Dramas based on classic literature on Netflix

An ambitious prospector strikes it rich and turns a simple village into a boomtown, stoking the ire of a charismatic young preacher.

Year: 2007
IMDb: 8.2
Netflix rating: 3.7/5
Runtime: 02:38:25
Netflix ID: 70075473 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

This sweeping epic is set in a World War II Japanese prison camp, where British prisoners are forced to build a bridge as a morale-building exercise.

Year: 1957
IMDb: 8.1
Netflix rating: 4/5
Runtime: 02:42:11
Netflix ID: 60002970 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

In Jane Austen's tale of 19th-century England, Mrs. Bennet hopes to marry her daughters to prosperous gentlemen, including new arrival Mr. Darcy.

Year: 2005
IMDb: 7.8
Netflix rating: 4/5
Runtime: 02:06:36
Netflix ID: 70032594 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

With her father fighting in World War I, young Sara enrolls in boarding school and clashes with a headmistress who tries to stifle her self-worth.

Year: 1995
IMDb: 7.7
Netflix rating: 4/5
Runtime: 01:37:22
Netflix ID: 705734 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

A canoeing trip down a Georgia river turns sinister when redneck locals descend on a group of friends and force them to kill or be killed.

Year: 1972
IMDb: 7.7
Netflix rating: 3.6/5
Runtime: 01:49:02
Netflix ID: 433193 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

When Henry VIII seeks approval from the aristocracy to divorce, Sir Thomas More finds himself caught between the king and the Roman Catholic Church.

Year: 1966
IMDb: 7.7
Netflix rating: 3.8/5
Runtime: 02:00:27
Netflix ID: 732905 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

When rugged frontiersman Hawkeye saves the Munro sisters from a Huron ambush, he ends up in a battle between the British and the French.

Year: 1992
IMDb: 7.7
Netflix rating: 4/5
Runtime: 01:51:54
Netflix ID: 686619 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

Facing poverty after their father's death, three sisters are obliged to rely on the generosity of others in this adaptation of the Jane Austen novel.

Year: 1995
IMDb: 7.6
Netflix rating: 3.9/5
Runtime: 02:16:22
Netflix ID: 948002 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

After drifter Tom Chaney murders her father, 14-year-old Mattie Ross hires alcoholic U.S. Marshal Reuben 'Rooster' Cogburn to help her exact revenge.

Year: 2010
IMDb: 7.6
Netflix rating: 3.9/5
Runtime: 01:50:15
Netflix ID: 70142543 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

The musical version of Victor Hugo's epic tale of love and sacrifice, first produced for the stage in 1985, now receives the big-screen treatment.

Year: 2012
IMDb: 7.6
Netflix rating: 3.8/5
Runtime: 02:37:47
Netflix ID: 70244167 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

In this lyrical account of the 1942 battle for Guadalcanal, several soldiers become a tight-knit group as they each struggle with the horrors of war.

Year: 1998
IMDb: 7.6
Netflix rating: 3.5/5
Runtime: 02:50:35
Netflix ID: 18171134 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

Two privileged and bored French aristocrats make a bet focusing on the corruption of virginal Cécile de Volanges and the virtuous Madame de Tourvel.

Year: 1988
IMDb: 7.6
Runtime: 01:59:49
Netflix ID: 418224 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

Shunned by a husband who's more interested in his scientific research than his marriage, simpleminded Kitty Fane embarks on a quest for fulfillment.

Year: 2006
IMDb: 7.5
Netflix rating: 3.7/5
Runtime: 02:04:54
Netflix ID: 70045268 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

When a husband, acting in his family's 'best interest,' does not accept his wife's deathbed wish, providence dictates that he pay for his duplicity.

Year: 1992
IMDb: 7.4
Netflix rating: 3.7/5
Runtime: 02:22:31
Netflix ID: 60029366 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

After escaping from a World War II labor camp, a band of soldiers undertake a journey to traverse Siberia, the Gobi Desert and the Himalayas.

Year: 2010
IMDb: 7.3
Netflix rating: 3.9/5
Runtime: 02:13:10
Netflix ID: 70121494 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

In this adaptation of E.M. Forster's novel, Lucy travels to Florence with her chaperone in tow. There, she falls for a fellow countryman's moody son.

Year: 1986
IMDb: 7.3
Netflix rating: 3.5/5
Runtime: 01:56:52
Netflix ID: 60035684 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

Four sisters and their mother battle life's vicissitudes in Civil War-era America after their father leaves to join the conflict.

Year: 1994
IMDb: 7.3
Runtime: 01:58:29
Netflix ID: 707114 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

A Denmark native shares a marriage of convenience with a womanizing baron. But when they move to Nairobi, she falls for a free-spirited hunter.

Year: 1985
IMDb: 7.2
Netflix rating: 3.8/5
Runtime: 02:40:54
Netflix ID: 60000019 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

A well-bred New Yorker engaged to an appropriate, cultured woman puts society's mores to the test when her alluring cousin comes along.

Year: 1993
IMDb: 7.2
Netflix rating: 3.4/5
Runtime: 02:18:26
Netflix ID: 60011002 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

Thomas Hardy's classic tale follows a clever 19th-century heroine who, through humble beginnings and sudden wealth, keeps her own romantic counsel.

Year: 2015
IMDb: 7.1
Netflix rating: 3.7/5
Runtime: 01:58:43
Netflix ID: 80023346 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

The first German film adaptation of 'The Diary of Anne Frank' dramatizes her inner world and her life spent in hiding in Nazi-occupied Netherlands.

Year: 2016
IMDb: 6.7
Runtime: 02:09:25
Netflix ID: 80239504 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

Keira Knightley stars as the titular 19th-century Russian aristocrat who enters into a forbidden love affair with the well-heeled Count Vronsky.

Year: 2012
IMDb: 6.6
Netflix rating: 2.9/5
Runtime: 02:09:31
Netflix ID: 70243443 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

A British officer resigns before a battle against Mahdi rebels and must redeem himself to his fiancée and friends, who have branded him a coward.

Year: 2002
IMDb: 6.5
Netflix rating: 3.4/5
Runtime: 02:11:22
Netflix ID: 60023637 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

Surviving an assassination attempt, a prince schemes to exact revenge on the usurper who killed his father, the emperor, and married his mother.

Year: 2006
IMDb: 6.5
Netflix rating: 3.3/5
Runtime: 02:10:49
Netflix ID: 80031899 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

Two shipwrecked children, stranded for years on a deserted island, fall in love as teenagers and attempt to forge a life in the isolated paradise.

Year: 1980
IMDb: 5.8
Netflix rating: 3.2/5
Netflix ID: 318448 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

With the world's economy in dire straits, corporate protagonist Dagny Taggart searches for a solution amid the rubble of a long-abandoned factory.

Year: 2012
IMDb: 5.4
Netflix rating: 3.5/5
Runtime: 01:51:33
Netflix ID: 70248595 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

A young artist falls for an aristocratic young woman whose bitter mother has trained her in the art of breaking hearts.

Year: 2016
IMDb: 5.4
Runtime: 02:03:58
Netflix ID: 80099083 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

A wealthy woman engages in extramarital affairs that still leave her unhappy. After a mysterious crime occurs, police are called to investigate.

Year: 1992
IMDb: 5.3
Runtime: 02:01:35
Netflix ID: 70057994 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb