The Corsican Brothers
by Alexandre Dumas
I’d tackled an Alexandre Dumas novel before, so I was prepared for his archaic and descriptive language. I’d enjoyed reading The Count of Monte Cristo after watching three different film adaptations, so since I’d already watched the 1941 film The Corsican Brothers, I thought that would help me keep up with the original novel. Unfortunately not, and all the hats I own go off to screenwriters George Bruce and Howard Estabrook.
In the film, conjoined newborn twins are separated by an operation, then following a massacre of their entire family by a rival family, they’re split up between two guardians and raised in different countries. Growing up, they feel each other’s feelings without knowing why, and eventually, they fall in love with the same girl. In the novel, one brother is worried about his twin’s safety because his ghost visited him the night before and warned him of his imminent death. There’s no rival family, no love interest, and no separated childhood. There are two brothers from Corsica who can feel each other’s pain. If that very simple, and very short, story sounds good to you, go ahead and read the book. As for me, I’ll stick with the movie.
In the film, conjoined newborn twins are separated by an operation, then following a massacre of their entire family by a rival family, they’re split up between two guardians and raised in different countries. Growing up, they feel each other’s feelings without knowing why, and eventually, they fall in love with the same girl. In the novel, one brother is worried about his twin’s safety because his ghost visited him the night before and warned him of his imminent death. There’s no rival family, no love interest, and no separated childhood. There are two brothers from Corsica who can feel each other’s pain. If that very simple, and very short, story sounds good to you, go ahead and read the book. As for me, I’ll stick with the movie.