The Routledge Concise History of Literature and Film is a comprehensive introduction to the interrelated subjects of Literature and Film. Taking a historical perspective, this book is not a simple story about adaptation, but about the ways in which the two media have adapted to each other: how film altered the kinds of stories writers told, and how they told them, and how literature provided film with a rich source of stories and storytelling techniques.

Using examples from much-loved classics like Hamlet and Batman to little known stories by Kipling and Wim Wenders, and from art-house movies like Orlando to blockbusters like Alien, the book illuminates not just the well-charted but the often surprising connections between films and literatures.