Dramas based on classic literature on Netflix
Last updated May 18, 2024
North & South
2004 | NR | 4.2 out of 5 StarsWhen her father moves his family to an industrial mill town, the parson's daughter, Margaret Hale, struggles to adapt to her harsh new surroundings. This BBC series is based on the popular novel by Elizabeth Gaskell.
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Apocalypse Now Redux
2001 | NR | 4.2 out of 5 StarsFrancis Ford Coppola's 1979 masterpiece follows Capt. Willard as he journeys upriver during the Vietnam War in search of the mysterious, and totally insane, Col. Kurtz. This redux version has been reedited with new footage and a fade-to-black ending.
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North & South
2004 | NR | 4.2 out of 5 StarsWhen her father uproots his family from their serene rural burg for an industrial mill town, parson's daughter Margaret Hale (Daniela Denby-Ashe) struggles to adapt to her harsh new surroundings in this BBC series based on Elizabeth Gaskell's novel. As her mother's health fails, Margaret throws herself into the fight for workers' rights and clashes with mill owner John Thornton (Richard Armitage). Sinead Cusack and Tim Pigott-Smith also star.
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Imitation of Life
1959 | NR | 4.1 out of 5 StarsLora, a white widow with a daughter, and Annie, a black single mother, move in together and face a huge challenge as they try to raise their children. Annie's daughter favors her light-skinned father and comes to resent her mother's black identity.
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Masterpiece Classic: Great Expectations
2011 | NR | 4.1 out of 5 StarsAn orphaned young man meets a convict in a cemetery and sets into motion a series of events that leads him from a life in his brother-in-law's forge to a mysterious inheritance and his acquaintance with the eerie Miss Havisham and her beautiful ward.
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Masterpiece Classic: Great Expectations
2011 | NR | 4.1 out of 5 StarsIn this lavish production of Charles Dickens's classic tale, orphan Pip's fortunes change when an anonymous patron takes an interest in him. Meanwhile, he becomes involved with eccentric Miss Havisham, who can't get over being left at the altar.
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The Forsyte Saga: Series 1
2002 | NR | 4.0 out of 5 StarsThis epic miniseries follows the Victorian pride of the Forsytes through the scandals of the family's patriarch, Soames. His ways change when he sees his cherished daughter grow up to be a captivating young woman who carries on the family pride.
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Wives & Daughters
1999 | NR | 4.0 out of 5 StarsFamily life changes drastically for the good-natured Molly Gibson when her widowed father decides to remarry, and a woman with her own set of rules -- and a beautiful daughter -- becomes her stepmother.
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Bleak House
2005 | NR | 4.0 out of 5 StarsThe wealthy and kind John Jarndyce (Denis Lawson) takes orphaned Esther Summerson (Anna Maxwell Martin) into his household, where she befriends two of his wards, Richard (Patrick Kennedy) and Ada (Carey Mulligan). Meanwhile, Lady Dedlock (Gillian Anderson) guards a secret about Esther's origins -- and her fate. Charles Dickens's suspenseful yarn of legal justice comes to life in this BBC miniseries penned by period-piece writer Andrew Davies.
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The Scapegoat
2012 | NR | 4.0 out of 5 StarsSoon after meeting his doppelgänger, schoolteacher John Standing is duped into taking the man's place at the head of an aristocratic but troubled family. As Standing grows into his new identity, he learns that his lookalike has sinister intentions.
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The Forsyte Saga
2002 | NR | 4.0 out of 5 StarsThis epic miniseries follows the Victorian pride of the Forsyte clan through the scandals and mistakes of the patriarch, Soames. His ways change when he sees his cherished daughter grow into a captivating young woman who carries on the family pride.
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Bleak House
2005 | NR | 4.0 out of 5 StarsAn orphaned girl finds a happy home with a wealthy man and his wards, never suspecting the truth about her origins -- or knowing her fate. But as the plot thickens, a suspenseful yarn of legal justice unfolds in this drama miniseries.
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Wives & Daughters
1999 | NR | 4.0 out of 5 StarsFamily life changes drastically for the good-natured Molly Gibson when her widowed father decides to remarry and a woman with her own set of rules -- and a beautiful daughter -- becomes her stepmother.
