Stonehearst Asylum
Short Story
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3.3 • 3 Ratings
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- $0.99
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- $0.99
Publisher Description
When a young man visits a French mental institution to learn about the hospital’s “system of soothing,” he is surprised to learn that it has recently abandoned the treatment method. Offered a tour of the grounds, he soon learns the truth about the new methodology put in place since the system of soothing was abandoned.
Edgar Allen Poe’s “The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether” is the basis for director Brad Anderson’s 2014 film Stonehearst Asylum, starring Kate Beckinsale, Michael Cain, Brendan Gleeson, Ben Kingsley, Jim Sturgess, and David Thewlis.
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Customer Reviews
No Need for This Adaptation
The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether has always been one of my favorite Poe short stories… In fact, back in the early 1980s, I wrote the first screenplay version which appears in my book Tony Caravan The Early Years (available in iTunes Books).
I found the original title and text to be so well conceived and crafted that there was no need to alter them for a modern telling. By changing the title to Stonehearst Asylum, ruins one of Poe’s greatest conventions — putting the answer to the mystery right in front of the reader. Likewise, messing with the story line is an insult to the genius of the author.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad to see this story make it to the big screen, but I believe that there is no need for this derivative version, and that a stricter adherence to the existing work would have been more entertaining.