''The City of Beautiful Nonsense'' was a best-selling novel written by Ernest Temple Thurston. It became the inspiration for two films. It was originally published by

Chapman and Hall Chapman & Hall is an imprint owned by CRC Press, originally founded as a British publishing house in London in the first half of the 19th century by Edward Chapman and William Hall. Chapman & Hall were publishers for Charles Dickens (from 184 ...

in 1909, but because the

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...

has expired, the text of the book is now in the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...

. There was a "new and illustrated" edition, with illustrations by Emile Verpilleux, published a year later in 1910. It may fairly be described as a sentimental novel: Temple Thurston himself wrote that "To many, from the first page to the last, it had not the faintest conception of reality, and indeed has earned for me the classification of sentimentalist". This was in the Author's Note to the sequel, entitled ''The World of Wonderful Reality'', published a decade later in 1919. His obituary in ''The Times'' (20 March 1933) stated that "there were those who might suggest that sentimentalism was too evident in Temple Thurston's work". As well as being a vehicle for Edwardian romanticism, the novel shares the Roman Catholic faith of its author with its main characters. It is a tale of two cities: mainly Edwardian London, but also Venice.

Films

The first film based on the novel was '' The City of Beautiful Nonsense'', a

silent movie ''Silent Movie'' is a 1976 American satirical comedy film co-written, directed by and starring Mel Brooks, released by 20th Century Fox in the summer of 1976. The ensemble cast includes Dom DeLuise, Marty Feldman, Bernadette Peters, and Sid Cae ...

released in 1919, which featured Henry Edwards,

Chrissie White Chrissie White (23 May 1895 – 18 August 1989) was a British film actress of the silent film, silent era. She appeared in more than 180 films between 1908 and 1933. White married actor and film director Henry Edwards (actor), Henry Edwards ...

and

Henry Vibart Henry Vibart (25 December 1863 – 30 August 1943) was a Scottish stage and film actor, active from the 1880s until the early 1930s. He appeared in many theatrical roles in the UK and overseas, and featured in over 70 films of the silent era ...

The second film was a

talkie A sound film is a motion picture A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, percep ...

, released in 1935 as '' City of Beautiful Nonsense''. It starred

Emlyn Williams George Emlyn Williams, CBE (26 November 1905 – 25 September 1987) was a Welsh writer, dramatist and actor. Early life Williams was born into a Welsh-speaking, working class family at 1 Jones Terrace, Pen-y-ffordd, Ffynnongroyw, Flintsh ...

Sophie Stewart Sophie Stewart (5 March 1908 – 6 June 1977) was a British actress of stage and screen. Biography She was born as Sophia Lyal Drummond Stewart in Crieff, Perthshire, Scotland in March 1908 and died in June 1977 at the age of 69, in Cupa ...

and

Eve Lister Eve Lister (1913 – 1997) was a British film and television actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern medi ...

. Both were filmed and produced in the United Kingdom. In ''

The Souvenir ''The Souvenir'' is a 2019 drama film written and directed by Joanna Hogg. A semi-autobiographical account of Hogg's experiences at film school, it stars Honor Swinton Byrne, Tom Burke and Tilda Swinton. ''The Souvenir'' had its world premiere ...

'',

Joanna Hogg Joanna Hogg (born 20 March 1960) is a British film director and screenwriter. She made her directorial and screenwriting feature film debut in 2007 with ''Unrelated'' followed by ''Archipelago'' (2010) and ''Exhibition'' (2013). Two of her film ...

's 2019 film,

Honor Swinton Byrne Honor Swinton Byrne (born 6 October 1997) is a British actress and daughter of playwright John Byrne (playwright), John Byrne and actress Tilda Swinton. Swinton Byrne had a cameo role in the 2009 film ''I Am Love (film), I Am Love'', and stars ...

reads to Tom Burke from the novel.

References

External links

Archive.org links to download textGutenberg.org text versions
1909 novels Irish novels adapted into films Public domain books Chapman & Hall books {{1900s-novel-stub