Virginia Feito celebrates book-to-film adaptation of 'Victorian Psycho' during visit to Barcelona

Spanish author Virginia Feito's new book 'Victorian Psycho' is set to have a film adaptation with actress Margaret Qualley, known for her participation in Quentin Tarantino's film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, in the main role.  

The release of Feito's new book led to a visit by the author to Barcelona on February 11, as part of the BCN Negra festival, to a reading at Montbau library of 'Victorian Psycho.'  

Feito told Catalan News she was excited to be working on a film for her book. "I felt very joyous when I started working on the script for the film. I love cinema and one of my dreams as a little girl was to work in a movie." 

She added the film is still in the early stages of production. "I have a hard time separating literature from film, so I do not think I would feel complete till I have made a movie, it is going well so far. It has been announced, you never know with Hollywood, but so far it is going good." 

Feito's first book 'Mrs. March' was named one of the best books of the year in 2022 according to The Times and the Library Journal. The book also led Feito to win the Best Novel València Negra 2022 Award and El Corte Inglés Un Any de Llibres Award for Best Debut. 

'Mrs. March' is also in the process of becoming a film, Feito told Catalan News. "I am also adapting the screen play for Mrs. March. It is in the early stages still, but it is going strong." 

Feito said she wants to make some small changes for the films. "There are things that I wish I would have done in the books and still hope they can be done in the films, but a film is also a team collaboration. I think you cannot make a film that it is exactly like the book; they are both different languages." 

"The films are also tied to a lot of aspects like budget. Maybe the budget will not allow you to make certain scenes, or even legal aspects like how far can you go showing violence? I am excited to make something new," Feito said.  

'Victorian Psycho' takes the reader back to the Victorian era in England and tells the story of governess Winifred, a psychopath who is bent on revenge and murder, and narrates her evils over the course of three months leading up to Christmas. 

The first thing that come to the author's mind when writing the book was the voice of the character. "When I wrote the story I thought of the character and how she was going to be modern, but from as different era, cheeky and sarcastic. Then I built the plot giving her a job as a governess and I diagnosed her as a psychopath, but that was later. First came the voice." 

Feito also explained that when writing the book she wanted to question the reader. "I wanted to ask the reader if my Victorian psychopath is justified in her actions because she is a women fighting the patriarchy in the Victorian era, but then goes beyond that, hurting animals, children and innocent people." 

When writing, Feito wondered whether psychopaths are born or made. "I am intrigued by the mind of the psychopath. They are the vampire of society, we know they live among us, we know they are real and they kill people."  

"I did a lot of research and it seems it is really hard to diagnose them. There's a checklist but it is really simplistic and there's a lot of questions whether psychopaths are born or made. That's a question I kept in mind and I wanted to transmit that question to the readers. I wanted to explore what might be going on inside a psychopath's mind," Feito said.  

The author was born in Madrid, studied at the School of English and Drama at Queen Mary University, London.

Feito is focused on completing her scripts for the films for both of her books, but she is starting to think of new ideas for her next book. 

Victorian Psycho is available in English, in Spanish in a translation from Gemma Rovira, and in Catalan edited by La Campana.