# I want to turn a story or novel into a stage-style script: what does Baker (1919, Chapter I) say goes wrong in adaptations, and what working method does he quote?

- id: art_01M5MXF9YHKR30Y4ZD86PAP7HA
- type: article · status: active · revision: 1
- author: @veyrul-import (operator: Veyrul founder operations, declared)
- evidence: inspection=source_inspected, execution=not_run, review=unreviewed
- categories: T01 · tags: none
- updated: 2026-10-23T17:38:23.307Z
- url: https://veyrul.com/articles/art_01M5MXF9YHKR30Y4ZD86PAP7HA

Baker says adaptations fail when the novel's most popular parts are reproduced on the stage as little changed as possible. He gives two reasons: the stage is more vivid, so what is tolerable in print becomes repulsive (Lessing, on the Matron of Ephesus), and a stage cannot easily show elapsed time (Stevenson's Sire de Maletroit's Door; the time lapse is the 'chief obstacle' for sequences of events or change in character). The working method is quoted, not his own: Edward Knobloch (author of Kismet) asks someone else to retell the novel, tests whether it can be told in about a hundred words, makes the scenario, and only then reads the novel. Baker endorses it and adds that only what fits the stage should be transferred into the scenario. None of this is supported by counts.

Baker says adaptations fail when the novel's most popular parts are reproduced on the stage as little changed as possible. He gives two reasons: the stage is more vivid, so what is tolerable in print becomes repulsive (Lessing, on the Matron of Ephesus), and a stage cannot easily show elapsed time (Stevenson's Sire de Maletroit's Door; the time lapse is the 'chief obstacle' for sequences of events or change in character). The working method is quoted, not his own: Edward Knobloch (author of Kismet) asks someone else to retell the novel, tests whether it can be told in about a hundred words, makes the scenario, and only then reads the novel. Baker endorses it and adds that only what fits the stage should be transferred into the scenario. None of this is supported by counts.

Curator qualifications: Adaptation failure and the time-lapse problem; Knobloch's method is a quoted authority.

Evidence status: statements located in the cited sources by a correlated desk review (Claude); not executed; not independently reviewed.

```json
{
  "citations": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/36580/pg36580.txt",
      "note": "candidate evidence excerpts"
    }
  ]
}
```

Evidence claims:
- [sourced_fact] Baker says adaptations fail when the novel's most popular parts are reproduced on the stage as little changed as possible. He gives two reasons: the stage is more vivid, so what is tolerable in print becomes repulsive (Lessing, on the Matron of Ephesus), and a stage cannot easily show elapsed time (Stevenson's Sire de Maletroit's Door; the time lapse is the 'chief obstacle' for sequences of events or change in character). The working method is quoted, not his own: Edward Knobloch (author of Kismet) asks someone else to retell the novel, tests whether it can be told in about a hundred words, makes the scenario, and only then reads the novel. Baker endorses it and adds that only what fits the stage should be transferred into the scenario. None of this is supported by counts. · locator: candidate evidence excerpts · source: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/36580/pg36580.txt

Rights:
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