Literary adaptations have never gone out of style, but they’re going through a bit of a boom period at the moment, with lots of classic books being adapted for the screen in the coming months. One of the biggest is an upcoming adaptation of Jane Austen’s 1913 novel Pride and Prejudice, which arrives on Netflix in December. But there are already lots of terrific movies and TV shows based on classic literature you can watch on Netflix right now.

East of Eden

John Steinbeck’s lost opus

John Steinbeck is best known as the author of The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men, but 1952’s East of Eden may be his masterpiece. A multi-generational opus about a California family living through the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it’s a Biblical allegory about nothing less than the nature of good and evil.

Netflix recently made a widely praised miniseries based on East of Eden. This version zeroes in on the complicated character of Cathy Ames, played by Florence Pugh.

Frankenstein

A horror classic, reimagined

Everyone knows what happens in Mary Shelley’s 1818 horror masterpiece: the megalomaniac Dr. Victor Frankenstein uses body parts from corpses to make a new person, brings him to life, and lives to regret it. This 2025 movie version from visionary director Guillermo del Toro sticks closer to the book than many adaptations, and is visually spectacular.

Release Date

October 17, 2025

Runtime

149 Minutes

Director

Guillermo del Toro

• 

  Oscar Isaac

  Dr. Victor Frankenstein

• 

• 

  Mia Goth

  Elizabeth Lavenza

• 

  Christoph Waltz

  Dr. Pretorius

Little House on the Prairie

Cozy classic vibes

The Little House on the Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder are a fictionalized account of the author’s actual childhood growing up in a series of pioneer settlements in the late 19th century. The books don’t shy away from how difficult life could be on the frontier, but there’s still a sense of warmth and nostalgia to the novels that have made them classics for nearly a century. The Netflix show effectively channels that energy, and there’s already a second season on the way.

Release Date

2026 – 2026-00-00

Network

Netflix

Directors

Kat Candler, Julie Anne Robinson, Sydney Freeland, Sarah Adina Smith, Erica Tremblay

Cast

• 

  Alice Halsey

  Laura Ingalls

• 

  Luke Bracey

  Charles Ingalls

• 

  Crosby Fitzgerald

  Caroline Ingalls

• 

  Skywalker Hughes

  Mary Ingalls

Lady Chatterley’s Lover

From banned to best in show

When Lady Chatterley’s Lover was first published in 1928, it faced obscenity trials in Britain over its (at the time) frank description of sexual activity. The story is about a woman whose husband returns from World War I emotionally distant and paralyzed from the waist down. Encouraged by him to discreetly have an heir, she begins a passionate affair with a brooding groundskeeper.

By today’s standards, there’s nothing remotely scandalous about D.H. Lawrence’s book’s book, although this Netflix adaptation dials up the spice to bring it more in line with modern tastes. The cinematography is lush, the chemistry between Emma Corrin and Jack O’Connell is electric, and the story itself is as compelling as ever.

Anne With An E

Little House on the Canadian prairie

The Anne With Green Gables books are sort of distant cousins to the Little House on the Prairie novels. Both series take place in roughly the same time period and both revolve around young, free-spirited girls, although Anne With an E is set a little closer to civilization than Little House.

Anne With An E goes further afield of the source material than Netflix’s Little House, but may end up the better for it. It’s a bit darker on the whole, but both series have warm, cozy vibes.

Release Date

2017 – 2019-00-00

• 

  AmyBeth McNulty

  Ann Shirley-Cuthbert

• 

  Geraldine James

  Marilla Cuthbert

• 

  R.H. Thomson

  Matthew Cuthbert

• 

  Andrea Arruti

  Anne-Shirley

All Quiet on the Western Front

More like World War Fun

Based on the 1929 novel by Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front tells the story of World War I from the German perspective, following idealistic young soldiers as their zeal to fight quickly turns to horror as they confront the realities of trench warfare. It remains one of the most powerful anti-war stories ever conceived, even if this movie version leans a little more into the spectacle than the book does.

Release Date

October 7, 2022

Runtime

147 minutes

Director

Edward Berger

• 

  Felix Kammerer

  Paul Bäumer

• 

  Albrecht Schuch

  Stanislaus ‘Kat’ Katczinsky

• 

  Aaron Hilmer

  Albert Kropp

• 

  Moritz Klaus

  Franz Muller

One Hundred Years of Solitude

One hundred years, two seasons, 16 episodes

One Hundred Years of Solitude tells the century-long story of the Buendía family, whose patriarch, José Arcadio Buendía, founds the fictional town of Macondo. The show follows the history of the town as it prospers and is eventually reshaped by modernity, eventually leading to its downfall.

One Hundred Years of Solitude is widely considered a masterpiece of magical realism, and not an easy book to adapt. Netflix did it with grace and subtlety, and gave the story the room it needed to sprawl.

Release Date

2024 – 2026-00-00

Network

Netflix

Directors

Laura Mora, Alex Garcia Lopez, Carlos Moreno

• 

  Gino Montesinos

  Melchiades the Alchemist

• 

  Claudio Cataño

  Colonel Aureliano Buendía

• 

  Ruggero Pasquarelli

  Pietro Crespi

• 

  Marco Antonio González

  José Arcadio Buendía

Alias Grace

Margaret Atwood strikes back

Alias Grace was published in 1996, which makes it the newest book on our list, but it came out in the prior century, so we’re still counting it.

Written by The Handmaid’s Tale author Margaret Atwood, Alias Grace is based on the true story of Grace Marks, who was accused of killing two people in 1843 in Upper Canada. Atwood tells a gripping, challenging story about Grace that has us constantly questioning what happened, whether what she’s telling us is true, and whether it matters. The Netflix adaptation is one of the best historical fiction shows on the platform.

Release Date

2017 – 2017-00-00

Network

CBC Television

Directors

Mary Harron

• 

  Sarah Gadon

  Reverend Verrenger

• 

  Edward Holcroft

  Mrs. Quenell

• 

  Rebecca Liddiard

  Ship’s Doctor

• 

Further reading watching

If you enjoy literary adaptations, this is just the start of your journey. Some other highlights you can find on Netflix:

• Passing, a movie based on Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel about two Black women with light complexions who are friends in childhood but who go on to live very different lives.
• The Power of the Dog, a film based on Thomas Savage’s 1967 Western novel starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Kirsten Dunst.
• The Forsyte Saga, based on the novels by John Galsworthy, is a TV series that traces three generations of the upper-middle-class Forsyte family in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It’s not a Netflix original, but it will do.

Book it to Netflix and get watching.