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Yes—Alasdair Gray’s Poor Things differs substantially from Yorgos Lanthimos’s Oscar-nominated film. The novel filters Bella Baxter’s story through other characters and anchors it in late-Victorian Glasgow and Scotland; the film shifts toward Bella’s perspective and builds its strangeness chiefly through a surreal visual world. Calling the book “stranger” is a matter of interpretation, but its layered telling and Scottish setting make it strange in a distinctly literary way.
How the book and film tell Bella’s story differently
The clearest difference is point of view. Director Yorgos Lanthimos said the novel tells Bella’s story through other characters, while he and screenwriter Tony McNamara wanted the film to be about Bella and told from her perspective, according to TIME.
That change gives the film more direct access to Bella’s experience. Gray’s structure, by contrast, makes her story feel mediated: readers encounter Bella through accounts presented by others, and must consider how those tellers shape what they describe. That is a structural effect of the reported framing, not a claim that the novel offers a single definitive account.
Gray’s novel, published on 3 September 1992, is the source work for the film. The Bloomsbury edition of Poor Things lists the book’s Whitbread Novel Award and Guardian Fiction Prize. Its publisher description supplies the novel’s fantastical starting point: Godwin Baxter finds Bella’s body and brings her back to life.
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Where the novel’s Scottish setting goes
The publisher places the novel in late-Victorian Glasgow, then describes Bella’s journey through aristocratic casinos, Alexandria and a Parisian brothel, with the story ending at a Scottish church. That itinerary makes place part of the book’s identity: Bella’s adventures are not detached from Gray’s Glasgow and Scottish context.
The film relocates much of that context. The Guardian reports that the adaptation “expunges almost all of its Scottish context,” focusing in particular on Glasgow’s removal. Univision’s book-and-film comparison likewise describes the novel’s Bella story as beginning and ending in Glasgow, while the film places Bella and Godwin’s life in London. These are reported comparisons, not a scene-by-scene inventory of every location in the film.
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Book versus film at a glance
| What to compare | Alasdair Gray’s novel | Lanthimos’s film |
|---|---|---|
| Point of view | Bella’s story is told through other characters, according to TIME. | Lanthimos and screenwriter Tony McNamara shifted the story toward Bella’s perspective, according to TIME. |
| Geography | Late-Victorian Glasgow, with travel through Alexandria and Paris and a Scottish church in Bloomsbury’s description of the novel. | Reporting describes Glasgow and most of the Scottish context as removed or displaced; see The Guardian. |
| What makes it strange | Layered, mediated narration—a reading of the structure described by TIME. | A conspicuously visual world shaped by sets, miniatures, costumes and altered Victorian design, as reported by the Associated Press. |
| Shared starting point | Godwin Baxter brings Bella back to life, according to Bloomsbury. | The official Searchlight Pictures press kit describes Bella’s fantastical evolution and credits Gray’s novel as the film’s basis. |
Why the book can feel stranger than the film
The novel’s oddness comes partly from how Bella’s story reaches the reader: through other people’s accounts, rather than as an uncomplicated first-person journey. That distance invites questions about who is framing Bella and what their version can reveal. Its Glasgow and Scottish grounding adds another source of surprise, especially for viewers whose impression of the story comes from the film’s relocated world.
The film makes strangeness visible. The Associated Press reports that its production used large constructed sets, miniatures and elaborate costumes, with a design approach that deliberately altered the Victorian era. Lanthimos described the ambition to AP this way: “From the moment I read the novel, I always felt that we needed to build a world that Bella would inhabit.”
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These are different kinds of strangeness, not a measurable contest. The film foregrounds Bella’s point of view and a deliberately constructed visual environment; the novel’s layered form and Scottish geography ask readers to piece together the story through its framing. To explore those differences directly, see Alasdair Gray’s Poor Things; Bloomsbury lists paperback editions, though availability can vary.
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