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The Forsyte Saga: Series 2
2003 | NR | 4.0 out of 5 StarsThe drama of the Forsyte clan continues with the next generation. Fleur, the daughter of Soames and Annette, and Jon, the son of Irene and Jolyon, first met as youngsters. Ten years later, they reunite and fall completely, disastrously in love.
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Apocalypse Now
1979 | NR | 4.0 out of 5 StarsDuring the Vietnam War, Capt. Willard is sent to Cambodia on a top-secret mission, where he journeys upriver in search of the mysterious Col. Kurtz. His instructions: terminate Kurtz, who's gone completely insane.
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The Last of the Mohicans
1992 | NR | 4.0 out of 5 StarsWhen rugged frontiersman Hawkeye (Daniel Day-Lewis) saves the Munro sisters -- two newly arrived English settlers -- from a Huron ambush, he ends up in the midst of the battle between the British and the French for control of the American colonies. Director Michael Mann's first-rate production also stars Madeleine Stowe as the Munro sister who wins Hawkeye's heart, and Wes Studi as the Huron warrior who has a score to settle with her father.
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Masterpiece Classic: Wuthering Heights
2009 | NR | 3.9 out of 5 StarsEmily Brontë's sweeping tale of romance set against the backdrop of the Yorkshire moors gets the "Masterpiece" treatment in this lush made-for-television adaptation starring Charlotte Riley and Tom Hardy. Cathy (Riley) eventually fell in love with Heathcliff (Hardy), the young Gypsy boy her father brought home years ago. But now that they're adults, another man (Tom Payne) is offering her his affections -- and a far more comfortable life.
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The Well-Digger's Daughter
2011 | NR | 3.9 out of 5 StarsPascale, a widowed laborer, lives in Provence, raising five daughters alone until his eldest daughter returns home to help care for her sisters. But a young pilot and the approaching shadow of World War I change Pascale's hopes for the future.
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Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai
2011 | NR | 3.9 out of 5 StarsHanshirô, a destitute samurai, asks to commit hara-kiri at the estate of feudal lord Kageyu. Knowing the dishonor this will bring to his house, Kageyu begs him to reconsider, unaware of the shocking truth behind Hanshirô's choice of locale.
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The Count of Monte Cristo
1998 | NR | 3.9 out of 5 StarsGérard Depardieu stars as the French sailor Edmond Dantes in this faithful adaptation of Alexandre Dumas's classic adventure tale. Wrongly imprisoned in the formidable Château d'If for 18 years, Dantes learns of buried treasure from a fellow inmate.
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The Grapes of Wrath
1940 | NR | 3.9 out of 5 StarsTom Joad, a Depression-era everyman, leads his poor family on a harrowing journey from Oklahoma's Dust Bowl to the promised land of California in this adaptation of John Steinbeck's classic novel.
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Little Men
1997 | NR | 3.9 out of 5 StarsIn this adaptation of the classic novel by Louisa May Alcott, two homeless boys from Boston find themselves at Plumfield, a rural boarding school run by Jo and her husband -- and they soon learn academic and life lessons they won't ever forget.
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The Way Back
2010 | NR | 3.9 out of 5 StarsAfter narrowly escaping from a wretched World War II Siberian labor camp, a small band of multinational soldiers desperately undertakes a harrowing journey to traverse Siberia, the Gobi Desert and the Himalayas on foot.
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Doctor Zhivago
2002 | NR | 3.9 out of 5 StarsAs political turmoil rumbles through Russia, Doctor Zhivago is trapped in a love triangle between his wife and his mistress. Meanwhile, the Bolshevik Revolution will change all their lives forever in this miniseries remake of the classic 1965 film.
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Doctor Zhivago
2002 | NR | 3.9 out of 5 StarsAs political turmoil rumbles through Russia, Doctor Zhivago is trapped in a love triangle between his wife and his mistress. Meanwhile, the Bolshevik Revolution will change all their lives forever in this miniseries remake of the classic 1965 film.
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