''Evening Class'' is a 1996 novel by the

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

author

Maeve Binchy Anne Maeve Binchy Snell (28 May 1939Born 1939 as per biography, ''Maeve Binchy'' by Piers Dudgeon, Thomas Dunne Books 2013; (hardcover), pp. 4, 280, 302; (ebook) – 30 July 2012) was an Irish novelist, playwright, short story writer, colum ...

. It was adapted as the award-winning film ''

Italian for Beginners ''Italian for Beginners'' ( da, Italiensk for begyndere) is a 2000 Danish romantic comedy film written and directed by Lone Scherfig, and starring Anders W. Berthelsen, Lars Kaalund and Peter Gantzler, together with Ann Eleonora Jørgensen, An ...

'' (2000) by writer-director

Lone Scherfig Lone Scherfig (; born 2 May 1959) is a Danish film director and screenwriter who has been involved with the Dogme 95 film movement and who has been widely critically acclaimed for several of her movies, including the Oscar-nominated film '' An ...

, who failed to formally acknowledge the source, although at the very end of the closing credits is the line 'with thanks to Maeve Binchy'.

Plot introduction

A story of many

men and women from various backgrounds and how a teacher, Nora O'Donoghue (known as "Signora"), and an Italian evening class changes their lives over the course of a year. Each chapter deals with the life story of one or more students in the class. In a Dickensian way, they bump into each other and are affected by the decisions of those around them.

Major themes

It is a story of love and deceit, family drama, wealth and poverty, of friendship and courage, and lots of laughter.

Nora O'Donoghue and Aidan Dunne also appear in '' Quentins'', another novel by

, and play a more significant role in '' Heart and Soul''.

Film adaptation

The novel heavily inspired the plot of the Danish feature film ''

'' (2000), which won a Silver Berlin Bear and several other major international awards. Maeve Binchy was not paid, credited nor informed of this, but was later paid an undisclosed sum, when her publisher contacted the producers of the movie,

Lars von Trier Lars von Trier ('' né'' Trier; 30 April 1956) is a Danish filmmaker, actor, and lyricist. Having garnered a reputation as a highly ambitious, polarizing filmmaker, he has been the subject of several controversies: Cannes, in addition to nomina ...

's company

Zentropa Zentropa, or Zentropa Entertainments, is a Danish film company started in 1992 by director Lars von Trier and producer Peter Aalbæk Jensen. Zentropa is named after the train company Zentropa in the film ''Europa'' (1991), which started the colla ...

. Although the film's writer-director

had told the press that the film was based on her idea, executive producer

Peter Aalbæk Jensen Peter Aalbæk Jensen (born 8 April 1956 in Osted) is a Danish film producer who in 1992 with director Lars von Trier founded the Danish film company Zentropa and later its huge studio complex Filmbyen. His father was writer Erik Aalbæk Jense ...

later admitted that she had made him aware of the similarities but that he had simply decided not to pay the original author.B.T. May 17 2010: Lone Scherfig tyvstjal idé til 'Italiensk for begyndere'
/ref>

References

1996 Irish novels Novels by Maeve Binchy Novels set in Ireland Novels set in Italy Irish novels adapted into films {{1990s-novel-stub

Plot introduction

Major themes

Related

Film adaptation

References