ostumes, names, make-up, scraps of eccentric
dialogue, and general trend of the mutilated story.

Now, seeing that there are upon record a vast number of adaptations that
have failed, a number that bears a proportion to the successful far
higher than the proportion of failures in original works, it seems worth
while to consider for a little what is at the bottom of the matter,
since to do so may prevent some playwrights from wasting their time and
other people's money.

First, one may ask why so many dramatists indulge in the rather
inglorious work of adaptation. No doubt there is one great advantage in
producing an adaptation of a successful novel. A large mass of
ready-made advertisement exists: of the thousands or tens or hundreds
of thousands who read a popular novel, a very large proportion feel
curious to see it upon the stage. Consequently the adaptation starts
with the enormous aid of having been advertised very effectively on a
big scale. This element alone is not sufficient to command success; for
if the piece is indifferent, if the critics condemn it, if the reception
is unfavourable and the unofficial opinion of playgoers is hostile, it
can do little to save the work, since the readers of the book get the
idea that the dramatist has made a mess of it and they keep away, and so
of course does the general public.

It is, however, commonly believed that it is easier to manufacture a
play from a book than to write an original drama. People imagine that
the playwright, finding characters, plot and incidents ready-made in the
novel, can produce the piece with less trouble and difficulty than if he
has to look for them at large. This is a delusion founded upon the
failure to perceive the radical difference between the technique of the
novelist and the dramatist. It is true that in some cases adaptations
have had enormous success: one might take two modern instances, _The
Little Minister_ and _Sherlock Holmes_. The latter really confirms these
remarks. The general public would fancy that in the stories of "Sherlock
Holmes" there are plenty of effective plots. The ingenious authors of
the play were shrewd enough to perceive this was not the case;
consequently they merely used certain characters from the tales and
invented an entirely new story. Later on Sir Arthur did find one story
suitable, and _The Speckled Band_ has been successful as a lurid
melodrama at the Adelphi and the Globe.

In _The Little Minister_ s