World's Top Ten Classical Comedy Stories

Author: Rong Yinfang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-10-01
Features: The selected tragedies and comedies are all artistic treasures. Adapting these masterpieces of dramatic art into novels and stories can only lead to a loss and not a gain in art. Our adaptation is similar to a popularization, aiming to make these classical artistic treasures more accessible and easier to understand, spreading them to the masses. Therefore, our adaptation strives for two levels: one is to remain true to the original, and the other is to avoid losing the essence. The so-called "remaining true to the original" means striving to preserve the original dramatic conflicts, character personalities, and story plots, making only deletions and no changes. The so-called "avoiding losing the essence" means striving to grasp the artistic spirit and style of the original works, such as the heroic grandeur in Prometheus, the melancholic atmosphere in Uncle Vanya, and the psychological changes in Andromache. It is easy to copy the original, but it is difficult to achieve both form and spirit. Transforming a dialogue-based drama into a narrative story involves an artistic form conversion. To remain true to the original and avoid losing the essence is beyond the capabilities of ordinary hands like ours. It is an aspiration. To aim high and achieve something in the middle is considered a great success. To fail to achieve it and end up like Xi Shi's reflection is still a goal-oriented pursuit. In some of our adapted stories, dialogue outweighs narration, and the style of the original translation is maintained in both dialogue and narration. These are the results of being cautious under the principles of "remaining true to the original" and "avoiding losing the essence." Of course, there are also difficulties. For some widely circulated famous quotes and witty lines in the plays, even if the translation is overly literal or the tone doesn't match the narrative style, ordinary people like us can only faithfully record them without daring to make any changes. This is the lack of boldness and great achievements of the adapter, but it is also a respect for the original work and the readers.