Welcome to Everything Epic, the site where you can find information and multimedia samples of 9 epic novels and their corresponding films.

Your first question may be, "Wait, what exactly does epic mean?"

The Trojan Horse The Trojan Horse

Based on our research, the epic is the ultimate story. Yet it's infinitely more difficult to reach a critical consensus beyond this, for nowadays the word has become synonymous with big. As Homer's Iliad goes, what began as an apple has become a horse of a different color.

Obviously, the original Greek stories that started the genre can be studied and divided into conventions, but these definitions are no longer valid. From the very beginning an epic was simply a means or a mode to capture the imagination of the listener and fatten the belly of the teller. The prose of the old poets was told not only to captivate their royal audience, but also to help the teller remember the lines during the age when writing a book was a royal effort. With the advent of the the printing press, the epic was no longer constrained to this oral tradition. The age of the novel had come.

The epic novelists did not replace the poets. They simply added to the genre. What was once constricted to ryhme and memory was freed into a larger world. Homer was not less than Cervantes. Dickens did not surpass Virgil. Yet their stories were equal to the ancients' for they had the same power to capture the imagination. The novelists were as much heroes as their creations. Their stories are our stories, for they have shaped our culture and continue to do so. The epic novel was continuing to live and grow. Then something unusual happened. The audience decided that it didn't want to read.

The age of film took the epic genre by storm. Never had stories and storytellers been in higher demand. Epics were created for all ages and races, and the DVD made it possible for anyone to watch and understand them. Though there is the danger of leaving the epic poem and novel on a dusty shelf in an unused library, the epic genre is in full fighting form.

Now in the digital age, the epic continues to develop. The genre is expanding as fast as cyber-space, and there is no end to the content in sight. So instead of trying to limit this ever expanding world, the AudiovisualEpic team has chosen nine epics that started as text and have inspired movies. In this way, we analyze and discover what has contributed to their ageless appeal. We've found that a good story can come from anywhere and be about anyone. We only need a good storyteller behind it. Thus, it is not the actual content that makes an epic; it is how each part fits together to make a world of it's own and invite us in. We all define the epic, so tell us what you think.

What is an epic to you?