred The War of the Ring.
  • Don QuixoteA fake Don Quixote sequel appeared in 1614, and Cervantes wrote the impostor into his own Part Two.
  • The Lost World (Doyle novel)The Lost World, a 1912 adventure novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, began with a startlingly bold ambition. While writing it, Doyle told his editor, Herbert Greenhough Smith: "My ambition is to do for the boys' book what Sherlock Holmes did…
  • The Fellowship of the RingWas the scary-then-safe rhythm of The Fellowship of the Ring planned, or a writer finding his way?

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